We all know em, mimics.

Using mortal greed for their hunts, by commonly disguising themselves as treasures or using some as bait.

Heck some even hunt in packs.

Then a juvenile mimic had a genius idea.

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toracRoyal Road

★★★★★ 4.5

Relatable premise, good hook, high stakes for the characters, motivation, and exposition mostly through in-character showing rather than straight telling (mostly). All the important ingredients for a great story are here. Hopefully, the writer can pull this off!
The story starts with adventurers burning down a mimic lair. Seems like typical fare, giving most fantasy readers something they can easily relate to. A good starting point to introduce people to the world and story.
The hook is that one tiny mimic survives the initial assault. The fire mage picks it up as loot, sees through the disguise, and then takes it as a pet/slave anyway. A unique twist, and an unusual monster protagonist.
The stakes are high, motivation is clear. Survive, learn, grow, escape. Simple and clear motivation, with a soft introduction to the world and society, since everything is new to the mimic.
The adventurers are a colourful troupe of mostly neutral to evil outcasts. Perhaps a bit too colourful, owing to being reworked protagonists of the author’s previous attempts. Better than being too plain.
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With that, I’ll begin the negative points:
1) The dialogue is a bit too expositional at times. We don’t need full backstories of these characters so shortly after they are introduced. The whole human supremacy racism was a bit too on the nose, though I liked it in principle. Similarly, the last chapter (reading a book on magic) was basically exposition pure.
To clarify, both are totally fine, but all straight-up exposition should be treated with caution. It’s a balance, and personally, I’d say these two examples are at the edge.
2) SPAG issues: There are a few too many misspelled words, for my taste. It’s not terrible, but it’s worth keeping an eye on. I’d have listed them, but I was reading on mobile.

The smartest mimic

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Chapters(18 total)

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Community Reviews(1)