Reposting my 2012 review of Fuzzy Nation because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.99
Summary: A first contact story with cute small fuzzy beings.
One of the things I really like is reinterpretations. I like to listen to remakes of classic songs. I like to watch remakes of movies and I like to read reinterpretations of old stories. Some authors have make their entire careers from this type of writing.
As far as I know Fuzzy Nation is the first time that John Scalzi has tried it. A classic 1962 book by Beam Piper is the inspiration for Fuzzy Nation. I have not read the original yet. (But the original is included in the Audible.com Audiobook and available for free on kindle. So I will read it soon. Reviewed it here.)
The story starts on a foreign world. Corporations have started buying up the exploitation rights for newly discovered worlds. Jack Halloway is a surveyor that looks for new areas to mine. Halloway is a loner and works hundreds of miles from the closest real settlement.
While away, his house is invaded by several small mammalian type animals. As Jack gets to know them he realizes that there may be more to this world than anyone has realized.
The main theme of the book is sentience and what the role of the courts and other institutions have to those that cannot protect themselves. In some ways it has some similar themes to the movie Avatar.
But it also includes Scalizi’s humor and in the audio version Will Wheaton’s fine voice work. This is not a great classic, but more of a fun summer read. There is some language, so that might make it inappropriate for younger teens. But thematically and in most other areas of content this would make a good read for older teens or adults looking for lighter vacation books.
Fuzzy Nation Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook (Audiobook also contains Beam Piper’s original book Little Fuzzy that inspired Fuzzy Nation) – Free Public Domain Kindle Version of Little Fuzzy