Rite of Passage

Summary

Alexei Panshin follows Mia Havero, a young woman raised aboard a starship carrying the survivors of a destroyed Earth among scattered colony planets. As she approaches the Trial, a brutal survival ordeal on a colony world that marks the passage into adulthood, she begins to question the harsh values of her own society. The novel is a thoughtful coming of age story that examines morality, prejudice, and the duties people owe one another.