The Wolves of Midwinter, Anne Rice
The Wolves of Midwinter, Anne Rice
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The Wolves of Midwinter
The Wolf Gift Chronicles

Author: Anne Rice

Narrator: Ron McLarty

Unabridged: 15 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2013


Synopsis

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

About Anne Rice

It seems pretty ironic for an author to change from Gothic fiction, erotica, then to Christian literature, but American author, Anne Rice did just that. She was born Howard Allen Frances O'Brian in 1941 in New Orleans. Somehow, being born in New Orleans seems fitting for an author most famous for her popular series of novels entitled, The Vampire Chronicles.

Rice was raised in a Catholic family, but chose to be an agnostic as a young adult. She was very successful coming right out with her first novel......Interview with the Vampire. With that success, she began writing sequels to that novel in the 1980's. In the mid- 2000's, she returned to Catholicism and published novels that were fiction about some happenings in the life of Jesus. She distanced herself several years later from organized religion, siting disagreement with their position on social issues, but vowed her lasting faith in God.

Rice's books have sold over 100 million copies......thus, her immense popularity as an American author. She was married to her husband, Stan Rice, for 41 years until he passed from brain cancer in 2002. They had two children, one who died of leukemia at fie years old, and a son Christopher, who is also an author. Several of her novels have been adapted to film. Many ask about her strange given name...... Howard Allen Frances O'Brien. She answers with......her father's name was Howard, and her mother thought that giving her a man's name would give her advantages in the world as she grew up. On her first day of Catholic School, when the Nun asked her name, she just said Anne because she thought it was a pretty name. The name has served her well.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Joseph on October 22, 2013

About midways through Anne Rice's newest novel, the protagonist Rueben Golding, while contemplating a Christmas display, prays to the Christ child, "Please show me how to be good. Please, no matter what I am, show me how to be good." That simple prayer might be the main theme of the entire novel, if......more

Goodreads review by Jeffrey on November 10, 2024

So... Ugh. It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to rate this so low. But I have to recognize that not even Anne Rice can hit it out of the park every time. This second and final book of The Wolf Gift Chronicles was--candidly--pretty dull. Other than a few little details here and there, there wasn't mu......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on September 24, 2013

I remember reading and being enthralled by Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles every time a new one came out and decided it was time to read another of her novels. She's made her name by writing scary horror stories and I thought The Wolves of Midwinter would be as enjoyable as her earlier work. Unfortuna......more

Goodreads review by btgx on December 03, 2013

Anne Rice is the author of The Wolves of Midwinter and is also the author of over 30 published books, including favorites ‘Interview with the Vampire’, ‘The Vampire Lestat’ and ‘The Wolf Gift’. Anne Rice has been writing paranormal and thrilling horror stories since her first published book (Intervie......more

Goodreads review by Paul on December 18, 2017

phew parts of this novel, a follow up to the Wolf Gift got bogged down in Rice's descriptive passages. overall although the pacing was a little slow i really enjoyed the prose and ryrhym of the writing enough that it didnt totally bother me. each time they talked about the man wolf though i thought......more


Quotes

"Anne Rice is back with the bad guys."
                              -Library Journal

"Her wolves are worth catching up to."
                              -Alan Cheuse, NPR

"Her books are scary and mysterious and mystical, filled with thrills and danger, frightening fun, and ardent passion."
                              -R. L. Stine

"The series mythology is fascinating."
                              -Publisher's Weekly

"Fans will welcome Rice's return to the realm of eccentric immortal predators."
                              -Kirkus