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A review by mynameisnemo
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
4.0
My brother and I once had a discussion that involved the question 'if you could go back in time to any point and change one thing, what would you do?'
My brother said that, given any point in time and any change, he would go back and convince H. Beam Piper that he would be a successful writer and not to kill himself.
Given that, the profound influence that one of my favourite people in the world experienced at the hand of the writing of this man, I figured it would probably be good to read some of his works.
So today I started and finished my first H. Beam Piper book. I need a little more of a sample size to be convinced if my brother's impression is the same for me, but I have to say it has been a long time since I started and finished a new book all in the same day.
This is a book that has it all. A space colony on an unspecified world, a long court proceeding, a hint of mystery, a lot of discussion of psychology, and a happy ending. Also cute fuzzy creatures. I mean, who can resist? I really like how much time is given in this book to attempting to define what sapience is. There is very little question of right and wrong in this story, and no question of who is on what side other than one very obvious exception, but the question of sapience, while obviously important to the plot, seems to be the greater point of contemplation behind this novel for the author and I very much appreciate the framing in which he opted to explore it.
Speaking of that one little obvious exception, I also enjoyed the flavourings here and there of cold war era political and military tactics. It was a great reminder of the environment in which the story was born but also it was fun to imagine those circumstances applying on another planet in the distant future. Given the current state of affairs in America, it's not hard to see how those sort of machinations might reoccur in another time and place.
Lastly, I also wanted to mention how much I loved the naming of the colonies. Naming them after various deities was an absolute stroke of genius on the part of Piper and definitely puts his works, in a mechanical sense, apart from any other contemporary era science fiction that I have read.
My brother said that, given any point in time and any change, he would go back and convince H. Beam Piper that he would be a successful writer and not to kill himself.
Given that, the profound influence that one of my favourite people in the world experienced at the hand of the writing of this man, I figured it would probably be good to read some of his works.
So today I started and finished my first H. Beam Piper book. I need a little more of a sample size to be convinced if my brother's impression is the same for me, but I have to say it has been a long time since I started and finished a new book all in the same day.
This is a book that has it all. A space colony on an unspecified world, a long court proceeding, a hint of mystery, a lot of discussion of psychology, and a happy ending. Also cute fuzzy creatures. I mean, who can resist? I really like how much time is given in this book to attempting to define what sapience is. There is very little question of right and wrong in this story, and no question of who is on what side other than one very obvious exception, but the question of sapience, while obviously important to the plot, seems to be the greater point of contemplation behind this novel for the author and I very much appreciate the framing in which he opted to explore it.
Speaking of that one little obvious exception, I also enjoyed the flavourings here and there of cold war era political and military tactics. It was a great reminder of the environment in which the story was born but also it was fun to imagine those circumstances applying on another planet in the distant future. Given the current state of affairs in America, it's not hard to see how those sort of machinations might reoccur in another time and place.
Lastly, I also wanted to mention how much I loved the naming of the colonies. Naming them after various deities was an absolute stroke of genius on the part of Piper and definitely puts his works, in a mechanical sense, apart from any other contemporary era science fiction that I have read.