Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
New York: Tor, 2003.
Pages
253
Description
A tale of contention over love and money - among dragons. Jo Walton returns with a very different kind of fantasy story: the tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, of a son who goes to law for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father's deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband. Except that everyone in the story is a dragon, red in tooth and claw. Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchmen and family retainers, of courtship and country houses ... in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which society's high-and-mighty members avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby.… (more)
Awards
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
253 p.; 9.5 inches
ISBN
0765302640 / 9780765302649
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User reviews
LibraryThing member SandDune
I loved this book - pure and simple. In essence, a partial retelling of Anthony Trollope's Framley Parsonage with the important difference that the protagonists are all dragons. Civilised dragons of course, as dragons judge these things, but definitely dragons. I've not read Framley Parsonage but
The Dignified Bon Agornin lies dying on his hoard of gold. A rather smaller hoard of gold than he would have liked to leave, as the entry of Penn Agornin, his elder son, into the church had been expensive, and a large dowry had been demanded on the marriage of his eldest daughter, Berend, to the richer and more powerful dragon, the Illustrious Daverak. But to compensate his three younger children, his son Avan and his younger daughters Haner and Selandra, Bon Agornin intends that they should eat the larger part of his body after he is dead. After all, dragons must have dragon flesh or else how will they grow? And an important Illustrious Lord like Daverak has plenty of weakling dragonets on his estates that the Church teaches must be weeded out, so surely he will not expect more than a token bite of his father-in-law's body. But Daverak does not see it like that and together with his wife and children he consumes most of the body, leaving Bon Agornin's three remaining children to share what is left. Dragon flesh can be the difference between life and death to an up and coming dragon like Avan, so he decides to launch a lawsuit against Daverak on behalf of himself and his sisters, to get his rights. But how can the Blessed Penn Agornin testify to his Father's last words, when to do so would mean that he had to disclose the shocking fact that his father had asked him to hear his confession, a rite strictly forbidden by the church, and that in that confession he had admitted the almost as shocking crime of eating his own brother and sister, when they were not even ailing ... And with very small dowries, and their father now dead, how will Selandra and Haner ever make successful marriages,
It was the whole world of the dragons that I loved, a world essentially governed by a hereditary aristocracy, where a self-made dragon such as Bon Agornin, is looked down upon by those of higher rank. But it is a world that is changing with the introduction of the railways, and radical ideas about freedom for all dragons being whispered. The way in which Walton has created a society governed on the one hand by rank and privilege and etiquette, and on the other with the underlying need of the dragons to eat each other! Highly recommended to all fantasy lovers.
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I've read enough of Trollope's other books to recognise the style: finely nuanced class-distinctions; family quarrels; lawsuits; church politics; and of course the importance of making a suitable marriage. But all with dragons.The Dignified Bon Agornin lies dying on his hoard of gold. A rather smaller hoard of gold than he would have liked to leave, as the entry of Penn Agornin, his elder son, into the church had been expensive, and a large dowry had been demanded on the marriage of his eldest daughter, Berend, to the richer and more powerful dragon, the Illustrious Daverak. But to compensate his three younger children, his son Avan and his younger daughters Haner and Selandra, Bon Agornin intends that they should eat the larger part of his body after he is dead. After all, dragons must have dragon flesh or else how will they grow? And an important Illustrious Lord like Daverak has plenty of weakling dragonets on his estates that the Church teaches must be weeded out, so surely he will not expect more than a token bite of his father-in-law's body. But Daverak does not see it like that and together with his wife and children he consumes most of the body, leaving Bon Agornin's three remaining children to share what is left. Dragon flesh can be the difference between life and death to an up and coming dragon like Avan, so he decides to launch a lawsuit against Daverak on behalf of himself and his sisters, to get his rights. But how can the Blessed Penn Agornin testify to his Father's last words, when to do so would mean that he had to disclose the shocking fact that his father had asked him to hear his confession, a rite strictly forbidden by the church, and that in that confession he had admitted the almost as shocking crime of eating his own brother and sister, when they were not even ailing ... And with very small dowries, and their father now dead, how will Selandra and Haner ever make successful marriages,
It was the whole world of the dragons that I loved, a world essentially governed by a hereditary aristocracy, where a self-made dragon such as Bon Agornin, is looked down upon by those of higher rank. But it is a world that is changing with the introduction of the railways, and radical ideas about freedom for all dragons being whispered. The way in which Walton has created a society governed on the one hand by rank and privilege and etiquette, and on the other with the underlying need of the dragons to eat each other! Highly recommended to all fantasy lovers.
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LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: A father, who has worked his way up from humble origins to become part of the gentry, dies, leaving behind five children. The elder two are well established in society - the son as a parson of a well-respected estate, and the daughter married to a rich and powerful if rather boorish and
Oh, did I mention that these are all dragons? Yeah.
Review: I'm sure Jane Austen would never have predicted the recent rash of Austenophilic sequels and retellings and spin-off novels, and I'm very sure that she would never have predicted one with dragons as protagonists. I certainly read the blurb on the back that called Tooth and Claw "the Pride and Prejudice of the dragon world" with raised eyebrows. But, to my great surprise, it totally worked. In fact, Walton makes traditional dragon lore fit into Victorian society conventions so well that I can't believe that no one had ever done it before.
This novel was a little slow to start, but by the end it wound up completely charming me. In truth, the slow beginning is probably more my fault than the book's, and might even be considered a strength rather than a weakness. Tooth and Claw is a Victorian novel not only in plot, but also in writing style, and it's done quite effectively. However, Victorian language has a hard time making it from my eyes to my brain (which is why I tend to listen to the classics on audiobook rather than read them), so it took me a while to get accustomed to the flow and pace of the writing, and that kept me at arm's distance from the story for a while. However, Walton builds her world and her characters so deftly that before too long I was totally engrossed.
One of the things that I particularly enjoyed about this book was how it simultaneously managed to sweep me up in the story, while never letting me forget that it was about dragons. I'd be reading along, totally caught up in battles over inheritance, and deathbed confessions, and romances between those from totally different stations in life, just as you would expect from any Victorian novel, and then I'd remember that the inheritance in question was the right of children to eat their deceased father, and the absurdity of the whole thing would catch up with me, and I'd start giggling uncontrollably. I think Walton was well aware of that contrast, and used it to great advantage; playing up the humor and dropping in the occasional sly narrative aside to let us know that she was laughing with us.
The only weak point I noticed was that a few of the characters were less developed than others. In a book with this large of a cast, that's only to be expected, but I would have happily have read a longer book that had given everyone their full time to shine. Other than that, the multiple storylines were handled well; I thought each was compelling enough that switching between them never made me lose interest. Overall, although this book took a while to fully capture my attention, I enjoyed it immensely, and am so glad I stuck with it. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: The obvious recommendation is that people who like Naomi Novik's books will almost certainly like this one, and vice-versa. I think fans of Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer's style of historical fantasy will also get a kick out of Tooth and Claw. But actually, I'd even recommend this to Austen fans who don't normally read fantasy... you might be surprised how well dragons fit into the Victorian world.
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ill-tempered nobleman. The younger three, however, are only beginning to make their way in society: a son who is engaged in business in the city, and two unmarried daughters. Upon their father's death, the two sisters are sent to live with their siblings. One, who had previously narrowly escaped having a unpleasant marriage proposal forced on her, finds herself attracted to a young adventurer who is out of her league, given her station in society and her meager dowry. The other, appalled by her brother-in-law's brutish behavior towards the servants and local tenants, secretly becomes a radical abolitionist. The younger son, meanwhile, is bringing suit against his brother-in-law over the matter of their father's will, and the distribution of their inheritance.Oh, did I mention that these are all dragons? Yeah.
Review: I'm sure Jane Austen would never have predicted the recent rash of Austenophilic sequels and retellings and spin-off novels, and I'm very sure that she would never have predicted one with dragons as protagonists. I certainly read the blurb on the back that called Tooth and Claw "the Pride and Prejudice of the dragon world" with raised eyebrows. But, to my great surprise, it totally worked. In fact, Walton makes traditional dragon lore fit into Victorian society conventions so well that I can't believe that no one had ever done it before.
This novel was a little slow to start, but by the end it wound up completely charming me. In truth, the slow beginning is probably more my fault than the book's, and might even be considered a strength rather than a weakness. Tooth and Claw is a Victorian novel not only in plot, but also in writing style, and it's done quite effectively. However, Victorian language has a hard time making it from my eyes to my brain (which is why I tend to listen to the classics on audiobook rather than read them), so it took me a while to get accustomed to the flow and pace of the writing, and that kept me at arm's distance from the story for a while. However, Walton builds her world and her characters so deftly that before too long I was totally engrossed.
One of the things that I particularly enjoyed about this book was how it simultaneously managed to sweep me up in the story, while never letting me forget that it was about dragons. I'd be reading along, totally caught up in battles over inheritance, and deathbed confessions, and romances between those from totally different stations in life, just as you would expect from any Victorian novel, and then I'd remember that the inheritance in question was the right of children to eat their deceased father, and the absurdity of the whole thing would catch up with me, and I'd start giggling uncontrollably. I think Walton was well aware of that contrast, and used it to great advantage; playing up the humor and dropping in the occasional sly narrative aside to let us know that she was laughing with us.
The only weak point I noticed was that a few of the characters were less developed than others. In a book with this large of a cast, that's only to be expected, but I would have happily have read a longer book that had given everyone their full time to shine. Other than that, the multiple storylines were handled well; I thought each was compelling enough that switching between them never made me lose interest. Overall, although this book took a while to fully capture my attention, I enjoyed it immensely, and am so glad I stuck with it. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: The obvious recommendation is that people who like Naomi Novik's books will almost certainly like this one, and vice-versa. I think fans of Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer's style of historical fantasy will also get a kick out of Tooth and Claw. But actually, I'd even recommend this to Austen fans who don't normally read fantasy... you might be surprised how well dragons fit into the Victorian world.
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LibraryThing member kdcdavis
If Anthony Trollope were alive today, this is the book he'd have written. I am ridiculously delighted by this perfectly Victorian novel and its draconian cast of characters, and applaud Jo Walton for a highly successful experiment and a very fun read.
LibraryThing member foggidawn
When Bon Agornin dies, it means change is coming for every member of his family. His two unmarried daughters are sent to live with their more established siblings, but not before there is the most frightful row over Bon Agornin's final wishes. Lawsuits, proposals, and dinner parties ensue as the
Oh, did I mention that they are all dragons?
I just loved this book. The world is well-described without being over-explained, and the fact that all of the characters are dragons is not in any way superfluous. I am impressed at the author's range, as well as her ability to meld the style of the nineteenth-century novel with the trappings of high fantasy. This is the second book I've read by Jo Walton, but I'm sure it will not be the last.
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two younger daughters navigate the perilous waters of courtship while the rest of the family deals with the fallout from Agornin's death.Oh, did I mention that they are all dragons?
I just loved this book. The world is well-described without being over-explained, and the fact that all of the characters are dragons is not in any way superfluous. I am impressed at the author's range, as well as her ability to meld the style of the nineteenth-century novel with the trappings of high fantasy. This is the second book I've read by Jo Walton, but I'm sure it will not be the last.
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LibraryThing member justabookreader
Tooth and Claw is my second foray into Jo Walton’s books; my first being Among Others. Now watch how I go all silly over this one.
A dying father calls his family to his side. One son, a parson, hears his father’s final confession, a practice no longer held by the church he belongs to but
Can I just tell you how much I loved this book? I loved this book. I’ve said it and can’t, and won’t, take it back. Really, you must read this. It might seem like a simple story of families and inheritance but it’s filled with so much more. Class prejudices, elements of slavery and an abolitionist movement, loss, love, treasure (we’re talking dragons here), and manners. There’s a slight Austen feel to the manners --- hats, hearts, dowries, and titles --- and it’s all lovely. Then you get to throw in scales, claws, tails, and wings and you have something so very wonderful in the end.
I keep thinking that I’m hung up on the fact that this story is about dragons. It’s more than just the dragons though and at times I forgot I was reading about a family of dragons until a claw came out to remind me. I love the feel of the story --- somewhat Victorian --- the family politics, brothers, sisters, in-laws, and the intertwining and unraveling of their lives after the death of a beloved father. The addition of the cannibalistic nature of dragons (gently-born dragons eat their parents) and the social aspects that play into all of that bring so much to a story that is simple on its face but has so much depth. I adored the morals of the society. It was fascinating and I wish there had been so much more of it. There are hints of treasure and old religions but nothing is explained in detail but I wanted it to be because I wanted every single bit of the story I could have and more. It was a very rich story for all that it was about dragons fighting over gold and dragon flesh.
This review was difficult to write as you might have gathered from the rambling gushiness of it. What I wanted to write over and over again was, “Just read this. It’s great,” but that seems inadequate. If you’re looking for something different, something that will keep you entranced, then read Tooth and Claw. Oh hell, I’ll say it. Read it. It’s great.
A dying father calls his family to his side. One son, a parson, hears his father’s final confession, a practice no longer held by the church he belongs to but
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something he feels he must do for his father to ease his soul before he passes. The remaining son and three daughters await news of his final breath. When the father’s death is finally announced, a brother-in-law interprets the will very broadly, a second son protests taking his brother-in-law and sister to court over what he believes is rightly his family’s due. The case, and the family politics, turns everyone against each other and the claws come out, as the family we are speaking of is a family of dragons.Can I just tell you how much I loved this book? I loved this book. I’ve said it and can’t, and won’t, take it back. Really, you must read this. It might seem like a simple story of families and inheritance but it’s filled with so much more. Class prejudices, elements of slavery and an abolitionist movement, loss, love, treasure (we’re talking dragons here), and manners. There’s a slight Austen feel to the manners --- hats, hearts, dowries, and titles --- and it’s all lovely. Then you get to throw in scales, claws, tails, and wings and you have something so very wonderful in the end.
I keep thinking that I’m hung up on the fact that this story is about dragons. It’s more than just the dragons though and at times I forgot I was reading about a family of dragons until a claw came out to remind me. I love the feel of the story --- somewhat Victorian --- the family politics, brothers, sisters, in-laws, and the intertwining and unraveling of their lives after the death of a beloved father. The addition of the cannibalistic nature of dragons (gently-born dragons eat their parents) and the social aspects that play into all of that bring so much to a story that is simple on its face but has so much depth. I adored the morals of the society. It was fascinating and I wish there had been so much more of it. There are hints of treasure and old religions but nothing is explained in detail but I wanted it to be because I wanted every single bit of the story I could have and more. It was a very rich story for all that it was about dragons fighting over gold and dragon flesh.
This review was difficult to write as you might have gathered from the rambling gushiness of it. What I wanted to write over and over again was, “Just read this. It’s great,” but that seems inadequate. If you’re looking for something different, something that will keep you entranced, then read Tooth and Claw. Oh hell, I’ll say it. Read it. It’s great.
Show Less
LibraryThing member macha
she's written a pure Victorian Novel of Manners. reads like Trollope, pretty much, although the plot itself owes more to Dickens in his Bleak House period. except the whole thing's got a pretty interesting subtext - in fact in some spots downright subversive. as if Mrs Trollope was publishing her
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own novel surreptitiously under her son's name; it's rather a female point of view. because in the first place everyone in the novel is a dragon. and it certainly lends a whole new meaning to the concept of eat or be eaten. so common elements like manners and morals, etiquette, entitlement, and family values, tend to acquire some whole new contexts. i thought it was both well-done and kind of elegant. and there's even a happy ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennybeast
What a fascinating book! Just like it sounds -- a period courtroom drama among dragons. Well written and intricate in social nuances. Funny and horrifying -- I think it's much better than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but it has the same narrative effect -- amplifying social dangers to a height
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perhaps our changed society can better comprehend. It's such a different game when the alternative to propriety is to be eaten. Show Less
LibraryThing member ryn_reads
A really enjoyable standalone fantasy book, a good pace, excellently sly humour and interweaving of plot lines. Not a deep read but thoroughly enjoyable for what it is.
Kind of Pride and Prejudice or another regency period book - only they're all dragons.
Kind of Pride and Prejudice or another regency period book - only they're all dragons.
LibraryThing member phethpwar
Glorious little book. I normally buy books based on ridiculous cover art, and I looked at this one mostly because of the dragon with the properly folded arms on the front. This is Pride and Prejudice with dragons (well, to be fair, it's a mix of a couple of Austen novels). Not much in the way of
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action, but I kept being drawn in by the intrigue. I only had two complaints: the wrap-up was a bit quick and the author's name was bigger than the title which I REALLY HATE. Otherwise lovely. Show Less
LibraryThing member books-n-pickles
A Jane Austen novel...where all the characters are dragons!
This book ended up being a lot of fun, but it took some time to grow on me. I must admit, I had my feminist defenses up with the author's note in the acknowledgements that, "This novel is the result of wondering what a world would be like
And folks, be warned, because pretty early on there's a scene of, essentially, sexual assault. Female dragons "blush" when they get flustered in a male's presence, especially if that male is touching them--and the flustering doesn't have to be in the pleasant, warm-and-fuzzy way. This is not Victorian, this is absolutely horrifying--the thought that your life could be over because of a single unwanted social interaction. Imagine if Elizabeth Bennet had been forced to marry George Wickham just because she enjoyed his company. Well, guess that wouldn't have happened, because he'd have been married off to Georgiana Darcy, regardless of her "actual" virginity. What a nightmare!
Once the Agornin children have headed their separate ways after their father's funeral, that's when world building really kicks in. It's remarkable how little information there is in the first chapters. It takes quite a bit of time to learn that hats are, apparently, a really big deal--you'd think that would have been mentioned sooner? Oh, and dragons live in caves. Okay, but how does that work for manor houses? Cities? I didn't know until close to the end that cities had buildings above the ground at all--until then I'd been imagining them that way because I had nothing else to go on.
Basically, I wish that the whole book had the strength of, say, the middle. The details of world building take too long to put into place, considering that the reader has no real starting point. Are we supposed to imagine these dragons wearing clothes? Do servants polish banisters?
I say all this, but I really got into the book once it got going, once the unfortunately necessary foundation at the funeral that could have been described a great deal better is built. Then the characters are great, the dragon legal system is interesting, and the mystery of the slowly identifiable Yarges surfaces every so often.
For a novel modeled on a Victorian novel, it's great--a wonderfully complex Dickensian plot, unbearable Austenian relatives, and blossoming Hardyesque social awareness. Deaths are handled with Brotesque efficiency and the dastardly villain gets his comeuppance.
I get the sense (or perhaps I just hope) that the fact that some female dragons do hunt with spears means that there's an opening for an eventual women's rights movement. Just because the author went out of their way to create a world in which women are as inferior as they were believed to be in the 1800s doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and accept it!
Quote Round Up
p 18: Parsons should walk, all the time, even when inconvenient, and this Frelt diligently did. He wished he had someone with him to be impressed, or someone waiting for him at home to bring him a drink and admire his fortitude and exclaim over the distance he had walked. A wife.
Ah, the parody of religiosity. At least we have Penn, so we can enjoy Frelt's less-than-sincere piety for the satire that it is.
p 76: "I don't think you realize how different it is for me than for you. You can make your way by your own wits and claws, while I must always be dependent on some male to protect me. Wits I may have, but claws I am without, and while hands are useful for writing and fine work they are no use in battle."
An example of internal inconsistency, since the Yarge have clearly demonstrated that one does not need size and claws to be lethal. But I did appreciate Hanar calling Avan out here--so often men don't understand what it is women go through, overlooking intersectional factors like racism and religious discrimination almost willfully. Avan will have seen female dragons every day that are smaller and not equipped for battle, and depended on his own size to get his way, and yet he still doesn't think of the trouble that his case will case his sisters until they sit down and walk him through it.
p 107: "You know I don't approve of female hunting," Penn said. "If Veld had meant them to hunt, he would have given them claws."
"Do you think they starved in the days before the Conquest?" Sher asked, heatedly, for this was a matter on which he had decided opinions. "Some of the best hunters in Tiamath are female...! It was weapons that drove off the Yarge after the Conquest, after our bare claws proved insufficient."
So interesting how this nugget of information isn't applied in everyday life. There are females, there are peasants, all of them significantly smaller than the well-to-do males. I get the sense that it's only a matter of time until a peasant uprising.
p 157: I was glad to see this side of Berend. It's all too easy in Victorian novels (in much media these days, actually) to villainize the woman who's just trying to make her way in the messed up world she lives in. She's seen as lesser because she works with the system instead of bucking it. No, that doesn't make what Berend says any less horrifying, but she deserves a bit of sympathy and consideration.
p 169: Some thought, and Gelener said, that there should have been four beasts, to allow them each a quarter. They made do with what they had, and found hunger a very pleasant spice.
Spoken like a true upper-class party. Good grief!
p 230: "If you could love Sher, it's your duty to marry him and make him happy."
Ugh, gag me. No one has a duty to love someone, with very few exceptions.
p 259: Loved Selendra's Lizzie Bennet moment with Sher's mother. Reminded me of our discussions about whether Elizabeth really loved Mr. Darcy or whether she just realized what a good match it was and how satisfying it would be to defy all expectations.
p 264: Much as I like Selendra's Lizzie Bennet qualities, I also really like the moments that make her so different: the narrative admissions of love and affection. Oh, and, "Sher did not take advantage to press her further at that time, although she would no longer have desired to be capable of stopping him"? Yeah. Sher's a keeper, for sure.
p 288: Just as Berend had her moment of--for lack of a better word--humanity, so does Sher's mother. She's clearly set up as a roadblock, but she's like Catherine de Burgh: you laugh at her as much as you dislike her. Except that instead of just threatening never to speak to her again, Sher threatens to serve her for dinner--and it's a very real threat! I'm going treat characters as people for a moment, because I very much want to believe that this is Sher's Avan moment of not realizing how different life is for him, as a male, and for his mother, as a female. I don't want to believe that a character otherwise so surprisingly nice for his station would actually be made to make that threat casually if they were fully aware of its implications. Avan's moment earlier gives me hope.
p 322: "I never wanted to be protected, not by you. We were partners ... That's what I want now, not to be a wife like a thing, to be owned by you, I want to go on being your partner, to make my own decisions."
"It's almost as if I'd be your wife," [he] said, hesitant.
"Why not? Partnership. Two wives sounds as if it would work better than two husbands."
Love this exchange! Not going to give away who it is, but I was glad that I had at least one female character come out as on top as they could have.
This book ended up being a lot of fun, but it took some time to grow on me. I must admit, I had my feminist defenses up with the author's note in the acknowledgements that, "This novel is the result of wondering what a world would be like
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if [women were the way they're described in Victorian novels], if the axioms of the sentimental Victorian novel were inescapable laws of biology." Why would anyone want to write that story? And folks, be warned, because pretty early on there's a scene of, essentially, sexual assault. Female dragons "blush" when they get flustered in a male's presence, especially if that male is touching them--and the flustering doesn't have to be in the pleasant, warm-and-fuzzy way. This is not Victorian, this is absolutely horrifying--the thought that your life could be over because of a single unwanted social interaction. Imagine if Elizabeth Bennet had been forced to marry George Wickham just because she enjoyed his company. Well, guess that wouldn't have happened, because he'd have been married off to Georgiana Darcy, regardless of her "actual" virginity. What a nightmare!
Once the Agornin children have headed their separate ways after their father's funeral, that's when world building really kicks in. It's remarkable how little information there is in the first chapters. It takes quite a bit of time to learn that hats are, apparently, a really big deal--you'd think that would have been mentioned sooner? Oh, and dragons live in caves. Okay, but how does that work for manor houses? Cities? I didn't know until close to the end that cities had buildings above the ground at all--until then I'd been imagining them that way because I had nothing else to go on.
Basically, I wish that the whole book had the strength of, say, the middle. The details of world building take too long to put into place, considering that the reader has no real starting point. Are we supposed to imagine these dragons wearing clothes? Do servants polish banisters?
I say all this, but I really got into the book once it got going, once the unfortunately necessary foundation at the funeral that could have been described a great deal better is built. Then the characters are great, the dragon legal system is interesting, and the mystery of the slowly identifiable Yarges surfaces every so often.
For a novel modeled on a Victorian novel, it's great--a wonderfully complex Dickensian plot, unbearable Austenian relatives, and blossoming Hardyesque social awareness. Deaths are handled with Brotesque efficiency and the dastardly villain gets his comeuppance.
I get the sense (or perhaps I just hope) that the fact that some female dragons do hunt with spears means that there's an opening for an eventual women's rights movement. Just because the author went out of their way to create a world in which women are as inferior as they were believed to be in the 1800s doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and accept it!
Quote Round Up
p 18: Parsons should walk, all the time, even when inconvenient, and this Frelt diligently did. He wished he had someone with him to be impressed, or someone waiting for him at home to bring him a drink and admire his fortitude and exclaim over the distance he had walked. A wife.
Ah, the parody of religiosity. At least we have Penn, so we can enjoy Frelt's less-than-sincere piety for the satire that it is.
p 76: "I don't think you realize how different it is for me than for you. You can make your way by your own wits and claws, while I must always be dependent on some male to protect me. Wits I may have, but claws I am without, and while hands are useful for writing and fine work they are no use in battle."
An example of internal inconsistency, since the Yarge have clearly demonstrated that one does not need size and claws to be lethal. But I did appreciate Hanar calling Avan out here--so often men don't understand what it is women go through, overlooking intersectional factors like racism and religious discrimination almost willfully. Avan will have seen female dragons every day that are smaller and not equipped for battle, and depended on his own size to get his way, and yet he still doesn't think of the trouble that his case will case his sisters until they sit down and walk him through it.
p 107: "You know I don't approve of female hunting," Penn said. "If Veld had meant them to hunt, he would have given them claws."
"Do you think they starved in the days before the Conquest?" Sher asked, heatedly, for this was a matter on which he had decided opinions. "Some of the best hunters in Tiamath are female...! It was weapons that drove off the Yarge after the Conquest, after our bare claws proved insufficient."
So interesting how this nugget of information isn't applied in everyday life. There are females, there are peasants, all of them significantly smaller than the well-to-do males. I get the sense that it's only a matter of time until a peasant uprising.
p 157: I was glad to see this side of Berend. It's all too easy in Victorian novels (in much media these days, actually) to villainize the woman who's just trying to make her way in the messed up world she lives in. She's seen as lesser because she works with the system instead of bucking it. No, that doesn't make what Berend says any less horrifying, but she deserves a bit of sympathy and consideration.
p 169: Some thought, and Gelener said, that there should have been four beasts, to allow them each a quarter. They made do with what they had, and found hunger a very pleasant spice.
Spoken like a true upper-class party. Good grief!
p 230: "If you could love Sher, it's your duty to marry him and make him happy."
Ugh, gag me. No one has a duty to love someone, with very few exceptions.
p 259: Loved Selendra's Lizzie Bennet moment with Sher's mother. Reminded me of our discussions about whether Elizabeth really loved Mr. Darcy or whether she just realized what a good match it was and how satisfying it would be to defy all expectations.
p 264: Much as I like Selendra's Lizzie Bennet qualities, I also really like the moments that make her so different: the narrative admissions of love and affection. Oh, and, "Sher did not take advantage to press her further at that time, although she would no longer have desired to be capable of stopping him"? Yeah. Sher's a keeper, for sure.
p 288: Just as Berend had her moment of--for lack of a better word--humanity, so does Sher's mother. She's clearly set up as a roadblock, but she's like Catherine de Burgh: you laugh at her as much as you dislike her. Except that instead of just threatening never to speak to her again, Sher threatens to serve her for dinner--and it's a very real threat! I'm going treat characters as people for a moment, because I very much want to believe that this is Sher's Avan moment of not realizing how different life is for him, as a male, and for his mother, as a female. I don't want to believe that a character otherwise so surprisingly nice for his station would actually be made to make that threat casually if they were fully aware of its implications. Avan's moment earlier gives me hope.
p 322: "I never wanted to be protected, not by you. We were partners ... That's what I want now, not to be a wife like a thing, to be owned by you, I want to go on being your partner, to make my own decisions."
"It's almost as if I'd be your wife," [he] said, hesitant.
"Why not? Partnership. Two wives sounds as if it would work better than two husbands."
Love this exchange! Not going to give away who it is, but I was glad that I had at least one female character come out as on top as they could have.
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LibraryThing member nkmunn
I really enjoyed this - sort of like a rated R for violence jane Austen mashup with dinotopia that was very easy to quickly immerse in. I especially enjoyed the humor of the authorial intrusions that endcapped
some of the scenes and chapters. The world building and scene setting were terrific but
some of the scenes and chapters. The world building and scene setting were terrific but
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the interior voices and dialogue are what made this dark romantic comedy of gender, law, society, religion & manners so readable ! Show Less
LibraryThing member bookworm12
A Victorian novel with dragons, when it comes to gimmick novels this one certainly fits the bill, yet somehow it rises above that. Instead of the dragons being the focus and letting the rest of the story fall flat, they are just characters. It feels like any other novel that explores the world of
Bon Agornin is the patriarch of a large family that has grown in status over the years. At the beginning of the novel his five children gather at his death bed; the stuffy married sister Berend, the religious parson Penn, twin sisters Selendra and Haner and the ambitious Avan. As the story progresses resentment about the inheritance rises between Avan and Berend’s husband. At the same time the two young sisters are beginning to be approached by suitors.
Just like the novels of Austen, Tooth and Claw explores the world of courtships and betrothals. So many of the characters were reminiscent of those in Pride and Prejudice (I mean that in a good way). Walton has a wonderful sense of humor in her book, playful poking fun and embracing the stiff social customs at the same time.
BOTTOM LINE: What fun! It’s a quick read and one that left me smiling. The final chapters are particularly satisfying.
“His mother had always warned him that one day he would want to settle down, yet he was amazed, as all dragons who are fortunate enough to live so long are amazed, that the impulse had come upon him at last.”
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social hierarchies and manners. Walton’s skills as a writer allow her to use dragons as characters while still creating a lovely plot. Bon Agornin is the patriarch of a large family that has grown in status over the years. At the beginning of the novel his five children gather at his death bed; the stuffy married sister Berend, the religious parson Penn, twin sisters Selendra and Haner and the ambitious Avan. As the story progresses resentment about the inheritance rises between Avan and Berend’s husband. At the same time the two young sisters are beginning to be approached by suitors.
Just like the novels of Austen, Tooth and Claw explores the world of courtships and betrothals. So many of the characters were reminiscent of those in Pride and Prejudice (I mean that in a good way). Walton has a wonderful sense of humor in her book, playful poking fun and embracing the stiff social customs at the same time.
BOTTOM LINE: What fun! It’s a quick read and one that left me smiling. The final chapters are particularly satisfying.
“His mother had always warned him that one day he would want to settle down, yet he was amazed, as all dragons who are fortunate enough to live so long are amazed, that the impulse had come upon him at last.”
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LibraryThing member Vinjii
This is unlike anything I've ever read in fantasy.
If Jane Austen, or maybe Charles Dickens, felt the sudden urge to write a fantasy book about dragons, this is probably what they would have written.
It has everything: daughters who need to marry, a lost inheritance, etiquette, romance, a greedy
If any of that sounds at all intriguing to you, please pick this up. It's short, charming, witty and heartwarming.
Jo Walton takes dragon lore and mythology and makes it work with the customs in Victorian society. The world building is delightful. The characters are charming. The society is, frankly, amusing. We've got lords and ladies, only they're all dragons (did I mention everyone in this book is a dragon? But they sit at tables, drink tea and travel in carriages. Just making sure, I definitely mentioned that.) and they all attempt to thrive in society either via their profession or the partner they choose to marry. They go to church, they have servants, oh and, they eat the weak and the ill to better their race. Dragon meat helps smaller dragons grow, only to eat, you must already be big and strong...and please don't forget to wear the proper hat.
I've enjoyed this read a lot and recommend it to fans of the Classics just as much as I recommend it to fantasy fans.
If Jane Austen, or maybe Charles Dickens, felt the sudden urge to write a fantasy book about dragons, this is probably what they would have written.
It has everything: daughters who need to marry, a lost inheritance, etiquette, romance, a greedy
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family member, a confession, and charming characters. Only...they're all dragons. And they also eat each other.If any of that sounds at all intriguing to you, please pick this up. It's short, charming, witty and heartwarming.
Jo Walton takes dragon lore and mythology and makes it work with the customs in Victorian society. The world building is delightful. The characters are charming. The society is, frankly, amusing. We've got lords and ladies, only they're all dragons (did I mention everyone in this book is a dragon? But they sit at tables, drink tea and travel in carriages. Just making sure, I definitely mentioned that.) and they all attempt to thrive in society either via their profession or the partner they choose to marry. They go to church, they have servants, oh and, they eat the weak and the ill to better their race. Dragon meat helps smaller dragons grow, only to eat, you must already be big and strong...and please don't forget to wear the proper hat.
I've enjoyed this read a lot and recommend it to fans of the Classics just as much as I recommend it to fantasy fans.
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LibraryThing member atreic
A very witty and sweet retelling of Pride and Prejudice with dragons.
LibraryThing member a-shelf-apart
Don't you hate it when you find a book that you know you've read, but somehow it's still marked as "to-read"?
Yeah.
Anyway, it's Victorian social drama but everyone is a dragon. Flesh-ripping, family-eating, religious, dragons with legal systems.
And it's just as good as it sounds.
Yeah.
Anyway, it's Victorian social drama but everyone is a dragon. Flesh-ripping, family-eating, religious, dragons with legal systems.
And it's just as good as it sounds.
LibraryThing member ansate
OH GOD IT IS SO CUTE
LibraryThing member andreablythe
About a year ago (or something), I read and adored Jo Walton's Among Others, for the way it handled fairies and magic as subtle things in the world, so subtle they often go unnoticed by most people.
Tooth and Claw is nothing like Among Other, a completely different direction in style and story. The
"Here is a tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, a son who goes to court for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father's deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband."
It's so human in the kinds of troubles the dragons have to face (which makes sense since dragon culture was influenced by the Yarge), but social manners and propriety are all greatly influenced by the biology of the dragons — a young women is gold when she is a maiden, but blushes to pink when she becomes betrothed signifying her new ability to have children (it makes for some interesting new challenges when a woman is "compromised"); the length of a dragon has a strong influence on their social position; and so on. There is more, but I don't want to give too much away.
The only giant glaring negative to this novel was the fact that my edition had two pages that were bound wrong — page 19 came after page 22 (which took me a week to figure out) and another page toward the end was flipped upside down.
Otherwise, Tooth and Claw was a charming read, neatly pulling together the threads of all the character's storylines into a satisfying conclusion.
Tooth and Claw is nothing like Among Other, a completely different direction in style and story. The
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book is a comedy of manners, kind of like Jane Austen but with a society of dragons. It deals with the practical matters of such a society. From the book description:"Here is a tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, a son who goes to court for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father's deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband."
It's so human in the kinds of troubles the dragons have to face (which makes sense since dragon culture was influenced by the Yarge), but social manners and propriety are all greatly influenced by the biology of the dragons — a young women is gold when she is a maiden, but blushes to pink when she becomes betrothed signifying her new ability to have children (it makes for some interesting new challenges when a woman is "compromised"); the length of a dragon has a strong influence on their social position; and so on. There is more, but I don't want to give too much away.
The only giant glaring negative to this novel was the fact that my edition had two pages that were bound wrong — page 19 came after page 22 (which took me a week to figure out) and another page toward the end was flipped upside down.
Otherwise, Tooth and Claw was a charming read, neatly pulling together the threads of all the character's storylines into a satisfying conclusion.
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LibraryThing member Fledgist
A Victorian novel, except all the characters are dragons.
LibraryThing member picardyrose
Dragon society as envisioned by Jane Austen. Except that they eat the dead (and the recently killed).
LibraryThing member beserene
Wonderful, brilliant stuff -- this novel exists to answer the age-old question "What if dragons lived in a Victorian-style society, with all its repressions and rules?" -- which happens to create one of the most unique premises in modern fantasy. Walton's dragons are civilized -- on many levels,
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and with many positive and negative repercussions -- and the depth of detail that has gone into the construction of their society is remarkable. What's more, the characters here are really characters -- the novel never strays into the dangerous territory of caricature, which would have been such an easy stumble, and never reduces them to the status of novelties. The reader is genuinely invested and interested in these dragons, their family relations, their love lives, and the resolution of their problems. The whole thing owes more than a little to classic society novels and novels of manners, like those of Jane Austen, of course, and any reader who is a fan of both Austen and classic fantasy will find many satisfying nods to those literary ancestors here. Altogether, this is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. Show Less
LibraryThing member cattriona
I really enjoyed this title, even more than Walton's "Sulien" books. Yes, it combines dragons with Victorian ideals, but Walton manages to be believable, witty and light without turning it into a farce. This could be a good introduction for a Jane Austen fan looking to try fantasy literature. This
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is an easy read, but a captivating one. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mint.ChocolateOcelot
If you can get over the somewhat gorey beginning, this book is very much like a Jane Austen novel, only starring Dragons instead of People. I found that, once I got into the society of it, it was quite charming.
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
I liked this tale of Dragons in a Victorian-like setting. I think I read somewhere that the author was trying to put together a biological reasoning for Victorian Society, and she succeeds with this book. Where I found it lacking that it isn't a very complex book. This book is primarily based on
I liked the book. Its a fun read, but not very taxing.
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manners, but the bigger world is hinted at. I wish there was more to the world. I liked the book. Its a fun read, but not very taxing.
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LibraryThing member kmaziarz
A noble patriarch, on his deathbed, tells his parson son make certain the unmarried children he leaves behind receive their fair share of the inheritance. The parson assures him it will be done. But the greedy, arrogant husband of the eldest heir bullies his way to the fore and takes more than his
A novel of manners à la Austen or Trollope, a novel of political intrigue, a novel of the delicate savagery of uppercrust life, a novel of custom and tradition…a novel of a sort with which we are all very familiar. Or are we? All of the characters in Jo Walton’s clever and compelling “Tooth and Claw,” you see, are dragons.
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due. Now the other heirs…two sons and two daughters…must find their own way in the world. The unmarried son wants to sue for wrongful damages. The daughters agree, but are fearful of their position in the world. One daughter will be going to live with her elder sister and the bullying husband, after all. The other daughter, who will be living with the parson son and his wife, wishes to pursue the lawsuit, but the parson and his wife fear losing the protection of their patron due to scandal. Both daughters wish to find good husbands, but their dowrys are not large and the honor of one daughter has been wrongfully impugned by an impertinent neighbor.A novel of manners à la Austen or Trollope, a novel of political intrigue, a novel of the delicate savagery of uppercrust life, a novel of custom and tradition…a novel of a sort with which we are all very familiar. Or are we? All of the characters in Jo Walton’s clever and compelling “Tooth and Claw,” you see, are dragons.
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LibraryThing member alexyskwan
Got many tropes of typical historical romance, but everything is just more fun and new with dragons. Enjoyed it tremendously.