The Wolves of Midwinter: The Wolf Gift Chronicles

by Anne Rice Narrated by Ron McLarty

Overview

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 Chronicles fiction”-Alan Cheuse, The Boston Globe; “A delectable cocktail of old-fashioned lost-race adventure, shape-shifting, and suspense”-Elizabeth Hand, The Washington Post), readers were spellbound as Rice conjured up 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 takes us once again to the rugged coastline of Northern California, to the grand mansion at Nideck Point, and further explores 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 promises to be a Christmas like no other . . .

The Yuletide season, sacred to much of the human race, has been equally sacred to the Man Wolves, and Reuben soon becomes aware that they, too, steeped in their own profound rituals, will celebrate the ancient Midwinter festival deep within the verdant richness of Nideck forest.

From out of the shadows of Nideck comes a ghost-tormented, imploring, unable to speak yet able to embrace and desire with desperate affection . . . As Reuben finds himself caught up with-and drawn to-the passions and yearnings of this spectral presence, and as the swirl of preparations reaches a fever pitch for the Nideck town Christmas festival of music and pageantry, astonishing secrets are revealed; secrets that tell of a strange netherworld, of spirits other than the Morphenkinder, centuries old, who inhabit the dense stretches of redwood and oak that surround the magnificent house at Nideck Point, “ageless ones” who possess their own fantastical ancient histories and who taunt with their dark magical powers . . .

Includes the Original Song “Exiles (The Wolves of Midwinter),” Performed by Mary Fahl

Editorial Reviews

FEBRUARY 2014 - AudioFile

When presented with a character that is both beast and man, the challenge for the narrator is balancing and distinguishing the voices for both. Ron McLarty easily vaults over this hurdle with his ability to seamlessly shift from throaty growl to a smooth, cultured timbre. McLarty wears main character Reuben's voice like a second skin and gives deep tones to the “man wolves” that stalk the halls of the mansion at Nideck Point. The German accent McLarty gives the mysterious housekeeper is inauthentic, but he makes up for it by infusing raw emotion into the story as Reuben struggles to bridge the gap between his supernatural and human families. McLarty makes even the most rambling moments of the story palatable. E.E. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

08/26/2013
Reuben Golding is a new werewolf (following the events of 2012’s The Wolf Gift). He now lives in a Northern California mansion with his mentor, Felix, and other shapeshifters, occasionally killing evildoers as the vigilante called Man Wolf. Readers expecting urban fantasy action will be surprised: this is mostly a moody family drama, as Reuben plans for the birth of his child by his ex-girlfriend Celeste and copes with the transformation of his new lover, Laura, into a shapeshifter. Reuben and his brother, Father Jim, a priest, also struggle with issues of faith, justice, and the afterlife. Meanwhile, Felix plans a giant Christmas celebration for the entire village and frets about his ghostly niece, Marchent. New conflicts and antagonists are introduced and dealt with in a late rush, and Reuben’s forays as Man Wolf are perfunctory, taking up fewer pages than the party planning. Still, the book is not without charm: Reuben and Felix are sympathetic protagonists, and the series mythology, suggesting that the fair folk may be evolved human ghosts, is fascinating. (Oct.)

FEBRUARY 2014 - AudioFile

When presented with a character that is both beast and man, the challenge for the narrator is balancing and distinguishing the voices for both. Ron McLarty easily vaults over this hurdle with his ability to seamlessly shift from throaty growl to a smooth, cultured timbre. McLarty wears main character Reuben's voice like a second skin and gives deep tones to the “man wolves” that stalk the halls of the mansion at Nideck Point. The German accent McLarty gives the mysterious housekeeper is inauthentic, but he makes up for it by infusing raw emotion into the story as Reuben struggles to bridge the gap between his supernatural and human families. McLarty makes even the most rambling moments of the story palatable. E.E. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2013-09-01
Second in Rice's series (The Wolf Gift, 2012) featuring a cultured pack of do-gooder werewolves. Reuben, a newly minted Man Wolf, has moved into the Northern California mansion he inherited from the lovely, mysterious and now late Marchent. The mansion, situated in a vast woodland, is also home to several older (in some cases ancient) men who are, when the occasion requires, werewolves. Among these "Distinguished Gentlemen" are Marchent's uncle Felix, a giant named Sergei, the well-mannered Thibault, and the leader and conscience of the pack, Margon. The Gentleman are inducting the beginner werewolves, including Stuart, a young gay man, and Reuben's latest ladylove, Laura, into new, immortal life. The group is preparing for a gala Christmas party they hope to make an annual tradition. The party will be followed by the midwinter rites, which the werewolves (known as Morphenkinder) have celebrated since time immemorial and which, in some packs, involves human sacrifice. Not Margon's pack, however. His men (and women) wolves have a special instinct for sniffing out and mauling evildoers, particularly those who abuse and molest children. In fact, one night, after Reuben's wolf persona emerges involuntarily, he rescues a kidnapped little girl, then devours most of her captor. The Gentlemen must put the public off the scent of their true identities, whence the party. But Reuben's human entanglements pose complications. Marchent, who was murdered, is haunting Reuben, and Felix must enlist the aid of another supernatural group, the Forest Gentry, a kind of ethereal, chamois-clad tribe, to entice her troubled spirit away from the house. Reuben's hated ex-girlfriend is about to give birth to his baby, and his father has decided to temporarily move into the mansion, where he will be the only resident who is not only mortal, but not privy to the werewolves' secret. This complex fantasy world relies on an elaborate substructure of lore and history, and the action slows as points of exposition are repetitiously belabored. Fans will welcome Rice's return to the realm of eccentric immortal predators.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171787943
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/15/2013
Series:	Wolf Gift Chronicles Series , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged

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