History Literature / LittleFuzzy

A fascinating SciFi story by Creator/HBeamPiper about what truly makes a creature sapient.

A new sequel ''Fuzzy Ergo Sum'' written by Wolfgang Diehr was published in 2011. (T V Tropes page pending)

* FantasticDietRequirement: The Fuzzies are slowly dying out when the humans first make contact with them, as their physiology demands nutrients with a specific chemical signature that's unavailable where they are living. This turns out to be proof that [[spoiler:they aren't native to Zarathustra]]. Luckily, the humans brought a processed food to their world that contains the needed substance, and the fuzzies quickly become addicted to "esteefee".

* CourtroomAntics: The murder trial of Jack Holloway and Leonard Kellogg. The antics start even before the trial begins, with the two murder cases being combined into a single trial, the appointment of the defense attorneys as special prosecutors, and key witnesses being seized as "evidence." It goes on to mutate from a civilian trial into a court-martial and an academic seminar, with two flavors of surprise witnesses, and the continued prosecution of a dead man after one of the defendants commits suicide. And there are in-universe precedents for most of this: "You could find a precedent for almost anything in colonial law."

* CannotTellALie: Fuzzies just don't get the concept of saying things that aren't true, which leads to a major legal problem in ''Fuzzies and Other People'': it has to be proven that the veridicator works on Fuzzies before they can testify in court, and the veridicator can't be tested without a false statement to detect. [[spoiler: It's resolved when they encounter a Fuzzy who resorted to a lie in desperation.]]

%%* HeadPet: Baby Fuzzy

* EverybodySmokes: They also all drink.
** Even the Fuzzies smoke, although they don't drink.

* HeelFaceTurn: Grego in ''Fuzzy Sapiens''
* HeadPet: Baby Fuzzy

* POVSequel: The lateer chapters of ''Golden Dream'' is ''Little Fuzzy'' from the Fuzzies' point of view. The first 3/4 of the book represents 50 to 100 years worth of backstory for the Fuzzies.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Extee Three, a poundcake-like ration food, for the Fuzzies. Humans tend to hate having to eat the stuff. [[spoiler: Extee Three contains trace amounts of titanium, a byproduct of the manufacturing process that happens to be an essential nutrient for the Fuzzies.]]

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler:Ruth Ortheris]] is secretly a Navy spy.

* BadassGrandpa: Jack Holloway is well into his ''seventies''.

* CourtroomAntics: The murder trial of Jack Holloway and Leonard Kellogg. At one point, the whole thing needs to be called to recess because 12 Fuzzies have begun playing among each other and disrupting the proceedings.

* LieDetector: The veridicator is an infallible one, and consequently a vital part of the legal system.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Nearly. Piper committed suicide leaving the final Fuzzy novel in storage; no one knew he'd finished it, and two authorized sequels were published before it was found.

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: [[spoiler:Yeah, sure, Piper, you would totally kill off Jack's family of Fuzzies...]]

* HeelRealization: Kellogg breaks down and [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]] after admitting to himself that he murdered a sapient being.

* CourtroomAntics: The murder trial of Jack Holloway and Leonard Kellogg.

* POVSequel: ''Golden Dream'' is ''Little Fuzzy'' from the Fuzzies' point of view.

* ThemeNaming: Any group of Fuzzies "adopted" by humans promptly get tagged with these. Flora and Fauna; Id, Ego, Complex, and Syndrome...

Jack Holloway, a sunstone miner, lives a solitary life in a wilderness area of planet Zarathustra. The planet is basically "owned" by the Chartered Zarathustra Corporation (under Victor Grego), which installed basic services and colonial outposts initially, and now reaps the benefits of new discoveries, such as the valuable sunstones.

One day, Holloway returns to his little shack to discover a tiny humanoid, covered in golden fur. The little creature has armed itself with a chisel from his workbench, but is peaceful and mostly unafraid. The miner gives the little fuzzy some Extee-Three, a kind of canned emergency ration cake, and the fuzzy devours it greedily. It is soon apparent that the creature is highly intelligent, and he soon brings his family band to join "Pappy Jack" at the shack.

Piper wrote two sequels, ''Fuzzy Sapiens'' and ''Fuzzies and Other People''; the latter was thought lost after Piper's suicide, but a manuscript eventually turned up in his papers. Prior to this discovery, two sequels to the first two books were written by other authors (''Fuzzy Bones'' by William Tuning and ''Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey'' by Ardath Mayhar). It is also the subject of a ContinuityReboot by JohnScalzi (licensed by the Creator/HBeamPiper estate), called ''FuzzyNation''.

A fascinating SciFi story by [[HBeamPiper H. Beam Piper]] about what truly makes a creature sapient.

Piper wrote two sequels, ''Fuzzy Sapiens'' and ''Fuzzies and Other People''; the latter was thought lost after Piper's suicide, but a manuscript eventually turned up in his papers. Prior to this discovery, two sequels to the first two books were written by other authors (''Fuzzy Bones'' by William Tuning and ''Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey'' by Ardath Mayhar). It is also the subject of a ContinuityReboot by JohnScalzi (licensed by the HBeamPiper estate), called ''FuzzyNation''.

-->"There's a legal precedent for everything."
** There's even a precedent for putting a dead person on trial.

* AlternateTimeline: ''Golden Dreams'' and ''Fuzzy Bones'' are mutually exclusive sequels to ''Fuzzy Sapiens''.