 Tor Books hardcover | |
| Author | Jo Walton |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | November 1, 2003 (1st edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 256 (hardcover, 1st edition) |
| ISBN | 0-7653-0264-0 (hardcover, 1st edition) |
| OCLC | 52478573 |
| 823/.92 21 | |
| LC Class | PR6073.A448 T66 2003 |
Tooth and Claw is a fantasy novel by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published by Tor Books on November 1, 2003. It won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2004. [1]
The book's plot is similar to that of a Victorian romance – specifically, Anthony Trollope's novel Framley Parsonage [2] – with the obvious difference that the protagonists are not human beings but dragons. The novel begins with the death of Bon Agornin, the patriarch of a middle-to-high-class family of five direct descendants, including Penn, Haner, Selendra, Berend, and Avan Agornin, along with more extended family, who have gathered around both to mourn his passing and to collect their inheritance.
Several main conflicts are introduced early on that span most of the book, starting with a dying confession Bon makes to Penn, who as a priest absolves him of his wrongdoing despite the issues it would raise for his church. Next, Daverak, a son-in-law of Bon, takes more than what was agreed upon in the distribution of Bon Agornin’s wealth, which is complicated by Penn having taken Bon’s confession and therefore being unable to share said wealth distribution agreement without also sharing his confession, as well as the fact that part of the distribution of wealth includes cannibalizing Bon’s remains for health and strength, which most of the rest of the family feels they need more. Haner and Selendra, very close sisters, are forced to live in different places due to financial and social complications, with Haner leaving to live with Daverak, and Selendra with Penn. Finally, a priest working with Penn by the name of Frelt approaches Selendra and asks to marry her, she refuses as she dislikes him, but nonetheless, his actions cause her scales to turn pink, indicating that she’s a bride soon to be married, which would cause numerous social complications, however, their servant makes a tea that turns her scales back to normal, though potentially at the cost of her never turning pink again.
The main portion of the story afterward is split between Avan as he files a court case to sue Daverak for theft of the Agornin family inheritance, Daverak as he prepares a counter case against Avan, Selendra as she pursues a potentially romantic relationship with Sher Benandi, Haner as she tries to keep herself safe and well-respected while navigating the Victorian-style social class system and secretly helping in an abolitionist movement, and Penn as he comes to terms with both Bon’s confession and with his own shaken religious beliefs.
The story ends with Selendra turning pink and happily marrying Sher, Avan winning the court case against Daverak, mostly because Sher fights Daverak to the death, with Daverak’s death afterward allowing the Agornin family to take both his wealth and to devour him, Haner eventually meets back up with Selendra and talks to her about both of their upcoming marriages, and Penn is largely unaffected as he never had to officially disclose Bon’s confession to the court or to anyone else outside of it.
In interviews, Jo Walton said that her primary inspiration for writing Tooth and Claw was Anthony Trollope, and in general the Victorian-era's treatment and beliefs about women. [3] The main points she brought up to highlight the way women were treated were how Trollope believed that women could not earn their own living and could only fall in love once. [3]
Reviewers have noted that social class and class privilege is a theme present throughout Tooth and Claw, generally expressed through the way the dragons cannibalize each other for size, strength, and power. The primary determiner for who is eaten is based on who is the lowest, be it physically or in social standing. [4] [5]
Forgotten Futures is a role-playing game created by Marcus Rowland to allow people to play in settings inspired by Victorian and Edwardian science fiction and fantasy. Most of its releases begin with these stories then add background material to explain the settings, adventures, and other game material.
Tehanu, initially subtitled The Last Book of Earthsea, is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Atheneum in 1990. It is the fourth novel set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea, following almost twenty years after the first three Earthsea novels (1968–1972), and not the last, despite its subtitle. It won the annual Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
Jo Walton is a Welsh and Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and Tooth and Claw, a Victorian-era novel with dragons which won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. Other works by Walton include the Small Change series, in which she blends alternate history with the cozy mystery genre, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. Her fantasy novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award, and her alternate history My Real Children received the 2015 Tiptree Award.
Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings, which comprise the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain Wild chronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Lindholm's writing includes the urban fantasy novel Wizard of the Pigeons and science fiction short stories, among other works. As of 2018, her fiction has been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.
Kate Elliott is the pen name of American fantasy and science fiction writer Alis A. Rasmussen.
Frances Milton Trollope, also known as Fanny Trollope, was an English novelist who wrote as Mrs. Trollope or Mrs. Frances Trollope. Her book, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), observations from a trip to the United States, is the best known.
The fantasy of manners is a subgenre of fantasy literature that also partakes of the nature of a comedy of manners. Such works generally take place in an urban setting and within the confines of a fairly elaborate, and almost always hierarchical, social structure. The term was first used in print by science fiction critic Donald G. Keller in an article, The Manner of Fantasy, in the April 1991 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.
Tea with the Black Dragon is a 1983 fantasy novel by American writer R. A. MacAvoy. It led to a sequel, Twisting the Rope.
The Phoenix Guards is a fantasy novel by American writer Steven Brust, the first novel in the Khaavren Romances series, set in the fictional world of Dragaera. Like the other books in that series, the novel is heavily influenced by the d'Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas and is written by Brust in the voice and persona of a Dragaeran novelist, Paarfi of Roundwood, whose style is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Dumas, matching both his swashbuckling sense of adventure and his penchant for tangents and longwindedness. Brust describes the book as "a blatant ripoff of The Three Musketeers." The Khaavren Romances books have all used Dumas novels as their chief inspiration, recasting the plots of those novels to fit within Brust's established world of Dragaera. The next several books in the cycle are inspired by the subsequent Musketeers books, while 2020's The Baron of Magister Valley uses The Count of Monte Cristo as a starting point.
Susan Palwick is an American writer and associate professor emerita of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. She began her professional career by publishing "The Woman Who Saved the World" for Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1985.
The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer John M. Ford. It won the 1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. This book, set in an alternate history, contains such plot elements as vampirism, the House of Medici, and the convoluted English politics surrounding Edward IV and Richard III. It also deals with the fate of the Princes in the Tower.
The King's Peace is a fantasy novel by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published by Tor Books in October 2000. The first of Walton's published novels, it is also the first of three "Sulien" novels. It was followed in 2001 by a sequel, The King's Name, and in 2002 by a prequel, The Prize in the Game. The novels are a reinterpretation of the story of King Arthur.
The King's Name is a fantasy novel by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published by Tor Books in October 2001. It was Walton's second novel and a sequel to her first, The King's Peace. A prequel, The Prize in the Game, was published in 2002.
An Eye for an Eye is a novel by Anthony Trollope written between 13 September and 10 October 1870, but held back from publication until August 1878 when serialization began in the Whitehall Review. Publication in the form of a two volume novel was timed to coincide with the issue of the final serialized episodes in January 1879.
Among Others is a 2011 fantasy novel written by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published originally by Tor Books. It is published in the UK by Corsair. It won the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the British Fantasy Award, and was a nominee for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
My Real Children is a 2014 alternate history novel by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published by Tor Books. It was released on May 20, 2014.
The Hidden People is a historical fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood, first published in the United Kingdom in October 2016 by Jo Fletcher Books. It is based on the 1895 incident in Tipperary, Ireland, where Bridget Cleary was burnt alive by her husband who believed she was a fairy changeling.
Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners is a 1987 fantasy novel by Ellen Kushner. It is Kushner's debut novel and is one of several books and short stories in the Riverside series. Later editions of the novel were also bundled with three short stories set in the same universe. Swordspoint has been called a defining text of the fantasy of manners subgenre; Kushner was one of the first authors to use the phrase "fantasy of manners" to describe her own and similar works.
Or What You Will is a 2020 metafictional fantasy novel by Jo Walton, about immortality and creativity. It was first published by Tor Books.
An Informal History of the Hugos is a 2018 reference work on science fiction and fantasy written by Jo Walton. In it, she asks if the nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Novel were indeed the best five books of the year, using as reference shortlists from other awards in the genre. After looking at the first 48 years of the award and presenting essays on select nominees, Walton concludes that the Hugo has a 69% success rate. The book was well-received and was itself nominated for a Hugo Award in 2019.