Little Fuzzy [Mass Market Paperback]

What happens when an obviously sapient species is discovered on a human colony planet - but the usual rules of thumb used to separate people from animals in law don't apply?

In the Federation, there really isn't a legal definition of sapience, just a handy criterion of talk-and-build-a-fire intended to keep greedy speculators, sadists, and other lowlifes from claiming they couldn't tell that an obviously inhabited planet *was* inhabited. Zarathustra is legally a Class-III planet with no native intelligent species, so the Chartered Zarathustra Company essentially owns it outright, and makes a *lot* of money on its resulting monopoly on sunstones, not to mention a long list of assorted exports the CZC extracts from Zarathustra's virgin ecology.

Then one day Jack Holloway, a freelance sunstone prospector, comes home to find his door open - and a tiny creature, no more than two feet tall and covered in golden fur, in his shower stall. Being an independent-minded bachelor of a certain age doesn't mean one can't get lonely, and Jack's inclined to let the gutsy little guy hang around. Jack names him "Little Fuzzy", and quickly notices that his new friend is bright. So bright that he doesn't need to be shown things twice. So bright that he can generalize.

So bright that he can not only use tools Jack makes for him, but brought some of his own with him.

He and the rest of his hunter-gatherer family just don't seem to be able to talk, and they haven't mastered fire yet. The scientists working for the CZC are soon tasked quietly with "proving" that Fuzzies aren't sapient, and when one group tries to "confiscate" the little family living with Jack, there's a tragedy: Leonard Kellogg stomps one of the female Fuzzies to death, and Jack shoots another of the invaders dead.

The main conflict, though, isn't the shootout but the subsequent pair of criminal cases, which the chief justice of the planet opts to try together almost in the form of a lawsuit since the resolution of either would prejudice the verdict of the other: Leonard Kellogg's trial for the murder of a sapient being, and Jack's trial (where his defence is that he was attempting to prevent someone else's murder). As Jack's lawyer Gus Brannhard puts it, this *is* a lawsuit, in a way, with the CZC's charter hanging in the balance.

Really great story, with a crackerjack legal circus at the end and a lot of Fuzzies throughout (who're much better at having fun than humans are, for all that they're little guys in a very big dangerous world).

IRRELEVANT NOTE: Michael Whelan's Fuzzy cover paintings are famous. However, one point that's sometimes overlooked is that the only human in the group on the cover of *this* book - "Pappy" Jack Holloway - has been depicted by Whelan as a likeness of Piper himself.

Although quite short, the fast-paced, truly moving, and often very comedic "Little Fuzzy" is one of my choices for science fiction literature's truly great novels. The wit, the charm, and the brilliant characters will all stay with the reader long after the final page of this first of H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy Sapiens series.

Zarathustra is a planet classed as uninhabited, which means the entire planet can be owned by a corporation, which it is, by the Zarathustra Company, which enjoys a high profit by mining the resources-rich planet. One day gem prospector Jack Holloway comes across a member of a previously undocumented species - a tiny, golden-furred little biped who he dubs 'Little Fuzzy', and shortly thereafter encounters Little Fuzzy's family. The fuzzies are cute, adorable, and often hilarious, and they're also quite socially advanced, including in the use of tools they themselves make. Holloway is convinced, and soon some of his human friends are too, that the Fuzzies are fully sentient and entitled to all the rights of any other sentient species.

Which means the Fuzzies would be the owners of their own planet, and the Zarathustra Company's deed would be automatically null and void.

The unscrupulous Zarathustra Company is determined not to see that happen, at any costs.

And thus we enter into a meeting of the science fiction novel, the legal courtroom drama, and an indepth examination of ethics. The book skillfully tackles these subjects seriously without forsaking the fun, playful side of its other main facet, represented so well by the gregarious Fuzzies themselves. I would say that there's heavy corporate satire at work in much of the book, but I belive satire is supposed to be an exxageration of the 'real' world, and sadly, I can see a corporation behaving this way if this kind of thing were to happen some day off in the future. Although the book is often a ride of wonder and fun, things can get very heavy and dark at times, including a plot thread dealing with the death of a Fuzzy. The courtroom scenes are a pinnacle of their type, not just for science fiction but for any novel.

An excellent tale; extremely recommended.

Little Fuzzy is written by H. Beam Piper and is the first in a series of many books on the fuzzys. The Plot of the book is simple enough, old man finds little furry people, old man keeps little furry people, old man trys to get little furry people recognized as sapient life forms. If you can get past the first 2 pages of scientific mumbo jumbo that has nothing to do with the story the you will be fine. The book is great! I generaly do not read sci fi, but I made an exception for little fuzzy, and you should to!