A reboot of the 1962 science fiction novel Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper.
From the bestselling author of Old Man’s War, a new and major work of hard-SF adventure Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn’t care to talk about.
Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorp’s headquarters on planet, 178
light-years from the corporation’s headquarters on Earth, Jack is
content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his
own pace. As for his past, that’s not up for discussion.
Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of
unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim
just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in
causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking,
Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as
partners to help extract the wealth.
But there’s another wrinkle
to ZaraCorp’s relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire
legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the
wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no
sentient species.
Then a small furry biped — trusting, appealing,
and ridiculously cute — shows up at Jack’s outback home. Followed by its
family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are
people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp’s claim to a planet’s worth
of wealth is very flimsy indeed… and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the “fuzzys” before their existence becomes more widely
known.
