New Fuzzy Review + Note to UK Fans
Posted on April 27, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
First things first: A very nice review of Fuzzy Nation over at Wired’s GeekDad column, in which reviewer John Booth also reads Piper’s Little Fuzzy, the book mine is rebooting. The verdict:
[Scalzi’s] style and skill make it a highly entertaining read. It succeeds both as a new novel from a talented writer and as a tribute and gateway to Piper’s work.
It’s nice that it’s working as intended.
Second, for those folks in the UK who were wondering when/if Fuzzy Nation is getting a release over there, here is a link to the Amazon.co.uk page for the book (and here it is for Waterstones). Both of those list the 6th of June as the release date, which is not too far behind the US release, so that’s good. We’re also working to make sure eBook versions are available as well.
That said, UK folks: For reasons too appallingly tedious to go into detail about here, Fuzzy Nation is being distributed in the UK through my US publisher rather than my UK publisher, and the upshot of that is that there’s likely to be a relatively fewer freestanding copies of the book in stores when it comes out — there will be some, but probably not huge stacks of them. So the very best way to make sure you can get a copy for your very own is to pre-order, either through Amazon UK/Waterstones, or by going to your local bookstore and asking them to order a copy for you.
And you say: Well, why don’t I just order the US edition of the book rather than wait a month for the UK edition? I have two reasons to ask you to order the UK edition. One, because when you order the UK edition at your local bookstore, you’re supporting local businesses (or at the very least, UK businesses), and I do encourage that. Two, because while royalties on sales of the US edition go to pay down my advance until it earns out, the royalties on sales of the UK edition go directly to me. Contracts are fun! So please patronize your local bookstores and the UK edition of Fuzzy Nation. Thank you.
Cool, looking forward to it. Rule 34 is out at roughly the same time so it’ll be good times for reading. Any chance of a fancy Subterranean Press edition? If so I might just get the ebook of fuzzy for my first edition addiction.
If/when there is a limited version, it will be through Subterranean, yes. I’m not sure where we are in that process, however.
Will do. Besides, we won’t have a house till April anyways so knowing the book will come after our move and will have the bonus of being made by someone with an awesome accent is just icecream one the cake!
And! The eBook is slightly less than the discounted hardcover. I like it when the universe realizes that a 1-bedroom apartment with 7.5 full-sized bookshelves is a little too cramped to fit another shelf in.
I found a copy and read Little Fuzzy last week for the first time. Was that a mistake? Look forward to yours…
So are you actually better off if US readers order the UK version?
“local bookstore”
Those still exist in the UK? Must be nice…
Marc Moskowitz:
US/Canada folks should just buy the domestic edition, because I do in fact want to pay down my advance and earn royalties.
Steve Burnap:
In my neighboring town of Northampton, MA (USA), the are two — count ’em, two — local, independent bookstores. And there’s another in nearby Amherst, and a fourth not too far away in South Hadley. Plus, more used bookstores in the area than you can shake a stick at, not that you should. Shake a stick at them, I mean. That’d be silly.
It doesn’t hurt that one of the bookstores in N’hampton has a deal with Google such that I can buy *ebooks* from a local, independent bookstore. How excellent is that?
Yes, I’m gloating a little.
Since everything (essentially) costs more in the U.K., does that mean that an author’s royalties go down (percentagewise) or that one just makes more per sale in the U.K.
Or is it more complicated than that?
I’d be very tempted to have an U.S. friend pick a copy up and bring it over, if circumstances allowed (of course, they’d have to own it and not just rent it for an ebook reader).
So, when is Cosmic Computer and Space Viking reboot coming out?
/Mike Meier’s aunt’s voice
Wait, your UK publisher is different than your US publisher? When I was living in the UK last year, I bought a few of your paperbacks from Waterstones, and they said “Tor” on the spine. Were these actually US books that got imported somehow? (I’m fairly certain the cover price was in pounds.)
CLP:
Tor and Tor UK, whilst owned by the same publishing corporation (Macmillan), are separate companies.
“John Booth,” h’m? Any relation to your infamous relation?
I’m excited…I found “Little Fuzzy” for download on Project Gutenburg and just now finished reading it! I really enjoy the story and I’m looking forward to reading your reboot of it.
Hi John, thanks for giving a shout out to the UK folks. I for one will make sure I pick up a local copy. And, in my experience of buying books in the US and the UK, the price difference is minimal…
I surely will order the UK edition as requested. I’d never heard of Little Fuzzy until you announced this project, but downloaded it and enjoyed the read. Looking forward to seeing what you’ve done with the story.
I have seen US editions of Tor and other imprints in Waterstones, for some books they have to get them. The Trade of Queens, for example, was not available as a British edition for quite some time after the Tor US version. My copy of Agent to the Stars came from Manchester Waterstones and I have just discovered that it is the US edition. $14.95 originally, it was sold to me for £12.50. Worth every penny.
I will be cruising their shelves for the appearance of fuzzies.
There are local independant bookstores here. I don’t have one that I visit, but I’ve seen a few. I’ve pre-ordered from amazon anyway. Manchester Waterstones has a good import section.
Great review today by Althea Konis in OSC’s Intergalactic Medicine Show : http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=alethea_kontis&article=019 . Scalzi, you’re still batting a thousand.
I considered re reading again the H Beam Piper “Little Fuzzy” to verify
if my memory serves me well- IIRC, the sunstone miner in the Piper
one was known, respected, and feared.
My wonder is whether the Geek Dad reviewer is to young to understand
circumlocutions made necessary by the year when Piper wrote it.
–I know that the first time I read it (at ~13yo) I missed a /lot./
I wish I had the time, I also wish I still had Dad’s German edition of it:
“Der Klein Fuzzy.”
–
People who want to read other Henry B Piper books should note that
his works are in the public domain (here in the USA at least) and
available at http://www.gutenberg.org for free.I assume all of them are there
since at least one of them is available in different versions (1: murdered
by an editor, and 2: better than it (or something)).
Additional: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Beam_Piper