Here’s something that I read yesterday and liked: Atzi. Lesbian lizard girl scraping by with little pick-pocketing and buglary. Oh, and she’s about to wind up in a time loop.
It’s been a minute since I read something as fun and smooth to read as this. Quick pacing, compelling characterization, and continually amusing internal narration — so far, it makes for a satisfying afternoon read.
Something I found really refreshing about this story is how… chipper the main character is. In my experience, web fiction is full of protagonists somewhere on the spectra of mopey, anxious, and analytical — and Atzi is entirely the opposite.
She’s not the brightest, nor the luckiest, but she’s not only willing to try anyway, but she earnestly believes she deserves to succeed. It’s odd reading about a protagonist who’s simultaneously so opinionated yet manages to be so endearing.
As someone who’s quite sensitive to dramatic irony and the crawling cringe-anxiety it can evoke, I’m astonished and how this story walks the tightrope of making it clear the protagonist is making bad decisions without leaving me so stricken with secondhand embarrassment I need to stop reading.
It helps, I think, she’s just downright cute! While the story goes out of its way to say “lizard” and never “kobold”, I find it hard to listen to this girl’s internal narration and not think the author nailed the vibe.
(She’s also hilariously horny, too — I swear every other woman she encounters has her swooning, but I mean. same tbh. Despite this, the story seems almost chaste with the fade-to-blacks.)
I saw this mentioned offhandedly in a discord, and I was the first person to jump on reading it, mostly for the above reasons. Naturally, the promise of pretty women piqued me (and it delivered), but the bigger reason was the protagonist’s species.
I’m a fan of nonhuman characters, and I enjoy this story’s approach of making the protagonist casually nonhuman. It’s never focused on as if we should be dazzled by a character who isn’t human (a personal pet peeve), but it’s also woven into the structure of the scenes and narration (what I’m personally interested in).
I love the venomous spit so potent Atzi needs to be careful even letting it drip onto a bar table, and I love little things like tailbags or scales letting her (almost!) shrug off bramble-based security during infiltration.
So far, I can’t recommend the story on xenofiction merits alone, but it’s clear there’s more to be learned about the culture and clans of the lizards.
But that mention of infiltration may have raised an eyebrow. Yes, the main character is a thief — pickpocketing and looting and taking bigger jobs when she can. It’s a pretty big point to its credit that first proper “job” she undertakes had me on the edge of my seat as she sneaks around and worries about guards.
At the point where I’m writing this review, the main plot of sorts seems to have finally come into view, and already the intrigue and drama is ratcheting up. We’re still laying the groundwork for the time loop, leaving me eager to see what form it takes.
Overall, I’m quite interested in seeing where the story goes from here, there’s enough to enjoy if not quite enough to impress. Any recommendation I might give would be very speculative. Keeping my eye on it.
Atzi is the last person who should be stuck in a timeloop.
But a timeloop means pretty women to seduce! Wealth to spend! Magic power to steal! This lizard may be easily distracted, talentless, and lonely, but she’s still a looper.
A shame she must contend with selfish gods warring, mad mages casting apocalyptic spells, skeletons, demons, and a hole in the sky. The world destroyed, again and again, when all she wants to know… is why her crush killed her.
Read it here: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/111187/atzi