Conference noted::sf

55.0. "Panshin: Rite of Passage" by EDEN::MAXSON () Tue Apr 10 1984 15:44

		Title: "Rite of Passage" by Alexei Panshin
			- Reviewed by M. Maxson, 10 April 84
	Published by Pocket/Timescape, March, 1982
	Copyright Date 1968	Order #: 0 671 44068 3   $2.50

	The story is set in the years following 2205 AD. In this future,
	Earth grew overpopulated, resource-poor and desparate. Seven great
	colony ships were built, loaded with a fraction of the Earth's
	populace, and dispatched to found new colonies in space. Earth,
	in 2041, destroys itself and its billions. Survivors: Just over
	one hundred planets were colonized, but sank to a primitive,
	pre-technological level. The seven colony ships were re-fitted as
	permanent homes for a carefully controlled population of 30,000 -
	a comfortable environment in which science, art, and technology could
	be kept alive. By trading technology with the primitive colonies for
	ores and resources, the city-ships have remained stable for 150 years.

	The heroine of the story is Mia Havero, a precocious nine-year-old
	ship dweller. We follow her through the pains of schooling and
	puberty, up to "The Trial" - the test which each child must face
	at age fourteen to become an adult - to survive on a colony planet
	for a month. But in her Trial, Mia becomes involved with more than
	a personal struggle for survival - rather, the destiny of mankind.

	Reviewer's opinion: An interesting, well-paced story. We watch the
	heroine grow from semi-spoiled brat into a tough young woman, and
	absorb with her the problems and dilemmas of her society. The book
	is generally sad, as most post-cataclysm novels tend to be - but the
	author holds out hope, as always, for the end...

	An imaginative story with a solid message - a good read. I give it
	a seven and a stout recommendation.

This is one of my favorite books of all time: along with Simak's _City_,
Zelazny's _Lord_of_Light_ and Anthony's _Macroscope_, I have probably
re-read it more than anything else I own.  My the way, _Rite_of_Passage_
is recognised as a "Classic", and is required reading not only in SF
courses but in some mainstream literature courses as well.  (sigh, that's
"By the way" back there - and I don't even have the excuse of having my
arm in a sling).

Unfortunately, this is by far the best of Panshin's work, and nothing
else of his that I've seen comes close.  Maybe some day ...

	/dave

	I bought this book totally at random. I'm always lucking into the
	calssics. The author's biography mentions that Panshin teaches SF
	at MSU. There's some big conclave of budding and established
	SF writers at MSU each summer. "...something... Workshop" - has
	anyone else heard of this? I wonder if Panshin is involved.

	(MSU, it occurs to me, may not be known by everyone - Michigan State)

					Groaty to the... Max

I agree, this is good.  Unfortunately, it is the only one.  I don't
know, but maybe I am influenced by Panshin's diatribe against Heinlein
(the name of the book escapes me).  Anyone who can hack into a fellow
author without any substantiation (sp?) rates on the negative scale as
far as I am concerned.

    re -.1
    
    The name of the book was "Heinlein in Dimension" -- and is one of
    the reasons that I rarely read literary criticism...