Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon

I read Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon because it was highly recommended in an internet thread about a book with an older female character. It wasn't even a thread specifically about science fiction/fantasy, so when it filtered to the top, I knew I had to read it. 

Sims Bancorp Company has decided to disband Colony 3245.12, the place Ofelia has called home for over 40 years. So when the ship took off with her family in cryogenic storage, she hides in the woods and decides to spend out the rest of her years by herself on this planet by herself. She starts over, free from expectations and demands of others. But then a ship from the Company comes to her planet and suddenly Ofelia realizes she is not alone.

Yay! Ofelia is GREAT. The premise is great. The execution of the premise is great. The pace of the book never slowed down. Even when it was literally just an old lady fixing homes and cooking food, I was riveted (I suspect this is related to how so many of us bloggers find a day-in-the-life post so fascinating). I found the ethical conundrums to be just puzzling enough, the question of how this could  possibly end to be just right, and the slight hints of societal and capitalistic critique used perfectly. 

This is how you have a great, strong female lead in an interesting sci-fic world. Thumbs up from me. 

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

She knew how to tell stories; she knew the shape such a story should have. But to put the words down with her hands, to see them come up on the screen, that was much harder. (page 48)
Do you think it's harder to write a story down or tell it orally?

Perhaps she had dreamed the whole thing. She had heard, in school, that no one could live long alone without going crazy, without thinking they heard and saw other people. She had never believed it, but she had been told. So if she had gone crazy, without noticing it, she could have imagined the whole thing. (page 70)

I think this is so scary. How will you know if you're going crazy?

The joy of creation, of play, had been the empty place unfilled by family and social duties. She would have loved her children better, she thought now, if she had realized how much she herself needed to play, to follow her own childish desire to handle beautiful things and make more beauty. (page 94)

Sometimes, when I'm playing with Hannah and she's yipping excitedly and I'm laughing hysterically, I realize how important it is to have someone in your life who you can be playful with. Go chase your dog or play soccer with your kids or push a baby on a swing. 

She was tired of difference, but the world had never yet shaped itself to her measure. (page 170)

AND

She had not wanted more responsibility. She had not wanted more tasks. But the world, her mother had often said, does not shape itself to your wish, any more than dough mixes itself when you’re hungry. (page 191)

I thought these two quotes were interesting because they were only about 20 pages apart. The world does not shape itself to our desires, that is true, but did it need to be mentioned twice?

She had done with these roles, with being a good child, a good wife, a good mother. She had put seventy-odd years into it; she had worked hard at it; now she wanted to be that Ofelia who painted and carved and sang in an old cracked voice with strange creatures and their stranger music. (page 274)

I love an older female protagonist who has opinions about how to spend her time. 

Men like this—she had known men like this all her life, even though these men would not have recognized the resemblance. “But thank you,” she said. One did not dare to act superior to men who dosed themselves with illegal substances. (page 295)

Ooof. Imagine being a septuagenarian and still being worried about violence against women. I guess women can never win. 

Hat mentions (why hats?): Seven hats in this book. Here are a couple of highlights.
The sun lay a warm hand on the back of her neck, and she realized she’d come out without her hat again. That would be one benefit of staying behind. No one would nag her to wear a hat. (page 11)

Hats are actually pretty symbolic in this book, representing a lack of freedom. In this situation, she hates wearing the hat, but her family makes her. As soon as they leave, she ditches it. 

The woman she had talked to before, now in cream-colored slacks and shirt, with a big hat on her head, accompanied by another woman and two men in variations of that outfit, and two obviously dangerous men in the dark protective suits, with weapons. (page 240)

Now a woman comes and she represents the Company and a loss of freedom. The hat tells us already that she's going to try and restrict Ophelia's freedome.