Little Fuzzy

This is a rather odd book from H. Beam Piper, an American gun enthusiast whose best works were alternative-history stories. It describes an alien planet on which some little furry creatures are found; the good guys love them, believe them to be intelligent (sapient), and want to prove it. The bad guys (big company executives) are motivated by financial considerations to deny sapience and exterminate them.

This is an amiable book and (not really a surprise) the good guys win in the end. Is it a good or interesting book? This is of course a very subjective question. The question of what defines sapience is much debated in the course of the story, and it is an interesting question, although in the end the Fuzzies seem to be clearly sapient rather than at the margin of sapience: they don't severely test the definition.

I read it back in the 1970s and put it aside as a book that was OK, but not one of my favourites. Rereading it now, it seems a little better than I remembered, but still not one of my favourites. It poses the question, “If we find small, furry, cute, friendly, intelligent creatures, do we make friends with them or exterminate them?” Not really a very difficult or interesting question.

But it shows a rather nice side of Piper's nature that he thought of writing such a book, and the book passes the time pleasantly enough, if you like that kind of thing.