# I'm looking for books where reptiles are good guys **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253 "2010-01-17T00:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/41 "2010-01-18T01:27:59Z")
Any with good snakes? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/42 "2010-01-18T01:43:34Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Any with good snakes? I _ **think** _ that one of the protagonist’s magical pets in Mercedes Lackey’s _The Serpent’s Shadow_ was a snake, but am not sure. In general though it’s harder to make them heroes; even without the cultural baggage, they don’t have hands. They aren’t really equipped to do much constructive. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/43 "2010-01-18T02:03:05Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Any with good snakes? Verdi is a snake. I’ve got my kids working on whether they can remember anything where the reptiles, especially snakes, are the good guys. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/44 "2010-01-18T02:08:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nitpick: Tortoise. Really? I hear there’s good eating on those things. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/45 "2010-01-18T02:12:53Z")
I forgot [Patricia C. Wrede.](http://pcwrede.com/EnchantedForest.html) The dragons are good guys in her Enchanted Forest series. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/46 "2010-01-18T02:14:48Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > Alan Dean Foster’s The Damned trilogy (_A Call To Arms_, _The False Mirror_, _The Spoils of War_) includes among its poly-species alliance the reptilian Hivistahm, who are a bit fussbudgety but highly intelligent and benign. In the same vein, as these novels and _Enemy Mine_, Alan Dean Foster also wrote the novelization of the movie [The Last Starfighter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Starfighter). In the book and movie, Grig is a reptillian character that is mentor, General, and teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/47 "2010-01-18T02:32:13Z")
In _The Face in the Abyss_, one of the great lost-world novels by A. Merritt, the leader of the good guys is the “Snake Mother”, a sort of half-woman/half-snake person. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/48 "2010-01-18T02:39:24Z")
I know it sounds corny and pulp… you can laugh, but I believe that _The Last Starfighter_ is a seminal media (film, playright, author and ghost writer). It’s pretty much the psyche and worldview of 3/4 of the subscribers here, into this 21st Century… Gamers. To quote Nena, “[Everyone’s a Captain Kirk.](http://www.eightyeightynine.com/music/nena-99luftballoons.html)” ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/49 "2010-01-18T19:12:17Z")
[Stranger from the Depths](http://iarnuocon.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/27/987556-book-review-stranger-from-the-depths) The protagonist is Saa, a lizard man from beneath the earth. The story also has lizard baddies. Scholastic book from 1967. I loved this as a kid and am regretful that I had lent it to a friend in grade 7 and did not get it back. I’ve not seen the book since and have lost contact with him. It is out of print but may be available from your local library. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/50 "2010-01-18T22:01:53Z")
[Kaa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaa), from Kipling’s _Jungle Books_, might count, though he wasn’t unambiguously a good guy. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/51 "2010-01-18T23:37:53Z")
Some of the later books in the Valdemar novels by Mercedes Lackey include as secondary characters the reptilian hertasi. Who are decent, if often shy. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/52 "2010-01-20T14:07:49Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > _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. They weren’t evil, just imperialistic, and saw it as the natural order of things that humanity be brought into the fold of the empire(And also, quite frankly, saw it as for our own good.. they had had a stable empire for millenia). The humans, of course, considered them evil, but right from the start its demonstrated by the lizard characters that they are anything but evil. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/53 "2010-01-20T14:43:05Z")
[The Bug Wars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bug_Wars)by Robert Asprin is told from the point of view of a reptillian soldier. There’s no talk about good or bad. Only that the soldier does his duty. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/54 "2010-01-20T14:59:00Z")
[Azure Bonds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Bonds) has a species of humanoid dinosaurs, called saurials. The sidekick of the main hero is Dragonbait, a saurial _paladin_. You don’t get much more good-guy than that. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/55 "2010-02-03T00:44:39Z")
In [_The Last Starfighter,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Starfighter) the hero describes his sidekick Grig as “a gung-ho iguana.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253/56 "2010-02-03T04:04:16Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Any with good snakes? From Alan Dean Foster’s Flinx books there’s Pip the minidrag ( short for ‘miniature dragon’ ), a flying “snake”. But Pip isn’t actually intelligent; she is empathic and spits corrosive venom though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-books-where-reptiles-are-good-guys/525253.md?page=2)