Help Identifying Book

[R Daneel Olivaw]

I would be grateful if anyone could help me identify a book that I read but can't remember it's name, the author or the names of any of the characters - it's driving me mad!

What I can remember is that it's a space opera, the main character is a crewman on a military spaceship and the ships are crewed by humans and a bear-like race. The bears have a smoking habit...

The book is part of a series.

I remember seeing that the author was accused or plagiarising/rehashing others ideas.

Thanks.

[luci2also]

There is the series about Fuzzy's by H Beam Piper which after his death was rebooted
by John Scalzi as Fuzzy Nation.
if anything i would expect the Scalzi book to fit that description