Fuzzy Sapiens (Fuzzy Sapiens series)

Fuzzy Sapiens

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Even on first reading, I found the books unacceptably violent. They're also prone to encouraging other vices the only reason the Fuzzies don't drink is that they have a bad reaction up front--but some of them do smoke, once they're taught how by humans. Despite the chronic violence one person is shot dead in a public building with a MACHINE GUN--in a stairwell, too, which carries all kinds of secondary risks , these books are worth reading.

Re-reading the two novel-length books in this volume not only confirmed that analogies, etc which I had remembered were from these books--it also reminded me that things I had NOT remembered were from these books had in fact come from there.

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Some of them are interesting insights for example, the question of whether Helen Keller was sapient before she mastered language--a question she herself was somewhat dubious about. Others are, to say the least, debatable points. Some are downright ludicrous. Various people state case law from earlier cases. The reason it's critical in this case is that the planet Zarathustra is a Class III planet--habitable but with supposedly no native sapient species.

This means, in practice, that the planet is considered the absolute property of the Chartered Zarathustra Corporation usually abbreviated as CZC. This is a dubious concept in itself. The evidence indicates that the reason the Fuzzies moved into domains held by humans? If members of other species in the Federation have moved off their home planets, it can't be in great numbers.

NB--I don't agree with the stated argument that scientific names should not be from Latin or Greek, but should be from 'System English'. There seems to have been some sort of enforced imposition offstage in this series of System English on native speakers of other languages--or at least that's the implication to migrate into more humid climes. The Fuzzies followed, because zatku was until then their favorite food.

Thus, it's more or less a matter of the Company being hoist by their own petard. In the beginning of the book, Grego the CEO worries more about the Company's public image than about what harm the 'development' is doing. There's already a sinister hint of suppressing uncomfortable research reports, even before the Fuzzies are introduced.

When the Fuzzies make their presence known, it's made clear that there IS no definition of sapience in the Federation. There's a 'rule of thumb' Talk and build a fire. The Fuzzies have not mastered fire neither did humans--they inherited hearths from their H erectus ancestors. It's not obvious that they can talk, either the answer is obvious, but I won't spoil it. Nevertheless, the fact that Fuzzies have a symbolic sign language and a pretty clear artistic impulse should lead in the right direction--if it weren't that many nonhuman Earth creatures have the same things--and if the Fuzzies are a little faster with the mirror test, they aren't THAT much faster.

So, if elephants can pass the mirror test, and most apes Snowflake, the white gorilla, could not--but the evidence is that he just couldn't see well enough , and whales baleen and toothed , and octopi, and, and The attempts at definition are not very convincing. If seeing one dreaming isn't convincing enough, what about the EEGs showing the same sort of brain waves as humans dreaming? It simply makes no sense to argue that nonhuman animals either regard all similar things as identical, or regard everything as unique, with no middle ground. The question becomes critical when one of the Company researchers assigned to the question Is this wise of the Federation?

To have people whose employment depends on the Company investigate whether the Charter is valid? Is there no neutral arbiter?

Fuzzy Sapiens Series

The rest of the first book is concerned mostly with the trial. There are other elements, though, which become more relevant in the next volume. The question of sapience having been decided, the transition has to begin. The now charterless Company has to hand over all the mechanisms of social, governmental, and other civil services none of which they seen to've been managing very well over to an unprepared public sector.

There are many issues to unravel, but the most important turns out to be why the Fuzzies have so few viable offspring. In attempting to solve this problem, an idiosyncrasy common to all Fuzzies formerly considered minor comes to the fore: And what has it to do with their taste for zatku, which Terrans also find unpalatable?

Other elements of the story take a back seat to this problem: It might be preferable for all terrestrial humans to withdraw from an inhabited planet--except that the Fuzzies don't want this. They find life in human households much preferable to 'bush life'. So the only alternative is to restore peace between human colonists themselves and also to integrate Fuzzies--if on somewhat different terms than before.

Victor Grego was largely seen as a deep-dyed villain in the first novel. In this book he becomes more nuanced, especially after Victor accidentally finds himself foster-parent to a stray Fuzzy, which he's advised to name Diamond. Which is not to say he's any kind of humanitarian. But he does begin to meliorate.

In general, the attitude toward humans in these books is a pretty extreme type of self-loathing. Some people are recognized as more or less good people--most others are despised. It's not just that humans are consistently compared unfavorably with Fuzzies. It's also that they're generally considered thoughtless, cruel, and irredeemably stupid.

It's not a very pretty picture of humanity. Speaking of truth and delusion, I have to say that I absolutely do not believe in the veridicator. I find the thing even less plausible than Wonder Woman's magic lasso invented by the same people who invented the notoriously flawed 'lie detectors' in current use. Even if it were possible to reliably distinguish truth from falsehood My favorite anecdote about this is that a cousin of mine failed a 'lie detector' test because he was told to answer 'yes' or 'no' to the question "Have you ever considered stealing from your employer?

If I hadn't considered it, how could I have decided not to do it? Aside from the main issues in the story, there are many details which I, at least, found interesting. There's a beginning of compilation of a Fuzzy dictionary and grammar. The Fuzzies begin to figure out how to communicate with humans without all of the elaborate mechanisms first used. Still, there are other things that need to be followed up on. All Fuzzies like to draw--so why not teach them to read and write?

There's also one other element that's not followed up on. Fuzzies seem to have a fondness for pets one female adopts a kitten, and insists that the kitten go everywhere she does. So what's the policy on that?

But if so, I remember nowt about it. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. And also for Piper's other series, an alternate universe series.

Although in the first volume, some Fuzzies are transported to a lunar space station, none of them were volunteers. But the question of whether, in the future, some Fuzzies might travel beyond Zarathustra was also left unresolved, at least so far as I can recall. Very evocative of the time it was written, but interesting. Even though it is a little old fashioned there are at least two female scientists that I can think of, and possibly more.

Aug 25, Joseph Carrabis rated it it was amazing. The Fuzzy Papers was a gem of a read as a cultural anthropologist. I didn't know what the books were about when I got them and had one of those "Oh-my-god" experiences while reading. I didn't know if Piper had experience in ethnography or anthropology especially cultural, perhaps folklore studies and was impressed at how the relationship between humans and the Fuzzies came about. Sep 04, MikeG rated it it was amazing.

Two of my all time favorite stories.

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Little Fuzzy As soon as he put on the light, something inside the shower stall said, "Yeeeek! He turned quickly to see two wide eyes staring up at him out of a ball of golden fur. Whatever it was, it had a round head and big ears and a vaguely humanoid face with a little snub nose.

It was sitting on its haunches, and in that position it was about a foot high. The planet Zarathustra is classified as having no native sentient inhabitants, and the the company th Cuteness overload! The planet Zarathustra is classified as having no native sentient inhabitants, and the the company that runs the planet will lose its charter if native sentient beings are discovered there.

So when climate change brings the Fuzzies out of their secluded forests and into the lands settled by man, the Zarathustra Company will do anything in its power no matter how illegal to prevent the Fuzzies from being classified as sapient. Fuzzy Sapiens Little Fuzzy got out his pipe, the new one Pappy Jack had brought out from the BIg House Place, and stuffed it with tobacco, and got out the little fire-maker. Some of the Fuzzies around him, who had just come in from the woods, were frightened. That was wild fire, though. The Big Ones had tamed fire, and if a person was careful not to touch it or let it get loose, fire was nothing to be afraid of.

Although the Fuzzies' sapience has been legally established and the Charterless Zarathustra Company no longer runs the planet, there is danger that the planetary government may fall into unsympathetic hands once martial law is replaced by a civilian government. And there is another equally important problem that the Fuzzies' supporters must face. Why is the birth rate so low and so many Fuzzy babies stillborn?

Jan 20, D. This is a dual book combining Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens, and though I have read it several times, my memory, specifically is a little fuzzy. Charming, heart-warming are keywords that I can attribute to these tales. It deals with our human expansion to the stars and our encountering those little green martians we have always expected. Accept they are not what we have thought. That have not always been there in their UFO's spying on us, or are part of a xenocidal race that wants our extinction This is a dual book combining Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens, and though I have read it several times, my memory, specifically is a little fuzzy.

That have not always been there in their UFO's spying on us, or are part of a xenocidal race that wants our extinction. If anything man wants to see the end of the alien. Perhaps bleeding heart liberals would be the thought of the defender of the Fuzzy, but Piper writes of Fuzzy in such a way as to make then an endearing race.

Part little child, part puppy dog, if my memory is correct. The conflict is that if there are alien intelligences out there, who owns that world. We have see Cherryh look at this from a distance in Downbelow Station, and the same with Weber in On Basilisk Station, but those books were not focused on the thought of someone speaking up for that Alien's rights and ensuring that they are protected. That is the plot line here. We have a company world that wants to exploit the world, we have a native intelligence that needs to be defended working within the system, but unable to articulate for themselves their defense.

Hence a really great set of books that led to two additional authors writing books about them, and then years after Piper's death, a third tome being unearthed and published. Apr 21, Lisa Harmonybites rated it really liked it Recommends it for: This is an omnibus edition of the first two Fuzzy books that feature among the most memorable aliens in science fiction.

Mind you, they're so cute as to induce sugar shock. Creatures "two feet tall, with wide-eyed The first book dealt with some sophisticated concepts. The "Fuzzies" are on a planet colonized by humans and largely owned and ruled by a corporation under a charter o This is an omnibus edition of the first two Fuzzy books that feature among the most memorable aliens in science fiction.

The "Fuzzies" are on a planet colonized by humans and largely owned and ruled by a corporation under a charter only valid if there are no sapient indigenous life forms. So when the Fuzzies first show up, it soon becomes a very serious matter indeed whether they're just cute animals--or people. The second novel develops some issues not resolved in the first one, and is still entertaining, although perhaps not as fresh in conception.

I did like how in the second novel things were less black and white. Piper's not an elegant prose stylist.

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There are point-of-view jumps, and flaky section breaks might be more an issue of bad editing than writing and at times clumsy phrasing. But Piper's a good storyteller nevertheless and presents appealing characters--human and non-human alike. It's an good read. Apr 19, Chris added it. Beam Piper is one of my favourites and this and Fuzzy Sapiens usually in omnibus now are a fantastic read. Now we are confronted with the problem of what to do when our technology becomes sentient but when Piper was writing that was a distant dream. In this way he was both ahead of his time and rather old fashioned.

I like the Mad-Men idea that ever H. I like the Mad-Men idea that everyone should break for cocktails at 5pm to discuss the important business of the day and that characters take ultimate responsibility for their actions, whether that means sacrificing their professional careers or even their lives for an ideal. I fear we shall not see his like again and I recommend his out of print works such in the Paratime series Aug 15, Madeline rated it it was amazing. My mother read this book when I was five. I would carry the book around and touch all the pages in the book looking for the "fuzzy papers.

As my mother read each of the books and I would see the "Fuzzies" in cover art and in a couple of magazines I made up my own story about them. As an Army family we moved a lot, but I made sure to put my copy of this book in my carry on bag. I was afraid to read the book after I My mother read this book when I was five. I was afraid to read the book after I had learned to read, because I didn't know if it would live up to what I had made up.

Caveat Fuzzy by Wolfgang Diehr. On the pleasant backwater planet of Zarathustra t… More.

The Adventures of Little Fuzzy: From the Original Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper by Benson Parker.

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The Fuzzies, furry little inhabitants of the plan… More. Shelve The Adventures of Little Fuzzy: Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn't… More. The Fuzzy Papers by H. The chartered Zarathustra Company ha… More. Shelve The Fuzzy Papers. The Complete Fuzzy by H. More than three decades ago, H. Beam Piper's best… More.

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