Walton, Jo - Tooth and Claw

I've been waiting for what feels like forever to read this. I finally got my hands on the library copy and will probably be picking up the mass market as soon as it's the next pay cycle. Sigh.

Anyhow, I'm sure nearly everyone on the FL has already read this.

It's a wonderful book on Victorian society and the conventions of Victorian novels, only if all the strictures of the novels were biological and if all the players were dragons. Unfortunately, I can't really say how accurately it reflects the conventions of Victorian novels (particularly Trollope), given that I've read zero to very few of them. It has inspired me to get Trollope some time though! I always manage to do these things backwards -- I've already read two takes on Jane Eyre and not the original.

The dragon Bon Agornin has died, and his two sons and three daughters have gathered to eat the body, in the way of dragons. Complications ensue over the matter of inheritance. I felt that the story concentrated more on Selendra and her dilemma more than any of the siblings, and I did want to know more about Berend and how she dealt with her husband, as well as Haner. Part of the fun of the book is learning about the dragon society and how it functions, and I loved details on the binding of wings for Church officials, the importance of hats, and etc. It felt like such a wonderfully solid world and completely different from most of the worlds I frequent in fantasy. I loved how it was basically the opposite of the quest fantasy -- none of the characters were very concerned with the world as a whole, much less with saving the world. All the dragons were after some specific goal, but very few of those were noble and self-sacrificing and out-and-out heroic. I suppose this is all rather obvious if one thinks of the book as a Victorian novel (with dragons!) as opposed to a fantasy book, but it's still fun.

I'm not even sure how to begin evaluating gender in the book, given that Walton is taking all those gender roles in Victorian novels and making them biological necessity, and given that I'm very unfamiliar with the tropes she's using. Female dragons blush when males press too closely to them, and a pink unwed dragon is a very visible fallen woman. And only the males have claws. In fact, when I was reading, I wasn't really noticing the gender issues, which means that all her characters felt very organic to me. They all felt like products of the society they were in, without belittling individual choice.

Highly enjoyable. I need to go read Trollope now and then come back and reread this.

Links:
- inklings_lj's review roundup
- minnow1212's review

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Hee, look at my nifty seasonal icon! Thanks sophia_helix!

Things at work are winding down a little, but I think it's going to be a little more insane next week. Ah well.

This week has been full of social things, but next week looks very boring. I fear long nights of doing nothing but watching Good Eats reruns with the rats, because fannishly is leaving for Taiwan, and I can't force her to hang out with me anymore =(. On the bright side, I get to go home in a week and a half!

Not that the rats are bad company. They would be better company if they talked though. Then again, maybe not. I think the only things my rats would talk about would be things like "Ooo, ok, scritch between my shoulders... ooo, yes, that's the spot *chitter chitter*" or "Food? Foodfoodfood?" or "Ok, please stop manhandling me so I can get back to my nap now!"

Watched House of Flying Daggers a few days ago with fannishly, which sparked many more giggles that Zhang Yimou probably intended. It's a very pretty movie, with very pretty people and pretty scenery and pretty action sequences. But both plot and characterization fall apart about two thirds of the way through, and the movie never quite recovers from this.

Things I liked: the echo dance sequence in the beginning with the drums, watching all the pretty people on the screen, the fight sequence in the bamboo grove, the last fight scene in the snow, which felt like the antithesis to all the other beautiful, bloodless fight scenes.

Things I didn't really like: I never quite believed the Takeshi Kaneshiro character and Mei were in love. It felt too much like the director kept trying to tell me they were in love, but I saw no good reason for them to be in love, except for the dictates of the story. Also, I got very sick of watching men rip the clothes off of Mei and watching her lying there half-heartedly while they groped at her. Squick.

Big spoilers ahead!

( Here be spoilers )