Alice Borchardt

En La loba de plata, Alice Borchardt recreó de forma brillante el decadente esplendor de la Roma medieval a través del relato de Regeane, una joven y hermosa cambiaformas que luchaba para sobrevivir y amar como mujer y como loba. La noche del lobo se remonto aun mas, hasta los dias de Julio Cesar, cuando la belleza de una mujer hechizo a un lobo... despertando al hombre que habia permanecido dormido durante milenios en el salvaje corazon de la bestia; un hombre llamado Maeniel, y que se convertiria en el alma gemela de Regeane. Ahora Borchardt lleva la saga de estos dos extraordinarios amantes a nuevas y asombrosas cotas de imaginacion. El resultado es una novela cuyas paginas resuenan con magia, romance y aventura, una irresistible llamada al lado salvaje que todos albergamos.Los ejercitos de Carlomagno acampan en Ginebra, dispuestos a sumar Italia a la larga lista de conquistas de su señor. Al otro lado de los Alpes, las fuerzas mercenarias del corrupto rey Desiderius vigilan los pasos de montaña como gatos impacientes agazapados frente a la ratonera. Entre ambos bandos se abre una salvaje e inhospita tierra en la que los cambiaformas moran sin turbacion, protegidos por su lider Maeniel y su esposa Regeane. Pero ahora las guerras de los hombres amenazan con destruir la cuidadosa obra de siglos. La parte humana de Maeniel jura lealtad a Carlomagno... pero el lobo no reconoce a señor alguno.A pesar de todo, es como lobo y como hombre que Maeniel se embarca en una peligrosa mision en nombre de Carlomagno. Capturado, el cambiaformas es condenado a morir dos veces, una como espia y otra como demonio cambiante. Ahora, con la ayuda de un guerrero sajon cuyo amor presenta peligros propios, Regeane se enfrentara a las gelidas quebradas y simas de los Alpes para rescatar a su esposo, solo para descubrir que este es el cebo de una trampa tendida por un villano de su pasado mas oscuro, un hombre que no se detendra ante nada para reclamar la venganza con la que sueña.Pero hay mas enemigos al acecho. Tras la maraña de ambiciones y animosidades que mueven tanto a reyes como a plebeyos, un antiguo mal ansia una venganza propia, una que reclama la sangre de Maeniel, de Regeane... y de toda la humanidad.

Nacida en las Tierras Altas, Guinevere se ha hecho mujer y ha aceptado el poder que le ofrecerá el trono del Dragón. Para proteger su amada tierra de la avaricia insaciable de los saqueadores sajones, debera dirigir una ofensiva. El ejercito que logra reunir esta formado por los mas debiles, pero aun asi tienen que ponerse en marcha. Si fracasan, sus enemigos dominaran tierra y mar.En su primera batalla contra los piratas, Guinevere invoca a los espiritus de los muertos. Inmersa en las oscuras profundidades, comprende mas del odio, el amor, la rabia y la venganza, de lo que nunca quiso saber. El poder de los muertos tiene un elevado precio.Mucho mas al sur, Zarpa Negra, su compañero de infancia, parte en soledad. Con el poder de la transformacion e hijo del padre adoptivo de Guinevere, mitad hombre mitad lobo, Zarpa Negra (que pronto se convertira en Lancelot) descubre su gran fortaleza interior y una intensa pasion al conocer a la Dama del Lago. Y cuando Lancelot y Guinevere se encuentran finalmente, las consecuencias de las experiencias que ambos han vivido desatan un torrente de angustia y deseo.

Los ejércitos de Carlomagno acampan en Ginebra, dispuestos a sumar Italia a la larga lista de conquistas de su señor. Al otro lado de los Alpes, las fuerzas mercenarias del corrupto rey Desiderius vigilan los pasos de montaña como gatos impacientes agazapados frente a laratonera. Entre ambos bandos se abre una salvaje e inhospita tierra en la que los cambiaformas moran sin turbacion, protegidos por su lider Maeniel y su esposa Regeane.Pero ahora las guerras de los hombres amenazan con destruir la cuidadosa obra de siglos. La parte humana de Maeniel jura lealtad a Carlomagno... pero el lobo no reconoce a señor alguno.A pesar de todo, es como lobo y como hombre que Maeniel se embarca en una peligrosa mision en nombre de Carlomagno. Capturado, el cambiaformas es condenado a morir dos veces, una como espia y otra como demonio cambiante. Ahora, con la ayuda de un guerrero sajon cuyo amor presenta peligros propios, Regeane se enfrentara a las gelidas quebradas y simas de los Alpes para rescatar a su esposo, solo para descubrir que este es el cebo de una trampa tendida por un villano de su pasado mas oscuro, un hombre que no se detendra ante nada para reclamar la venganza con la que sueña.

Arturo se dio la vuelta y vino resueltamente hacia nosotros. Estaba espléndido, y nunca olvidaré que en ese momento comencé a amarlo. Y ya nunca dejé de hacerlo. Nunca nadie me ha provocado tanta pena, dolor y alegria como el. Ni siquier apor mis hijos he sentido el amor que le profeso todavia ahora. Y creo que aunque hubiera sabido lo que nos deperaba el futuro (preocupaciones, tormentos, batallas y penas), aun asi le habria entregado mi corazon tal como hice entonces. Asi expresa la reina Ginebra su amor por Arturo. Especial Literatura Fantastica

It is that time known as the Dark Ages, the Romans have abandoned Britains shores, leaving behind a brutal, fear-filled twilight world where magic and superstition, strife and warfare hold sway. Into this world is born the daughter of a pagan queen. Her name is Guinevere and to the all-seeing, power-hungry sorceror Merlin, she represents a grave threat. Sent into hiding in the remote north, she grows up under the protection of a shape-shifting wolf and a wayward druid, watched over by dragons - yet through his dark arts, Merlin tracks her down. He knows her destiny and will stop at nothing to prevent what has been foretold. For if Guinevere becomes queen and Arthur, king, together they will bring a peace to the land that will leave the sorcerer but a shrivelled and empty old magiciain in a weary cloak. What Merlin doesnt realise is that Guinevere has inherited dazzling powers of her own. With Arthur trapped in a netherworld from which the only escape is death, Guinevere must call upon the ancient, primal spirits and beings who walked this earth when it was still young to help her in her final confrontation with the High Druid himself...Dark, exciting, highly original and utterly compelling, THE DRAGON QUEEN is set in a brutal, grittily and historically authentic Celtic world where the Pagan and the Christian battle for supremacy. Full of wild magic, both benign and malign, romance, superstition, wonder, bloody battles and wonderfully well-wrought characters, and written with a fresh, contemporary voice, this novel turns the legend of King Arthur and his mercurial queen well and truly on its head.

Born of the Highlands, along shores washed by northern seas, Guinevere has accepted the power offered to her by the Dragon Throne and been crowned Queen.Her first duty must be to her homeland and her people, to protect them from the reviled Saxon raiders. Instinct tells her she must strike first or surrender control of the seas, but her chieftains and warlords refuse to accept that their new queen, barely a woman, can know anything of the art of war and offer her an army of misfits and outcasts. Young and untried, Guinevere knows she cannot - must not - fail. Sailing to confront the hated enemy with only this motley band of ill-equipped fighters at her side, she summons the spirits of the dead. But there is a terrible price to pay for their help - a knowledge that will change her utterly.As Guinevere faces the first great test of her reign, so her childhood companion, Black Leg - the shape-shifting son of her adoptive father - begins his own quest to become a man and warrior worthy of this new queen. In his wanderings, he will endure trials both mental and physical, discover inner strengths and, with the Lady of the Lake, primal passions, each experience more perilous, more terrifying, than the last. And when he and Guinevere are finally reunited, the consequences of both their ordeals will unleash a torrent of anguish and desire. For he is the Raven Warrior, the one who will be called Lancelot... Set during the dark age when history and myth collide, The Raven Warrior continues Alice Borchardts breathtaking re-imagining of the timeless tale of a king called Arthur and, of course, of his mercurial queen, Guinevere.

In this new historical romantic fantasy of stunning originality and scope, Alice Borchardt breathes life into a bygone age, brilliantly recreating a sensuous, violent world--and the men and women whose grand ambitions, betrayals, and passions shape the era in which they live and die.Decadent Rome at the dawn of the Dark Ages is mired in crumbling grandeur. Now, into the Eternal City comes Regeane, a beautiful young woman distantly related, through her dead mother, to Charlemagne. Regeanes regal blood renders her an unwilling pawn in the struggle for political power. But unknown to those plotting against her, the blood she has inherited from her murdered father makes her much more than a child of royalty. Possessed of preternatural agility and strength, primal memories extending back thousands of years, and senses so keen they can pierce the veil of death itself, Regeane is a shapeshifter: woman and wolf, hunter and hunted.Betrothed by Charlemagnes command to a barbarian lord she has never seen, Regeane is surrounded by enemies. The most notorious, her depraved uncle and guardian, will not scruple to betray her to the Church unless she aids him in his sinister schemes. And if the Church discovers her secret, Regeane will burn at the stake. Yet Regeane finds allies as well: Lucilla, rumored to be the private courtesan of Pope Hadrian himself; Antonius, a wise and gentle soul trapped within a body grotesquely disfigured by disease; and the little Saxon girl Elfgifa, brave beyond her years, with a tongue as sharp as a blade.Outside the gates of Rome, baying on the moonlit expanses of the Campagna, there is a mysterious dark wolf whose scent makes the animal in Regeane tremble with desire. Now, as an infamous stranger prepares to claim his bride, deadly plots and counter plots tighten like a noose around her neck, Regeane must fight to live with dignity as the proud creature she is: civilized and savage, woman and wolf, partaking of both yet infinitely more than either . . .Lyrical, fast-paced, sensual, and rich with historical detail and deep insights into the heart, The Silver Wolf catapults Alice Borchardt squarely into the front rank of contemporary women writers. Her intricate plot and hypnotic voice will cast a spell that few will be able to resist.

A writer with . . . vision and scope . . . breathtaking, shimmering prose.Anne RiceThe armies of Charlemagne are poised to conquer Italy. The human side of shapeshifter Maeniel owes allegiance to Charlemagne. But the wolf acknowledges no master. Still, it is as both wolf and man that he embarks on a hazardous mission for the emperor. Captured, Maeniel is condemned to death.Now, with the help of a Saxon warrior whose love poses dangers of its own, Maeniels soul mate, Regeane, will brave the icy crags and crevices of the Alps to rescue her husband, only to find that he is the bait in a trap set for her by a villainous man from her darkest past. But there is another enemy at work. Behind the tangle of ambitions and animosities driving kings and commoners alike, an ancient evil thirsts for a revenge of its own: a revenge that demands the blood of Maeniel and Regeaneand of all humanity.Action and intrigue-filled . . . Borchardts strength . . . is her deeply researched setting, which brings alive the barbaric era after the fall of the Roman Empire.Publishers Weekly

The Silver Wolf, Alice Borchardts acclaimed novel of a shapeshifters struggle to survive as woman and wolf amid the Dark Ages, announced the arrival of a ferociously gifted writer. Now, with her masterful weaving of adventure, history, and magic, Borchardt delves deeper into the shape-shifter legend, and brings an earlier, more savage time brilliantly to life.The fearsome legions of Julius Caesar have crushed resistance to Roman rule. The power of the druids is broken; the shattered tribes retreating to the dubious safety of the high mountains or fleeing north into lands as inhospitable as those left behind. Watching all the while through yellow eyes afire with curiosity and intelligence is Maeniel, a gray wolf . . . who is also a man.This is not the Maeniel of The Silver Wolf. Not the mature shapeshifter, secure in his dual nature, whose hard-won wisdom is the equal of his preternatural strength and passion. That Maeniel will not exist for another eight hundred years. Now he is a stranger to his human half, his reason chained to instinct. Yet as the ancient civilization of the Gallic tribes is systematically destroyed around him, a new Maeniel is about to be born from the ruins.It begins with a woman. She is Imona: young, proud, beautiful. The sight of her fills Maeniel with unfamiliar feelings and desires, triggering his transformation from wolf to man. In her arms he learns for the first time what it means to love. It is a knowledge that will change him forever. For when Imona vanishes following a Roman massacre, Maeniel begins to learn a very different lesson. Following Imonas trail as wolf and man, Maeniel is himself pursued by a warrior woman sworn to kill him. She is Dryas, a queen without a kingdom. But the two adversaries will prove to have much in common. And the hunt upon which they embark will lead them farther than they can imagine: to the gates of Rome itself. To the gates of their very souls . . . With Night of the Wolf, Alice Borchardt has given us another triumph of soaring imagination and adventure. By turns lyrical, sensuous, and violent, hers is a vision of the past that will stir both heart and mind. Her writing will possess you like a fever . . . and haunt you like a voluptuous dream.