Rite of Passage

1968 Panshin, Alexei [Alexis Adams] (1940-2022). Rite of Passage. New York: Ace Books. Rpt. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1976 with “Introduction: The Story of Rite of Passage” (v-xiv) by the author; and as the Collector's Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1990 illus. Debbie Hughes and with an “Introduction” (v-viii) by Edward Bryant; and in Alternative Communities: Magazine of the Alternative Communities Movement, no. 22 (1986): 3-24. To be continued but the journal stopped publication. Part was originally published as “Door to the Worlds of Men.” Worlds of If Science Fiction 13.3 (July 1963): 89-112. NcD, PSt

The novel is concerned with the society that develops on a spaceship and particularly with the rite of passage to adulthood in which young people are put on a colony world to survive or perish. Can be classified as eutopian, dystopian, or a flawed utopia depending on the reader’s perspective. Related stories are “What Size Are Giants.” Worlds of Tomorrow 3.1 (13) (May 1965): 8-47; and “The Sons of Prometheus.” Analog Science Fiction Science-Fact 78.2 (October 1966): 50-71.