Tooth and Claw - by Jo Walton (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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 Tooth and Claw, 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.

Review Quotes

"Utterly sui generis...It's a rare book that leaves me wishing it were twice as long, but Tooth and Claw is one such." --The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

"A delight. On a basic level, Tooth and Claw works much the same way that Watership Down worked...Highly recommended for anyone who loved the books of Austen, or Heyer (or Laurie Colwin's more contemporary novels, for that matter), and wishes that someone was still writing social comedies that were just as sharp and just as pleasurable." --Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen

"Jo Walton writes with an authenticity that never loses heart." --Robin Hobb
"The Pride and Prejudice of the dragon world... I love this sly, witty, fast-paced, brilliant little book." --Jane Yolen

"Plot strands come together just as they should, with delightful triumphs, resolutions, revelations, and come-uppances." --Locus

About the Author

Jo Walton's debut novel The King's Peace earned her the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. More recently, Farthing was a finalist for the Nebula Award and the Quill Award, and won the Romantic Times Critic's Choice Award. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.