History Literature / LittleFuzzy

* AlternateTimeline: ''Fuzzies and Other People'' and ''Fuzzy Bones'' are mutually exclusive sequels to ''Fuzzy Sapiens''.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Extee Three, a poundcake-like ration food, for the Fuzzies. Humans tend to hate having to eat the stuff.

* FunWithAcronyms: To avoid the expense of changing logos on everything from buildings to stationery, Grego renames the CZC to the Charter''less'' Zarathustra Company.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"Lieutenant j.g. Ruth Ortheris, TFN Reserve."]]

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

* CallASmeerpARabbit=/=CallARabbitASmeerp: Zarabunnies get mentioned plenty but are never really described. Goofers are described as being rodent-like, so... But we do get a very clear mental image of a zebralope in spite of not being described. At all.

* BFG: Jack's 12.7mm Double Express rifle. For perspective, cartridges for this artillery piece are described as being approximately thumb sized in diameter and as long as his hand. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning M2 Browning .50 cal MG]] is also a 12.7mm of sorts.
* CallASmeerpARabbit: Zarabunnies get mentioned plenty but are never really described. Goofers are described as being rodent-like, so... But we do get a very clear mental image of a zebralope in spite of not being described. At all.

** And an (averted) attempt to justify ''murdering a human infant'' via LoopholeAbuse (on the grounds it couldn't talk or build a fire).

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

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.

Victor Grego soon tries to intervene, claiming that the Fuzzies are just animals, not sapients. If ruled sapient, the entire planet would be declared a protected aboriginal zone, and the Chartered Zarathustra Company would lose its exclusive rights to the resources there. Leonard Kellogg, one of Grego's staff, kills a fuzzy and this leads to a court case which hinges on whether the fuzzies are animals or sapients.

After much discussion of what it means to be "sapient" (speech and fire use being one definition), the matter goes to court. In the midst of the proceedings, the Terran Navy commander reveals that his people have been studying Fuzzies, and that they can indeed speak. The tiny people use ultrasonic frequencies, which to human ears sound like "yeek." When processed with the proper electronics, the sounds are rendered as a complex language. The Navy experiments prove that Fuzzies have at least the mental capacity of a ten-year-old human, and are therefore protected under Terran law. Judge Pendarvis declares them to be aborigines, and the Charter of the Zarathustra Company is immediately invalidated.

[[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18137 Enjoy it courtesy of Project Gutenberg.]]

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''.

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!!Tropes used in ''Little Fuzzy'':
* AirVentPassageway: In ''Fuzzy Sapiens'', the bad guys send Fuzzies through the CZC's ventilation system to steal sunstones.
* AlternateTimeline: ''Fuzzies and Other People'' and ''Fuzzy Bones'' are mutually exclusive sequels to ''Fuzzy Sapiens''.
* AlternativeNumberSystem: The fuzzies initially use a modified form of base 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, one hand. By 125, they've reached a hand of hands. It then goes to many, and many many. They soon adopt the human's base 10 system.

* 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.]]

* FunWithAcronyms: To avoid the expense of changing logos on everything from buildings to stationery, Grego renames the CZC to the Charter''less'' Zarathustra Company.
* HeelFaceTurn: Grego in ''Fuzzy Sapiens''
* HeadPet: Baby Fuzzy
* HeelRealization: Kellogg breaks down and [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]] after admitting to himself that he murdered a sapient being.
* InTheLocalTongue: Discussed. Some of the names of alien animals and plants are... strange.

* LargeHam: Gus Brannhard. Also Ben Rainsford, but he's kind of overshadowed by Gus.
* LawProcedural: Not only does the critical scene in the first book take place in a courtroom, the roles of the various court officers, the legal motions, rules of evidence, and even the shortcuts the court officers and lawyers take are important plot elements.

** There's a precedent for putting a dead person on trial.
* MarryThemAll: Fuzzy sisters Goldilocks and Cinderella briefly squabble over Ko-Ko before deciding to share him.
* MegaCorp: The CZC.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Ruth Ortheris]] is secretly a Navy spy.
* MoralityPet: Diamond, for Grego.
* POVSequel: ''Golden Dream'' is ''Little Fuzzy'' from the Fuzzies' point of view.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: One word - "Yeek".

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

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The point of the whole book.

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* CallASmeerpARabbit: Zarabunnies get mentioned plenty but are never really described. Goofers are described as being rodent-like, so... But we do get a very clear mental image of a zebralope.

* StrawVulcan: Hoenveld in book two. Other characters go so far as to point out that his overly narrow and unimaginative outlook makes him a pretty crappy scientist.

* BadassGrandpa: Jack Holloway

* AirVentEscape: In ''Fuzzy Sapiens'', the bad guys send Fuzzies through the CZC's ventilation system to steal sunstones.

* LoopholeAbuse: Played painfully straight by Hugo Ingermann. [[ZigzaggingATrope Zig-zagged]] all over the place by other cast members, including the legal system:

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

* CallBack: The start of the {{Xenofiction} arc of ''Fuzzies and Other People'' picks up at the beginning of a minor scene in the middle of ''Fuzzy Sapiens''.

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

-->You pointed to something and asked a native, and he’d gargle a mouthful of syllables at you, which might only mean, "Whaddaya wanna know for?" and you took it down in phonetic alphabet and the whatzit had a name.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Extee Three, a poundcake-like ration food, for the Fuzzies.

* {{Xenofiction}}: ''Golden Dream'' is written from the Fuzzies' viewpoint.

* DueToTheDead: The Fuzzies bury their dead, which is what convinces the police that arresting Kellogg for murder is justified.

* TenchiSolution: Fuzzy sisters Goldilocks and Cinderella briefly squabble over Ko-Ko before deciding to share him.

Piper wrote two sequels, ''Fuzzy Sapiens'' and ''Fuzzies and Other People''; several sequels by other authors have also been written. It is also the subject of a ContinuityReboot by JohnScalzi (licensed by the HBeamPiper estate), called ''FuzzyNation''.

* {{Xenofiction}}

* LawProcedural: Not only does the critical scene in the first book take place in a courtroom, the roles of the various court officers, the legal motions, rules of evidence, and even the shortcuts the court officers and lwwyers take are important plot lements.