Elizabeth Moon: My All Time Favorite Writer

I was asked to write about my all time best novel and how it applied or appealed to me.  Since I have not had a novel published, as yet, I have chosen to answer this question with a HubPage on my favorite author, Elizabeth Moon.  I haven't seen Elizabeth since we moved from Texas in 1993, but enjoyed being in the same writer's group in Austin, TX, for a while before that.  I would like to note that, when searching used book store shelves, I have never found one of her books. Nor have I seen one of her books remaindered.  I fully believe that those who buy her books, keep her books.  I know I do. 

My favorite all-time writer is Elizabeth Moon. It would be hard to say any one of her books is my favorite, but if I had to choose just one, I think it would have to be Remnant Population. In Remnant Population, the hero is an older woman who, at least in my mind, very much resembles my own grandmother in both attitude and determination. When her grown children and the colony officials try to force her to leave her home on a colony world, she hides until everyone is gone. All alone, she faces survival issues, meets and befriends an alien race, and eventually becomes humanity's only hope in dealing with the aliens.

Elizabeth and I were long ago in the same writer's group in Austin, Texas. I was priviledged, as were the other members of the writer's group, to hear some of Elizabeth's early stories read during workshops. Of all the writer's in the group, Elizabeth is the one who went forward into professional writing, and has done so in grand style. With 20+ novels, and 30+ short fiction works published, she opens up her imagination to deliver some of the best written fiction I have ever read.

Elizabeth writes both science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Her heroes, most of whom are women or girl's growing into womanhood, are realistic, but tough and smart. Overwhelmingly, Elizabeth's stories involve war or battles. As a former U.S. Marine, historian, and biologist, she is imminently qualified to write war stories that are both realistic and gripping. I never start one of her books, unless I know I have time to complete it in one sitting. There just isn't a good stopping place to put it down for a while.

The Speed of Dark is different than most of the others. While it is science fiction, it is near future science fiction, with none of the swashbuckling space heroes or magic found in her other books. The hero in this novel is an autistic male in his 30's. While totally different, the story brings to mind Flowers for Algernon and Forrest Gump. The Speed of Dark is a book that will fundamentally change the way you look at autistic people.

Both Elizabeth and I grew up in Texas. Some of the gritty self-reliance most of the older Texans display in their lives is evident in her books. As for why she is my favorite author, her heroes face overwhelming odds and usually, if somewhat painfully at times, prevail. There have been occasions in my life that I needed to have female heroes to look up to. If you enjoy action packed stories, with believable human, and humane heroes, you will enjoy Elizabeth Moon's worlds.