Random House

“The Emperor’s Children” by Claire Messud (Knopf)

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Messud-TheEmperorsChildrenAn interesting tale of privilege in New York, in the lead-up to 9/11

A novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way — and not — in New York City. There is beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaite — an “It” girl finishing her first book; the daughter of Murray Thwaite, celebrated intellectual and journalist — and her two closest friends from Brown, Danielle, a quietly appealing television producer, and Julius, a cash-strapped freelance critic.

The delicious complications that arise among them become dangerous when Murray’s nephew, Frederick “Bootie” Tubb, an idealistic college dropout determined to make his mark, comes to town.

As the skies darken, it is Bootie’s unexpected decisions — and their stunning, heartbreaking outcome — that will change each of their lives forever.

This novel came very highly recommended, but for some reason it took me quite a long time to get around to reading it. I have a weak-spot for novels set in New York City. This is the first one I’ve read that takes a look (near the end) at the impact of 9/11 on inhabitants of the city – not in terms of politics or the War on Terror, but rather as an event that would turn the lives of these protagonists upside down, in both large and small ways. I certainly enjoyed reading the novel, but it’s not perfect. It offers some shrewd, pointed commentary on the foibles and anxieties that face or characterise the lives of privileged (and some not-so-privileged) white youth in New York City.

The friends at the core of the story are quite typical, in many respects. This works in their favour, and makes the novel pretty easy to sink in to. They are from a wealthy set, but each hides their own insecurities from the others. Julius, for example, is down on his luck, and has been hiding the fact that he has resorted to temping in order to make ends meet. Danielle is ticking along, but then develops a relationship with someone she never would have thought possible. Marina is a typical, spoiled, highly privileged daughter of an accomplished, beloved-of-the-NY-literary-set journalist. In the meantime, Bootie, Marina’s awkward cousin with delusions of literary/journalistic grandeur, a surprisingly strong sense of his own iconoclasm, moves to New York, and ends up causing quite the unpleasant stir.

It’s tricky to go into too much detail, as is so often the case. Messud weaves a number of twists and turns into the novel, as her protagonists navigate their way through their personal and professional lives – Marina struggling to finish the long-fallow book project she’s been paid to write (years ago), and also having to deal with her new boyfriend’s obvious distaste and derision for her father’s reputation; Danielle trying to get her productions green-lit, while keeping her new romance secret from her friends (who would undoubtedly disapprove); Julius, whose love-life takes a turn for the better, before spiraling catastrophically; and Bootie’s attempts to make a life in New York, balancing his awe, jealousy and eventual disappointment in Marina’s father (for whom he works as an assistant for a short while).

The novel had two particular strengths. First, the characterisation – which I know I haven’t outlined particularly well, above – was excellent. These are people who are by no means perfect or in any way heroes. There is a natural ugliness, almost, to their personalities: the natural jealousies, the petty narcissism, and so forth. But also their privileged ennui, as they attempt to figure out what it is they are meant to be doing with their lives (something I can sometimes relate to). There were a few uncomfortable moments when I would read one of the characters’ inner struggles, perhaps raise a judgmental eyebrow or sneer, and then realise that I myself had harboured similar thoughts, worries, or jealousies on occasion.

Another thing I really liked about the novel, were the moments in which characters would talk about books. Perhaps a strange thing to pick up on, given that they are universally small and fleeting moments in the story, but I really liked it. For example, when Danielle is looking at her bookshelves in her apartment, a form of biblio-memoir:

… a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her not only in themselves, their tender spines, but in the moments or periods they evoked. She had kept some books since college that she had acquired for courses and never read — Fredric Jameson, for example, and Kant’s Critique of Judgment — but which suggested to her that she was, or might be, a person of seriousness, a thinker in some seeping, ubiquitous way; and she had kept, too, a handful of children’s books taken from her now-dismantled girlhood room, like Charlotte’s Web and the Harriet the Spy novels, that conjured for her an earlier, passionately earnest self, the sober child who read constantly in the back of her parents’ Buick, oblivious to her brother punching her knee, oblivious to her parents’ squabbling, oblivious to the traffic and landscapes pressing upon her from outside the window.

Messud does a great job of giving each character their own voice (although, sometimes only slightly different from others), and she’s doing a great job of deconstructing her protagonists and their neuroses and petty jealousies. But, and this is my only real issue with the novel: it could have been trimmed down, I think. There were times when it felt like the novel veered off into an unnecessary tangent, without adding enough to the story to justify it, or being too mundane to really be worth it. I also think the author has never found an over-long sentence she didn’t like. There were, for my taste, far too many run-on sentences. There were so many instances when a well-placed full-stop would have done wonders for the prose and reading experience; any number of sentences that were begging to be broken up into easier-read sizes. Take, for example, this paragraph (which is by no means the worst offender):

As they each gingerly dismantled and consumed their fanciful dishes — in her case at least, a fancy that, Danielle thought but did not say, was less original and extraordinary than the restaurant’s reputation and price had led her to expect, and therefore disappointing, as she had chosen the venue to impress — Danielle proceeded to explain that she had been taken with his use of the term, that she had, perhaps wrongly, heard in it a certain echo, the suggestion of an ethos that she thought might be found, to greater or lesser degrees, in certain other publications or presentations, and that she, in her producer’s role, had thought to articulate into, well, a movement.

Or this stuttering, shorter example: “and there was, had been, at the very sight of him, at the front of the line at the restaurant, a pull that Danielle felt to be inevitable, personal, even spiritual — a magnetic attraction.” And the use of near-repetition to make or reinforce a point (“having felt, and felt keenly”).

There are, of course, moments of levity that break up what could otherwise become a rather heavy-handed narrative. Mostly, this occurs when theses privileged characters are confronted with simple situations they are entirely ill-equipped to deal with (thing that would, ordinarily, be dealt with by the Help). For example, when Marina’s cat, Pope, dies:

“I’m sorry, Daddy — it’s just the Pope. She’s not — I mean, she’s dead.”

“Oh.” The two of them stood side by side without approaching. “You’re quite sure?” Murray asked, scratching at the back of his head.

“Yep. Sure.” The cat, a black blot on the duvet, didn’t move.

“Is your mother asleep?”

“Hours ago.”

“Hmm. Worse things could happen than leaving her there for the night, don’t you agree?”

The idea seemed somehow sacrilegious to Marina, though whether the offense was against the cat or the bed and its imminent occupant, she couldn’t have said. “Don’t dead things, you know, leak?”

“Not overnight, I wouldn’t think. And it’s pretty cool in here.”

And this, later moment in which they discuss what to do with books from university…

“What did you major in, in college?” she ventured again, after a time.

“Poli Sci.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You must have been English, right?”

“Does it show that badly? We all were. I was double, English and Philosophy. I don’t remember a thing.”

“Who does?”

“Seriously, though, I look at the books on my shelves and it’s clear that I read them, back then, but I can’t remember ever doing it, and I don’t have the first idea what they might be about.”

“Read them again, then?”

Danielle sighed. “Not now. Maybe someday. I look at them and wonder who I was, you know? It’s a long time ago. I’m thirty.”

“You should throw those books away.”

“Like, in the garbage?”

“Like that.”

“Sacrilege. It would be.”

“Do you hang on to clothes you haven’t worn for ten years? Or bags of pasta, or cans of beans?” Danielle did not need to answer. “What is it about books? Perfectly rational people get crazy about their books. Who has time for that?”

“I measure my life out in books.”

“You should be measuring your life by living. Correction: you shouldn’t be measuring your life. What’s the point?”

Ultimately, The Emperor’s Children is a richly drawn, well-observed story of how these friends and relatives navigate their world. The characters develop naturally over the course of the story, and while they felt rather cookie-cutter at the beginning, they quickly developed their own voices. Despite the sometime-trouble I had with Messud’s drawn-out prose-style, this is a recommended read. I’ll be sure to read her latest novel, The Woman Upstairs, very soon.

Mini-Review: “A Time to Kill” by John Grisham (Arrow)

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GrishamJ-ATimeToKillGrisham’s debut novel didn’t really work for me, sadly…

When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the monsters who have raped his ten-year-old child, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal.

But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice.

Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It’s the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer. But in the maelstrom of Clanton, it is also the kind of case that could get a young lawyer killed.

The story of Grisham giving away millions of dollars’ worth of A Time to Kill first editions is pretty well-known, now. After his first publisher went bankrupt, Grisham had to buy 1,000 copies of the 5,000 print run. Here’s what he told Newsweek:

“I took all the books down to the local library and we had a big book party. When the party was over, I still owned 882 copies… so I started giving books away. We took them back to my office and packed them in the reception area. The boxes were everywhere, and I would just give them away. If one of my clients wanted a book, I’d try to sell it. If not, I’d give it away. I’d sell them for 10 bucks, five bucks. I used them for doorstops. I couldn’t get rid of these books… These 5,000 books were the only first editions of A Time to Kill. That book today is worth about $4,000. I had 1,500 of them in my law office at one time. So that’s my big mistake — that’s about $6 million, the way I do the math.”

When I re-read A Time To Kill recently, I found it rather tricky. I’m a huge fan of Grisham’s novels, and have read them all – only two haven’t hit the mark for me (The Street Lawyer and, sadly, this one). But this one just didn’t have the skill and addictive quality of his later work. Mainly, that boils down to the way in which it was written, rather than the story itself, which is pretty great.

Put simply: it’s not as polished as the novels that came afterwards. Sure, it’s a great story and premise, and it is – for the most part – well structured. However. The novel is nevertheless over-written and the content shows a distinct lack of authorial and editorial restraint. Grisham, and his characters, describe and explain everything. One sees only the early signs of the master storyteller he would become. There are plenty of tangents that aren’t quite as well incorporated to the main narrative as it perhaps could have been. They also often felt longer than was necessary. Despite this niggle, though, I kept reading.

One thing I do want to point out, and a major plus, is that Grisham doesn’t pull any punches. His characters are well-developed, diverse, and each of them is a mix of good and bad traits. I can’t really comment on how True To Its Times it is, as I only six when this was first published. But the community and society are presented in a pretty open-eyed manner. The racism, divisions, mores are laid bare for the reader. The characters are what make the novel, though. The story, if the writing had been a little more polished and restrained, would have been superb – perhaps why it worked so well as a movie?

I’m certainly interested to see how Sycamore Row turned out (I have it on my Kindle already, just need to read it): the same main character, combined with his years of experience and authorial improvement? It could be a stunning thriller. I think I’ll have to move it up the TBR mountain. Grisham fans will enjoy it, but I’m not sure they’ll like this as much as his later novels (or, really, immediately following novels…).

“Apocalypse Now Now” by Charlie Human (Century)

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Human-ApocalypseNowNow-UKA bonkers, fascinating, twisted debut urban fantasy

I love the smell of parallel dimensions in the morning.

Baxter Zevcenko’s life is pretty sweet. As the 16-year-old kingpin of the Spider, his smut-peddling schoolyard syndicate, he’s making a name for himself as an up-and-coming entrepreneur. Profits are on the rise, the other gangs are staying out of his business, and he’s going out with Esme, the girl of his dreams.

But when Esme gets kidnapped, and all the clues point towards strange forces at work, things start to get seriously weird. The only man drunk enough to help is a bearded, booze-soaked, supernatural bounty hunter that goes by the name of Jackson ‘Jackie’ Ronin.

Plunged into the increasingly bizarre landscape of Cape Town’s supernatural underworld, Baxter and Ronin team up to save Esme. On a journey that takes them through the realms of impossibility, they must face every conceivable nightmare to get her back, including the odd brush with the Apocalypse.

This is an extremely strong debut novel, from an author who exhibits a great deal of talent and potential. Apocalypse Now Now is bonkers, twisted, very funny, and utterly engaging. I read this a little while ago, but Human’s characters and writing have stayed with me. The author channels the best of Urban Fantasy, makes it his own, and blends it with a Hunter S. Thompson-esque flair for language. This was a lot of fun.

[Full disclosure: I now work for Charlie Human’s agent. So I probably shouldn’t be reviewing this, but I loved it and wanted to at least write something.]

Baxter is an interesting and fun guide to the Cape Town supernatural underground. He is not your typical teenager. He’s possibly crazy, Machiavellian, a little paranoid, and definitely sociopathic. He picks on his brother, who is slightly mentally handicapped. He’s unpleasant to a lot of people. He runs a porn-ring. He goes to a fancy-ish school in Cape Town:

Like all prominent high schools in the leafy Southern Suburbs we have lush school grounds, sophisticated computer labs that were out of date as soon as they were installed, a debating team, a competitive rugby team, and gangs, drugs, bulimia, depression and bullying.

It’s an ecosystem; a microcosm of the political, economic and military forces that shape the world. Some high-school kids worry about being popular or about getting good marks. I worry about maintaining a fragile gang treaty that holds Westridge together. Horses for courses, as my dad says.

The first two-thirds of the novel make up what has to be the strongest start to a debut series I’ve read in a very long time. We get a superb, guided tour of Cape Town’s underground, and also plenty of interesting asides about South African folklore and mysticism. The story builds to a rather strange ‘Big Boss Fight’, which I didn’t find quite as compelling as the world-building and character-development in the first two-thirds of the book. True, there’s a lot of world-building and attention to establishing the characters, but I was never bored. In fact, I would have happily read even more of his creations. I haven’t come across a more-immediately-gripping UF series than this.

I felt I really got to know Baxter, the members of the Spider (especially Kyle, Baxter’s closest friend), Ronin and everyone else. They interact realistically, they bitch and gripe at each other. Baxter makes the adults he interacts with extremely uncomfortable. Maybe the only character who wasn’t expertly incorporated into the story was Esme, which is strange, given that her kidnapping forms much of Baxter’s motivation in the story… A minor weakness, though, in an otherwise superb novel.

Human’s writing is immediate, addictive, funny, and expertly crafted. The humour is natural, understated, often rather dark, and I often chuckled and laughed-out-loud on the train and Tube. Baxter’s internal monologues (and dialogues, as it turns out… just read it) are cynical, fresh, and often very funny. It’s like he sees the world with one eyebrow permanently raised.

Encouraging a sweet and fragile teacher – distraught at the thought that we don’t care about her class, and driven to hysteria by consistent and vicious undermining of her authority – to throw herself from the second storey is wrong. But it’s also fun.

Human-ApocalypseNowNow-SAThis is a pretty short (somewhat disjointed) review, I know. But this is a novel that has to be read to be properly appreciated. I could provide near-endless quotations and descriptions of his original and brilliant creations. But that would rob the novel of its impact, when you pick it up yourself (which you must!). I’d love to sit down and chat with people who have read this, going through various plot points, jokes, etc., in more detail. I took a greater-than-normal amount of notes, mainly favourite quotations and jokes. Let’s hope plenty of other people read it, so I have others to chat to about it.

Needless to say, Charlie Human has proven that Urban Fantasy is still a very vibrant and diverse genre, with considerable scope for originality and invention. He’s also messed around with a lot of the genre’s tropes, twisting things into new shapes, while remaining true to some classic themes and aesthetics. I really can’t wait for the second novel in the series. (It’s on its way.) Cape Town is a refreshing location for the story, and adds so much to how the author has created his supernatural community and mythology. It’s really great.

I recommend this very highly to anyone with even a slight interest in Urban Fantasy. Also, to just anyone who’s looking for something original, very well-written, funny, dark, and genre-blending. Charlie is definitely an author to watch, and I think we’re still only scratching the surface of what he can, and will do.

Apocalypse Now Now is out, uh, now in the UK.

Upcoming: Star Wars EMPIRE & REBELLION (Lucas Books/Random House)

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The first novel in this series was announced quite a while ago, I think (super-excited for it, and I already have an ARC!). Today, however, I stumbled across some bare-bones preliminary information about book two, which has just ratcheted up my interest in the series to new heights. Here’s what I know so far…

Wells-SW-RazorsEdgeThe first novel, RAZOR’S EDGE, is written by critically acclaimed author Martha Wells, an author who has been on my radar for ages – and yet, as is becoming ever-more the case with me, still unread. With my long-held love for all things Star Wars, I can see this being my introduction to Wells’s writing. Here’s the synopsis…

Times are desperate for the Rebel Alliance. Harassment by the Empire and a shortage of vital supplies are hindering completion of a new secret base on the ice planet Hoth. So when Mid Rim merchants offer much-needed materials for sale, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo lead an Alliance delegation to negotiate a deal.

But when treachery forces the rebel ship to flee into territory controlled by pirates, Leia makes a shocking discovery: the fierce marauders come from Leia’s homeworld of Alderaan, recently destroyed by the Death Star. These refugees have turned to pillaging and plundering to survive — and they are in debt to a pirate armada, which will gladly ransom the princess to the vengeful Empire… if they find out her true identity.

Struggling with intense feelings of guilt, loyalty, and betrayal, Leia is determined to help her wayward kinspeople, even as Imperial forces are closing in on her own crippled ship. Trapped between lethal cutthroats and brutal oppressors, Leia and Han, along with Luke, Chewbacca, and a battle-ready crew, must defy death — or embrace it — to keep the rebellion alive.

Corey-SW-HonorAmongThievesToday, I stumbled across the cover for the second novel in this series: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, which will be written by James S.A. Corey (the pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank). This novel is due for publication around March 2014, but I wasn’t able to find much more other than the cover on the internet (Random House’s page for the novel is effectively blank). I did find this nugget from the Star Wars Books Facebook page…

The book, set in the classic era, is a stand alone adventure and is scheduled for publication in Spring ’14. Our editor-at-large, Shelly Shapiro, received the manuscript last week and posted on this page the other day “I am super enjoying the Star Wars manuscript I’m reading right now.” I loved Corey’s LEVIATHAN WAKES so I’m very excited to read this Han and Chewie romp through the GFFA.

All-in-all, I think we’re in for some great new Star Wars novels. Colour me utterly intrigued and impatient…

Guest Post: A Letter to Readers, by Peter Stenson

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This guest post is adapted from a letter author Peter Stenson wrote connected to his new novel, FIEND, which is published today by William Heinemann in the UK. The novel is published by Crown Publishing in the US (both are imprints of Random House). It is the story of the journey he had to travel before he got to a place in which he could write the novel.

FIEND has been described as “Breaking Bad Meets The Walking Dead”, and is currently sitting very near the top of my To-Be-Read mountain. Expect more on the blog very soon.

Stenson-Fiend

*

Dear Readers,

I’d been kicked out of high school and had run away to San Francisco with a hundred dollars to my name. I had a pretty healthy addiction to opiates going and was still a year away from being able to vote. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire.

It was New Year’s Eve and I don’t remember exactly how I made my way to a hotel downtown, but I did. It was full of Phish-type kids who were there for some concerts. There were lots of dreadlocks and cocked hats and sagged pants and patchouli. There were even more faces made concave from malnutrition and narcotics. I stumbled around looking for somebody I knew or at least a place to sit down. Everything was red and gold and seemed to slither. Hundreds of other kids did the same thing. I was struck by the idea that some fundamental aspect of our being—whatever the hell it was that made us human and alive—was missing.

Fast-forward six months. I’d relocated to Washington and was living in a halfway house for adolescents. Life was beginning not to suck. I was sober, my parents spoke to me, I was holding down a job, and I was learning that I could find joy outside of chemicals. The main newfound joy was spending my afternoons in a small used bookstore. I’d go there after work and sit in the literature section poring over the cracked spines of books. I spent what little money I had purchasing said books, oftentimes devouring them that same day. I had my quintessential love affair with literature (albeit a little later than most) sitting on that red carpet, huffing the musty pages of those novels. And it was there that I realized I wanted to be a writer.

Both of these memories have stuck with me ever since. I’ve been sober now for a decade and can’t so much as imagine traveling to a city without a hotel reservation, never mind running away two thousand miles. But I’ve never forgotten that moment when I conflated addict and walking-dead as one, nor the accompanying realization that these kids, like myself then, would do anything and everything to keep the high going.

Fiend is born out of that memory and those realizations. I wanted to tell a story of addiction, and strangely, the most honest way I could portray the kind of addiction I knew was to set the story against the background of zombies. I also made methamphetamines a “cure” of sorts so that quitting would not be an option—and so I could see what depths my characters were willing to sink to in order to stay alive.

PeterStensonAnd as for my other memory, the one about spending every afternoon for six months sitting in a shoebox of a used bookstore, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about the thought of my book stacked on your shelves. To be amongst the novels that helped give me a purpose—well, I know I’m supposed to be a writer, but the words are failing me here. Because I can’t express how much that means to me.

Sincerely,

Peter Stenson

***

Here’s the synopsis for the novel…

When Chase sees the little girl in umbrella socks savaging the Rottweiler, he’s not too concerned. As someone who‘s been smoking meth every day for as long as he can remember, he’s no stranger to such horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations. But as he and his fellow junkies discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived. And with Chase’s life already destroyed beyond all hope of redemption, Armageddon might actually be an opportunity — a last chance to hit restart and become the person he once dreamed of being. Soon Chase is fighting to reconnect with his lost love and dreaming of becoming her hero among the ruins. But is salvation just another pipe dream?

Upcoming: “Apocalypse Now Now” by Charlie Human (Century)

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Feast your eyes on this twisted, visual delight…

Human-ApocalypseNowNow-UK

This is, as I’m sure you can gather, the cover for South African author Charlie Human’s debut novel, Apocalypse Now Now. The cover was first unveiled on the always awesome Pornokitsch (whose post also has an interview with Charlie Joey Hi-Fi – go check it out).

I’ve been hearing about this book a lot recently (from one person in particular…), and he has done a sufficiently excellent job of making me ridiculously excited to get my grubby mitts on a copy.

Baxter Zevcenko is your average sixteen-year-old-boy — if by average you mean kingpin of a schoolyard porn syndicate and possible serial killer who suffers from surreal  nightmares. Which may very well be what counts as average these days. Baxter is the first to admit that he’s not a nice guy. After all, if the guy below you falls, dragging you down into an icy abyss you have to cut him loose — even in high school. That is until his girlfriend, Esmé, is kidnapped and Baxter is forced to confront a disturbing fact about himself — that he has a heart, and the damn thing is forcing him to abandon high-school politics and set out on a quest to find her. The clues point to supernatural forces at work and Baxter is must admit that he can’t do it alone. Enter Jackie Ronin, supernatural bounty hunter, Border War veteran, and all-round lunatic, who takes him on a chaotic tour of Cape Town’s sweaty, occult underbelly.

What do glowing men, transsexual African valkyries, and zombie-creating arachnids have to do with Esmé’s disappearance? That’s what Baxter really, really needs to find out.

The cover at the top, by Joey Hi-Fi, is the UK edition (to be published by Century in August 2013), but Apocalypse Now Now will also be graced with an equally sinister and moody cover (also by Joey Hi-Fi) in the author’s native South Africa:

Human-ApocalypseNowNow-SA

“The Wolf Gift” by Anne Rice (Arrow/Random House)

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Rice-WolfGift-UKPB

After reinventing the Vampire for modern literature, Anne Rice turns her attentions to Werewolf mythology with great success

MAN OR MONSTER?

After a brutal attack Reuben finds himself changing. His hair is longer, his skin is more sensitive and her can hear things he never could before.

Now he must confront the beast within him or lose himself completely.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before on the site, but Anne Rice is one of my favourite authors. Reading the Vampire Chronicles was a turning point in my life as a reader, and indeed set me on the path that turned me into as voracious a reader as I am today. The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned have been re-read so many times, I almost know them off by heart. It was with great interest, therefore, that I started reading The Wolf Gift – after redefining vampire fiction with her novels, I was really interested to see what Rice could do with that other supernatural mainstay, the werewolf. What she’s come up with is pretty great.

As the story opens, our protagonist, Reuben, has been sent by the San Francisco Observer to write a piece about the uncertain future of the giant house at Nideck Point. He quickly falls in love with the grand mansion, and also a little with the elegant heiress, Marchent Nideck. It is a chance encounter between two unlikely people, one that leads to a magical evening that ends in a brutal and bloody attack. Stumbling about in the dark house, Reuben is bitten by an unseen beast. As dawn breaks, he is whisked to a San Francisco hospital (his mother is a leading surgeon, luckily). Kept under observation, Reuben starts undergoing a terrifying yet seductive transformation. His family and doctors are confounded by his recuperation and apparently-altered state.

Reuben’s transformation quickens after he leaves the hospital, and he soon assumes – temporarily each night – a savage, wolfen aspect. Strangely (and this is something that really set The Wolf Gift apart from Rice’s contemporary authors dabbling in werewolf fiction), in this were-state, Reuben develops the ability to sniff out, literally, evil. What follows is Reuben’s attempt to reconcile the beast component of his new gift and his apparent drive to do good. After the attack at Nideck Point, his editor assigns him the job of writing about each new “Man Wolf” attack and sighting. His nightly activities have San Franciscans and, eventually, others much further afield, enthralled: a Wulfen Super-Hero? Who has heard of such a thing? In addition, Reuben, with the help of a new ally and love-interest, attempts to find out more about his progenitors and his specie’s history. What is the connection with the mansion? How many others like him are there, prowling the night?

The story is fast-paced, and is nigh-impossible to put down. I really loved the overall pacing. Specifically, the fact that Reuben’s change isn’t sudden, nor is it particularly dramatic. He retains his humanity and mental faculties, and experiences heightened senses overall. He retains his personality, power of speech and so forth. I am particularly happy that Rice doesn’t have him turn into some over-sexed, cavorting, hirsute boy-toy.

As with the author’s vampire series, there is a sensual/sexual component to Reuben’s new state, but it is more a general pleasure at his new aspect and abilities, coupled with a near-orgasmic feeling that overcomes him during the change. It’s easy for a non-fan to poke fun at the current state of vampire and werewolf fiction, and the tendency for authors to, effectively, introduce these beasties into stories that are little more than Mills & Boon with supernatural overtones. Thankfully, Rice does not do this, and once again shows just how much can be done with these classic horror-creatures. This is a highly-original take on the werewolf mythology, and is as atmospheric and engrossing as her previous novels.

I’ve never really been able to put my finger on what it is, specifically, about Rice’s writing style and stories that hooks me so completely. The author’s prose is always expertly crafted, very fluid and her characters are always three-dimensional and stand-out examples of whatever type they have to be. The cast of The Wolf Gift is no exception. Reuben, his family, Laura, Felix et al, are all interesting, three-dimensional characters.

The Wolf Gift really offers a great reinterpretation of the werewolf myth: it’s very Rice-ian, in that it has far more nuance and grounding in mysterious, supernatural history. In fact, I think I only have one niggle with the novel, and that is that I think the book could have been longer. Rice’s descriptive passages were more sparse than I have come to expect from the author.

An interesting break with the norm for ‘origin’ stories, is that instead of front-loading the novel with history and bringing us up-to-date, Rice makes us wait, building up the narrative nicely to a very philosophical ‘history’ at the end. I think I would have preferred more history, but that comes from a deep, abiding affection for the author’s Vampire Chronicles and the historical portions of those tales. Whether Lois’s, Lestat’s, Marius’s, or Enkil & Akasha’s histories, they remain some of my all-time favourite passages – I have yet to find an author who can write the past as seductively and atmospherically as Rice.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the Vampire Chronicles marked a huge turning point in my reading (tastes and habits – never before did I spend hours on end, and days at a time reading one author’s books). And, multiple reads later, they are novels that have lived up to my fond memories.

Where Rice’s vampires were largely loners, or only tolerable of company for shorter periods of time, her werewolves are inherently pack animals. How Reuben straddles his past life and his new one is very nicely done. Her other characters find themselves in similar situations. The way they handle Reuben’s changes are also interesting: his surgeon mother, struggling to make sense of test results (or lack thereof), unable to understand what’s happening to her “Sunshine Boy”. His priest brother, whom he confides in, struggling to place Reuben’s new aspect within his belief system. Only one character’s interactions with Reuben were a little difficult to accept: Laura’s acceptance from first sight never rang true for me – I think I know what Rice was aiming for, but it needed more time to develop, in my humble opinion. Laura’s arrival in the novel was… surprising, and in the hands of any other author, that relationship would have likely been a disaster of poorly-written “erotic” supernatural bestiality. Stuart’s addition to the story was also rather sudden, and I think his part in the story, and rather rapid introduction, could have done with some better integration.

The Wolf Gift is a perfect example of how supernatural fiction does not have to be Mills & Boon With Beasties. Rice isn’t trying to make us comfortable, and Reuben’s bestial side is vividly portrayed. His vigilante acts are brutal and bloody. Rice really knows how to show-and-not-tell, though, which only makes her novels that much better than so very many of her contemporaries. (Much of what happens is obvious, but the “sex” scenes are very short, and non-graphic, and often off-screen).

Overall, this is a great novel. This is an interesting new set of characters, and I really hope we get to read more about them and the history of these werewolves.

Highly recommended.

***

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