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A review by jdhacker
Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey by Ardath Mayhar
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Golden Dream is a prequel? sequel? to H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy series nested in the greater terro-human empire future history.
It begins with the idea that the Fuzzies are actually aliens from an entirely different world and crash landed, were separated from their technology, and gradually devolved. Some of this was likely in an effort to explain some environmental oddities from the original books like the Fuzzies needing a compound to survive and breed that was almost entirely absent from the local food chain. It continues forward through the events of H. Beam Piper's books, however the entire book is written from the perspective of the Fuzzies themselves.
Even under the best of circumstances, I'm not often a fan of others posthumously expanding the universe of another writer in this way. It can be done well, and there are great 'tribute' volumes out there with writing by some really talented folks. This, is not one of those.
The idea of the fuzzies being from another world as an answer to the above question isn't in and of itself a terrible idea, except taken in the context of Piper's wider terro-human empire future history...which has essentially never encountered another spacefaring alien race even with FTL travel, and in this case the fuzzies themselves are also supposed to have FTL tech. Secondly, even crashlanding and being permanently separated from their ship isn't an adequate explanation for their gradual loss of tech and devolution, as they apparently made absolutely no attempt at bootstrapping their tech level back up, even though most of their technical crew survived.
The timeline is also very confusing. Given the loss of knowledge, skills, and actual evolutionary changes (its mentioned specifically that the fuzzy phenotype at a minimum has shifted over time) it seems as though it must be hundreds if not thousands of years between the crash and the arrival of humans. The lifespan of the fuzzies is also specifically referenced as being relatively short in this brutal world. Yet, based on parent names, fuzzies remembering prior generations, and similar things it would appear that its only been dozens of years, perhaps a decades, since the crash? Which doesn't seem to make much sense. The idea of a race memory that involves the shape of their home system? galaxy? but absolutely nothing else is also very strange.
The author also posits that despite human (or maybe higher than human) levels of intelligence the fuzzies also have an almost genetic need that is being fulfilled by being held, cared for, and treated like children by the humans which feels *very* strange.
All in all, even if you're a fan of Piper's original Fuzzy material, I'd say skip this.
It begins with the idea that the Fuzzies are actually aliens from an entirely different world and crash landed, were separated from their technology, and gradually devolved. Some of this was likely in an effort to explain some environmental oddities from the original books like the Fuzzies needing a compound to survive and breed that was almost entirely absent from the local food chain. It continues forward through the events of H. Beam Piper's books, however the entire book is written from the perspective of the Fuzzies themselves.
Even under the best of circumstances, I'm not often a fan of others posthumously expanding the universe of another writer in this way. It can be done well, and there are great 'tribute' volumes out there with writing by some really talented folks. This, is not one of those.
The idea of the fuzzies being from another world as an answer to the above question isn't in and of itself a terrible idea, except taken in the context of Piper's wider terro-human empire future history...which has essentially never encountered another spacefaring alien race even with FTL travel, and in this case the fuzzies themselves are also supposed to have FTL tech. Secondly, even crashlanding and being permanently separated from their ship isn't an adequate explanation for their gradual loss of tech and devolution, as they apparently made absolutely no attempt at bootstrapping their tech level back up, even though most of their technical crew survived.
The timeline is also very confusing. Given the loss of knowledge, skills, and actual evolutionary changes (its mentioned specifically that the fuzzy phenotype at a minimum has shifted over time) it seems as though it must be hundreds if not thousands of years between the crash and the arrival of humans. The lifespan of the fuzzies is also specifically referenced as being relatively short in this brutal world. Yet, based on parent names, fuzzies remembering prior generations, and similar things it would appear that its only been dozens of years, perhaps a decades, since the crash? Which doesn't seem to make much sense. The idea of a race memory that involves the shape of their home system? galaxy? but absolutely nothing else is also very strange.
The author also posits that despite human (or maybe higher than human) levels of intelligence the fuzzies also have an almost genetic need that is being fulfilled by being held, cared for, and treated like children by the humans which feels *very* strange.
All in all, even if you're a fan of Piper's original Fuzzy material, I'd say skip this.