Tooth and Claw (urspr publ 2003; utgåvan 2009)

A friend recommended this book to me and when I went to the library the first time here in US, I saw it and thought I would try. And I loved it! It's a bit like Jane Austen, but with dragons! The world building is awesome and I love that things are not explained, but the culture and the world shines through with the story. I borrowed this from the library, but I definitely need a copy for my personal collection! ( )

Really wonderful novel about medieval society that happens to be about dragons. Fantastic characterisation, cared deeply about the protagonists and amazing true and surprising world building. ( )

I think I was too harsh on this the first time I read it. This is a charming story with a lot of flavor set in a unique world. Its Downton Abbey, but with dragons.

My only critique is that the ending is a bit too saccharine and easy - I would have liked for tensions at the trial to ratchet up a bit. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3431135.html

A hilarious and also slightly grim comedy of manners, riffing off Anthony Trollope in a society of cannibalistic dragons. It's well imagined, and of course in today's context of querying the roots of Victorian prosperity it seems rather appropriate to highlight the violent foundations of the entire nineteenth-century social system. Not a lot more to say than that: good fun, respectful of the source material and also a decent creation in its own right. ( )

Well written but silly. A historical parody of Victorian fiction, but instead of people we have families of dragons. They express no dragon behaviors and are almost cut-out humans who occasionally get to fly and eat each other, but mostly wear hats and sleep in mansions.

Three siblings go their different ways when their father dies. They're prevented form eating him as is custom, by their brother-in-law who's the jerk of the story and claims all the resources for his own family. Instead the sisters try to find marriage prospects whilst living on the charity of their extended families. There's lots of somewhat daft he's not good enough for you' type of conversations and similar concerns about propitiatory especially for only the women who aren't allowed to hunt etc. There's a complex hierarchy of ranks, and smeo fun world-building where the dragons had fought with humanity and lost, but are now more-or-less civilized, and living in their own country.

The biggest issue I had was with all the buildings, where the true scale of dragons was ignored to become just inhabitants of big rooms, and it never really seemed believable. Mostly I think it's the faux-historical mannerisms that I didn't get on with, the dragon politics in a more sensible setting might have been fun. ( )