John Scalzi Reboots H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy Series

John Scalzi has been teasing his readers of his blog, Whatever, with 'That Super Secret Thing that I Can't Tell You About' for a while now, and on Wednesday he revealed it: He's written a relaunch/reboot of H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy books - or at least, of the first book.

His Announcement (which is in question and answer format) reads in part:

Uh, “reboot”? Don’t you mean a sequel?

Nope, I mean a reboot, as in, I took the original plot and characters of Little Fuzzy and wrote an entirely new story from and with them. The novel doesn’t follow on from the events of Little Fuzzy; it’s a new interpretation of that first story and a break from the continuity that H. Beam Piper established in Little Fuzzy and its sequels.

Why did you do this?

Because as far as I know it’s never been done before. Science fiction TV and movie series are rebooted all the time — see Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek for recent examples of this — but I can’t think of a significant, original universe in science fiction literature in which this has been done, at least, not by someone who is not the original author. So I thought, hey, this seems like it could be a fun thing to do. So I did it.

Reaction online has been somewhat mixed, but personally I'm looking forward to seeing it - the Little Fuzzy books have long been favorites of mine, and I'm quite fond of John Scalzi's work in general. I think he's a good match for the material, and could possibly bring people to having another look at the original.

What do you think?

Little Fuzzy reboot

I, too, loved the Little Fuzzy books. I was devastated to learn that Piper had committed suicide--no more Little Fuzzies? So, I will read it with an open mind. I am of two minds about reboots. I lost the thread of BSG early and tried with Caprica but the stupid DVR stopped recording episodes even though they were on the To Do list with no complications.

I loved the Star Trek reboot. Can't wait for the next movies.

Thea