Fuzzy Ergo Sum
Pequod Press, 299 pages, $38.00 (hardcover)
Kindle: $7.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-937912-11-9
Lately there’s been something of a vogue for posthumous sequels to classic SF works. (This sort of thing happens every few decades, often when the economy turns sour and publishers are looking for “sure things” that don’t require massive payments to living big-name authors.)
H. Beam Piper’s original 1962 novel Little Fuzzy is one of the most beloved books in the field. And since Piper and his heirs weren’t careful about the arcane copyright registration procedures of the time, the book is now in the public domain (i.e.: anyone can write a sequel without owing Piper’s heirs one red cent).
This isn’t the first Little Fuzzy sequel; the history of the series is convoluted at best. Piper himself wrote one direct sequel, Fuzzy Sapiens (1964). Much later, Ace Books continued the series with Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning (1981). Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey by Ardath Mayhar (1982) retells the original story from the viewpoint of the alien Fuzzies.
Subsequently, a lost manuscript for a third Fuzzy novel was discovered among Piper’s papers; it was published in 1984 as Fuzzies and Other People. The events of this book contradicted those in Fuzzy Bones (of course), so the latter book is considered as part of an alternate universe.
To make matters even more confusing, by the time you read this Tor will have published Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi, which is supposed to “reboot” the whole Little Fuzzy universe and start over from the beginning.
And where does Fuzzy Ergo Sum fit in? It picks up where Fuzzies and Other People left off, continuing the story of explorer Jack Halloway (who discovered the Fuzzies), CEO Victor Grego, and Little Fuzzy himself. It’s been a quiet few years on the peaceful planet Zarathustra, but now a new bureaucrat touches down on an unexplained mission. Then Zarathustra’s worst criminal escapes from jail, the Chief Prosecutor is kidnapped, and the Fuzzies and their human friends have more than enough problems to deal with.
Of all the commissioned sequels, Wolfgang Diehr’s most captures the voice of H. Beam Piper. One gets the feeling that he is a fan of Piper, and he’s also a good enough writer to pull off the right mix of homage and originality.
At $38.00 the hardcover is pretty steep, but the e-book is well worth the asking price.