Remnant Population

Elizabeth Moon 1996 Buy from Amazon.com

This is a warm and very human novel that explores ideas which are enticing, raw and sometimes uncomfortable. Ofelia is an old woman, at 70 years of age, she has spent the last forty years living in the first colony of a new planet. Working, looking after people, doing what she was supposed to do. Her son Barto and his wife don’t respect her age and experience, but think she is just an irritating old woman who needs to be told what to do. When the company sponsoring the colony decides to abandon the colony and move everyone away, Ofelia decides she’ll stay.

The time passes quickly, days turning into months before she notices, and she revels in her newfound freedom. She dresses as she pleases, explores her creativity and writes stories about her old friends. There is no one to tell her how to behave or what to do for the first time in her long life and she finds that despite being alone, she is profoundly happy.

Even though most of the first half of the book is a single character doing everyday chores and meandering around an empty village, it is never dull or prosaic. Moon manages to explore Ofelia’s character and the changes she experiences in a way that makes it very easy to relate to her. Living by yourself on a planet begins to seem appealing after reading of Ofelia’s daily adventures.

The peace is shattered when she hears transmissions from another colony landing to the north. The landing is interrupted by local creatures who destroy the landing party, killing all the people and destroying the shuttles. Ofelia listens in horror and wonders how in forty years these creatures have never come near her people. She begins to fear that they come and kill her. She also knows that this means other will come to the planet to investigate.

When the creatures finally arrive, they offer no violence to her and seem very curious. They gradually learn to communicate and she realises that she doesn’t fear them at all. Their coexistence becomes threatened when a team arrives to investigate the possibility of intelligent life. Ofelia is again relegated to the role of old woman, ignored, patronised and bullied by the arrogance of the intellectuals who believe that they are the experts despite never having met aliens before.

They explain to Ofelia that she can come back to civilisation now that they have arrived to take care of things, and that they are removing the technology that keeps the village running so that the aliens won’t learn about it. Ofelia and the aliens begin to conspire together to prevent this, using her life experience and their amazing adaptability.

I really enjoyed this book, Ofelia is a fabulous character and her memories, daily experiences and emancipation are fascinating and earthy. I’d recommend this as a feel good novel for those days when you need a bit of a lift.

Awards:

Buy from Amazon.com