Tooth and Claw

Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton This book was weird....good weird, but weird nonetheless.

It took me by surprise even with a head's up. I struggled trough all that anthropomorphism honestly, the novel was too well detailed and the human mind just wanted to bend the dragons into a human form. It was like reading a Regency novel but only with dragons, and with much less romance but much more cannibalism.

Smaug: Well...thief, where are you!? There's something about you...something made of gold, but far more preciousss. There you are, thief in the shadows. Bilbo: I did not come to steal from you, I only came to gaze upon your magnificence and see if the old tales were true...I did not believe them. Smaug: well do you now!? Bilbo: truely...the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormusly oh Smaug the stupendous. Smaug: you have nice manners for a thief and a liar!

It was good, but so very very slow to start, I got bored a few times and thought I wouldn't be able to either finish, or wait for something to happen. With characters – it didn't help that Selendra is a derogatory term in my language that describes a shithole village – but it kind of matched the character in this novel so by the end of it, it was balanced out.

It was an enjoyable read, a really refreshing take on dragons, but not something I would put on my reread list any time soon.