Fuzzies and Other People

from the diary: “Tuesday 1/20/87

“Read Fuzzies and Other People, [H. Beam] Piper’s long lost sequel to the other two Fuzzy books. I enjoyed it. Much better than Tuning’s Fuzzy Bones.”

Little Fuzzy, the first of Piper’s Fuzzy books, was a gift, I believe. I think it was one of the books Mom read to my brother and me before bed. She did that long past our being little kids. It was a family thing, more fun than TV. And she was good at it. Fuzzies are big eyed, silky furred humanoid aliens, natives of a planet thought to have no sentient life. Their existence creates a problem for those who want to use the planet’s mineral resources without having to spare a care for the planet’s biosphere.

I remember finding the big eyed Fuzzies hypnotically cute – those cover illustrations! Little Fuzzy and the sequel Fuzzy Sapiens were published in the 60s. A third Fuzzy book was rumored. A carbon copy of the manuscript was finally discovered in a trunk 15 or 20 years after the author’s death. Two new Fuzzy books by other authors had been published by the time Fuzzies and Other People turned up. I read one of them, Fuzzy Bones. It seems it left me cold.

Of all the Fuzzy books Little Fuzzy is the one I remember most. Worrying about whether the Fuzzies would be legally recognized as sentient beings and thus entitled to protection from the depredations of ruthless corporations! What would happen!