Customer Reviews

Fuzzy Nation

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a great respect for Scalzi's work. Unfortunately this book is not one I enjoyed.

The central problem is that he has "re-imagined" Holloway and the "Fuzzy Sapiens" in a less than stellar manner. Those who read and loved the Fuzzy series by H. Beam Piper, like myself, may find themselves horrified by Scalzi's twisting of Holloway's character into someone who is quite simply lacking in the human attributes that made the story work for Piper. The new and degraded Holloway is a gutted shell of the man that Piper created, shallow and lacking in the central kindness that was found in an otherwise gruff frontiersman.

The elimination of the martini and cigarette/pipe culture may be an appropriate modernization, but not when you leave out any cultural waterholes for the characters to gather around. We end up with sad and career motivated drones doing their thing without quite knowing why.

The Fuzzys themselves are observed but never does Scalzi get properly inside their heads. The close of the book is unfeasible given apparent cultural levels.

If Scalzi had written another story inside the Fuzzy universe it may have gone very well, but this re-imagination was a mistake.

Scalzi's "Old Man's War" was a real hoot. He seems to have put his imagination on cruise after that. This one is O.K. but pretty shallow in plot, character, - imagination. He is capable of better.

This is a very interesting re-imagining of Piper's work.
It may be more pragmatic than the original but the fantastic
twists and turns along with the best "OMG" moments towards
"the end that are "I should have seen that coming but didn't"
make this book a quick and kindle-button turning read.

I've been listening to Fuzzy Nation because I loved the original. The audible book starts off with an Author's note about how happy and pleased he is that his good friend, Wil Wheaton is reading the book. All I can think is that the author has never listened to audible books and so is happy with Wil because he didn't stumble over the words as he read. Any amateur reader could have done better. Wil talks too fast. His reading in monotonous. He makes little effort to portray the characters with different voices or accents. He is boring! So boring that I can hardly force myself to listen even though I've paid for this miserable excuse of an audible book. I will never, ever, listen to a Wil Weaton read book again. I'd rather read it myself.

Review of Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

Characterization: 7/10
Jack Holloway is a fantastic (if modern and pragmatic) character. At first glance he appears to be a (nearly) carefree goofball trying to make his way in the world. And then you see that he is whip smart and has a bit of a mysterious past. As the novel unfolds, I vacillated between thinking that he really is a good guy and thinking that he is selfish but so smart that he can do something that benefits himself while still looking good. The most important scenes where it would be nice to get into his head, we mostly see through dialogue and action. This is great, because leaves a big question mark hanging over his head as to what he's going to do and whether or not he is reliable as a narrator or not. We see a lot of people in difficult circumstances and even in the future we have wonderful megacorporations that skirt the edge of the law in their attempts to exploit their workers and other planets as effectively as possible. There is really only one idiot bad guy in the novel, and even he turns out not to be a complete idiot when he sees the jig is up. If you like seeing two+ smart characters go head to head in a massive legal/political battle, this isn't a bad place to start. I wish we'd have been able to see greater depth in the characters around him, or learned more about the fuzzies, but one great character isn't a bad place to start.

Plotting and Pacing: 4/5 and 5/5
The plotting is like a roller coaster going through a mountain. You might be able to catch of a glimpse of a light set in the wall up ahead, but chances are you're not going to end up going that way. It's full of twists and turns that, while surprising, make sense once you understand the legalities behind them. Surprises are easy, but well-crafted surprises are like unicorns. You're always hoping to see one, but you're never too disappointed when you get a horse instead. This book is full of unicorns. I'm trusting my readers, of course, not to read into this too literally, but you get the point. The pacing is just about close to perfect for what this novel aims to do: show off a smart character working under tremendous pressure as he tries to do the right thing (or at least I think he's trying to do the right thing. As mentioned in my characterization section I'm never quite sure about Holloway) in an entertaining fashion. I ripped through this novel, and am excited to see more of Scalzi's work.

Setting: 6/10
The setting was your fairly standard sf setting. You've got other planets, resource exploitation, aliens (some sentient and some non-sentient), and cool technology. The main difference here is that they use a beanpole (I'm assuming this is a kind of space elevator) to get on and off planet. You don't learn much of society off-planet, which is absolutely fine considering Scalzi even admits that he wrote the novel, "Mostly because [he] thought it would be fun." Most of the novel takes place in or around Holloways jungle home and/or the courtroom. The political ramifications of what happens in the novel are epic in scope, with the potential to affect thousands of people, but it isn't as though you're going to see a giant battle between two space armadas, so if you're looking for that look elsewhere.

Style and Themes: 4/5 and 3/5
The style is as straightforward as can be. I always like to get a little bit more meat in my novels, but as I said I was expecting it to be a fun read and that's why Scalzi wrote it. He's got plenty of other material if I want more description about the universe in which the characters act in. Scalzi masterfully manipulates the narrative in order to keep back certain surprises for plot twists, while not giving us the feeling that anything is amiss in the meantime. I might have liked to learn more about Holloway's past or the other main characters, but like an arrow Scalzi stays true to the conflict promised us in the opening scenes of the novel and always stays on course. Theme-wise we see that nearly everyone is willing to manipulate the word of the law in order to secure their own desires. If this were a D&D campaign, the legal system would be the GM and corporations would be the power gamers trying anything in their power to twist and bend or interpret the rules in any way shape or form in order to do maximize their power. It's entertaining as hell, but nothing I haven't seen before (although I'm still not certain about Holloway...)

Total: 29/40
Please keep in mind that this is my first John Scalzi book and that I started reading this book with no preconceptions except that I would be having fun. I am not familiar with the source material, so readers who've read the Fuzzy series by H. Beam Piper may have a completely different reading experience than me. If you want giant military battles, look elsewhere. If you want lol funny moments, a character who (allegedly) uses his dog to detonate explosives, great courtroom drama, and fuzzy creatures, this is the book to read.

Grading: Note that "6" is an average grade for each category, unexciting but still decent. Therefore, any novel that scores above 24 is above average and thus better than most of the other stuff floating around in bookshelves (at least in my opinion).

Rating Scale
01-09: Nigh unreadable
10-19: Get it from the library
20-24: A modest endorsement
25-29: Well-rounded and enjoyable
30-34: Highly recommended
35-40: A must-read!

This is an exploitive rewrite of the late H. Beam Piper's masterful classic and I personally will not be buying it. Judging by the precis the author has twisted the character of Jack Holloway as a sunstone prospector into a shyster and con man. Tor Books has tried having another author write a Fuzzy book before with less than stellar results. H Beam Piper who committed suicide in the 1960's and wrote many classic science fiction novels does not deserve to be dishonoured in such a fashion. I am giving it 1 star as you have to rate it. Would prefer to give it ZERO. Buy H Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy instead.