Caveat Fuzzy is, depending on how you look at it, the fifth or seventh novel in the “Fuzzy” series started by Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper. Piper wrote novels 1 and 2, Little Fuzzy (January 1962) and Fuzzy Sapiens/The Other Human Race (June 1964), and committed suicide. There was a long hiatus while Piper’s semi-legendary third “Fuzzy” novel was searched for. In the interim, William Tuning wrote the approved 3rd novel, Fuzzy Bones (December 1981); and Ardath Mayhar wrote the 4th, Golden Dreams: A Fuzzy Odyssey (October 1982).

Then the lost manuscript of Piper’s Fuzzies and Other People (August 1984) was rediscovered, which directly contradicted basic plot elements of Fuzzy Bones and Golden Dreams, so those were declared non-canon and Fuzzies and Other People was recognized as the legitimate novel 3. More than twenty years went by, and Fuzzy/Piper fan Wolfgang Diehr wrote a fan novel, Fuzzy Ergo Sum (March 2011) that was so well-liked by the Piper estate that it was published as novel 4. However, while the previous “Fuzzy” novels had been self-contained, Fuzzy Ergo Sum ended on a cliffhanger with much of the story still to come. Caveat Fuzzy (August 2012) is that sequel, novel 5.

Boalsburg, PA, Pequod Press, August 2012, hardcover $36.00 (394 pages), Kindle $7.99.

I have just been asked to proofread Caveat Fuzzy, Wolfgang Diehr’s sequel to his Fuzzy Ergo Sum (review), the “fourth” novel in the mega-popular Little Fuzzy series.

Update (30 Sep): Fred's review of Caveat Fuzzy is now up.

Fuzzy Ergo Sum, by Wolfgang Diehr, published in March by Pequod Press (review), is now in a revised Second Edition after a copyright claim.

The novel, intended as a “fourth” Fuzzy novel after H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Sapiens, and Fuzzies and Other People, is based on the 1962 Hugo-nominated Little Fuzzy, which entered the public domain in 2006.

Two other Fuzzy novels, William Tuning’s 1981 Fuzzy Bones and Ardath Mayhar’s 1982 Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey, have been disowned from the Fuzzy canon. However, three months after Fuzzy Ergo Sum was published, Golden Dream publishers Ace Books charged that it was in copyright violation.

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.