Jim Fulner reviewed Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
Capitalism vs. "Human" Rights, in court, IN SPACE!
4 stars
This was a fun audiobook. An interesting way of telling a Sci-Fi story through the lens of a courtroom drama.
Our protagonist finds a little fuzzy create he names Little Fuzzy, and under the rules of the colonial government and science center, he gets to name the new species, "Fuzzy." His Little Fuzzy is smart, really smart, making tools to kill his prey, inviting his family to come live with the giant person, etc.
Fuzzy doesn't fit the established government requirements for "sapience" (akin to, but not quite the same as Star Trek's "sentient", he doesn't speak a language as such nor can he build a fire, but he sure feels sapient to "Pappy Jack." However, "the company" that privately owns the planet can't have any sapient species there because the invalidates their claim to the planet under colonial law.
So more hard science-fiction, more crazy fuzzy …
This was a fun audiobook. An interesting way of telling a Sci-Fi story through the lens of a courtroom drama.
Our protagonist finds a little fuzzy create he names Little Fuzzy, and under the rules of the colonial government and science center, he gets to name the new species, "Fuzzy." His Little Fuzzy is smart, really smart, making tools to kill his prey, inviting his family to come live with the giant person, etc.
Fuzzy doesn't fit the established government requirements for "sapience" (akin to, but not quite the same as Star Trek's "sentient", he doesn't speak a language as such nor can he build a fire, but he sure feels sapient to "Pappy Jack." However, "the company" that privately owns the planet can't have any sapient species there because the invalidates their claim to the planet under colonial law.
So more hard science-fiction, more crazy fuzzy adventures, and a murder or two, and now we have to go to court and decide the future of the planet, all while those are Earth won't see the initial report, because you thought your mail was slow.
The ending is pretty obvious given the subject matter, but it is fun along the way. This one is recommended.
I love reading old sci-fi to see what they already got wrong in the 50 or so years since it was written and way before the timeline, this time it was smoking. Everyone smokes everywhere all the time. Like its frequently a subject and almost no one smokes now in 2026, I guess that trend could change, in theory, but I doubt we'll be shipping tobacco across the solar systems.