FW: Fuzzy Nation: The Latest Power Ballad from John Scalzi

This looks interesting. I have never read H. Beam Piper, but sounds like I should have.

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From: Jeff VanderMeer
Posted on: Thursday, May 19, 2011 2:27 PM
Posted to: Omnivoracious
Conversation: Fuzzy Nation: The Latest Power Ballad from John Scalzi




I must admit that when I heard hugely popular SF author John Scalzia multiple Hugo Award finalist, was writing a novel entitled Fuzzy Nation; that riffed off of H. Beam Piper's iconic creation, I was a little, dare I say it...fuzzy...on the details. It'd been awhile since I'd read H. Beam Piper, but I did remember liking the stories.

So if you're thinking "Wait. What? Fuzzies ?", you may not be alone. Although Piper is known to core science fiction fans, his last Fuzzies book came out in 1964, the year of his death, with a posthumous collection published in 1984. Two additional Fuzzy books have been written, by Ardath Mayhar and William Turning, but Scalzi's is significant for being a reboot of the original franchise—taking as its source material the original book, Little Fuzzy.

The Fuzzy books were part of Piper's Terro-Human Future History series, which provides a detailed account of about six thousand years of human history, dating back to 1942, the year the first fissoon reactor was created (or, in Piper parlance, year 1 A.E., Atomic Era). In Piper's future, part of it now our past, a nuclear war lays waste to Earth in 1973. This catastrophic event leads to the creation of a Terran Federation and the invention of anti-gravity space technology. In exploring the stars, humankind eventually comes across the Fuzzies: first contact with an intelligent alien species.

What, exactly, are Fuzzies? Small furry bipeds on the planet Zarathustra that turn out to have their own civilization, and are hugely misunderstood by the humans who encounter them. As in the original novel, this reboot features prospector Jack Holloway. Holloway works as an independent contractor for the huge ZaraCorp mining corporation. The potential conflict between Holloway's maverick ways and ZaraCorp heats up because of the Fuzzies: the corporation's right to exploit the planet is based entirely on being able to prove to Earth authorities that no intelligent species live there.