I enjoy reading John Scalzi. I loved his Old Man’s War series, I follow (and occasionally comment) on his blog Whatever and look forward to his new books. That’s why I’m somewhat mystified why I haven’t liked his non-Old Man’s War books that much. The God Engines was decent but unsatisfying and then we come to his new book, Fuzzy Nation. The book is an homage (reimagining, reboot, etc.) of Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper. Not having read the original, I decided to wait until I read Scalzi’s book so that I could approach it without any reservations. And I have to say that I was fairly disappointed. So, let’s go see what’s wrong with Fuzzy Nation.

Jack Holloway is an independent surveyor working on contract for the ZaraCorp corporation. Due to past ecological disasters and lawsuits, ZaraCorp is very careful about how their independent surveyors look for gems and other mined valuables. So, when Jack’s controlled explosion accidentally takes down half of a mountain, his contract is canceled. But, when the explosion turns up a huge vein of sunstones (a rare and valuable stone) ZaraCorp is willing to overlook the ecological destruction when huge profits are ready to be made.

Then Jack makes the discovery that could turn his riches into nothing. A small animal (that Jack names the Fuzzies) comes into his hut and it might turn out to be intelligent. If it is intelligent, then ZaraCorp will not be allowed to mine the sunstones (which means no royalties for Jack). And it’s up to Jack, his dog, his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend to help determine whether the Fuzzies are intelligent and who is likely to get the huge riches from the natural resources of the planet.

So, what is there not to like about the book? The biggest problem I have is that most of the second half of the book is a series of lawsuits and contractual issues. Now, I have no problem with a well done courtroom scene, but this is just excessive. Also, as I mentioned in the intro to my review of The Unincorporated Man, writers who do courtroom scenes need to have a basic understanding of how they work. Now, I am not a lawyer, however I do know that when you have a court case, both sides need to share all evidence they have and allow the other side to debrief all witnesses. Scalzi breaks both the rules in his courtroom scenes. Jack (who happens to be a disbarred lawyer) introduces evidence without letting the opponents see it. He also presents witnesses without informing anyone ahead of time. It makes great drama, but is unrealistic and silly.

Also the lawsuits seem to overwhelm the story. Jack gets thrown in jail and might get hurt, a lawyer shows up to save him. Jack needs to help prove a point and a bunch of prior lawsuits are referenced. The Fuzzies might be in danger, a lawsuit helps fix the problem. This doesn’t make for a very interesting story. And quoting prior lawsuits as to why Jack or ZaraCorp can or cannot do something gets old very quickly.

The writing itself is very good. Scalzi always does a great job of making the book readable. The characters are, for the most part, flat and fairly one-sided. There is little to no growth across the story for any of the characters. For a brief moment, it seemed like Jack was maturing and growing, but Scalzi then undercut it by explaining exactly why Jack was still the same as he always was.

Overall it was a decent book that is a quick read. But don’t look for anything too groundbreaking or exciting about the story. It’s no more than decent and makes me wonder whether I want to keep reading Scalzi books? Right now I’m looking at him more like Cory Doctorow. A writer who writes stories that are fun and quick reads, but drive me crazy because they should be so much better.