I’m getting sick and tired of the speculative fiction cliche where scales=evil. Aside from dragons, just about every reptile is a bad guy, or working for the bad guys, or even just a symbol for the bad guys. Snakes especially have it rough. Any recommendations for a frustrated herpetophile?
I’ve only seen parts of the movies but there is Dinotopia.
West of Eden, by Harry Harrison: the K-T extincton event never occurs, and descendants of a dinosaur-era reptile become the [mostly] dominant form of life on the planet. Humans arise in the Americas (where the lizardfolk don’t live), and are a stone-age culture at the time of the novel (and it’s two sequels, IIRC).
Books only? There was a great sitcom, Dinosaurs. (“Not the mama!”)
If I remember the final episode correctly:
The stupid humans are actually what caused the dinosaur’s extinction. So the humans are actually bad guys.
Anyways, Malleus: I know you don’t like watching a lot of TV, but since they’re all anthropomorphic animal puppets, you might find it easier to follow, as you can tell who’s who pretty easily, even without facial recognition.
They were helpful domestic appliances in The Flintstones.
Yeah, but the Triceratops Juicer had a tendency to tinkle in the lemonade if the owner wasn’t looking.
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If I remember the final episode correctly:
The stupid humans are actually what caused the dinosaur’s extinction. So the humans are actually bad guys.
You remember incorrectly.
There were no humans in the show. The dinosaurs messed up their own environment, which led to an ice age. The final scene was one of the most disconcerting every on a comedy supposedly aimed at kids: the family was watching the snow fall – and, by implication, waiting to die.
Barry B. Longyear’s short story “The Homecoming” (later expanded into a novel) is about intelligent dinosaurs returning to Earth (they had FTL travel and due to time dilation returned in modern times). IIRC, the dinosaurs aren’t bad guys.
Star Rangers, by Andre Norton. The reptile is a sidekick, but he’s definitely a good guy.
Between Planets, by Robert Heinlein.
In movies, Battle Beyond the Stars.
Beastchild.
A lizard guy helps a human child escape from other lizard guys. Humans are bad guys, too. Seems the lizards only met space humans, who are weird…it’s been a long time, I forget.
Jesus Christ, $179.00???
I’ve got to find my copy…
It’s for kids, but Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater is so good it makes me want to run away from home and go live with the lizards.
Jack Chalker’s Well World series features ( tangentially ) at least one somewhat interesting non-evil reptilian race ( the Chugach, represented by the fun supporting character Marquoz in later books ). One of his cast of literally hundreds of alien races. They’re fun books, if filled as always with Chalker’s usual assortment of weird psychosexual obsessions.
In Mass Effect (and the prequel novels) the resident reptile-like aliens, named the Turians, are… complicated. They’re both good guys and bad guys. While I’d assume they’re the antagonists of the novel detailing the First Contact War, it’s almost pounded into your head in the game that the Turians and humanity just got off on the wrong foot (wrong foot being a long, protracted war; to be fair they had some incredibly solid reasons for attacking us). Basically the Turians are uneasy with us, but definitely not evil, and you can see the racism and antagonistic zealotry coming from humans towards them almost as often.
In Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Hunters of the Red Moon, one of the good guys is a lizardman alien.
In Robert Asprin’s Myth Adventures series, Skeeve’s mentor/friend is a lizardman named Aahz.
If I remember correctly, the reptiles in Turtledove’s alternate history (the one with reptiles in, anyway) start out appearing totally evil but later turn out to run the gamut just like humans.
Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic league (David Falklyn) series has Adzyl, a huge reptile capable of carrying a blast cannon and rider on his back, a Buddhist (Adzyl, not the rider) is a Good Guy.
Polesotechnic league.
If you like detective / noir, how about Eric Garcia’s trilogy, Anonymous Rex, Casual Rex, and Hot and Sweaty Rex. I recommend them. Good detective stories with a touch of the weird.
ETA: Most of the main characters are dinosaurs, though it’s set in the modern world and many of the minor characters are human.
One of the major characters in Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger books is Clothahump the Wizard, an anthropomorphic turtle. Strangely, turtles are the only sentient reptiles in that world; most reptiles are mere animals, neither good nor evil. The villainous race, referred to as “Plated Ones”, are insectile.
I can think of a few webcomic examples, too. In Order of the Stick, the reptilians (lizardmen and kobolds) are pretty much just ordinary folk, some good, some bad, most just trying to make a living. And in Goblins: Life through Their Eyes, the reptilians we’ve seen so far have all been on the side of the heroes, though of course that strip is a deliberate inversion of the usual conventions.
Quoth Der Trihs:
Yes, but Aahz’s race in general (the Pervects) has a pretty bad reputation among almost everyone else, and it’s at least partly deserved, and encouraged by the Pervects themselves. At best, one might describe them as antisocial, and Skeeve is considered pretty remarkable for willingly associating with a Pervect.
Thank you! I was trying to remember this book from my childhood. Makes me want to get it again and read it.
Oh, and the TV show Dinosaurs did have humans. They were usually kept as pets.