Night of the Wolf

Legends of the Wolf #2

by Alice Borchardt

The fearsome legions of Julius Caesar have crushed resistance to Roman rule. Watching the tragic aftermath through yellow eyes afire with curiosity and intelligence is Maeniel, a gray wolf . . . and a shapeshifter unaware of his preternatural duality. But a new Maeniel is about to be born from the ruins.

The sight of the beautiful Imona fills Maeniel with unfamiliar feelings and desires, triggering his transformation from wolf to man. In her arms he learns what it means to love. It is a knowledge that will change him forever. When Imona vanishes, Maeniel follows her trail--unaware that he is being pursued by a warrior-woman sworn to kill him. But the hunt upon which the two adversaries embark will lead them farther than they can imagine: to the gates of Rome itself--to the gates of their very souls . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Werewolves, Historical Fiction, Supernatural, Romance

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Alice O'Brien was born on 6 October 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was one of five sister of Katherine "Kay" Allen and Howard O'Brien. The O'Brien family moved to Richardson, Texas, when Alice was a teenager. She began her nursing career in Houston, where she met and married her husband, Clifford Borchardt. After a 30-year career as a licensed vocational nurse, Borchardt faced staff reductions at the hospital where she worked. Alice's sister, the writer Anne Rice, encouraged her, helped her find an agent, and wrote introductions to several of her books. She wrote seven books. She passed away on 24 July 2007 in Houston, Texas.

Reviews

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit harder for me to get through since it was overwheling with details. What I did like about this story is that it isn't a human into wolf but the other way around. This isn't something we see a lot of. I like how we are learning about Maniel's change from wolf to human. This is very well done and I wonder how long Ms. Borchardt had to research wolves and wolf behaviour. As a wolf lover, I've read many different articles and watched documentaries on wolves. This seemed pretty close, although I'm not wolf expert.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel this lovely novel isn't as good as 'The Silver Wolf' per se, but the great characters and interesting historical setting, and the brand new Maeniel (viewing the world at first from the eyes of an innocent, if fierce, animal) makes the novel worth reading.

Alice Borchardt' s writing is detailed and transports you to another place and time, though sometimes the narration can be vague, and I've had to re read the prose to understand and clarify, especially when the characters encounter other supernatural elements besides Maeniel. The mythology added to the story though I particularly enjoyed.

Sometimes the story could have been more Maeniel centric but the other characters are well flushed out in my opinion, and Dryas kept my interest with her noble poise, cunning, and heart. I noticed the author also seemed to include some really nasty characters to contrast to the 'heroes'(this was as much Dryas' story as Maeniel' s), which sometimes can be a con, being split between such black & white, good & evil, however the historical setting of Roman excess and violence suited the novel. School's idea of the just, good Roman citizen is only demonstrated by Lucius, who suffers under the thumb of his cruel power hungry sister. The upper Roman class are more ravenous than Maeniel' s pack mates and entirely more evil as well.

I really could go on and on about this one. I rather enjoyed this book.

[RealmsQueen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what I was expecting. Slower than the second one and more confusing. No clear explination on how the wolf is first transformed into a man. Most of this book was veiled in reference and the metaphorical than actual facts so that was frustrating.

Hard to get through, I really had to force it in the begining, althought towards the middle end of the book it did get better. Not was good as the next one, but despite the rocky start it was ok.

I hope the third one is better, although to be honest I don't think I'll be hunting down her other books...

[Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I recall the first of this series thrilling me with its Roman historicity and intrigue, I am left wondering if I enjoyed it so much because it was several years ago and my reading tastes were not nearly as refined, nor my sense of literary excellence so sharply honed. Borchardt really shares quite a lot with her sister Anne Rice in regards to style, meaning she tends toward the overwrought and over done. I wanted more from her characters, was rather bored with the usage of Caesar as a character and the plotting surrounding him, and felt like the historical detailing of food distracted from the flow of the novel - especially as I flipped through my unabridged Oxford dictionary to find out what piece of a pig's lower intestine they were consuming.

The wolfish perspective provided by Maeniel, the dark gray eyes of innocence who transitions from wolf to man, was the most fascinating part of the novel, something I enjoyed because urban fantasy written now is almost entirely built upon humans becoming wolves and not the other way around, something I've always felt was lacking. The potential for using that perspective as a commentary on our world is vast, but unfortunately, Borchardt did so only shallowly.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was SO disappointed in this book. I really wanted to continue with Regeane's story but I was frustrated to realize this was just the backstory of Maeniel. I wish that this book was like a 1.5 in the series or even AFTER the second book. It was hard to care about a whole new slew of characters, especially when it took FOREVER for any connections to be made between the main characters.

[Aura Nizharu · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Note, I don't remember when I started this book but I finished it today.

I think that curiously is the worst of the trilogy and it have a non eding that should have been explored instead of what the author gived us in the third book, but well, it have this magic of, falling in love with the world and the characters and all that that the first got and... well...

[MARY HESTER · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not impressed by this book. There were moments that I thought it was going to be great then I was let down repeatedly. I feel like the author would start with one idea then change their mind mid story and go a complete other direction to make more action. It did not flow well.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

And I thought book 1 was amazing! While book 1 will always be my favorite, I love this seamless followup. Again, we dive into an ancient realm with a tale so well woven that you'll believe you're there.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book nearly as much as The Silver Wolf. Like its predecessor, the protagonist seemed to shift starting about halfway through the story, making it more about Dryas than Maeniel, especially at the end. Loved the historical detail.

[Errin Weisman · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has got to be the first novel I read where the author photo is the author with her sister, and the focus seems to be the sister ( Anne Rice by the way). My patience with the book was probably handicapped in that this seems to be a sequel of sorts, but I am reading it without having read any of the author´s other books.

First, I could not quite finish it, sorry, no, no patience for the endless ramblings from the wolf point of view ( oh, lust, misery, romans evil, human females, oh lust, oh dead humans, what a pity, well pity to waste food, let´s eat them, back to lust), the narrative´s chronology was confusing and the historical setting was maybe a little bit clichéed ( noble barbarians, evil decadent romans, much celticness direct from fantasy writing props. Plus just my guess but on this sort of books, when gladiator talk is brought up, you just know some poor helpless main hero will be made to fight in the ring. Just guessing here!). But on the other hand, it´s not an awful book either, maybe a bit obvious and a bit oily but potentially interesting. I was just short of patience for the endless ramblings, so applied a newish resolution of mine which is to just say no and quit when a book seems not worth the time.

[Starling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Alice Borchardt's books every time I've read them. She writes interesting stories. She also gets the history right, and I like that too.

Her paranormal world has werewolves in it. There are other things there too, but the only group we really get to know are the werewolves. In this book there is just one werewolf, learning how to be a man. He has spent most of his life as a wolf living with wolves, mostly as their leader. We never find out where he came from. And we never meet any others.

The main character, Maeniel, is also a major character in Borchardt's earlier book THE SILVER WOLF, but in that book what we see is a society of werewolves mostly living as people although they do know what they are.

This book takes place earlier than THE SILVER WOLF, in the time when Cesar was building Rome's Empire, at the time when Cesar was in Rome and just before he is assassinated. He is anything but the hero of the piece, and we see the Roman Empire from the point of view of cultures that are being torn apart and destroyed by Rome's armies, and before anything new has been built up in its place.

I've enjoyed the two books I recently reread. Too bad there won't be any more of them.

[Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

In comparison with the first book I have to say I found this book a bit disappointing. It did not quite live up to my expectation. I think part of the problem was the fact that the first book had ended upon such a high and suspenseful note I was in anticipation to see what would happen next, only to find that this book was not a continuation of the first but more of a prequel going back in time.

At the onset I did not find this book to be as captivating as the first, and to me it did not seem as if the story was quite as complex, or the characters as well developed. The story did start off rather slowly and the first half of it or so read a bit like a rune of the mill, dime a dozen paranormal romance (and I was expecting more from this author) in which little happened but the erotic exploits of Maeniel whom while I really enjoyed in the first book fell a little flat for me in this book.

Though as the story advanced it did become more engaging, and it picked up more and I loved the character of Lucius whom became one of my favorites within the book.

One of the things which I most enjoyed about this book was the information provided on the fashion and dress of Ancient Rome, I really liked those bits of historic trivia which the author offered.

[Hazel M Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of people seemed to prefer "The Silver Wolf" to this book. I'm not sure which I liked best myself though. The first was fascinating in that you want Regeane to be all right, when she had so many problems. For this one, you want to follow along with Maeniel the same way, but other characters (though eventually important) have a LOT of story in here. And yet, sometimes it doesn't seem enough.

I had hoped for much more of Maeniel, but what I got was still good. The reason he thinks as he thinks, and his manner were nicely done. Despite him being such a strong man/wolf, he has his moments of cutesy-ness, such as the quick incident with Lady Enid, and then later in the book when Maeniel is mentioning and incident to people laughing that he did not think was so funny. You can easily imagine an annoyed lolcat (lolwolf?) expression when he tells it.

Because so many werewolf books are so wham-bam about it, I enjoy this seies, because there feels like more substance, despite it not always being about the werewolves. And though it's overdone, the constant "love-at-first-sight" thing is a romantic bit that I can't help but go "aww" at :3

[Merredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is labeled second in the Legends of the Wolf series. I read the first one back in 2009 and enjoyed it and just got around to reading the next one. For at least half, i was so confused! At first i thought well is that because it's been years since i read the other? But finally i realized, this is a PREQUEL! Oooh! This story shows us when Maniel the wolf starts to get kind of a slightly human awareness. However, this is no werewolf story. He is a wolf first. A wolf that can change into human form, not the other way around. It's slow. So slow. It finally picks up and we see some interesting Roman history and also about the people they subjugated but it only stays interesting for a very short while. By the end I was just skimming. I have the third book to read, which is actually the sequel to the first. So, hopefully that will be more interesting. Oh and the author is Anne Rice's sister (or, was, as she passed away). Don't expect Anne Rice quality from her, they're two separate people.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a reverse werewolf story and a prequel to the first book, "The Silver Wolf," this had a more relaxed feel. It would actually be okay to read this at any point in the trilogy.
In a way I think I like Maeniel more than Regeane, at least this version of him, the innocent, naive, just entering society version. I want to see more of this Maeniel. There are 800 years between this and the first book, it would be great to see what happened during all that time, and even how he met his friends, Gavin, Matrona, etc.
There were some borderline erotica parts in this one compared to both the other books in the series, which was unexpected, but nice, since they were well written. It almost seems like the other two books just skimmed past similar events to save space, which I guess is okay, but they would have been a nice treat for the readers.
I did feel like the three or four different perspectives written were a bit much at first, but they all tie together at the end, so that makes up for all the jumping around.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

There really is such a thing as too much detail. I remember Enjoying The Silver Wolf but honestly I'm really not sure what went wrong with this one. Maeniel (our intended/supposed protagonist) ended up in the background a lot past the halfway point, plot-lines were rushed or ended in an unsatisfactory fashion and the author spent far too much time showing off how many different flowers, colours and foods she knows, as well as overly decorative ways to describe physical intimacy. I felt like my time was being wasted, which was a shame, I had expectations that just were not met.

Honestly I think the only reason I'm giving this two stars is because I enjoyed the character of Lucius and the book did make me laugh a couple of times.

One last thing. Alice Borchardt? Please research wolves a little more thoroughly before you try to educate a reader with your narrative. Wolves do mate for life. Period.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Night of the Wolf is a prequel to The Silver Wolf, but each book can stand alone because the events of each take place about 800 years apart. Maeniel's story was a bit disappointing. I didn't find that 450+ pages added much more to his biography than the few references made to his past in The Silver Wolf. Much more could have been done to develop his essentially flat character here and much less could have been devoted to every ingredient in every bit of food that needed to be described in great detail. Again, I feel like Alice Borchardt was too closely trying to mimic sister Anne Rice's recipe, but this is no The Vampire Lestat. It's a shame because Borchardt's characters have the potential to be better than they are and there's a good story to be told...somewhere...perhaps in Calpurnia's portal.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky prequel, of sorts, to The Silver Wolf

I rather enjoyed "The Silver Wolf," so I decided to delve into the second and third books in the series. The second book, is, oddly, a prequel, set many centuries before the first book, at the time of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul. It's not at all a bad book, quite enjoyable in fact, though it does meander a bit too much for my taste. My only serious quibble is one that is somewhat particular to me, personally - as a Classicist and a Latinist, the inaccuracies in Latin and historical details bothered me in a way that won't bother too many others. But some of it was oddly glaring, like every Latin -ix ending changed to -ex (the proper name Felix rendered as Felex, the goddess Venus Genetrix appears as Venus Genetrex, etc.). A solidly good book, but not a great one.

[Linda Crate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I launched into this novel without even realizing that it was the second of the series — although once I had finished that made a little more sense to me since some parts just didn't make thorough sense to me. I absolutely fell in love with Alice's writing, though, upon reading this book. I loved how distinctly different her writing was from her sister Anne Rice and yet how similar they were in their prose, as well. It is a tragedy that she was lost, but I hope one day to get the first and third of this series into my collection. I absolutely adored this book.

[Meghan M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Rice's late sister specialized in werewolves, where her more famous sibling once specialized in vampires. These books are all very well done, and provide a unique look into what life might have been like in ancient Rome for werewolves. I don't know my history as well as I might like, but I can envision every scene with crystal clear perfection. Her descriptions provide perfect pictures, and even go so far as to make me hungry while reading!

[Juliette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled between giving this book 2 stars or 3. I finally ended up giving it a 2 because it really was awful and the only reason I considered giving a 3 was because it had a werewolf in it.
It took me a week to get through the first 25 pages, the author constantly changed point of view and I even fell asleep reading this book.
Halfway through it got a little better, but am still leary about reading anything else written by this author.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book first, despite the fact that it's second, because I inferred from the jacket blurb-thing that it occurred first chronologically. And I really liked it. I'm kind of fuzzy on the details now, but it know I liked it, because I just read the first one, which has been on my list for, like, months. So now I just have to decide if I want to read it again before I go on the #3, or if I'm content with my fuzzy-but-good memories of it.

[Keri · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG! This has GOT to be the most dull and boring book I think I've ever read. It was awful. I'm one of those people that has to finish a book once I start it though in case it gets better and I chance on missing out.....yeah, that so didn't happen in this book....didn't miss out on anything. I've not read the 1st book in the series, and won't. If this book is any indication of what the other books are like in the series...not interested,

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really taken be Borchardt's writing style and wish I would have found her sooner. The older sister of Anne Rice, Borchardt grew up creating stories with Anne and her creativity and fluidity of story-telling shows.
In this novel I enjoyed getting to know Maeniel and his begginings, as well as experiencing the historical era when Caesar ruled. The cast of characters was colorful, brutal, and magical.
I look forward to delving into The Wolf King very soon.

[Majo Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just really like the way this books were written. Alice Borchardt was so careful and detailed, describing everything so nicely, is a good introduction to Maeniel and that's why I'd recommend to read this first and then The Silver Wolf (because the first ends in such a high note and this one is more of a bio, that way you won't be disappointed when you realize this one doesn't follow the time line of the first book)

[T.W. Fendley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ... more a shapeshifting book interwoven with Celtic/Amazonian mythology than a traditional werewolf book. I found the writing hard to follow at first, with lots of POV shifts and jumps between the past and present. Either that smoothed out or I got used to it as the book progressed and I became more familiar with the world and characters. I'll have to pick up Silver Wolf one of these days to see what happens next...

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having liked the first book in this series I really did want to like this one but it just didn't work for me. I found it quite hard to finish reading it.

I mean, this story should have been perfect for me, a story of werewolves in classical Rome with fun intrigue and paranormal elements. It ambled to the story and just seemed to need some serious editing to be a good story.

[Jeanette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly trudge through around 60 pages before I finally admitted defeat. Maybe if I were made of a stronger spirit and trudge on further the story would have made some sort of sense. Too many characters and too many things going on. Too much description. My brain now hurts. I think it is time for a nap.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one before I read the first book in the series, and I think it was better than the first. There are some conflicting historical aspects between the two, but they're fun and I love me a trashy werewolf book. This one isn't trashy though, it's a classy trashy werewolf book. There is lots of boning.