Night of the Wolf - Softcover

Borchardt, Alice

3.85

2,020 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000224716X ISBN 13: 9780002247160

Publisher: Voyager, 1999

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Continues the richly atmospheric historical fantasy trilogy about shapeshifters, this time set in Britain and Gaul during the glory years of Caesar’s Roman empire.

The second in this richly atmospheric trilogy tells the story of Maeniel, hundreds of years before his appearance in The Silver Wolf.

Maeniel, a wolf possessed of a unique gift, is drawn into the lives of men when he is captured by a magnificent Celtic warrior, Dryas, who thirsts for revenge against Julius Caesar. Maeniel matches wits with her, but she seduces him while in his man-form within a circle of standing stones. Too late, he realizes that he cannot return to his wolf form so long as he is a prisoner of her ancient magic.

As the druids of Gaul force him to become their instrument of revenge, Maeniel must draw upon all his primitive powers to find a way to reach the most powerful, and dangerous, man in the world. But his escape will depend on the dangerous talents of Dryas, as she fights for her life, and those of their co-conspirators, in the gladiator’s arena.

Atmospheric, intelligent and enthralling, Night of the Wolf continues this unique trilogy in fine style.

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Review:

Like Alice Borchardt's debut werewolf fantasy The Silver Wolf, Night of the Wolf comes with rave recommendations from Anne Rice--perhaps not entirely unbiased, since Rice and Borchardt are sisters. The story begins in ancient Gaul amid druid-led Celts now brutally subdued by Julius Caesar. Shape-shifting man-wolf Mananiel, leader of a wolf pack, discovers human love in powerfully sensual scenes that emphasise the wolf's piercing animal awareness, especially of smells. When something bad happens to his lady, Mananiel becomes a vengeful manhunter until the Caledonian woman warrior Dryas imposes a terrible, magical bondage on him. Imperial Rome is the ultimate source of their troubles, Rome and Caesar ... so the action shifts there, with much sophistication, banter, decadence, political intrigue, and rapid-action arena scenes with Dryas unwillingly fighting deadly beasts to amuse Caesar, Cleopatra, Antony and others, while Mananiel finds a most unexpected lover. Meanwhile we have mystical glimpses of a realm outside time, a wood beyond the world which each major character briefly visits. In a prophecy unrecorded by history, the Goddess herself speaks through Dryas to tell Caesar his options in this year of 44 BC, and there's considerable irony in his choice. Night of the Wolf is enjoyable both as dark fantasy and as a historical novel: Borchardt deserves to outsell her more famous sister. --David Langford

Review:

Praise for the author:

‘A daring and vibrant new voice on the female literary frontier – a writer with the vision and scope to conjure up her own thrilling mythos and the craftsmanship to render it in breathtaking, shimmering prose... The Silver Wolf is a stunning initiation into a dark and dazzling realm’
Anne Rice

‘A marvellous tale, it is a thriller, tragedy, horror and eventually a fairy-tale love story’
Telegraph

‘Borchardt reaches descriptive and dramatic peaks with Regeane’s vulpine supersenses as she noses about Rome by night, reading the dead city’s skin and air. Top-flight fantasy’
Kirkus Reviews

‘A very vividly written story. I really got into it’
Marion Zimmer Bradley

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