![]() Both have rules, restrictions & governing bodies, along with opportunities, advantages, friendships & security. Mia's titular "rite of passage" has her spending a few weeks in very different society: on a primitive colony planet, with pre-industrial technology & culture roughly equivalent to Europe ca. Mia grows up in one society: the technologically advanced but in some ways tightly-controlled Ship, which reminds one at times of Singapore in space. Rite of Passage, tho focusing on the life of one very interesting girl, is very much about real societies. ![]() Such things are somewhat unusual in science fiction, which is so often dominated only by the wandering loner aspect of the human psyche that it ignores the fact that real people live in societies. ![]() These are hallmarks of pastoral science fiction. ![]() While far from perfect, the Ship is home, a functional home, even a good home. As in earthbound pastoral fiction, Mia is completely a part of both the environment & community she lives in. This society is so functional, so realistic & so central to the novel, that Rite of Passage can be considered a work of pastoral science fiction, despite the fact that it takes place in an entirely technological environment rather than the typical pastoral rural setting. Rite of Passage presents a picture of a breathtakingly realistic society-one which is familiar because its citizens are so completely human, yet constantly surprising in the ways it has had to adapt to its unusual environment. ![]()
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