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Imagining tomorrow's world, today.

Review: 'Fuzzy Nation' by John Scalzi

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H. Beam Piper’s “Little Fuzzy” (1962) was about the discovery of a small, cute, furry mammal on the planet Zarathustra, and the battle against the Charatered Zarathustra Company to have the Fuzzies recognized as intelligent natives.

Now John Scalzi has rewritten the same story, but with plenty of big differences. Fans of Piper’s Hugo-nominated novel can debate whether the original needed a revision, but none can deny that Scalzi’s version is enjoyable in its own right.

Review: 'Fuzzy Ergo Sum' by Wolfgang Diehr

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“Fuzzy Ergo Sum”, by Wolfgang Diehr
Boalsburg, PA, Pequod Press, March 2011
Hardcover $38.00 (299 pages), Kindle $7.99

H. Beam Piper’s “Little Fuzzy”, about the discovery by humans of cute furry natives on the planet Zarathustra, was first published in 1962. It became a minor classic, being nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963, and inspiring four other Fuzzy novels up to 1982.

Two of those not by Piper were later declared to be “not canon”, and Piper’s three Fuzzy novels were published together in 1998 as “The Complete Fuzzy”. As soon as the copyright on “Little Fuzzy” expired in 2006, numerous public domain editions were published in paperback and Kindle, and on the Internet by Project Gutenberg.

Now a new Fuzzy novel has been written by Wolfgang Diehr, a Piper fan who moderates the Piper Worlds discussion group on Yahoo.com. Diehr wrote the novel over three years with the editorial assistance of John F. Carr, the Piper expert who edited many of the Piper reprint collections for Ace Books in the early 1980s, and Carr has published Diehr’s novel through his Peqoud Press.

Two new 'Fuzzy' novels published

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One of the most "furry" s-f novels was H. Beam Piper's 1962 "Little Fuzzy" (Project Gutenberg) followed by his two sequels, "Fuzzy Sapiens" and "Fuzzies and Other People", about the small furry natives of the planet Zarathustra. The three were republished by Ace Books in a combined edition, "The Complete Fuzzy" ('98).

Now two new authorized Fuzzy novels have been published; "Fuzzy Ergo Sum" by Wolfgang Diehr, and "Fuzzy Nation" by John Scalzi.

A furry "rare" book?

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Amazon.com lists the price for a used copy of out-of-print short-story anthology "Best in Show: Fifteen Years of Outstanding Furry Fiction" as $348.33 – plus $3.99 shipping.

"Best in Show" won two Ursa Major awards for 2003, for Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work and Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration.

Ed: The anthology was reprinted without interior illustrations as "Furry!: The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction", currently available for a far more reasonable $6.09.

New furry "novel": 'Exiled: Clan of the Claw, Book One'

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Amazon.com lists an August publication date (but publisher Baen Books says June) for "Exiled: Clan of the Claw, Book One", a book containing three connected novellas by Harry Turtledove, John Ringo & Jody Lynn Nye, and S. M. Stirling.

The book is set in a fantasy alternate universe without humans where:

... the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands ... face the Lishkash, masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic.

Amazon says the book is edited by Bill Fawcett. Update: Read Fred's review.

"Last Res0rt" debuts free companion RPG

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Last Res0rt, a webcomic following the adventures of a young vampire fur on a futuristic reality show, has released a 30-page prototype of a tabletop RPG based on the comic.

The game contains additional backstory on the Last Res0rt universe, and provides a primer to play as one of six available species (five furry/scaly species, as well as humans), plus supernatural variants such as Djinn, Zombies, Celeste, and – of course – vampires.

The printed version of the game is expected to contain several more pages of content, as well as changes suggested by readers and players.

MCA Hogarth's new Jokka novel now available

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The Jokka, tri-sexed scaley aliens, made their debut in stories at Strange Horizons, where they made the Tiptree Award's secondary reading list, won a Reader's Choice award and became a finalist for the 2003 Spectrum Awards. And now at last they return in their first full-length novel, The Worth of a Shell. You can read an excerpt, see art, and buy physical or electronic copies at the website.

Wil Wheaton hates furries

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Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, who recently showed a distaste for the furry fandom

Wil Wheaton, aka Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, appears to have a bit of distaste for us furry types. On a blog about fandoms, he left this comment:

Furries give me the creeps, and I've had some random dude dressed up in a fucking fursuit try to hump my leg enough times to feel pretty comfortable saying that.

You want to dress up like animals and do shit together? Great, have fun. Just leave me alone when you're doing it. I don't think it's cute and I don't think it's funny. It's a violation of my personal space and I don't like it.

Just as everyone is entitled to their opinions about me and my work and my blog and everything else, I am entitled to hold this opinion and express it.

Furries, Trekkies bowling tournament results

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Lucky Wolf and a Klingon prepare to battle it out

The much-hyped bowling tournament between the furry and Star Trek fandoms took place on September 29th with turnout of not only both groups, but people from G4 and FarkTV, as well as a bunch of mariachi singers too!

Although the furries eventually lost – due to the balls being impossible to hold while in fursuit, as well as obscured vision – the furries generally celebrated that such an event had recieved such a turnout; the furry team greatly outnumbering the Trekkie hoards. And of course, everyone got some good beer!

Klingons vs. Furries

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Yet another busy month for furries in the media is upon us, fronted by the Furries vs. Klingons bowling tournament; which gained internet-wide attention after being featured on Boing Boing and Fark TV.

Blogs went wild for this clash of the subcultures and someone even set up a poll on who they thought would win. From the start of the poll right up to weeks after the tournament the furs and Trekkies were neck and neck, each taking their turn to inch forward and fall back again. This was hyping up to be the subcultural clash of the year!

The hype was immense! Every furry, Trekkie and simply internet-centric website was reporting the event. Even Anthrocon caught up - bowling at the next Anthrocon anyone?

Atlanta furs take on 'Klingons' in bowling tournament

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The event was widely publicised

It was the battle of the fandoms on September 29th, 2007 when Atlanta furries took on a challenge by local Trekkies in Furries vs. Klingons, a bowling competition held in Atlanta, Georgia between a group of furries and two local Star Trek fan clubs.

The event was organized by the USS Republic NCC-1371 (the Atlanta chapter of STARFLEET International) and the Atlanta MurrFurs. The Atlanta chapter of the Klingon Assault Group, a.k.a. KAG Atlanta, was also invited to compete. "Lucky Wolf," a member of the MurrFurs, created the poster image that billed the event, somewhat misleadingly, as "Furries vs. Klingons," despite the fact that it was actually a STARFLEET event.[1][2].

The Klingon team - most of whom appeared to be humans in regular Star Trek uniforms - emerged victorious, with a score of 32 to 27.[3] However, the furry team had far more members than the Klingons.

Tim Eldred's: "Grease Monkey: A Tale of Growing up in Orbit"

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This is a $27.95 351-page comic-sized hardback from Tor Books, the country's leading science fiction publisher. I think it's their first graphic novel. It's a labor of love that took about ten years to finish, and I recommend it.

The back story is that some time ago, in the early 21st century, nasty aliens came out of nowhere and attacked Earth, killing two thirds of the population, and flew away satisfied. Then good aliens came along to help us recover and enlist us as allies against the bad ones. Because Earth was now underpopulated, they offered to uplift two other species to intelligence. The dolphins declined, the gorillas accepted. Here's the first bit of comic-book SF: even after getting smeared, humans outnumbered gorillas a million to one, so uplift wasn't going to help the population problem. Anyway, they should have also done chimpanzees, which are more numerous and much randier. Well, maybe they had ulterior motives, like leavening humans with a less aggressive species.

Cat People in Doctor Who

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The first episode of the BBS' new DOCTOR WHO second season will feature a "plague farm" in the far future in the guise of a hospital run by evil Cat people.

The cast of this episode: David Tennant (the Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose), Zoe Wanamaker (Cassandra), Noel Clarke (Mickey), Michael Fitzgerald (Duke), Lucy Robinson (Clovis), Dona Croll (The Matron), Adjoa Andoh (The Sister), Anna Hope (The Novice), and Sean Gallagher (Chip).

The air date has not yet been released, noting only that the second series will begin in the UK in the "Spring of 2006".

(Note: The last episode to feature any kind of cat-people was Survival, which featured the 'Cheetah People'. This was also the last episode of Doctor Who before it went on its multi-year hiatus.)

FURRY!; an endangered species?

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On February 22, less than two weeks after its publication of FURRY!: THE WORLD'S BEST ANTHROPOMORPHIC FICTION, publisher iBooks filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and went out of business.

It is not known yet what will happen to iBooks' warehoused unsold inventory. Fans who want to be sure of getting FURRY! had better buy it quickly, since bookstores may not be able to restock once their initial orders are sold.

Furry! anthology now in bookstores

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Furry!: The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction, edited by Fred Patten, 445 pages, $12.99 (a retitled new edition of the 2003 book Best in Show), was published by iBooks on February 9.  It is on sale in bookstores throughout North America ... but maybe not where in the bookstores it would be expected. 

iBooks has packaged it as a General Fiction/Literature release, not a SF/Fantasy release, so it may not be on the SF/Fantasy shelves where fans usually browse.  Unlike most Amazon.com books, the Furry! entry does not include a cover picture, and is alphabetized under the name of the first author in the anthology rather than the editor's name.  If you cannot find it where you would expect to at your bookstore, ask a clerk where it is rather than assuming that they do not have it.

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