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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A marvelous first contact book. Surrounded all her life by those degrading her worth, by society stifling all her creativity, and by assumptions made purely on what others believe is the way things need to be, at 70 years old, Ophelia shocks herself by taking a chance and planning how to stay on her colony, when the rights are yanked away after she's lived there 40 years. Finally free to do what she wants, when she wants, and how she wants, a second colonization group throws everything into disarray when they land thousands of kilometers from her location and get slaughtered by an intelligent Indigenous people missed in the original surveys and which her colony had never run across the whole time they'd been there. Now she knows there are creatures on the planet who might decide to kill any and all humans they run across. What's an old woman to do?
A delicious, wonderful book that I had an extremely hard time putting down.
A delicious, wonderful book that I had an extremely hard time putting down.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A cozy, slow sci-fi read, but I enjoyed it. I want to snuggle with alien babies.
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Absolutely loved it. Feminist escapism fantasy. Holds up well--hard to believe it was written in the mid-1990s.
slow-paced
When corporate overlords evacuate a colony for lack of profitability, they make it clear elderly Ofelia is a costly burden to capitalism. She decides to "miss" her shuttle departure and live out her remaining time in the abandoned colony that has been her home for 40 years, savoring the quiet and doing whatever she wants after a lifetime of father/husband/motherhood/corporate overlords stifling her. She enjoys her freedom until she hears over the comms system the arrival of new colonizers nearby... and their deaths at the hands of an indigenous lifeform Ofelia's group hadn't encountered in their decades on the planet.
Grumpy elderly woman who just wants to be left alone ends up being the first contact (well, the first civil contact) with extraterrestrials who value her wisdom and independence vastly more than any humans in the story do.
Grumpy elderly woman who just wants to be left alone ends up being the first contact (well, the first civil contact) with extraterrestrials who value her wisdom and independence vastly more than any humans in the story do.
You know I will read any book in which the protagonist is an older woman. This one does not disappoint. The author credits a Le Guin essay as one of her inspirations, and I think I know which one ("Into the spaceship, granny.") It is a First Contact story, but unlike the Le Guin essay, in which the aliens come to earth looking for a wise person, in this case the protagonist is a colonist on the alien's world. The corporate sponsor has decided the colony has failed, and evacuates the colonists to colonize elsewhere. Our Hero, having lived here for 40 years, and sick of being undervalued and pushed around by everyone, decides to stay. By herself. But then the fun really starts when it turns out she's not alone after all. The book is smart about how our society treats women, and older people, and traditionally women's work, and is generally delightful.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I get it, she's naked and free where are the aliens?