Updated 22/04/2015
It is nearly forty years since Anne Rice refined and defined our contemporary Romantic Vampire archetype with her seminal and controversial novel Interview With The Vampire.
Rice may have returned to The Universal Studio Monster Vault (vampires, mummies and now wolfmen) but her latest foray into the supernatural is distinctly light on familiar Gothic tropes and offers something entirely current via the imagination of an author steeped in history and mythology.
The Wolf Gift is a superhero origin story with the werewolf or “Morphenkind”, Reuben Golding, glorified and elevated into a shape-shifting biological missing-link: a creature designed to track and destroy the very essence of evil.
The bright, breezy world of modern San Francisco offers architectural and natural majesty a world away from the grim, historical Grand Guignol of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. There is surprisingly little Fantasy here as Rice comes closer than ever to explaining her story’s wonders with real science. Religion and Catholicism, once Rice’s most prevalent concerns, are here reduced to the passive, infrequent presence of an agnostic family priest.
Rice loves to pepper her work with pop-culture references resulting in an astute self-referentialism which makes The Wolf Gift the most playful of all her novels. Reuben himself is aware of the looks and career which define him as a “Superman”.
Those who have found Rice’s previous novels unwieldy will discover a brisker pace and a manageable cast of characters, each of whom – in typical Rice style – is more admirable, brilliant and beautiful than the next. Rice is an unashamed aesthete who favours all that is sublime in nature, art, craft and engineering. Her prose is lush, richly detailed and decorous although her critics may find this cloying.
Rice loves to flaunt her extensive research and a suggested species mythology promises a new series that will unfold, much like The Vampire Chronicles to take in history, travel and esoteric enlightenment.
The Wolf Gift is the book that fans of vintage Anne Rice have been waiting for.
Reuben in the Window. ©Valeron. Image features Matt Bomer, Anne Rice’s preferred casting choice for Reuben Golding.
Speaking of Christian Grey, Rice’s erotic trillogy, Sleeping Beauty, originally published under her pen name A. N. Roquelaure, also makes for a playful, vintage read.
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Hi Judy x I love those books, I might have to give them a re-read now you’ve reminded me.
I wish they would hurry up and confirm that Christian Grey casting… the blogosphere needs to know! xx
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My vote’s for Ryan Gosling!
xx
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Really? You read the book and wrote the review? I was a big fan, I read all the Vampire Chronicles and the Witching Hour books, but then she wrote some horrible boring books and returned to Catholicism. I trust you so if you tell me the old Anne Rice is back but brighter, I might be interested in reading it?
She does have a very descriptive style of writing that can paint an atmosphere and period.
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Happy Valentines Day
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Hope you had a Happy Valentine’s too xx
I lost my affinity for Anne Rice when The Vampire Chronicles started to drag on.
I have never bothered to read the books about angels and the alternative history of Christ that Rice wrote when she re-found her old Catholic faith.
After that period however she very publicly disowned the church (again) and The Wolf Gift does feel like a return to form. I enjoyed it anyway and there is a sequel due in mid-October.
If you read it let me know what you think xx
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Well I am with you on all the above. I did finish vampire chronicles and like I said The Witching Hour was amazing, so I just might read it when I find the time, she makes Stephanie Millers writing in comparison looks like white bread.
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Reading the Wolf Gift right now… enjoying the hell out of it.
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Glad you like it 🙂 Can’t wait for the sequel!
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First off thanks for liking and following my blog! Second thanks for introducing me to this book! It is now on the long list of books to read …. I love Anne Rice! 🙂
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I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think when you get to the end of that list! xx
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[…] https://lilywight.com/2013/02/13/a-present-from-anne-rice-the-wolf-gift-matt-bomer-christian-grey/ […]
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BLURPPY wrote about this one as well! http://blurppy.com/2011/07/26/the-wolf-gift-a-new-novel-by-anne-rice/
I have loved her work for what seems like a lifetime.
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Yeah, me too! A sequel to The Wolf Gift is due in October x
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[…] A Present From Anne Rice ~ The Wolf Gift […]
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[…] Anne Rice’s The Wolf Gift […]
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Reblogged this on Lily Wight.
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I reviewed this book for the L.A. Times when it first came out, and I still regret the snarkiness in the review. I’ve always admired Rice’s vampire and witch sagas, and I felt like this one had too many neatly-arranged situations for the main character. I was wanting some good existential dilemma like Lestat faced. But I’m willing to look again thanks to your very nice assessment above.
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Thanks, I really appreciate your comment. I thought this book represented a more relaxed Rice ready to take back a genre she’d kick-started. The follow-up, The Wolves of Midwinter seemed to be aping traditional Christmas stories, it was very unexpected but cleverly done.
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I’ll Nook that one and let you know what I think!
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