Fuzzy Nation Mass Market Paperback – March 27, 2012

I was so keen to read this book that I pre-ordered it for my Kindle, a first-time experience which I will report on below. Let me say upfront that it was worth it!Fuzzy Nation is the kind of Golden Age SF- style that you rarely see any more, beautifully done. Jack Holloway is a prospector on Zarathustra XXIII. He encounters a friendly cat-like little group of creatures he calls Fuzzies; they move in with him; and he calls in his former flame, Isabel, who is a biologist working for the Zarathustra Corporation, to learn more about this new species. She begins to suspect that the Fuzzies may be more than "creatures" and may be sapient. If the Fuzzies are sapient, Zarathustra will be severely restricted in what they can do to exploit the planet, and Jack himself will probably lose a fortune due to him because of a new find on his area of claim. The plot thickens from this beginning, with the bad guys doing bad things, unexpected turns bringing spice to the mix, and the good guys (and the Fuzzies) triumphing in the end. I loved it. Best of all, although this book is complete in itself, it leaves open wonderful possibilities for a series. Please, John!!!Scalzi acknowledges that Fuzzy Nation is a reworking of the classic Little Fuzzy by H Beam Piper. I did not remember reading Little Fuzzy, so I read it while I was waiting for Fuzzy Nation to appear. It is not at all necessary to read Little Fuzzy to enjoy Fuzzy Nation, but if you want to do both, I highly recommend reading Little Fuzzy first. Fuzzy Nation is a better book, and reading Piper first will guarantee you two delightful experiences instead of one possible disappointment. Scalzi definitely has written a different story, but he retains some of the main plot lines and the tone of the original.Without taking anything away from Little Fuzzy, which I thoroughly enjoyed, Scalzi has improved on it. For example, some other reviewers have commented that Scalzi's Holloway is not as nice a person as Piper's Holloway. This may be true, but I find Scalzi's Holloway to be more believable as the sort of person one might find as a prospector on an alien planet. I think Piper would approve.I enjoyed Scalzi's Ghost Brigade series and was looking forward to this book, which was what motivated me to pre-order it for my Kindle. It was a thrill to open my Kindle on the day of publication, sync to see what was available, and see Fuzzy Nation waiting for me! Ironically I was not able to begin to read immediately because it was my turn to host my book group, and I had to make preparations. I was not going to be deterred! This preparation involved a fair amount of driving for various errands, so I hooked my Kindle to my car's speakers and listened to the first 20% of the book while I shopped. This review should probably involve two sets of 5 stars, the first for Fuzzy Nation and the second for my Kindle & the variety of reading experiences it offers.

John Scalzi ranks as one of the few science fiction authors whose books have earned my automatic purchase. His tongue-in-cheek humor, unique characters, and complex plot twists caught my attention from my first read.  Old Man's War  had me on the first line: "I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army."Fuzzy Nation appeared on my Kindle in early May, thanks to my pre-order. This book is not set in Scalzi's usual universe; it is as a writing exercise/tribute to a 1962 novel by H. Beam Piper, Little Fuzzy. Scalzi basically took the story, characters, and plot and re-wrote it, incorporating new characters, elements, and events. Because of this, Fuzzy Nation is different than his usual books in plot, tone, and pacing, but all of it with Scalzi's usual flair for reveals and humor.Minor Spoiler AlertScalzi's book draws you into the fuzzy universe from the beginning. By paragraph two, main character Jack Holloway is reading the riot act to his partner, Carl, for his inability to remember everything he has been taught. It is only after this diatribe that you learn Carl is in fact his dog. Carl is a very talented dog. He does not like boom, but he (allegedly) enjoys detonating explosives--for prospecting purposes only, of course. Holloway is a contractor working for ZaraCorp, a company intent on stripping the planet of resources, and yet they take a dim view of dogs detonating explosives.We soon meet other characters. His beleaguered boss resents his lawyer grandstanding (Holloway is a lawyer turned prospector). His ex-girlfriend and company biologist dumped him for claiming, in a hearing, that she lied about Carl detonating explosives. Through them we learn that Holloway isn't always a likable person.Changing fortunes beset Holloway, and we alternately cheer and bemoan his fate. As a character, I found Holloway hard to sympathize with. Sometimes he seemed to be doing the right thing, but he always displayed a disturbing lack of morals.A creature breaks into Holloway's cabin. He looks through the window and sees a cat staring back at him. "It took him a second to remember that he didn't own a cat. It took him a second after that to remember that cats didn't usually stand on two legs." Holloway names the cat things fuzzys.The rest of the tale is taken up with determining if the fuzzys are very smart animals or people. How this is determined, and Holloway's real motives, are worth the read. Along the way we find out why Holloway is prospecting instead of working as a lawyer. Is Holloway a good or bad person? Will the fuzzys be exterminated?As a cat person, I enjoyed the fact that the "aliens" (the fuzzys) appeared to be extremely intelligent cats. I felt an immediate affinity for the creatures. My reaction to Holloway was more ambiguous throughout. Usually I, as the reader, come to empathize with the main character on some level. Being unable to do so in this book was somewhat disturbing, though ultimately refreshing for its novelty.Fuzzy Nation has an involved and satisfying ending; however, it's the ride, with its reveals and twists, that makes the story. While this book is certainly no Old Man's War, it is a thoroughly fun, quick read.

Fuzzy Nation was a fun read.The story revolves around Jack Holloway, a mining surveyor on an alien planet. The narrative style is easy to read and is a little comical at times, though I can't be certain if this was the author's full intent.Holloway is a likeable character, in that he embodies a lot of cliched and overused character traits, such as cracking one-liners and generally not taking things too seriously (think cliche Hollywood action hero) that made this piece quite fun to read and often made me grin.The book is good overall, with an interesting story, entertaining characters and a somewhat goofy ending. It's not full-on comedy, but it's not full-on realistic, either. That is the best description I can give for the feel of it. This is far from being a literary masterpiece, but it clearly isn't intended to be. It's fun read and that will make you grin now and then.Personally, I haven't read the original story that this is apparently based off, so this review evaluates the book on its own merit.It's not amazing, but it's not bad, either. The one thing that really grinded my gears about the writing, though, was that the author (or the editor, perhaps) seems to have a fetish with dialogue tags. Literally, after every single piece of dialogue, there was a he/she said tag, even when there were only two characters talking and the conversion was well-established, so the reader already knew who was saying what. It was totally unnecessary and got to the point where I genuinely wondered whether it was an attempt at filling out the word count, as the piece is long enough to be a full-length novel, though didn't really feel like it to me.I am going to be quite wary of this author and will not be reading any of his other works if I find this trend is the same elsewhere.In short, a decent book, but nothing special.

Having read John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" and the rest in the series it dawns on the reader that perhaps a writer can be great at battle novels and characterisation but what about taking on someone else's vision, in this case a reboot of H Beam Piper's 1962 novel Liitle Fuzzy. Heck, if Star Trek can reboot and Spiderman can reboot why not an old novel?The central character creatures of the novel are the 'Fuzzies', inhabitants of a world being plundered and ravaged by the Zarathrustra prospecting corporation. The world is up for grabs by this Corporation as long as there is no sentient species of the world that can stop the claim. Are the fuzzies the world's sentient species?. Jack Holloway is the lead prospector working for the Corporation and is the other central character human who just gets pulled in to the fight for wealth when he discovers how rich he can be with his percentage of a claim to a masive discovery of valuable jewels, which might just have to be sorted out by legal means... or perhaps by other more nefarious means. Can Jack come out of this with integrity (if he has any) or will he be just a caualty of Corporate greed and nasty tricks.The novel is well written, intruiging and Scalzi can really do more than War, he can do legal drama. Is there nothing Scalzi cannot do? I look forward to his take on the world of disposable 'Star Trek' crew members in Redshirts.

Many years ago H. Beam Piper wrote "Little Fuzzy", a fine tale that has now, along with its sequels and its author, slipped into relative obscurity.Last year John Scalzi, with the blessings of Piper's heirs, released this "reboot", in which he tells broadly the same story with just a few little tweaks for a modern audience. There is more corporate wrong-doing and less government in Scalzi's version, for example, and more of people figuring out stuff on their own instead of government scientists.Scalzi's re-telling of the story is a fine piece of work, as I expected from reading some of his previous stories, and I recommend it to you.

Fuzzy Nation is one of those books that makes you wish Amazon had a "half star" you could add to your rating. Funny, well written and engaging, Fuzzy Nation had me gripped from start to finish. The final scene is wonderfully satisfying, having me (mentally) cheering in the audience. I've given it 4 stars not because it isn't great fun - it is - but because when I compare it to other Scalzi novels I've read (particularly the excellent Lock In) I think those deserve the higher praise! But I will certainly be recommending this,and continuing to read more Scalzi soon

I read the original book as an adolescent and remember that it was one of my favourites. I am also aware that my discernment in the quality of writing was probably not the best when I was 16. So I was happy to give this version a try. I began reading, but the quality of writing was standard to poor, the story telling lacked logical structure, and I didn't see any evidence of any new riff on the story itself. Too bad I ready past the free sample.