Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon

Our largest group ever, twelve people, assembled at Adventures in Crime and Space on April 15 to discuss Elizabeth Moon’s Hugo-nominated Remnant Population. The book is a first contact story involving an old woman left by herself on an alien planet. It was humorously (and accurately) termed “a coming of age novel for little old ladies.” The characterization of the woman is complex and well-executed, and the alien society she encounters is an intriguing concoction. We found the prose quite readable, and one person pronounced it a “compulsive page-turner.” Another person had particularly strong feelings for the work, since “this is the book that got me reading again after finishing college.” In addition to the main story of the first contact, the book examines family dynamics and the roles of the elderly in human society. One person felt that this was “Elizabeth Moon’s first literary novel.”

–A. T. Campbell, III