The Wolves of Midwinter: The Wolf Gift Chronicles Author: Anne Rice | Language: English | ISBN:
B00CGI3DZI | Format: PDF
The Wolves of Midwinter: The Wolf Gift Chronicles Description
The tale of THE WOLF GIFT continues . . .
In Anne Rice’s surprising and compelling best-selling novel, the first of her strange and mythic imagining of the world of wolfen powers (“I devoured these pages . . . As solid and engaging as anything she has written since her early vampire chronicle fiction” —Alan Cheuse,
TheBoston Globe; “A delectable cocktail of old-fashioned lost-race adventure, shape-shifting and suspense” —Elizabeth Hand,
The Washington Post), readers were spellbound as Rice imagined a daring new world set against the wild and beckoning California coast.
Now in her new novel, as lush and romantic in detail and atmosphere as it is sleek and steely in storytelling, Anne Rice brings us once again to the rugged coastline of Northern California, to the grand mansion at Nideck Point—to further explore the unearthly education of her transformed Man Wolf.
The novel opens on a cold, gray landscape. It is the beginning of December. Oak fires are burning in the stately flickering hearths of Nideck Point. It is Yuletide. For Reuben Golding, now infused with the wolf gift and under the loving tutelage of the Morphenkinder, this Christmas promises to be like no other . . . as he soon becomes aware that the Morphenkinder, steeped in their own rituals, are also celebrating the Midwinter Yuletide festival deep within Nideck forest.
From out of the shadows of the exquisite mansion comes a ghost—tormented, imploring, unable to speak yet able to embrace and desire with desperate affection . . . As Reuben finds himself caught up with the passions and yearnings of this spectral presence and the preparations for the Nideck town Christmas reach a fever pitch, astonishing secrets are revealed, secrets that tell of a strange netherworld, of spirits—centuries old—who possess their own fantastical ancient histories and taunt with their dark, magical powers . . .
From the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 2094 KB
- Print Length: 401 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385349963
- Publisher: Knopf (October 15, 2013)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00CGI3DZI
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,416 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #6
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Ghosts - #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror > Occult - #15
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Occult
- #6
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Ghosts - #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror > Occult - #15
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Occult
I won't spoil anything for you here. It's all unveiled masterfully in the novel's own good time.
The Wolves of Midwinter is as sumptuous, as chilling, as engaging, as tender, as terrifying a book as you could hope to find in a hundred years. I enjoyed The Wolf Gift and one should read it first. This isn’t always the case with Rice’s books, some of which can be read entirely out of order without a tremendous loss of orientation to the reader. I recommend you read The Wolf Gift, both because it establishes relationships and a context that becomes important in The Wolves of Midwinter, but more importantly because there were promises made, it seems to me, in the first book that were not only fulfilled in the second, but Rice’s delivery surpassed her first book’s promises.
The Morphenkinder continue to grow in complexity throughout the book, and while more is steadily revealed their mystery consistently deepens. Even familiar characters harbor secrets often surprising and unguessed-at but always somehow rewarding, while new characters surface with suspicious and perhaps malicious motives. Even the servants appointed to assist the “Distinguished Gentlemen” of Nideck Point are more than they appear, curious and strange, yet fascinating despite their seemingly innocuous role.
Careful readers will notice old themes returning, themes notably from The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned (and many others)that ponder not only the nature of evil (and slaying the Evil Doer), but how should an immortal predator live ethically among (or away from) humanity? How close is too close? Is the Wolf Gift a curse to the innocent lives it touches?
The first installment in what I hope will be at least a trilogy, The Wolf Gift, presented the reader with a rare kind of hero. Reuben Golding is born into a family of wealth, education and prestige. He wants for nothing. He is born with silver and is given moonlit gold, a continuation of his circumstances in a way, and the tale is not so much of a boy becoming a man-wolf but of receiving even more in his life, a prince becoming a king. The sense of increasing perfection of his life is so well-wrought and told it is intoxicating. But there are shadows around the sun of his life.
In The Wolves of Midwinter these shadows become longer, coming in the form of ghosts, the changing lives of Reuben's parents, family and friends, and in the interactions with the rest of the world. What strikes me as brilliant is that while Reuben of course grows more and more as a character, Rice has altered the entire world around him to fit his nature, rearranging the kingdom to suit the king. It is midwinter, and preparations for a whole, grand yule celebration are underway. The reader is treated to a rich discussion and illustration of how vast, splendid and magical such a celebration can be. During this festive time, the wolves come to terms with differing personalities and problems and the celebration is visited by many kind of beings, living and otherwise. How these otherwise weave in an out of ordinary people enjoying the bounty of the season is well-told and enchanting.
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