A vivid and descriptive novel in search of a feature-length, animated film, Fire and Fur might more properly be called "Smart Dragons, Dumb Choices." It is set in the pre-human Gobi desert and draws on Chinese mythology. Its major charac-ters are dragons and cats. Of course, the cats do speak (often caustically) since a few dragons are interesting enough (cats can still speak but no one is interesting enough to talk to anymore). Fire and Fur's plot concerns the dragons' terraforming the Gobi from sea to land (historically accurate) in a desire for power and amid excessive pride. In doing so,...