Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey

Fuzzy Sapiens #5

by Ardath Mayhar

The ancient civilization of the Fuzzies, two-foot tall creatures with golden fur and green eyes, is disrupted when their planet is invaded by humans

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Aliens, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, 20th Century

303 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1982

About the author

Ardath Frances Hurst Mayhar was an American writer and poet. She began writing science fiction in 1979 after returning with her family to Texas from Oregon. She was nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and won the Balrog Award for a horror narrative poem in Masques I.

She had numerous other nominations for awards in almost every fiction genre, and won many awards for poetry. In 2008 she was honored by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as an Author Emeritus.

Mayhar wrote over 60 books ranging from science fiction to horror to young adult to historical to westerns; with some work under the pseudonyms Frank Cannon, Frances Hurst, John Killdeer, Ardath P. Mayhar. Joe R. Lansdale wrote simply: "Ardath Mayhar writes damn fine books!"

Reviews

[East Bay J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published a year after Tuning’s third installment in the Fuzzy series and two years before Piper’s own third volume was found and published, Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey is a treat. Told from the Fuzzies’ perspective, the book starts with the early days of the Fuzzy race and ends with the events from Little Fuzzy. This later part is great; Mayhar does an exceptional job of retelling the events of Little Fuzzy in a way that is delightful for those who have read that book, like a friend telling you their version of a story another friend already told you. Touching and poignant and an excellent tribute to Piper’s vision.

[Sarah B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must say this story turned out very different than what I had expected it to be. The first 119 pages were rather gloomy and I admit I was worried that the whole book would be that way. Even odder is the fact there was no main character. The characters kept changing as the years were passing and the Fuzzies were traveling and doing things on the planet they found themselves on. This bit was very much about the ecology and how a species needs certain nutrition in order to thrive. But I must say this large chunk of the novel really dragged and I found myself losing interest rather quickly. Without a main character to attach to, well, it's a bit hard to read. Each little chapter was about a different fuzzy in a different situation.

Then they met the humans and the story finally settled down into something more interesting. I found this part very enchanting and sweet. The Fuzzies were so curious about everything!

There are many strange words and creatures in here. Often I wasn't too sure what they were talking about. One creature was simply described as a "three horned beast". It was a herbivore I think. So was it something like a triceratops?? There were also dangerous flying things, birds I guess? Nothing is really described so you are left foundering and rather confused.

Lots of alien language in here.

I guess I'm not really satisfied with the ending. Something seems to be missing. The entire story just seems...odd? And very, very different than what I had thought. This is not an adventure story or anything about an alien race. And even the parts with the humans is not really very cheery if you stop to think about it. There's definite undertones of the land being stolen from them (although they certainly need the help). There's cruelty in here but also lots of good people who want to help...

But this is not a book I would choose to read again. The cover image is really cute but it can't make up for the story.

I read this for the popsugar challenge, a book with the word Gold in the title. That and I like sci-fi.

[C.O. Bonham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good addition to the other Fuzzy novels. But it absolutly must be read last.

An easy way to sum up this book would be to say that it is "Little Fuzzy" Form the Fuzzies POV. A more accurate way to sum it up would be to say that this book is full of deleted scenes from "Little Fuzzy."
"Golden Dream" is not the complete story if I didn't already know what was going on I would have been lost.

Yes this book is a must read for any Fuzzy fan but if you are new to the Fuzzy books don't touch this until you have read the first three:

Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapians - by H. Beam Piper

And Fuzzy Bones - by William Tuning

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much. I picked it up before the H. Beam Piper books it's based on and to this day I love it more. It's first contact with a twist, told from the pov of the little aliens - except humans are on their planets, so technically the humans are the aliens. And technically there's more to it than that, but it's a heartwarming story of very different people getting to know each other.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

great continuation of the fuzzy worldscape. eventhough it is not written by the original author (h beam piper) it definately follows the same basic concepts as well as closely resembling his writting style.

[Joel Hacker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Golden Dream is a prequel? sequel? to H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy series nested in the greater terro-human empire future history.
It begins with the idea that the Fuzzies are actually aliens from an entirely different world and crash landed, were separated from their technology, and gradually devolved. Some of this was likely in an effort to explain some environmental oddities from the original books like the Fuzzies needing a compound to survive and breed that was almost entirely absent from the local food chain. It continues forward through the events of H. Beam Piper's books, however the entire book is written from the perspective of the Fuzzies themselves.
Even under the best of circumstances, I'm not often a fan of others posthumously expanding the universe of another writer in this way. It can be done well, and there are great 'tribute' volumes out there with writing by some really talented folks. This, is not one of those.
The idea of the fuzzies being from another world as an answer to the above question isn't in and of itself a terrible idea, except taken in the context of Piper's wider terro-human empire future history...which has essentially never encountered another spacefaring alien race even with FTL travel, and in this case the fuzzies themselves are also supposed to have FTL tech. Secondly, even crashlanding and being permanently separated from their ship isn't an adequate explanation for their gradual loss of tech and devolution, as they apparently made absolutely no attempt at bootstrapping their tech level back up, even though most of their technical crew survived.
The timeline is also very confusing. Given the loss of knowledge, skills, and actual evolutionary changes (its mentioned specifically that the fuzzy phenotype at a minimum has shifted over time) it seems as though it must be hundreds if not thousands of years between the crash and the arrival of humans. The lifespan of the fuzzies is also specifically referenced as being relatively short in this brutal world. Yet, based on parent names, fuzzies remembering prior generations, and similar things it would appear that its only been dozens of years, perhaps a decades, since the crash? Which doesn't seem to make much sense. The idea of a race memory that involves the shape of their home system? galaxy? but absolutely nothing else is also very strange.
The author also posits that despite human (or maybe higher than human) levels of intelligence the fuzzies also have an almost genetic need that is being fulfilled by being held, cared for, and treated like children by the humans which feels *very* strange.
All in all, even if you're a fan of Piper's original Fuzzy material, I'd say skip this.

[Jabotikaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, it took me four or five tries to finish this book. I'm not sure why that was the case.
Maybe it's because the book recounts events I already knew, but from the Fuzzies' perspective. It's also possible that I felt sad reading about how the Fuzzies waited in vain for rescue from their home planet, gradually losing all their knowledge and technology generation after generation.
Nevertheless, I finally made it past the first chapter, and the book started to become really interesting. The ancient Fuzzies' adventures and struggle for survival were vividly described, and when the Fuzzies finally met humans, the story became pretty funny.
The descriptions of houses and human life from the perspective of forest-dwelling aliens were humorous, realistic - if that word is appropriate here - and very unexpected. It was easy to guess that the plates seemed like unusual shells to the Fuzzies, but I didn't immediately understand what they meant by "tree stump." Who would have thought it was just a trash can?
Overall, it was a good book. Considering the author had to maintain the style of two previous writers, his work was tremendous and very difficult.

[Economondos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea, telling the story of the Fuzzies from their point of view. The early history and those scenes that are alluded to in the book were a good supplement to Little Fuzzy. On the other hand, there area a few shortcomings. The short time we meet each family make for a lot of POV characters and they can get confusing. Also, I can't recommend reading this book without having read Little Fuzzy first - doesn't really stand on its own.

[Amie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, Golden Dreams: A Fuzzy Odyssey is an absolute gem of a story of the universe through the Fuzzies' eyes from the Fuzzy Sapiens series. I find myself so lost in the narrative of this early / classic science fiction series. The blend of adventure and insight into these sweet creatures made it hard to put down, but equally, I didn't want it to end.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely different from the previous novels. It was good to see the story from the Gashta's point of view. Also good to read some backstory.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very worthy addition to the stories that originated with H. Beam Piper. Just wonderful.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice addition, but not as good as the H Beam Piper originals

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

1982 - Trade - Have It - Read It again

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Golden Dreams, Ardath Mayhar continues the saga of the Fuzzies of Zarathustra. This story presents the Fuzzies as creatures who had landed on Zarathustra centuries before the humans arrived only to be stranded there. This tale tells of the problems of being a small but intelligent creature on a planet full of large, hungry carnivores. The life of the Fuzzies is made even more difficult as the planet is lacking in nutrients that are essential for Fuzzy survival. This book fits in nicely as a cross between a prequel and summation of things seen from the Fuzzy/Ghasta viewpoint.

[Mickey Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ardath Mayhar had also been contracted by Ace to write a follow-up Fuzzy book. In her book, she traces the Gashta (Fuzzies) from a few generations past their crash landing on Zarathustra, to the end of the Fuzzy books. She does get a few things wrong (in the Piper/Tuning books, only the Upland Fuzzies know that they came from the stars and that help is supposedly coming), but the book is enjoyable and well-written.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Written as a fourth book in the Fuzzy series, but still before Piper's third novel was found, Mayhar essentially retells the plot of the first Fuzzy novel but from the point of view of the Fuzzies. She created a language for the Fuzzies to speak and further elaborated on Tuning's background material from Fuzzy Bones.
A must read for fans of the original Little Fuzzy.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the original H. Beam Piper stories but a respectible telling of the story from the viewpoint of the Fuzzies. I had only read the H. Beam Piper 3 books on the subject so the idea that the Fuzzies were from outer space was a bit odd.

[Beth Eagle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting much from this book but I ended up really enjoying it.

[Shannon]

I read this when I was ten and loved it. Have to get my hands on a copy to read it again. In the meantime, going back to H. Beam Piper's original series, which I never read.

[Hilliary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as a narrative that sticks with one group of Fuzzies. Still a good read.