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 …
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. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.
This is a great, slow paced science fiction novel that tackles big themes like colonialism, capitalism and ageism through the eyes of a very tired (as in fed up, not lack of energy) woman who's had it up to here with humanity and does the best she can to escape its systems that have rejected her (and as a result finds herself at the forefront of a first contact event). It's very thoughtful in how it's careful to always have the circumstances of our POV character front and center without condescension or pity, and it makes for a unique, believable and endearing read.
4.5 An ultimately hopeful book about an old, marginalised woman finding self-worth in a first-contact situation. One of the best FC novels I've read, though the aliens are still near-human, of course. Could use a little more space, especially towards the end, but apart from that it's a near-perfect tale of late emancipation. Well worth the read and the Hugo nomination (though it's hard to compete with both Robinson's Blue Mars and Bujold's Memory, I think Remnant Population would have deserved a win there).
