Character guide

Little Fuzzy

major

Also known as Fuzzy, a Little Fuzzy, little Fuzzy, another Fuzzy, A Fuzzy, a Fuzzy, the Fuzzy

Little Fuzzy arrives at Jack Holloway's camp hungry, curious, and already carrying a stolen chisel he has reshaped into an all-purpose tool. He learns quickly — cups, wastebaskets, the word for both — and his obvious cleverness forces the humans around him to keep revising what they think he is. His small hands and watchful habits sit at the center of the question the whole book turns on: is he a person?

Jack Holloway

major

Also known as Pappy Jack, Jack, Pappy, Jack Holloway, Holloway, Pappy Jack Holloway, Peace Lovin’ Jack Holloway, VIII Jack Holloway, Mr. Holloway, Mr. Commissioner Jack Holloway, Ol’ man Holloway, II Jack Holloway, IX Jack Holloway

Jack Holloway lives alone on Zarathustra by choice, careful with equipment and suspicious of company, until a Fuzzy wanders in and starts rearranging his kitchen. He feeds it, names himself Pappy Jack, and begins teaching it words — a tenderness that sits oddly beside his hard-bitten prospector habits. His instinct to protect the creature is what drags him out of the wilderness and into a fight he never wanted.

Ben Rainsford

supporting

Also known as Ben, Rainsford, Dr. Bennett Rainsford, Bennett, Bennett Rainsford, This man Rainsford, Dr. Rainsford

Ben Rainsford is the scientist Jack trusts to look at a Fuzzy and say something honest, which makes him the natural bridge between a prospector's camp and the colonial authorities. He brings his own Fuzzies to the trial, watches them make friends with strangers' families, and keeps his professional calm while the stakes climb. His judgment about what counts as intelligence shapes how the case is argued.

George Lunt

supporting

Also known as Lieutenant George Lunt, Lunt, Lieutenant Lunt, George

Lieutenant George Lunt enforces the Company's writ on Zarathustra, which puts him on the wrong side of Jack Holloway when the Fuzzies are seized as evidence. He lets the deputies take the bedding and toys anyway, and his curt 'you heard the gentleman' carries more disgust than any protest would. His discomfort with the seizure signals early that the legal case is not as clean as the Company wants it to look.

Gus Brannhard

supporting

Also known as Gus, Brannhard, Mr. Brannhard, Gustavus Adolphus Brannhard, the Honorable Gustavus Adolphus Brannhard

Gus Brannhard arrives at the Holloway camp already spoiling for a fight, and when the Fuzzies are taken he is the one who spots the blank-signature trick behind the court order. He is talkative, theatrical, and constitutionally unable to accept that the law should lose to the Company. His willingness to gamble everything on Jack's side is what turns a backwoods discovery into a public trial.

Ruth Ortheris

supporting

Also known as Ruth, Ortheris, Dr. Ortheris

Ruth Ortheris is one of the experts whose assessment will decide whether Fuzzies count as sapient under colonial law, which makes her both useful and dangerous to Jack's side. She meets the family in their own space — Mamma with the baby on her head, the others piling onto Jack — and has to reconcile formal testing with what she is actually seeing. Her professional verdict carries weight the Company cannot easily dismiss.

Ernst Mallin

supporting

Also known as Dr. Mallin, Mallin, Ernst, this Mallin, Dr. Ernst Mallin, Dr. Kellogg

Mallin is the scientific authority Victor Grego and Leonard Kellogg intend to deploy against Rainsford's claims, trusted precisely because he cannot be fooled by amateurs. His role places him at the hinge of the novel's central dispute: whether the Fuzzies' tool use, language, and social behavior constitute proof of mind. A careful, credentialed skeptic, he matters because the Company's whole case for exploiting Zarathustra rests on his verdict.

Gerd van Riebeek

supporting

Also known as Gerd, van Riebeek, Mrs. Gerd van Riebeek, Dr. van Riebeek

Van Riebeek sits easily among the Fuzzies, pummeling Little Fuzzy on his lap while reeling off the taxonomic shock of a tailless mammal with no relatives on the planet. His scientific eye and easy warmth make him both witness and advocate, a bridge between Jack's household and the visiting researchers. His observations about instinct and learned technique feed directly into the sapience question that drives the early investigation.

Juan Jimenez

minor

Also known as Jimenez, Juan

A colleague of Leonard Kellogg involved in the Fuzzy controversy.

Baby Fuzzy

minor

Also known as Baby, a Baby Fuzzy, Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy fuzzy holloway, Fuzzy fuzzy holloway zarathustra

One of Little Fuzzy's offspring, born during the story.

Max Fane

supporting

Also known as Colonial Marshal Fane, X Colonial Marshal Max Fane, Fane, Marshal Fane, Marshal, Max

Fane embodies the legal machinery of a company-run world, the man who must decide what counts as a crime and whose claims are enforceable. His authority sits awkwardly against the Chartered Zarathustra Company's interests, since the law he upholds may not be the law the Company wants. As the Fuzzies become a contested discovery, his choices about jurisdiction and protection will shape whether they are treated as property, pests, or persons.

Victor Grego

supporting

Also known as Victor, V Victor Grego, Grego, Mr. Grego

Grego commands the Company that effectively owns Zarathustra, and he understands immediately that a sapient native species would unravel its charter and its profits. He is not a cartoon villain but a calculating executive, willing to let Kellogg and Mallin manufacture scientific cover while he weighs more direct measures. His quiet menace gives the novel its political stakes: the Fuzzies' future is being decided in boardrooms as much as in courtrooms.

Leslie Coombes

minor

Also known as Leslie Coombes’s, Coombes, Leslie, Apparently Coombes, Mr. Coombes

A company representative involved in the Fuzzy hearings.

Kurt Borch

minor

Also known as Borch

A hunter and guide who assists the expedition.

Nick Emmert

minor

Also known as Nick, Emmert, Nick Emmert’s boys, Resident General Emmert

The Resident General of Zarathustra.

Leonard Kellogg

supporting

Also known as Leonard, Kellogg, Len Kellogg, Len, one Leonard Kellogg, Dr. Kellogg, the Kellogg

Kellogg is the Company's man on the ground, sent to take the Fuzzies out of Holloway's hands and produce a report declaring them highly intelligent animals. He convinces himself that Rainsford is a liar and that the Company's interests are scientific truth, a self-deception that makes him both dangerous and pitiable. His willingness to entertain extermination-by-pelt-trade shows how far the corporate logic of Zarathustra will go to protect its charter.

Goldilocks

minor

Also known as Jane Doe alias Goldilocks, the decedent Jane Doe alias Goldilocks, the said Goldilocks

A female Fuzzy found dead, central to the legal case.

Judge Pendarvis

minor

Also known as Pendarvis, Judge Janiver’s, The Chief Justice, Chief Justice Pendarvis

The judge presiding over the Fuzzy sapience hearing.

Mohammed Ali O'Brien

minor

Also known as Mohammed O'Brien, O'Brien, Mr. O’Brien, Ham O’Brien, Ham O'Brien

A lawyer who assists in the Fuzzy legal case.

Mamma Fuzzy

minor

Also known as Mamma, Mamma Fuzzy

The mother of Baby Fuzzy and mate of Little Fuzzy.

Ko-Ko

minor

Also known as Ko - Ko, pompous Ko - Ko

A Fuzzy who becomes a leader among the group.

Ahmed Khadra

minor

Also known as Khadra, Ahmed

A member of the expedition team.

Piet Dumont

minor

Also known as Piet, Piet Dumont, Evidently Piet Dumont, Dumont

A pilot who assists the group.

Lieutenant Ybarra

minor

Also known as Ybarra, Bet Ybarra, Pancho, Pancho Ybarra

A colonial marshal working under Lunt.

Mike Hennen

minor

Also known as Mike, Mike Hennen, mischievous Mike

A young boy who interacts with the Fuzzies.

Henry Stenson

minor

Also known as Mr. Henry Stenson, Mr. Stenson, Stenson, Harry

A company representative involved in the hearings.

Colonel Ian Ferguson

minor

Also known as Colonel Ferguson, Ferguson, Ian Ferguson, Ian

A military officer on Zarathustra.

Mitzi

minor

One of the Fuzzies, a female with a distinct personality.

Claudette Pendarvis

minor

Also known as Claudette

Judge Pendarvis's daughter, who befriends the Fuzzies.

Conrad Greibenfeld

minor

Also known as Captain Conrad Greibenfeld, Greibenfeld, Captain Greibenfeld

A starship captain who transports the Fuzzies.

Alex Napier

minor

Also known as Space Commodore Napier, Napier, Commodore, Commodore Alex Napier, Alex

A space commodore involved in the Fuzzy case.

Cinderella

minor

A Fuzzy who is particularly friendly with humans.

Oscar Lurkin

minor

Also known as Lurkin

A company employee who testifies in the hearing.

Luther Woller

minor

Also known as Woller

A witness in the Fuzzy legal proceedings.

Stephen Aelborg

minor

Also known as Aelborg, Stephen

A scientist who studies the Fuzzies.

Ruiz

minor

A minor character who appears in the story.