Rite of Passage (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Alexei Panshin
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—post-holocaust
- Time of Work: 2205
- Setting: Aboard a giant spaceship
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Apocalyptic and catastrophe fiction
- Subjects: Girls, Maturation or coming of age, Parents and children, Future, Space ships, stations, or vehicles, Fathers, Rites or ceremonies
- Locales: Space
The Plot
Rite of Passage is told in the first person by twenty- year-old Mia Havero, who recalls in c.e. 2205 the events culminating in her initiation to adulthood seven years earlier. Mia lives on board one of seven giant spaceships that were launched between 2025 and 2041. The ships carried colonists from Earth to 112 planetary systems shortly before a cataclysmic war destroyed the solar system.
After delivery of the colonists, an intellectual, technocratic elite remained on board each ship, releasing small bits of accumulated knowledge to the colonists in...
[The entire page is 998 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
