Tooth and Claw

By: Jo Walton

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

A tale of contention over love and money - among dragons.

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. You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw.

©2003 Jo Walton (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Oscar Wilde with Dragons

I can’t tell you how much this audio book pleases me, I love the humor and satire of British authors like Oscar Wilde. Throw in the fantasy setting similar to regency England and dragons as the main characters ? I loved this book. Great narration.
My only disappointment came when I found this was not a new novel by Jo Walton and we are not likely to get an encore.

Pride & Prejudice meets Temeraire

Walton makes it seem effortless to recreate the social manners novel made famous by Jane Austen. Insert a bit of the alt-history world of the Temeraire books (by Naomi Novik) where dragons talk and have personalities just like people, and you have the general idea behind this light romp. Everything from the chapter headings to the ridiculous hats to the fixation on who is going to marry whom is handled with aplomb and a wink, making me laugh out loud—always a sign of a good book.

[I listened to this as an audio book narrated by John Lee, who did an absolutely amazing job of adding just the right amount of smirk to his performance to assure the listener that he knows that we know that the story is just one huge confectionary, but one that we will gladly consume in one sitting even though we know too much sugar is not good for us.]

Red in Tooth and Claw

This book was reccomended in the body of Stephanie Meyer's Midnight Sun. I had never heard of the author before. Now I have wealth of material to read that is new to me. This book reminds me somewhat of Jane Austin in the characterisation. The canabalism for a start appears far fetched, but in fact was still much practised in many countries in Victorian times. The reader was skilled and the different voices were easy to follow. This was a delicious peek into another world.

19th Century Novel - with Dragons

This is a story right out of Austen, Trollope, or Dickens, all about social class, money, property, marriages, and society. But all the characters are dragons. It's really charming to read about the dragons putting on hats, attending church, riding on trains (when flying isn't socially acceptable), and then sitting down to a few raw cows for dinner. And if tensions between them get too high, they just eat each other! A tour de force and very well narrated.

Well crafted story with a nice ending

Not the most complex of stories but a entertaining different world, left me only wishing this world would have more books.

Loved it!!

Such an interesting view of this fantastical world of dragon society! Characters are well developed. The reader does an excellent job!

Take a bite!

Wonderful story and the narrator was superb. Such a fascinating look at dragons and their society. I wish there was more!

Trollope pastiche with dragons.

What other book might you compare Tooth and Claw to and why?

There's been a trend lately to write imitative re-tellings of Victorian authors and for the most part I have avoided them. But I love Trollope and I did enjoy Naomi Novik's tales of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. So I thought I'd try this and was delighted.

High Society with Dragons!

While some of the names and ranks are hard to keep track of, this is a Great story. The society of dragons is fantasticly build and a wonder to hear.

Austen meets Smaug

I'm not gonna lie, I actually discovered this book because Stephenie Meyer mentioned it in her new Twilight novel (don't judge me, it's a guilty pleasure). When I read the description, I thought it looked interesting, and most of the reviews were promising. So I thought I would give it a try, seeing as I'm a big fan of most fantasy novels (Tolkien, Sanderson, GRRM, etc.) as well as a big fan of Regency/other time period novels like Austen, Heyer, and Agatha Christie.

Let me tell you, I'm so very glad that I did. The world the author has created is wonderful. I honestly wish there were more books, not necessarily following the same family, but just exploring the universe more. In some ways, it's so very like the Regency novels I'm used to reading. So much so that sometimes I even forgot the characters were all dragons! And then, someone would breathe fire, or talk about eating someone else, and I would remember. At the same time, the dragons are so very believable as dragons. They aren't simply human characters living in dragon bodies. They think and react in different ways. I also really loved the feeling that there was this whole rich universe and history of the dragons that we were only seeing small glimpses of.

I will say, without spoiling anything, that this was also like an Austen novel in that I felt very satisfied by the end. So, anyone who likes any amount of fantasy, as well as has a good appreciation for Austen and Heyer-type novels, please give this book a try. It's very well-written, and John Lee is fantastic as always.