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 …
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“The quick pace of the action, the vibrant descriptions, and the quirky aliens and humans will keep readers engrossed in the story. Teens unfamiliar with science fiction will find this as intriguing as those who avidly read the genre.”
— School Library Journal
“Ofelia—tough, kind, wise and unwise, fond of food, tired of foolish people—is one of the most probable heroines science fiction has ever known.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin, multiple-award-winning science fiction author“A fascinating adventure of interspecies contact that includes the occasional masterfully rendered peek into the aliens’ unique mind-set. Enthusiasts for alien anthropology as well as Moon’s many fans should enjoy.”
— Booklist“This anthropological approach to first encounters is highly recommended for sf collections.”
— Library Journal“In this entertaining but suspenseful first-contact novel, Elizabeth Moon’s apt depiction of the interaction between old and young plays counterpoint to the interaction between human and alien.”
— Amazon.com, editorial reviewBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Elizabeth Moon, a former marine, is the author of many novels, including the Vatta’s War and Vatta’s Peace series and the Deed of Paksenarrion, as well as the Nebula Award winner The Speed of Dark and Remnant Population, a Hugo Award finalist. After earning a degree in history from Rice University, she went on to obtain a degree in biology from the University of Texas, Austin.
Suzanne Toren, award-winning narrator, has over thirty years of experience in narration. She was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She has won the American Foundation for the Blind’s Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year, AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture, and she is the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards. She performs on and off Broadway and in regional theaters and has appeared on Law & Order and in various soap operas.