No longer will I sigh that the Victorians didn't write fantasy: Walton has done it for them! When an old dragon patriarch dies, his relatives gather round to split his treasure—-and devour his body. The plot concerns the ensuing law suit, several love affairs and a growing spirit of revolution, yet each of the characters are well drawn and believable. Walton does an excellent job of mixing a familiar romance plot with politics and the occasional alien aspects of dragon society. She says this novel is "the result of wondering what a world would be like if the axioms of the sentimental Victorian novel were inescapable laws of biology." An example: the scales of dragon maidens who have too much contact with dragon males blush red, leaving their "disgrace" obvious to the world.
