Customer Reviews

Night of the Wolf

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Alice Borchardt (the sister of Anne Rice), spins a tale of sex, violence, and politics, set to the backdrop of the Roman Empire.

We follow the adventures of Maeniel, a wolf/man (not a warewolf, but a shape shifter), who because of his curiosity and fasination with women, (attracted by their smell, hooked by their taste), finds himself trapped in a world where you either conquer or are conquered.

Torn between two existences, Maeniel, who has lived most of his life as a wolf, must now learn what it is to be a man, after he is trapped through sorcery in his human form by a beautiful Amazonian warrior.

In his human form he discovers new pleasures and perils, estacy and agony. A dichotomy which, as a wolf he had never experienced before, and the reader witnesses through his innocent eyes, the cruely of man.

His adventures take him from a struggling Britain to Europe where he meets, and is befriended by Mark Anthony, the alcoholic, womanising right arm of the Roman Emperor, Julius Ceasar.

Sex in the woods and battles in the fields and in the area add to the flavour of this tale while history brings this tale to it's natural ending.

At times it seemed that there were two different story lines happening in this book. Although interesting, it would have been easier for the reader to follow if the writer concentrated more on the principle character, Maeniel. There were times in the story where too much seemed to be going on.

However, the writer has an enviable skill and talent. Her descriptions are clear and uncluttered, lyrical in places and easily understood. From the very 1st page, she quickly transports the reader to a time long since gone, enabling them to enjoy the tale. Her words are simple, yet stylishly woven together in a way that helps the reader see immediately what Maeniel is seeing.

The style of this book is stunning. Night of the Wolf is beautifully written. The character of Maeniel is a strong one and it would be good to see his character enjoying more adventures.

I loved this book. It was a bit slow to get into, but once started, I couldn't put it down! Yes, it had some sort of erotica in it, but all with a purpose behind it, herding the story along. It was about human nature....and very well written. I had expected to be dissapointed, because I would have rather read about what happened to Maenial and the Silver Wolf, not Maeniel's past, but it was really very interesting. I loved this book and all the twists in it. When is Alice Borchardt coming out with a new wolf book?

I found this prequel/sequel to be a bit hard to follow at times. Jumping from the long distant past to the present and from wolf to man made the beginning 1/2 of the book very difficult to read. I forced myself to continue and was glad that I did when I found a powerful 2nd half. If only Ms. Borchardt had been able to carry that quality throughout the entire novel.

This book follows the earlier exploits of Maeniel who was a secondary character to Regeane in THE SILVER WOLF. It again primarily takes place in Rome, but now at the time of the great Caesar. I was overjoyed to find wonderful characterizations on every page. Lucius- the roman noble, Dryas-the female warrior, and surprisingly Caesar's wife Calpurnia were delights, but so little was learned about Maeniel himself. The story revolving around him was so much more interesting than he was. If you had removed him all together I would still have found this an interesting storyline. Maybe then we could have avoided all of the confusion in the first half of the book.

I have yet to read THE WOLF KING which reverts to Maeniel's life with Regeane, but I can only hope that the author keeps the strong characters and plot and loses some of the wordy confusing attempts to make us understand what it is like to be a werewolf with all it's mysticality. It just doesn't work.

Like the title says, I'm rather biased in favor of both wolves & Ms.Borchardt so please remember to tkae all this _cum grano salis_(with a grain of salt). I read this book from my local library, just as I've done with Ms.Borchardt's other works & I enjoyed reading them all. If I had been the publisher I might have recommended adding a subtitle "Maeniel: the early years" but I believe readers wil be smart enough to deduce this for themselves. What I wouldn't give to have been there at that time just to be with Maeniel, Regeane & the pack. Summing up I say this is a book very much worth reading so go out & get yourself a copy. What her sister Anne Rice did for vampires, Ms.Borchardt does for werewolves. A-WOOO!

This is a terrific novel, that blends historical fiction with fantasy and magic. It is a pre-quel to "The Silver Wolf", in that it goes back about 800 years to tell us Maeniel's story. Although he is what could be termed, a 'werewolf', this is in no means your typical werewolf novel. There is no all-out horror as may be expected, but this novel focuses more on drama and human experience, as well as terrific historical detail from the time of Caesar, Cleopatra and Mark Antony. There are also plenty of gory fights and battles. Add to this, the magical scenes...for example, Calpurnia riding off on Pegasus after she has died, and the strange 'other-world' visited by Dryas, and you have what makes for a wonderful absorbing read. Highly recommended.

I loved Silver Wolf, so I was expecting to love Night of the Wolf, but I was disappointed. There was far too much erotica, and to little story. (It flet like The Mamoth Hunters or Plains of Passage.) More happened in this book, but most of it I was not sure why it happened. I did fall in love with Maniel, but still she could have done so much more with the character. I enjoyed the book, just not as much as I had hopped to. Oh well, we'll just hafta read the next one and see if she improves.

Even though I like this book, I have to say it's a bit disappointing compare to Alice's other book- The silver wolf. The story itself was quite interesting and I found it a good bed-time-reading book. However it was a bit lack of depth, kind of like TV soap, you read it, you enjoy most of it, but you don't give second thoughts to it.

There were quite a few sex scenes in the book, I think it was a bit pointless. Sure it was to show parts of characters's personalities, but it was just a bit too much, especially when the same characters was involve again and again. There were a few parts made me wonder if the author got the history straight, also Dryas being refered as an Amazon was a bit stretching.

The book was not related to "The silver wolf", and got even less story line about werewolf then The silver wolf, so I wouldn't recommened to readers who want a story similar to The silver wolf! However, it was a relax and enjoyable read for me.

I waited a long time for this book to come out in paperback. The story of Maeniel is a powerful one. Way back in the fog of time, during the reign of Julius Ceasar, a wolf became a man. His animal innocence was destroyed when he joined the ranks of humanity. Maeniel learned treachery, cruelty, hate, jealousy, and a whole bunch of other horrible human traits. But he also learned love, a very good characteristic to have. Sent to kill Caesar, this wolf/man runs into lots of trouble and makes new friends. It is a wonderfully complex story.

This novel is the sequal to The Silver Wolf, one of my all-time favorite books. I have been waiting impatiently for the past year or so for this book to come out in paperback so I could buy it. I will admit it's kind of hard to follow sometimes, so you might have to go back and read it again, but then again i'm not that much of a history person and so didn't pick up on everything the first time around. I was hoping that the story would include the characters from The Silver Wolf, but they were not present. Romantic that I am, I wanted to see what would happen between Regeane and Maenial, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the next one to come out.

I highly reccomend this to anyone and everyone, for it is a wonderfully written tale.

Not my favorite of the three books to be honest. Granted it does give a great bit of Maniel's background, as per his transformation from wolf to man...but it didn't really give a clear explaination as to how...or really why. You understand the underlining causes, but it still seems very vague, as if the author skimmed over it and hoped we wouldn't notice.

Night of the Wolf by Alice Borchardt

In this, the second book in Alice Borchardt's Silver Wolf series, we find the author taking us further back in time. The first half of the book is about Maeniel, the mysterious bridegroom from The Silver Wolf. The book takes us back to his origins and the time of Julius Cesar. We learn how he became a shape shifter and watch as he struggles to understand and learn the ways of men.

The second half of the book focuses on Lucius, a wealthy Roman citizen, and Dryas, a Caledoni queen with a desire for the death of Julius Cesar. While I enjoyed both halves of the book, there seemed to be almost two complete, or rather incomplete, stories taking place. I was able to follow the plot, but at times was left wondering why I was doing so. Still, I found the second half of the book entertaining and I particularly liked the character Philo. Philo seemed to be what Mir and Blaze (the last druid priests of Gaul) should have been.

Aside from the fact that the book was supposed to be about him, there seemed to be little point of Maeniel being in the second part of the story. He was given a bit of a role at the end, as if to justify his continued existence, but was mostly left hanging out with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

The ending to me seemed weak and a bit muddled. I often find this in books though. (Attention authors: If you are going to take several hundred pages to set up the ending, please feel free to take more than a page to actually end the book.) I think part of the problem was that it did not seem like a good place to end. Many of us passed either History or English or Drama in high school and know that Julius Cesar dies. I was quite ready to continue on with Dryas's journey and see what awaited her when she reached home. I think another few chapters would have made a big difference.