No knights hunt the sophisticated dragons in this tale. Their greatest bane is the rules of their own society, which are apparently modelled on or at least inspired by those Jane Austen chronicled. That convinced me to buy the book. After second thoughts, that kept the book on the shelf for at least a year, since I really do not know Jane Austen's oeuvre well. 
 I'm glad I finally succumbed. Weaved within the society travails of courtship and inheritance, of dragons and beds of gold, are Jo Walton's own embellishments, the chief one of which is introduced in the first chapter, that dragon eats dragon, a source of power and size. 
 And fret not, although the characters are dragons, there are strong, entertaining personalities to enjoy, male and female, such as Haner, who develops a sensitivity for the long-suffering servants, and her sister Selendra, whose strong will and decency attracts a spoiled but kind heir of vast wealth and title. Their brother Avan's lawsuit against an overbearing, egotistical brother-in-law threatens to destroy them all. The court scene gives the story its ending, after which, I actually felt a little sorry for the bad guy. At the same time, though the characters were dragons, I felt great joy at the end, like that (view spoiler)[which comes at the end of a life-affirming movie with a large, mulit-generational cast of irrepressible characters. (hide spoiler)]. Wonderful! Jo Walton's work may not appeal to everyone, but she certainly fusses over the details and only releases creations into the world after amply loving them.