Finalist for the Hugo Award • “Ofelia—tough, kind, wise and unwise, fond of food, tired of foolish people—is one of the most probable heroines science fiction has ever known.”—Ursula K. Le GuinFor forty years, Colony 3245.12 has been Ofelia’s home. On this planet far away in space and time from the world of her youth, she has lived and loved, weathered the death of her husband, raised her one … her husband, raised her one surviving child, lovingly tended her garden, and grown placidly old. And it is here that she fully expects to finish out her days—until the shifting corporate fortunes of the Sims Bancorp Company dictates that Colony 3245.12 is to be disbanded, its residents shipped off, deep in cryo-sleep, to somewhere new and strange and not of their choosing. But while her fellow colonists grudgingly anticipate a difficult readjustment on some distant world, Ofelia savors the promise of a golden opportunity. Not starting over in the hurly-burly of a new community . . . but closing out her life in blissful solitude, in the place she has no intention of leaving. A population of one.
With everything she needs to sustain her, and her independent spirit to buoy her, Ofelia actually does start life over–for the first time on her own terms: free of the demands, the judgments, and the petty tyrannies of others. But when a reconnaissance ship returns to her idyllic domain, and its crew is mysteriously slaughtered, Ofelia realizes she is not the sole inhabitant of her paradise after all. And, when the inevitable time of first contact finally arrives, she will find her life changed yet again—in ways she could never have imagined. . . .
“Pure satisfaction from cover to cover.”—Anne McCaffrey
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For more than four decades, Colony 3245.12 has been Ofelia’s home. On this remote exoplanet far away in space and time from where she grew up, she has lived, worked, and loved, burying her husband and several children, and has a single surviving adult child, a son who has remarried. Her days are spent gardening, telling stories to children, sewing …
Science fiction novel with an older female protagonist that, as soon as I read it, became one of my all-time favorite books EVER. It’s not your typical action-packed, go go gun blast, space ship explosion science fiction hijinks. And hey, I like me some hijinks. I write hijinks! But it’s down to earth, kind of contemplative but not boring, …
Read it years sgo. Still think about that character and her choices once in a while.
A great twist for sci-fi book, where the hero is a elderly lady. A nice twist on first-contact. We are not always the smartest and most inquisitive.
I’ll get this out there up front. I like Elizabeth Moon’s writing –all of it. But this book is my favorite of hers and It’s one I re-read quite often, getting fresh nuances every time I do so. It’s unlikely heroine is unforgettable and so very real and the aliens are much the same, real AND alien.
Ofelia, 70 years old, refuses to leave a space colony being abandoned by the company. She hides until everyone leaves. She is more than capable of surviving and discovers her long repressed creativity. She eventually meets and learns to understand the local sentient beings who call themselves “the People.” Marvelous ability of author to imagine a …
Liked it so much I had to re-read it immediately.
I really enjoyed this book. Ofelia is utterly human and yet still an extraordinary protagonist. In this era of youth worship, its especially nice to see a heroine over the age of sixteen. It is wonderfully refreshing that she is in the winter of her life. If you enjoyed Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, definitely give Remnant Population a …
Remnant is a SF story set in a star faring future whose main character is a cranky, elderly woman who only wants to live out her remaining days in peace and alone. She is no dummy but neither is she a genius. She has no super powers. She is a colonist, a mother and a farmer’s wife. In my opinion the first half to two thirds of the story is the …