Tooth and Claw

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A family of dragons gathers on the occasion of the death of their father, the elder Bon Agornin. As is custom, they must eat the body. But even as Bon's last remains are polished off, his sons and daughters must all jostle for a position in the new hierarchy. While the youngest son seeks greedy remuneration through the courts of law, the eldest son - a dragon of the cloth - agonises over his father's deathbed confession. While one daughter is caught between loyalty to her family by blood and her family by marriage, another daughter follows her heart - only to discover the great cost of true love...

Here is a Victorian story of political intrigue, family ties and political intrigue, set in a world of dragons - a world, quite literally, red in tooth and claw. Full of fiery wit, this is a novel unlike any other.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The deathbed confession of Bon Agornin places his heirs in a quandary as the five siblings maneuver for position and power within the family. What makes Walton's tale of dynastic intrigue unique is that the individuals are all dragons, with their own customs and traditions-such as the practice of consuming the bodies of their dead and killing their weaker children. Walton (The King's Piece) combines delicacy and savagery in a finely told tale suitable for most fantasy collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Dragons ritually eat dragons in order to gain strength and power in Walton's enthralling new fantasy (after 2002's The Prize in the Game), set amid a hierarchical society that includes a noble ruling class, an established church, servants and retainers. On the death of the dragon Bon Agornin, his parson son Penn, one of five siblings (two male and three female), declares, "We must now partake of his remains, that we might grow strong with his strength, remembering him always." But Bon's greedy son-in-law, Illustrious Daverak, consumes more than his fair share of the departed dragon, setting off a chain of unexpected and, at times, calamitous events for each sibling. Avan, the younger son, decides to litigate for compensation. One unmarried daughter, on moving in with the married sister and Daverak, discovers a house filled with injustice, while the other unmarried daughter goes off with Penn and falls in love. Full of political intrigue and romance, this provocative read sets the stage for further adventures in a world that, as the author admits in her prefatory note, "owes a lot to Anthony Trollope's Framley Parsonage." (Nov. 19) FYI: In 2002, Walton received a John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Walton says this book is the result of wondering what a world would be like if the axioms of the sentimental Victorian novel were inescapable laws of biology. It is also something truly different in the line of the novel. After a father dies, his children must deal with the circumstances of his death. One son, a parson, agonizes over his sire's deathbed confession. Another starts a court case to gain the inheritance. One daughter must choose between her family of origin and her husband. Another falls in love, but her course does not run smoothly thereafter. So what's different about all that? Well, everyone in the story is a dragon, and in their society, children eat their deceased parents, and the stronger eat the weaker, for only by eating the flesh of its kind can a dragon achieve full strength and power. So therein lies the difference, and the distinction of a little masterpiece of originality. --Frieda Murray Copyright 2003 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

It would be wonderful to report that Walton offers a bold new step in the world of fantasy, takes the standard knights/swords/dragons huggermugger and turns the whole thing upside-down. Alas, that's not the case. The author had some success with her career-starting trilogy (The King's Peace, 2000, etc.) but has decided here to branch out into something new. The conceit: a world in which class reigns supreme, aristocracy and all its attendant silliness governing people's everyday lives, even though it looks like the old way of doing things is about to come under attack. The big exception is that all the characters in the book are dragons. Real, scale-covered, sleeping-on-a-bed-of-gold, fire-breathing (well, the older ones), bloody-carcass-eating dragons. Things start off with an undeniably eye-catching scenario: Bon Agornin, a dragon who wasn't of gentle birth but has amassed a respectable fortune, is on his deathbed. His children have gathered for the momentous occasion: when he finally dies, as is dragon tradition, all will come together and eat the body. After this shocker, which Walton plays as just a matter of course, no more stunning than dividing up a parent's bank account among the children, the story descends into a dull maze of subplots involving the children, their in-laws, and the vagaries of dragon prejudice. A more skilled writer could have taken this setup and made a Watership Down-style exercise out of it, pulling readers inexorably into the lives of creatures they normally wouldn't much care about. But while Richard Adams can make us forget we're reading about rabbits, Walton succeed as such with dragons. Silly when not plain dull: a mediocre soap with bloody trappings. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.