Title Tooth and Claw Series --- Author Jo Walton Cover Art Howard Grossman Publisher Tom Doherty Associates - 2009 First Printing Tor - 2003 Category Fantasy Warnings None Main Characters Avan, Selendra, Haner, Penn, Berend, Daverak, Frelt, Felin, Sher, Amer, Sebeth Main Elements Dragons

A tale of love, money, and family conflict - among dragons

A family deals with the death of their father. A son goes to court for his inheritance. Another son agonizes over his father's deathbed confession. One daughter becomes involved in the abolition movement, while another sacrifices herself for her husband.

And everyone in the tale is a dragon, red in tooth and claw.

Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchment and family retainers, of courtship and country houes...in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which the great and the good avail themselves of the priviledge of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, thereby growing strong.

You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw.

Picture Pride and Predjudice, what with all the parsons, and the rich gentry, and the servants and their prudish beliefs. Now take all the human characters and replace them with dragons. Now toss in a quirk where dragons can only grow in length if they feed on dragonflesh and you have Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw.

I have never read anything quite like it, taking a period of human history and swapping the species, which of course leads to some distinct changes. Dragons are big, so they don't use much furniture and the only clothing they bother with are hats. They like to sleep on gold, and they like their meat raw and bloody (servants are expected to wipe them down after meals). But just like in Victorian society, gently born women are expected to behave in dignified manners and try to nab the richest and biggest dragon they can given the quality of their dowry. And you know how important it was for a maiden to be a virgin before marriage? Now imagine if you could recognize a virgin by her golden scales, a "bride" by her pink ones, and a mother by her deep red ones. And imagine all a bridal blush needed to appear was for a male to press up against her. No sneaking a kiss or two before marriage!

This story focuses on the two brothers and three sisters whose father has just passed (and been devoured) and what becomes of them as they are split up as their father's estate falls into the hands of another and they must make it on their own without fortune or name.

It was a fascinating read with a little regency romance mixed in between the sanctioned cannibalism and the dragon fire, all leading up to a grand finale and you get to meet the Yarges. I had some suspicions as to what they were, wish I we could have learnt a bit more about how these two races lived together. Definitely recommend for dragon fans that want to read something different, but still very much dragonish.