HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

The Wolves of Midwinter

by Anne Rice

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
6461535,750 (3.51)9
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.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 9 mentions

English (14)  Spanish (1)  All languages (15)
Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)
I haven't been this disappointed in an Anne Rice book since Memnoch the Devil. I enjoyed her first foray into werewolves but this one was plotless and plodding and full of the same religious philosophizing as Memnoch, just with no devil. I struggled through to the end to see if something might happen only to end with a literal sermon from Reuben's tortured priest brother, James. Now I wish I'd given up midway through Midwinter. ( )
  Bebe_Ryalls | Oct 20, 2023 |
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. Unfortunately I was wrong. While there were some gory scenes of the Man Wolves devouring their kills, all to often, this novel read like a silly romance novel. It seemed like on every other page some one (human or Man Wolf) was bursting into tears. I don't know about other readers of horror, but I like my vampires, zombies, or man wolves to be more manly. C'mon suck it up already !
And when this novel wasn't reading like a romance novel, it was reading like a work of Christian. Puhleeze ! Spare me the sermons and emotions and give me something I can sink my teeth into. ( )
  kevinkevbo | Jul 14, 2023 |
My copy provided by Edelweiss.

Not at all what I was expecting -- less paranormal tale than philosophical contemplation on the role of religion among immortals interspersed with comfy, weathly werewolves at home enjoying winterfest. It's oddly seductive and comforting to read a werewolf book in which violence is at a minimum and very little conflict occurs.

Extremely amoral in some ways, because these wolves really don't think of themselves as human and enjoy eating men. But most of the book is full of love and compassion and a protective instinct towards humanity as well. I couldn't tell if Anne Rice was trying to reimagine the inhuman or play out a fantasy christmas party, and it all seemed dreamily lacking in urgency or importance.

I quite enjoyed it, but it is ultimately just as irrelevant to me as any "see how the other half lives" book would be, and I don't want to read any other books, in case something dire happens to these lovely, benevolent wolf overlords. ( )
  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |
The "Wolf Gift Chronicles"cast the reader into the rainy landscape of Northern California and the cozy, though tumultuous life of Reuben Golding. Reuben's life is quickly changed, however, when he inherits both the Chrism, (the ability to transform into a man wolf) and the masterful Nideck Point, a sprawling mansion by the coast, surrounded by redwood forests. With the Chrism and the mansion come an entire world previously unbeknownst to Reuben; a world of beasts and spirits and myriad of ageless beings all shrouded in the mysteries of the supernatural. He soon has to confront issues of life and death, love and evil, and most important, family, more intimately than any human could possibly imagine.

Rice's penchant for tragedian structure has not diminished in the 40 years since her first novel. "The Wolf Gift Chronicles" are historically and geographically mesmerizing; Rice deftly recreates myth with the authority of a scholar. Her werewolves are brutal and gruesome yet lavishly elegant and deeply philosophical. Her writing is wholly eloquent, darkly luscious, and resonating with a sombre beauty, a satisfying religiosity that lingers like a melody long after reading, delving far into the depths of the existential; uniquely juxtaposing the worlds of man and beast into a cohesive and compelling experience that borders on the sacred, as if she herself has transformed and lived between two worlds.

Ultimately Rice's newest novels do as good horror should; they exploit the darkest side of the human psyche with violence, death, fear, and force us to not only confront it but to learn from it. By facing our demons, by learning to cope with the beast lurking within, we are given the gift of hope, hope that our experience, whatever it may be, is not meaningless, and that we are ultimately in control of our fates.
Highly recommended 2nd novel in a series. 4.5 stars
( )
  stephanie_M | Apr 30, 2020 |
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 . . . ( )
  buffygurl | Mar 8, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

Belongs to Series

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
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.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.51)
0.5
1 5
1.5
2 10
2.5
3 26
3.5 6
4 22
4.5 2
5 19

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,240,506 books! | Top bar: Always visible