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Tooth and Claw
October 2025: Scifi-Fantasy
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'Tooth and Claw' by Jo Walton - 4 stars.
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As a fan of Regency/Victorian romance and fantasy, I loved this book.!
I have Georgette Heyer on my comfort reads Reserved Stash
I'm pushing my IRL Feminerdy Book Club to read this next year ... though I will likely read it sooner. Just pushed it into prominence in the TBR Tower closest to the couch.
Great review, Algernon. I also loved this book.
Why not in Victorian romance?
The title should be taken as a warning: Jo Walton may stay within the conventional boundaries of a classic Jane Austen plot [or Anthony Trollope, whom I haven't read yet], but the society she depicts is first of all feral, red in tooth and claw as the epigraph borrowed from Tennyson promises.
The dragons in the story may go through the motions of civilized behaviour, and their society may closely resemble a gentrified England in the early days of the industrial revolution, but that is only a thin veneer applied over the brutal truths of their bloody nature.
Cannibalism and practical slavery are accepted social practices, as are the mortal risks pregnant dragon ladies of all social strata must endure. Even the male dragons are always under threat of being challenged to fight and be ready to be eaten up by a more powerful rival.
The Agornin family is kind of typical of this alternate world that uncomfortably echoes some of our own human past. Bon Agornin, the patriarch of the family, is about to die and calls his family around his gold hoard to witness the event [and to ritually eat his remains, as tradition requires] Although born poor on the estate of a powerful family, Bon Agornin managed to survive, the only one of his siblings, and to grow powerful and rich, eventually buying his own domain and his gentrified title.
His wife died in childbirth, as much too many other dragon ladies still do. Five children survive: Penn, who became a pastor and is immune from attacks from other dragons; Avan, who is making his own fortune in the capital city Irieth [London] ; Berend, who is married to a powerful lord named Daverak; Haner and Selendra, who are still maidens with golden skin.
The death of the patriarch causes immediate problems for his children: the family is impoverished, after the very high dowry paid for Berend’s marriage. The domain is forfeited to Daverak, because the surviving males are not strong enough to defend it. The two unmarried maidens must go and live with their relatives, their future prospects looking grim. The ritual eating of their father’s flesh also goes awry, when their bullying in-law Daverak eats much more than his allotted share.
From this point forward, the novel follows the usual romantic complications of finding proper husbands for Haner and Selendra, contrasting the life at a grand mansion [Daverak] with that at a parsonage sponsored by another grand family [Benandi]
A major story arc follows young Avan Agornin back to the capital, where he decides to file a court case against Daverak for breaking his father’s will. But will dragon justice rule in favor of the weak or of the powerful?
Jo Walton was already on my favorite authors watchlist. I hesitated initially to pick this book up, because the synopsis sounded a little gimmicky. I was wrong, as the novel offers both great world-building, sharp social commentary and subtle characterization. It is rather dark, but somehow the author manages to find beauty and wit, romantic love and hope for the future even in such feral surroundings.