Ferrets in fantasy and science fiction

I'm compiling a list of ferret occurrences in science fiction and fantasy. This is what I've come up with, with help, so far. If you have anything to add to it, please mail me. (Don't mail me about other movies; if you do I won't reply.)

Novels and short stories

In no particular order:

• Charles Stross
  Singularity Sky
  Ferrets don't actually appear on stage, but they're mentioned several times including a description of ferret legging dressed in a kilt.
• Vernor Vinge
  Rainbows End
  A virtual performance includes lots and lots of white ferrets.
• Connie Willis
  The Last of the Winnebagoes
  Near future, dogs have become extinct, girl has ferret on leash.
• Alan Cole & Chris Bunch
  The Far Kingdoms
  Not uncommon pets, very positive portrayal
• Fritz Leiber
  "Newhon" - The Swords of Lankhmar
  Rat hunters
• Tanith Lee
  "Flat Earth" books
  The phrase 'ferret out' occurs
  In Black/Gold/Red Unicorn an animal much like a ferret occurs, called a peeve
• Walter Jon Williams
  City of Fire
  Nickname of person
  The Drake Maijstral books
  Ferrets aren't actually mentioned, but the alien race Khosali is, which is very like ferrets in that burglary is a sport. That they have stiff spines is a misdirection.
• Lois McMaster Bujold
  "Barrayar"
  The phrase 'ferret out' occurs (uncertain?)
  Miles is in one novel described as "pacing like a caged ferret"
• Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
  The Mote in God's Eye
  Rat hunters aboard spaceship (but called 'rodents', most likely because the authors are from California, and where they aren't supposed to have met ferrets).
• C.J. Cherryh
  "Union/Alliance" books
  Isn't 'trained attack ferrets' mentioned (but not seriously)?
• Dan Simmons
  Endymion
  Mention that ferrets have been sold in a market on the planet Hyperion
• There are ferrets on Terry Pratchett's Discworld. In the novel Jingo a zombie says he has used everything, except ferrets (because the cure would be worse than the problem), against mice infestation. In The Truth ferrets are listed among the animals which people are trying to pass off as a dog for which there's a reward.
• Katherine Kerr
  "Days of blood and fire"
  A whole page tells about a family's working ferrets. They work as ratters.
• Anne McCaffery and SM Stirling
  "The Ship Avenged"
  The heroine of the book has a holographic beret-wearing ferret who can break into things.
• Irene Radford
  The Last Battlemege
  There's a ferret named Wiggles
• Tess Williams
  "Map of Power"
  Someone is described as looking like a ferret that the hunters use on the plains. I particularly like this reference as the book is set in Western Australia in the future, so the ferrets are obviously descendents of my ferrets.
• Raymond E Feist
  In either "Magician", "Silverthorn" or "A Darkness at Sethanon" a ferret used for hunting rats under a castle is trodden on by an invader, with the injury giving warning of the invasion. I can't remember which book. In "Magician" there's a ferreter who weeps over a ferret.
• Robin Hobb
  "Assassin's Quest"
  A ferret who has had it's mind-bonded partner killed is completely heroic. To say more would be a spoiler. Also, in "Assassin's Apprentice" and "Royal Assassin" the master assassin has a pet weasel.
• Philip Pullman
  "Northern Lights" aka "The Golden Compass" A gypsy has a ferret daemon. Lyra's daemon turns into a polecat and a ferret. The ferret is described as the most evil of all it's manifestations. That old ferret ignorance and discrimination at work again.
• Paul Kidd
  Mus of Krebridge
  The main evil man in the story, has a "mind controlled" Stoat, that is sometime referred to in the book as a ferret. Makes them (the stoats)look pretty nasty, too.
• Brian Jacques
  Tales from Redwall, The Outcast of Redwall
  Features the ferret Veil and his evil father.
  Ferrets are generally "bad guys" in this series.
  The Taggerung features ferrets as major characters.
• Robert Jordan, The Path of Daggers
  Ferrets mentioned three times "ferreting out", "fight like a ferret in a box", "sniffing around like ferrets at a chickenhouse".
• Piers Anthony, Mute (a Xanth novel)
  a mutant "weasel" works with a secret agent, what he describes in the book is a ferret.
• Genetically enhanced ferrets show up briefly toward the end of Gregory Benford & David Brin's novel The Heart of the Comet.
• In The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn the character Ixil has two creatures, Pix and Pax, the main character calls ferrets (but I think they're really "ferret like").
• Richard Bach have written Air Ferrets Aloft and Rescue Ferrets at Sea (three more to follow as I understand it), which I think can be called animal fables and thus fantasy.
• Dragonlance by Wies and Hickman has a humanoid species kalled Kender which is very ferret-like.
• Grist by Tony Daniel has an AI based on a ferret.
• The Last Dragonlord by Joanne Bertin has the main character knowing about ferrets and also has a dream about ferrets.
• Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix by J.K. Rowlings has a character turn her ferret into a flock of flamingoes in Transfiguration class.
• The Ebenezum Trilogy by Craig Shaw Gardner has an army of loyal ferrets who protect Wuntvor.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling, Draco Malfoy is turned into an albino ferret by one of the professors.

  In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Hagrid feeds dead ferrets to the hippogriff Buckbeak.

Comics

• Epicurus the Sage, vol II, by William Messner-Loebs & Sam Kieth
  An all brown ferret is carried as a pet by the character Semele
• In Sluggy Freelance, there's a ferret called Kiki.
• In Dave Sim's and Gerhard's Cerebus mongooses are described as being "ferret like" in the album Guys and in an earlier album polecats are mentioned.
• In Girl Genius one minor character is called Ferretina the Weasel Queen.
• In the anthro comic called Furrlough theres a strip called Heebas by Scotty Arsenault. Her name is Marble and she is immortal.
• Fusion (out of print), a space drama with a ferret or weasel named Tam who is a wonder mechanic (he once programmed a food synthesizer to produce nothing but beer) by Steve Galacci.
• Xanadu by Vicky Wyman.
• Ever Changing Palace (fanzine), many ferrety characters.

Movies

When ferrets occur on the screen, it's mostly as playing polecats, like in Beastmaster (and likely Mars Attacks), or something completely alien like a Cardassian pet in a Star Trek: TNG episode, so it's a short list so far:

• Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven 1997
  The only bad guy in the movie has one as a pet/research subject. (I've seen the movie, so don't bother writing me telling me he isn't.)
• The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson 2001
  In The Prancing Pony one of the human customers has a light coloured male partly inside his clothing and gives it a little something to eat.

Miscellaneous

Not exactly about real ferrets, but influenced by them in different ways.

• I'm told the second "Jurassic Park" movie features some dinosaurs whose movements and behaviour is patterned after ferrets.
• In "Star Trek", the Ferengi seems to have gotten both part of their name and behaviour from ferrets.
• In "Star Trek: Voyager" Neelix has a prominent ferret nose.
• Katharine Kerr & Mark Kreighbaum, Palace (a novel of the pinch) A ferrit is a computer program to look up information.
• The computer game "Inherit The Earth" has a ferret village inhabited by ferret-morphs.
• The computer game "Other Suns" is a role playing game with otter and ferret-morphs

Ferrets: You can't live without them!
Tamillrar: Man kan inte leva utan dem!

Document created 1998, content last updated 2008 Jan 30 by Urban Fredriksson