I first read George R.R. Martin’s 1987 collection of interconnected science fiction short stories about a decade ago. It’s great! I re-read it ever two or three years, and always find something new to enjoy.
“Tuf Voyaging” concerns the (mis)adventures of Haviland Tuf, a bald, very pale, overweight, phlegmatic and solitary space trader. Due to the venality and cutthroat tactics of those who’ve chartered his run-down starship, Tuf inadvertently becomes master of an ancient, 30-kilometer-long “seedship,” a very powerful warship with advanced ecological-engineering capabilities. Tuf then travels the galaxy, offering his services to worlds with environmental problems, and sometimes imposing solutions of his own. The book is a witty, dark-humored meditation on absolute power, cats, environmentalism, overpopulation, and the finer points of mushroom cuisine.
I always thought it would make a great movie, and was glad when Martin said he hopes someday to write a sequel.
Any other fans out there?
Good stories, but I doubt the movie potential. Tuf is hardly photogenic, and there isn’t any sex and hardly any violence. Telepathic cats aren’t really a visual hook either. 
I absolutely love this book. Sadly, the one copy I had in my possession was lost in a divorce. Tuf is one of my favorite characters in literature.
Quoting from a faulty memory:
Celine Wan: “I want some food!”
Tuf: “Indeed. I myself want wealth beyond measure.”
The original story in the Haviland Tuf series had a similar plot to another well-known Martin story, Nightflyers. I’d recommend reading this story if you haven’t. And Nighflyers was adapted into a movie, albeit a second-rate and obscure one.
I read it, enjoyed it, but found it a bit repetitive.
I’ve liked his other stuff a lot more.
It’s one of my favorites…enough so that I not only have a paperback copy, but recently picked up a hardbound edition with a few illustrations in it. I think I read it on average of once a year or so.
Good to see that I’m not alone!
Sorry to hear you’ve lost your copy of “Tuf Voyaging,” Sauron. I’m sure you can pick one up on Amazon or Alibris, or (although I swear I didn’t start this thread just to purvey books) I have a few remaining author-autographed British-edition paperbacks of the book which I bought from GRRM a few years ago for a book club meeting. Email me, if you’d like to buy one.
If you like Martin’s short stories, folks, his collection “Sandkings” has some great ones, including the title story (a coldhearted millionaire buys a sentient miniature warrior species, abuses them, and finds that things go horribly awry), and “The Way of Cross and Dragon” (an inquisitor in a far-distant-future interstellar Catholic Church wracked by schism begins to doubt his own faith). Martin is one talented writer.
Another Tuf question: what further adventures of Tuf would you like to read? I’ve always thought it would be fun to have Tuf take the Ark to Prometheus to look in on the ecological engineers there, or to find out more about what happened to the original Federal Empire of Old Earth. And, of course, I hope Tolly Mune sticks around as Tuf’s acerbic companion. Lord knows she can’t go back to Suthlaam… or can she?
He’s also a really nice guy. I’ve had lunch with him at several conventions, and he is always open, friendly, and gentle with stupid questions. He also gave me a very nice message when he signed my copy of “Armegeddon Rag.” I think it was because I was the only person at the table who wasn’t bugging him about when the next volume of “Fire and Ice” was coming out.