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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)
InfoQuest: As Walton notes in the book's introduction, Trollope's Framley Parsonage provides some of the plot and characters for Tooth and Claw and is a very good Victorian novel (of the Barsetshire series, though it can easily stand alone).
Mint.ChocolateOcelot: Tooth and Claw is similar to Magicians & Mrs. Quent because of the Society of it. Things like marrying outside your social class, fancy parties, and where Mr. So-and-so was last night are all issues that characters in both books face.
Unless you don't care for books with human characters, I think if you enjoyed Tooth and Claw, you will enjoy The Magicians and Mrs. Quent… (more)
A comedy of manners where Jane Austen meets dragons in this unusual book. It’s really quite bonkers! The dragons wear hats for certain occasions which, as I understand it, symbolise how wealthy they are. To me, at first, it read like a young adult novel but as I progressed, I began to enjoy it more. It did make me giggle at times and the images of dragons in hats which kept appearing in my mind’s eye were quite hilarious. I’m not sure whether I was supposed to find them funny but I did. Despite that, there is a good plot and a variety of characters to keep the reader engaged. All in all not a bad book but probably not my genre! I’ve given myself a Brownie point for reading it! 🐲😄 ( )
Absolutely fucking delightful! Jane Austen comedy of manners but where all the characters are dragons; absolutely masterpiece of the fucking around with alien cultures jawn that I love deeply.
The plot starts with a dispute over who gets to eat the recently deceased father's body, and ends in a hilarious courtroom drama that I would love to see adapted for screen, but that doesn't give much away at all: there's lots more plot and some great characters, including radicals and activists of many stipes. ( )
What a pleasure to read this gem of a satire right after the satirefail of "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen." The satire gods must have taken pity on me that this was the very next title I picked up. ( )
Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, Such splendid purpose in his eyes, Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies, Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation's final law— Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek'd against his creed—
Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, Who battled for the True, the Just, Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal'd within the iron hills?
No more? A monster then, a dream, A discord. Dragons of the prime, That tare each other in their slime, Were mellow music match'd with him.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from In Memoriam AHH, 1850.
She'd like me to bring a dragon home, I suppose. It would serve her right if I did, some creature that would make the house intolerable to her.
Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage, 1859
Dedication
This is for my aunt, Mary Lace, for coming so far down the road towards fantasy for me, and for coming down so many other roads with me, plenty of them real as well as metaphorical.
First words
Bon Agornin writhed on his deathbed, his wings beating as if he would fly to his new life in his old body.
Quotations
Last words
And there, as Sher came to join them, as Avan and Sebeth waited to be greeted, as Penn danced with Felin and Haner with Londaver, as the servants carried heavy trays of refreshments about the room, we shall leave them to take refuge in the comfort of gentle hypocrisy.
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.
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Book description
A tale of contention over love and money—among dragons
Tooth and Claw
Jo Walton burst onto the fantasy scene with The King's Peace, acclaimed by writers as diverse as Poul Anderson, Robin Hobb, and Ken MacLeod. In 2002, she was voted the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Now 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.
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