Rite of Passage

Yet another of those post-Earth books with a different vision of how we (Earthlings that is…) all manage to survive the apocalypse… except this time there is no Earth (it has been destroyed in an unexplained manner).  Again we have survivors, somewhere in the not too distant future, who have evolved into their own separate cultures, one of the ship people and the other of the Colons (people who made it planet side).  The division is thus, and the protagonist lives on one of these ships, which is a world in an asteroid, a floating, cruising world, that goes between colonised planets, trading knowledge and science for material goods.  It all sounds good, though perhaps a little unfair for those planet side who no longer have the technology of the ships, and we are shown, through Mia (our strong female protagonist), the changing of perceptions, and the evolutionary changes of a people who, despite their advantages in technology, have lost some things  in their place, like art, music and literature.  Rite of Passage was very well written, riveting in fact, and some points were made that I thought were very interesting and applicable today.  Well worthy of it’s Nebula.