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Remnant Population |
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Author:
Elizabeth Moon
By Del Rey
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $3.49
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Product Description
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 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. . . .
Amazon.com Review
In a far-flung capitalistic empire among the stars, generations of colonization without a single contact with an intelligent, non-human species have reduced the colonial process to a franchise system. Amid the abuses of the system which inevitably follow, an old woman decides not to leave when her failed colony is evacuated, thinking the freedom to live alone and die in peace is worth any risk. In this entertaining but suspenseful first-contact novel, Elizabeth Moon's apt depiction of the interaction between old and young plays counterpoint to the interaction between human and alien.
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Slow start but great finish, 2008-11-19
For the first hundred pages or so, I found "Remnant Population" to be a boring narrative of an old woman's day to day existance. But as the story progressed, the fascinating and original plot drew me in. It was refreshing and thought-provoking to read a book, particularly a SF book, from the persective of an elderly woman, often bringing into highlight humankind's devaluation of our senior citizens. Just as fascinating was the transition of the main character from worthless old woman to strong diplomat.
Not Free SF Reader, 2007-09-03
A book in three parts. A colony on a planet pulls out, as their sponsor has sold it to someone else. One elderly woman decides to stay behind.
She enjoys her freedom, to start with, and starts investigating things she couldn't do before.
Eventually, she starts a relationship with the natives of the planet, which becomes important when yet another corporate survey team turns up wanting to use the planet.
Remnant population, 2006-09-24
I picked this book up to relax for a bit,during a very busy weekend, but I couldn't put it down! I knew the things to do would still be there on sunday, so I kept reading ! It is a very good story,I recommend this book!! It has a strong character,it is suspenseful.
It is a good,but different Sci-fi story. I read this from a library,byt plan to purchase a copy, to re-read often!
Elizabth Moon at her best!
Elizabeth Moon one of the best SF writers still around, 2006-08-08
I put off buying this book because it sounded dull, however once I bought it and got around to reading it, I was pleasantly surprised. True there are some dull spots but on the whole it was quite good.
I have all of the books written by Ms. Moon that I have heard of and really like everything of hers I have read. I am waiting anxiously for her next one "Engaging the Enemy".
A thought-provoking delight!, 2005-02-04
When her husband Humberto died, Ofelia became her son's dependent in the eyes of Sims Bancorp. Forty years after she helped to found Colony 3245.12, all of her children but Barto are dead along with their father; and Ofelia tolerates her domineering daughter-in-law Rosara as best she can. When Sims Bancorp sends a ship to withdraw the colonists, after deciding to abandon its unprofitable colony and cede its license to the world that Ofelia now considers her home, the company demands extra payment for relocating the useless old woman who will probably die in cryosleep, anyway. Luckily for Ofelia, though, she's scheduled for a later shuttle than Barto and Rosara. When she slips away from the village to hide in the nearby, still untouched alien forest, the only two people who would protest her absence are already in the cryotanks. Soon the ship is gone, leaving Ofelia alone. And that's just fine with her.
The old woman revels in her solitude, because this is the first time in her long life that she's been free from the demands and restrictions placed on her by others. She tends her garden, competently maintains the village's power plant, and laughs when she throws her last pair of detested shoes into the recycler. Then another company's ship enters orbit, and starts to insert a colony at a location thousands of miles from Ofelia's village. At which time she, and the newly arrived colonists, find out that this world has indigenous intelligent life after all.
The friend who recommended this book to me was right. Ofelia, a person who had little worth to start with in her society's eyes - a housewife and mother, educated no more than necessary to perform her expected tasks - has no value at all now, in age and physical infirmity. But what she does have, a naturally intelligent old woman's experience and wisdom and insight, turn out to be exactly what the unexpected and dangerous first contact situation on her adopted world requires. Grumpy and no longer willing to suffer fools gladly - still savoring life, but no longer reluctant to risk leaving it behind if that's the price of being free at last to make her own choices - Ofelia is at once a fully realized individual, and a worthy representative of all the other wise and salty old women whose value too few Human societies appreciate. Or even comprehend.
A thought-provoking delight!
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345462190
ISBN: 034546219X
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2003-09-30
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: 2003-09-30
Studio: Del Rey |
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