In John Scalzi’s re-imagining of H. Beam Piper’s 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy (also exists in this collection) , written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesn’t care to talk about. On the distant planet Zarathustra, Jack is content as an independent contractor for ZaraCorp, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, that’s not up for discussion.

Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking, Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as partners to help extract the wealth.

But there’s another wrinkle to ZaraCorp’s relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no sentient species. Then a small furry biped – trusting, appealing, and ridiculously cute – shows up at Jack’s outback home. Followed by its family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp’s claim to a planet’s worth of wealth is very flimsy indeed and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the fuzzys before their existence becomes more widely known.

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What I liked about the book:

It’s a decent sci-fi but the most part of it is a legal procedure so you have some pretty smart people making arguments pro and against a native species being deemed intelligent or not and thus having proprietary access to their planet’s resources. The characters who go against each other are a massive corporation with corporation lawyers, a mining contractor, a biologist, a xenolinguist and a Judge.

And the description of the Fuzzy’s is excelent. A mix beween a cat and an ape, they have great inter-personal skills, a good societal structure and are very smart. Jack’s argument was that his dog is smart too but that doesn’t make him a higher being. He can teach his dog to perform tricks as well like blowing up dynamite, but that doesn’t make him similar to a human. The entire debate was whether the Fuzzy’s have language.

What I didn’t like about the book

The meanines are very mean and the heroes are ambivalent. All in all, a minor gripe.