Remnant Population

Paperback, 336 pages

English language

Published Sept. 30, 2003 by Del Rey.

ISBN:
978-0-345-46219-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
53172983

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (3 reviews)

For 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 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 …

6 editions

Remnant Population

4 stars

I read Remnant Population from the #SFFBookClub backlog. I had a lot of fun reading this. This is a first contact novel with the main character being an older woman in her seventies. At the start of the book, Ofelia is living with her only remaining adult son and his wife. When the colony she is on loses their contract and evacuates, and she decides to hide and stay. It turns out that the planet had undiscovered intelligent life, and these aliens come to investigate her. In the end, she's caught in the middle between these friendly aliens and returning humans.

I think what I most appreciate about this book is the wry internal perspective and character development of Ofelia. She is an old woman who has put in the work, and whose primary character trait is that she's just tired of putting up with other people's expectations and attitudes. …

Not your usual hero; not your usual Si-Fi book.

5 stars

I have a serious weak spot for Sci-Fi and Fantasy that comment on and make use of linguistics, social structure, and Anthropology. I also know Elizabeth Moon to be a good author, so I grabbed this once I came across someone else describing it, and I am glad I did. I read this book in a single night. This book is really different, and I found that enjoyable. We get a main character in Ofelia that is so not the usual. She's not young, gorgeous, extraordinarily strong, extraordinarily smart, the Chosen One, or any of the tropes we typically see. Her strength is strength of character, determination, and a desire to be respected. Ofelia turns the art of small stubborn moments and the sublime joy of small things into a lifestyle.

This main character is humanly fleshed out as an individual going through an entirely new time of discovering she …

avatar for teadragon

rated it

5 stars

Subjects

  • Science Fiction - Space Opera
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - Science Fiction
  • Science Fiction
  • Fiction / Science Fiction / Space Opera

Lists