Book 30: Jo Walton, Tooth & Claw So I may not be pissed off…: matociquala

Book 30: Jo Walton, Tooth & Claw

So I may not be pissed off enough at Victorian literature to have really fallen in love with this book. However, I have read an awful lot of Charles Dickens, much of it at gunpoint. (What can I say? I like Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling.)

So the parodying-of-Victorian-virtues-by-portraying-them-through-the-eyes-of-dragons thing did not kick me in a squid, probably only because I don't have a big enough head of steam worked up over to want to eviscerate anybody for that reason. And I wanted more of the intrusive narrator; as he arrived somewhat late and never popped by for long, he felt a bit like an afterthought, and I very much enjoyed him. Also, one of the ways that I felt it stuck a little too close to the flaws of the source, as it were, is the briefness of both the physical and emotional climaxes of the story, which are managed in a single short paragraph.

All complaining aide, however, I liked just about everything about the book and I ate it up in about two hours. It was fast, fun, and flexible. The characters are largely delightful, with a deceptive shallowness of characterization that is a feature rather than a bug. and the sides are clearly drawn. The worldbuilding is very cute, in an ah hah hhah hah kind of way, and the narrative breezes right along with complications, counter-complications, and counter-counter-complications.

Definitely recommended.

she's holding her tonic like a cross

if i freeze i can't decay.

it makes a grown man cry.

Error

she's holding her tonic like a cross

if i freeze i can't decay.

it makes a grown man cry.