Weekly Wednesday Reading Meme - July 17, 2013

[chomiji]

What have you just finished reading?

Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper. I enjoyed it, although it had the trappings of its time: for example, one female human character who wasn't someone's secretary or mom. I was surprised by the ecology theme, which I don't remember becoming much of A Thing until the the end of the 1960s (book was published in 1962). It even had a big evil nature-exploiting company. The Fuzzies are pretty clearly the ancestors of Cherryh's Hisa (in Downbelow Station) and, as some others have pointed out, probably also of the Ewoks. The set-up also made me think of LeGuin's The Word for World Is Forest, although this is a much lighter take. I was feeling fairly offended at the notion of humans "adopting" Fuzzies ... until Piper hit me with the wham line at the end. OK, then! :-)

I also finished my research reading. Some of it was pretty cool. I'll have to remember to bring up the details later.

What are you currently reading?

I'm re-reading Noel Streatfeild's Dancing Shoes (a/k/a Wintle's Wonders), which is a straight-up comfort read. I'm also making my way through a couple of tour books for our trip.

What do you think you'll read next?

I really don't know! Anyone have any suggestions for anything that I could download to the phone for free? Feedbooks has a lot of stuff, but I'm not sure about most of it. It's not that I don't have any money to spend on reading material: I'm leary of using my phone for a financial transaction, frankly. Has anyone used Paypal for this purpose?

 

Comments

[the_rck]

If you like the world of Little Fuzzy, it's worth reading Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning and The Golden Dream by Ardath Mayhar. Both are, effectively, authorized Little Fuzzy fanfic. Tuning's book came out before they discovered the manuscript for Piper's third Fuzzy book, so it contradicts some of what's there. The Mayhar book is entirely from the point of view of the Fuzzies. It covers some of their history before humans came along, but it rests on Tuning's story ideas, so reading the Tuning first makes some sense.

[chomiji]

I should probably do Fuzzy Sapiens, yes? Feedbooks has it, but not the other two. I guess I would have to get them as used books.

[the_rck]

The Piper books are Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Sapiens and Fuzzies and Other People (in that order). I like where Tuning went after Fuzzy Sapiens better than where Piper went. Fuzzies and Other People turns on Fuzzies being so innocent and primitive that they don't know how to lie. Tuning actually addresses where Fuzzies come from and the fact that it makes no sense for them to have evolved to require a nutrient that's incredibly rare on Zarathustra.