John Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation - WTH?

[SpaceBadger]

Checking out something by Allen Steele on Amazon, and their suggestion thing popped up John Scalzi's 2012 novel Fuzzy Nation, so I clicked it and... WTH? o:

At first I thought it was another wanna-be "continuation" of H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy novels, but upon reading the intro, found something worse - it is a re-writing of Little Fuzzy right from the start, but with more of a "hard edge" to it. The Chartered Zarathustra Company has become ZaraCorp, and Jack Holloway is a much younger guy with a mysterious past. Ugh. I have liked some of Scalzi's other novels (Old Man's War, frex), but really, who gave him permission to do this, and why did he do it? Did he not have any more good ideas for novels of his own creation?

May not matter much to anyone who wasn't a Piper fan, but I'm kinda sick at the idea of this desecration of some of my favorite SF from years gone by.

 

[jericson]

Most of Piper's stuff seems to be in the public domain, so he probably didn't need
Permission.

This does not surprise me, as he seems to mainly retread old books, anyway. He's just upfront about it on this book. (Old Man's War seems to be a retread of other, more famous books.)

 

[SpaceBadger]

Well, here is Scalzi's blog post on it. He spins it as a "tribute" to Piper and says he got permission from the Piper estate because the legal issues were "fuzzy" (har har har). It still doesn't sound like anything I want to read, or want to reward Scalzi for by buying in any format.

BTW, checking his wiki article it is suggested that Old Man's War was inspired by Starship Troopers, which caused me another o: moment - having read the former once and the latter multiple times, I really don't see any resemblence other than, y'know, soldiers fighting on other planets. No tech or background or theme or anything else in common between the two. Maybe Scalzi just brought up the alleged Starship Troopers inspiration himself as PR to try to sell the book, since it was his first publication.

 

[ravells]

I've just finished reading the first episode of 'Human Division' by Scalzi and I loved it. Good value for money too at £0.66 for the kindle edition. I loved the Old Man's War series, (If it is derived from some other book I've not read it). I haven't read any H Beam Piper, but like SpaceBadger I can't understand why someone like him with such a good imagination would want to re-write an existing book unless it's considered an easy way to make money.

 

[Vargas]

Old Man's War is akin to Starship Troopers in that both examine what it is to be a soldier and the use of force by States. The lack of powered armor in the former doesn't disqualify it. (I make no assertions as to the quality of Scalzi's work, I leave that to the individual reader, I'm just trying to ID the linkage).

 

[Garyius2003]

Piper's stuff was great for the time, easily the equal of Heinlein, but is currently outclassed by the newer Drake, Ringo, Kratman, and Weber (when he writes a novel with less than 100 pages of inner thoughts).

Scalzi has a point to his writing that overwhelms the story. Old Man's War was two fold, military is bad, and peace lovers are so good they naturally become military leaders as a sort of natural passage due to their shear awesomeness. Later books became romance novels with a sci fi bent.

I am waiting to spend the money on this until I see more reports.

I got screwed spending $10 on Spider Robinson's homage of Heinlein (pre-child sex/incest, after Heinlein started down that path all subsequent books should be burned).

 

[Dragoner]

Never heard of scalzi, but hearing he ripped off Piper, who happens to be one of the favorites of my youth, I will avoid him like the plague. Thanks for the heads up on this.

 

[Timerover51]

Roland Green and John Carr did a follow-up on Lord Kalvan of the Otherwhen with "Great King's War", which was not too bad, except that Green put in exactly the same plot device as he had when in collaborated Jerry Pournelle on the latter two books of the Janissaries series. It definitely did not fit in with the way that the first two books flowed.

 

[ravells]

Old Man's War is akin to Starship Troopers in that both examine what it is to be a soldier and the use of force by States. The lack of powered armor in the former doesn't disqualify it. (I make no assertions as to the quality of Scalzi's work, I leave that to the individual reader, I'm just trying to ID the linkage).

Dunno Vargas, Soldiers in space and big politics is such a broad field and Starship Troopers was not the first to cover that subject matter. I can't see the connection...except as a general source of inspiration.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Give John Scalzi's writing a chance before dismissing it, he's pretty damn good. Fuzzy Nation is well worth the money and I'm a big Piper fan, just don't read it looking for H. Beam Piper - read Fuzzy Nation as if it is its own work.

 

[Timerover51]

Give John Scalzi's writing a chance before dismissing it, he's pretty damn good. Fuzzy Nation is well worth the money and I'm a big Piper fan, just don't read it looking for H. Beam Piper - read Fuzzy Nation as if it is its own work.

I have read several continued series by writers other than the original ones. None of them have matched in any way, shape, or form, the original work.

 

[rancke]

I have read several continued series by writers other than the original ones. None of them have matched in any way, shape, or form, the original work.

You've been unlucky then. Prequels and sequels by other hands can be well done. Flint's Island, Leonard Wibberley's sequel to Treasure Island is every bit as good as the original, as is R.F. Delderfield's The Adventures of Ben Gunn, a prequel to same. Michael Kurland's stories about Professor Moriarty are delightful and do not rewrite the canon (unless you consider making Watson a fallible narrator to be the same thing). The writer who finished Jack London's The Assasination Bureau took over quite seamlessly and improved on the ending that was in London's notes. Jill Paton Walch likewise finished Dorothy Sayers' unfinished Peter Wimsey story seamlessly and did a great job on maintaining the style and managed a creditable ending. John Gardner's James Bond was a good updating of the character. Robert Goldsborough's continuation of Nero Wolfe was spot on as to the style although his endings were weak.

A small warning: Walsh, Gardner and Goldsborough all seem to use up their supply of good ideas[*], Walsh already by the second sequel, Gardner and Goldsborough after half a dozen books.

Comic book writers that have maintained or improved on the quality of the original run are too many to list.

[*] While fact-checking this post, I discovered that Walsh has now written a third book; I can't say anything about its quality. And I stopped buying both Gardner and Goldsborough, so I can't speak for the last books in their respective runs.​

Hans