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aid from the Ships. Mia and Jimmy's mentor, Joseph Mbele, believes that the Ships have an obligation to assist the colonists by sharing their knowledge, which Daniel Kutsov says is the heritage of all who survived the destruction of Earth. Both sides of the debate receive a respectful hearing at various places in the novel, and neither is presented as indisputably correct, but by the end of her story Mia has clearly come around to the view that the Ships have an obligation to the colonies.
245:. When she accompanies her father on a trading mission to the planet Grainau, Mia learns from the children of a Grainau official that the feeling is mutual; many on the colony worlds call Ship people "Grabbies" because they take whatever goods they cannot produce on the Ships in return for knowledge and technology (doled out sparingly), the heritage of Earth to which the ship residents have laid claim and which colonists are unable to maintain, being too busy staying alive.
370:, a rite of passage that ensures her adulthood will be earned and meaningful. The theme is artfully elaborated in three folktales that appear in the narrative: “Bright Sam and Charming Ned,” told by a young scoutship pilot; “The Lady of Carlisle,” told by Mia herself; and a third tale (reduced at the editor's behest to a brief summary) told by Daniel Kutsov. All three feature young people who face tests of courage or resourcefulness.
322:. However, under the leadership of Mia's father, who perceives the Tinterans as beyond re-education, the Assembly votes by an eight-to-five margin to destroy Tintera in the name of 'moral discipline'. Mia and Jimmy, as adults, prepare to settle into their own living quarters on board Ship. Jimmy offers the hope that they will someday be in a position to change their society.
312:, a Shipwide Assembly debates what to do about Tintera. The Tinterans are Free Birthers, possibly slavers, and a potential danger to the Ship itself. As Mia hears the Assembly's debate, however, she understands that her views have changed. Her moral world has broadened to include the Tinterans as people, rather than faceless
252:, the Ships' rite of passage into adulthood required within three months of turning fourteen. By requiring adolescents to experience the rigors and dangers of life on a colony planet, the Ships hope to avoid stagnation and ensure that those who survive are skilled enough to contribute significantly to Ship life. However, the
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adopted grandchild and explains to Mia that her speech gives her away as being from the Ships. Kutsov tells Mia that Ship people are at best regarded with resentment, and at worst killed. Mia has already learned that the
Tinterans have captured a scoutship from another Ship and arrested one of her fellow
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In the Ship's
Assembly, the proposal to destroy Tintera is debated in the context of an ongoing political controversy over what, if anything, the Ships owe to the planetary colonists. Mia's father takes the position that the colonists will do best if they learn to fend for themselves and not expect
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the
Tinterans treat as domestic animals and use for simple labor, although they may be intelligent enough to be considered slaves. Mia escapes the Losel herders' attempted kidnapping, and when she reaches the nearest town, she is repulsed by the fact that all Tinterans are "Free Birthers"—they have
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The theme of generational conflict was timely in the novel's year of publication, 1968. Long-lived adults form the overwhelming majority of the population aboard Mia's ship. Although they are generally benevolent and trustworthy, the society they have created appears complacent and aimless. Just
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participants. While recovering from her injuries in Kutsov's house, she discovers that the prisoner is Jimmy
Dentremont. Singlehanded, Mia stages a jailbreak and escapes to the wilderness with Jimmy, but not before the two witness the brutal killing of Kutsov in a roundup of political dissidents.
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Riding through the night in the pouring rain, Mia and Jimmy set up a tent in the woods. While in the tent, they realize their feelings for each other and have sex. They arrive the following day at the military headquarters for the territory, where Jimmy retrieves his own signalling device. Before
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After a second run-in with the Losel herders leaves Mia badly beaten and robbed of the signalling device she will need to return to her Ship, she is rescued by Daniel Kutsov, an old man who has been reduced to a simple, manual job as a result of past political activity. Kutsov treats Mia like an
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The ethical discussions in the novel are at an elementary level, as is appropriate for a teenage narrator. Mia's final moral stance is broadly
Kantian (Kant is the only philosopher she mentions by name) in that it demands respect for the personhood of others and forbids treating others as mere
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Mia's companion in school and in survival class is Jimmy
Dentremont, a highly gifted boy of her own age. Their initial rivalry turns to friendship and eventually blossoms into love. Both in and out of survival class, sometimes with Jimmy and sometimes with other children, Mia has a series of
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as an "intensely believable, movingly personalized story," saying that "each of the little, perfectly realized steps" in the story "is so perfectly done that one feels a real shock as one realizes that
Panshin after all has never been a girl growing up aboard a hollowed-out planetoid."
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also received the novel favorably, saying "his is not just another starship book, but a fully realized, lived-in world. I found the novel a little long and slow-moving for my taste, but I was charmed by its heroine. . . . ven the slow slow sections were a pleasure to read".
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and achieve adulthood, it seems that the society of the Ship will have to escape its comfortable routine of drifting from planet to planet if it is ever to make use of the heritage it preserves.
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strategy; that is, she chooses to act on this world rather than hide out for the month that she's on planet. Mia soon encounters a party of rough men on horseback, who are herding
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By the year 2198, Mia Havero is twelve years old and, like most of Ship-bound humanity, regards the colonists as "Mudeaters", a derogatory reference to frontier life on a
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of Trial participants is fairly high, so no expense is spared to train the adolescents about to go through Trial so that they will survive the month spent planetside.
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departs from this tradition by condemning the destruction of
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by Mia Havero, the daughter of the
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Many classic science fiction novels end with the destruction of an entire planet and its inhabitants. Typically, as in the
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416:, 1971). In “Arpad” there is a brief cameo appearance by Mia and Jimmy. All three stories are collected in Panshin's
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This article is about the Alexei Panshin novel. For the Richard Wright novel, see
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440:(July 1969). "Galaxy Bookshelf".
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749:Dreamsnake
568:Best Novel
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1172:Jo Walton
1040:Greg Bear
1027:2001–2020
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784:Timescape
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653:Ringworld
575:1966–1980
526:Tor Books
474:(5): 143.
326:Reception
290:enslaving
285:humanoids
283:, native
212:adulthood
204:flashback
191:in 1969.
99:Ace Books
95:Publisher
1215:Uprooted
940:Red Mars
725:Man Plus
595:Babel-17
492:(1986).
490:Wingrove
348:Wingrove
320:en masse
292:Losels.
232:Eugenics
79:Language
737:Gateway
414:Quark 2
410:Amazing
387:Lensman
383:Skylark
159:9226788
82:English
1329:(2024)
1317:(2023)
1305:(2022)
1293:(2021)
1270:(2020)
1258:(2019)
1246:(2018)
1234:(2017)
1222:(2016)
1210:(2015)
1198:(2014)
1186:(2013)
1174:(2012)
1162:(2011)
1150:(2010)
1138:(2009)
1131:Powers
1126:(2008)
1114:(2007)
1107:Seeker
1102:(2006)
1090:(2005)
1078:(2004)
1066:(2003)
1054:(2002)
1042:(2001)
1019:(2000)
1007:(1999)
995:(1998)
983:(1997)
971:(1996)
959:(1995)
947:(1994)
935:(1993)
923:(1992)
911:(1991)
899:(1990)
887:(1989)
875:(1988)
863:(1987)
851:(1986)
839:(1985)
827:(1984)
815:(1983)
803:(1982)
791:(1981)
768:(1980)
756:(1979)
744:(1978)
732:(1977)
720:(1976)
708:(1975)
696:(1974)
684:(1973)
672:(1972)
660:(1971)
648:(1970)
636:(1969)
624:(1968)
612:(1967)
590:(1966)
406:Analog
376:people
354:Themes
344:Aldiss
281:Losels
277:turtle
243:planet
59:Author
368:Trial
361:Trial
310:Trial
298:Trial
273:tiger
269:Trial
262:Trial
250:Trial
236:exile
220:Earth
216:Ships
208:Trial
131:Pages
87:Genre
1179:2312
602:and
583:Dune
566:for
385:and
346:and
187:for
153:OCLC
140:ISBN
110:1968
1325:by
1313:by
1301:by
1289:by
1266:by
1254:by
1242:by
1230:by
1218:by
1206:by
1194:by
1182:by
1170:by
1158:by
1146:by
1134:by
1122:by
1110:by
1098:by
1086:by
1074:by
1062:by
1050:by
1038:by
1015:by
1003:by
991:by
979:by
967:by
955:by
943:by
931:by
919:by
907:by
895:by
883:by
871:by
859:by
847:by
835:by
823:by
811:by
799:by
787:by
764:by
752:by
740:by
728:by
716:by
704:by
692:by
680:by
668:by
656:by
644:by
632:by
620:by
608:by
598:by
586:by
134:254
1345::
524:.
498:.
488:;
472:42
470:.
448:28
446:.
224:AD
556:e
549:t
542:v
528:.
38:.
20:)
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