It's been ten years since Anne Rice swore off writing about her famous vampires. Then it became all about the werewolves. 
 Sadly, I doubt that "The Wolf Gift" is going to be as groundbreaking a novel as "Interview with the Vampire." There's an intriguing, suspenseful story in here, but it's buried in a quagmire of moral pondering, vigilante justice and a tepid love story that is more Anita Blake than Anne Rice. If it had been whittled down to half its size, it might have been worthwhile. 
 Journalist Reuben Golding arrives at the historic mansion of the beautiful Marchent Nideck, who spends the entire day educating him on the history of the house and her Uncle Felix, who vanished years ago (I wonder what that means). After a night of passion, Marchent is brutally murdered, and Reuben is viciously attacked by a savage beast. 
 After weeks of recovery, Reuben's body is better than ever. And then he turns into a werewolf... or "Man Wolf," since Rice doesn't seem to like the term "werewolf." This includes not only super-strength and super-senses, but... an ability to sniff out evil. (Really? What does evil smell like?) 
 When he isn't swooping in to save innocents, Reuben is romancing the elegant and beautiful Laura, who (fortunately for him) has no problem with anonymous furry sex with naked beast-men. But when another werewolf comes to the mansion to kill them both, Reuben discovers that the shapeshifters -- aka the Morphenkinder -- are coming because of his highly-publicized actions. 
 If you've ever read the Vampire Chronicles, then you pretty much know what you're in for in "The Wolf Gift." Rice simply isn't suited for (or interested in) writing about the wild savage danger that makes werewolf stories so enthralling. The Morphenkinder are basically her vampires with fur and fangs. 
 But there's an even bigger problem -- almost nothing happens. "The Wolf Gift" has a sliver of plot, bloated up on Reuben playing Werewolf Batman and having endless rambling conversation. Except the werewolf attack, that is literally ALL that happens in the first half of the book. And even when something shocking does happen in the second half (Marrok's attack, Reuben accidentally infecting a teen), nobody really does anything. 
 Rice is definitely back in form as far as lush, sensual prose and evocative atmosphere are concerned, although her dialogue can be very hackneyed ("And so you will be my wild man of the forest again as we make love"). But she seems to have lost the ability to write tension and urgency, let alone conflict (Reuben's fiancee shrugs off that he cheated on her). Everybody's just okay with whatever Reuben does. 
 And Reuben's romance with Laura is horrendously shallow, since they fall in "true love" without even speaking to each other, seemingly based on the fact that she likes having sex with furries. 
 Reuben is a nice enough character, but he's too charmed a protagonist to be really engaging -- he has wealth, dazzling looks, an instant A-list career, and women who are desperate to bed him. It's obvious he won't encounter any actual obstacles or losses. The supporting cast is even flimsier, with the saintly gay kid, Reuben's blandly convenient ex-girlfriend, his neurotic mother, and chauffeur/sex doll Laura. 
 "The Wolf Gift" has some promising ideas and solid writing, but Anne Rice's werewolf debut left me howling at the moon -- and not in a good way. Give this one a pass.