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Title: TOOTH AND CLAWAuthor: Jo WaltonPublisher: TorPublication Year: 2003Pages: 292Status: libraryLibraryThing InfoA family of dragons cope with the aftermath of their patriarch’s death.I know I overuse the word delightful, but TOOTH AND CLAW is exactly the sort of fantasy that delights the hell out of me. It’s witty. It’s clever. It’s all about the interplay between the characters. It references an established tradition even as it breaks new ground. (But not too much new ground, and I don’t mean that as an insult. In her author's note, Walton states that she wanted to write a Victorianesque novel that actually was Victorian in its feel and its societal values. I think she succeeded). The prose is so readable that I charged through the last two hundred pages in a marathon session.It’s about family, too, and that’s always a big draw for me. I very much enjoyed the siblings’ interactions, and the ways in which their private tales intersected and diverged. While there was a certain amount of tension, I mostly found them flat-out pleasant. They really do care about one another, even when they’re at odds. I liked them all very much.If you’ve read any fiction from the p...