Japanese Light Novel Book Club discussion

The life of a traveling merchant is a lonely one, a fact with which Kraft Lawrence is well acquainted. Wandering from town to town with just his horse, cart, and whatever wares have come his way, the peddler has pretty well settled into his routine-that is, until the night Lawrence finds a wolf goddess asleep in his cart. Taking the form of a fetching girl with wolf ears and a tail, Holo has wearied of tending to harvests in the countryside and strikes up a bargain with the merchant to lend him the cunning of "Holo the Wisewolf" to increase his profits in exchange for taking her along on his travels. What kind of businessman could turn down such an offer? Lawrence soon learns, though, that having an ancient goddess as a traveling companion can be a bit of a mixed blessing. Will this wolf girl turn out to be too wild to tame?

Discuss Spice & Wolf volume 1 here!

9/28-10/4 Prologue & Chapter 1
10/5-10/11 Chapter 2
10/12-10/18 Chapter 3
10/19-10/25 Chapter 4
10/26-11/1 Chapter 5
11/2-11/8 Chapter 6 & Epilogue

Also so you know, you don't have to follow the reading schedule. That's just an easy way for the group to know when most people are where.

I'll likely be a little behind this schedule, but I loved the anime and this has been sitting on the shelf for a while so I'll definitely join in at some point. :)

We are officially starting this week!

This week, we'll be reading and discussing the prologue and chapter 1.

This is actually a reread for me, and I'm loving it. :)

I've read the prologue and am about halfway through chapter 1.

Love Lawrence. He's got a certain... *tries to think of a word* cunning and sneaky streak. He's very good at pumping for information, it seems, though as a traveling merchant, he'd have to be.

What does everyone else think so far?

Coincidentally, I just finished this recently. I loved the book. I think Holo really makes the book. She's just a wonderful character.

Tim wrote: "Coincidentally, I just finished this recently. I loved the book. I think Holo really makes the book. She's just a wonderful character."

Totally agree. Someone's I wonder if the title, "Spice & Wolf" refers just to Holo rather than Lawrence and Holo, lol.

Just finished rereading chapter 1.

I wonder what you all think of it so far? Is anyone else reading Spice & Wolf?

Hope to be starting soon. :)

Mike wrote: "Hope to be starting soon. :)"

Thanks. Felt a bit lonely talking mostly to myself. X3

"I would never have thought to cover my face because of burns...

"The burns would become part of me, just like my ears and tail. Proof of my uniqueness."

Lines like these make me love Holo.

Just finished Chapter 2.

The plot for this book is now introduced. On to merchant business!

Read chapter 1: Nice introduction to Holo and Lawrence and the book's premise. The writing and descriptions are very good, but the anime conveyed atmosphere so beautifully I am finding it a little lacking in comparison. Thankfully the opportunity to spotlight and detail the characters (particularly Holo) is making up for it.

"The full moon was bright, but that did not guarantee that he wouldn't fall into the river - and if that happened, calling it a 'disaster' would be an understatement. He'd have to hang himself. That kind of trouble he didn't need."

Am I just being dense or missing something, or is this passage really odd?

Finished chapter 2. Like the anime the interactions between Holo and Lawrence are the highlight for me. The teasing relationship intertwined with dramatic examples of their different natures is pitch perfect.

Mike wrote: ""The full moon was bright, but that did not guarantee that he wouldn't fall into the river - and if that happened, calling it a 'disaster' would be an understatement. He'd have to hang himself. That kind of trouble he didn't need."

Am I just being dense or missing something, or is this passage really odd? "

I think it's kinda Lawrence's thoughts as he goes. I didn't find it odd, just a different construction than usual. He's basically saying that even though the moon's bright, he might still fall in the river and (presumably) his wares would wash away. Then he'd be left destitute, and for a traveling merchant, that's really bad.

I guess. The got the same interpretation, but the last two sentences bothered me. The last is weird and unnecessary, especially with the italicized emphasis, immediately following a statement that things would be so bad he might as well kill himself. Really? He needs to point out being driven to suicide is trouble he doesn't need? Leaving it off or swapping the order of the last two sentences would've flowed much better in my opinion. I just found it really jarring and it forcibly yanked me out of the story for a moment. But it could just be me.

It could have been weirdness in translation.

I think what the original may have been trying to get at is that Lawrence is practical to a fault. Also, he's been alone for so long, maybe his sense of what's normal has been warped (like suicide would be an inconvenient problem, rather than life-ending). I could just be reading into it too much, though.

I actually didn't notice that until you pointed it out. It is a bit odd, isn't it?

Hmm. Interesting take. Could be. Either way I think you're right - something's off with the translation here (or possibly the original). The writing's been solid otherwise though.

Read chapter 3. I'll admit to getting a little bored here. Still love the characters, but the long drawn out economic discussions are dragging for me without the anime's acting, visuals, music, etc to liven things up.

Yeah, sometimes the long economic explanations get a little tedious, but they don't do it very often.

Got through chapter 3.

I agree with you, Mike, the economic discussion did drag on for a bit. It's a really simple explanation, so it helped me understand what was going on on the merchant side (why the coin is such a big deal, etc.), but I kinda wish it was a little shorter.

Mike wrote: "I guess. The got the same interpretation, but the last two sentences bothered me. The last is weird and unnecessary, especially with the italicized emphasis, immediately following a statement that ..."

It's not just you I'm 3 books in(on the official translations) and I notice things like this occasionally. It seems like while they are doing paragraph level translations THANK GOD. It sometimes comes off a bit janky like that; almost like they are still trying to be to literal instead of being more loose with it. I'm pretty sure that specific line you are talking about is a idiom in Japanese that they translated instead of using an English one, because I know I have seen it a ton before especially in some of the more literal line by line fan translations.

Should I start reading it now? Take into consideration that I'm already reading 5 books atm..Basically, is it that good?

I gave the first book a 3/5 it's a good light romance/fantasy/economics book but it's not spectacular. I feel the later books of the series are stronger, but it's also only a light novel so you can blow though it really fast.

I wouldn't call Spice & Wolf a "light romance." As far as I've gotten (first two books), they're more like MC and side kick (though who is who is debatable depending on the conversation, lol). Maybe it's a little different later on, but for the first two volumes, there really isn't much on the romance front at all.

I do agree with fantasy and economics, though. And it's definitely a quick read. :)

Just finished Chapter 4!

Now the excitement starts. :)

How is everyone enjoying the book so far?

Chapter 4 - things are picking up and it's nice to see the intrigue handled at a better pace here and interspersed with some action.

Chapter 5 - The best chapter yet. The plot is moving but the real highlight here is the character interactions.

I'm enjoying this but despite the general high quality of the writing and usually being ok with slower stories I am finding this a little bit of a chore to read. Could be the style, could be just being spoiled by the anime (which made some changes that enhanced the tension and had better opportunity to enhance the atmosphere), the subject matter etc. Not sure. But something's missing here so far for me.

I've never seen the anime, so I can't comment (plan to watch the first season after I get through the first three books, since I hear that's what it covers). Spice & Wolf is especially slow for LN fare, and particularly dense.

Two more books of stories I'm already familiar with?! This could be rough…

Given my take so far I think you're definitely doing it in the right order. And I think you'll love the anime.

Finished - Strong ending that capitalized well on the threads laid down throughout the book. Despite my feelings that this wasn't quite what it could have been and that the anime surpassed it, it really is a great story at its core and Holo and Lawrence wonderful characters to travel along with.

Falling behind again. Just read Chapter 5.

Great escape time! They seem to make a lot of these in this series.

Just finished.

Loved that ending. I always laugh, no matter how many times I read it. It's just so Holo!

Spice and Wolf is definitely one of the best light novels around. It's not quite my favorite, but certainly up there in the top 10. I remember reading it, uh, I think...five months ago? Somewhere around there. I read it after I watched the anime and I have to admit, the anime was good, but the light novel was incredible.

So one vote for novel and one vote for the anime.

Has anyone read the manga for this? I know there is one because it started being released State-side around the same time as the light novel and I had a laugh that the manga was saran-wrapped but the LN wasn't.

The manga had some nudity if I remember right it wasn't really sexually potrayed but it existed so saran-wrap it. The anime was a good adaption of the material at the pace of 4 episodes a book.

Pretty much any B&N or Books a Million you go into will have both the LNs and Manga.

Aaron wrote: "The manga had some nudity if I remember right it wasn't really sexually potrayed but it existed so saran-wrap it. The anime was a good adaption of the material at the pace of 4 episodes a book.

P..."

I think the nudity was more symbolic of Holo being a wolf spirit not used to wearing clothes than anything else. I guess the people selling it thought the small amounts of nudity was worth the cost it would take to wrap it. Either way, the manga was only saran-wrapped because it actually showed the nudity whereas you can't show nudity in a book through the use of pictures (unless you add a few drawings, which I know LNs do).

Either way, I haven't read the manga yet. I'll have to wait until I read some of the other books on my to-read list before going out and buying those.

I'm with Brandon. It wasn't fanservice nudity. It was far too artistic for that. The images included in the LN, anyway.

Hi guys! When we start the second book?

Rodrigo wrote: "Hi guys! When we start the second book?"

There are currently no plans to read the second book as a group. If you'd like to start a thread for volume two and do a "buddy read" of sorts, I'd be game. :) Though, I need to finish a few of the books I'm currently reading with the group/buddy reads first (I should be done with them by the end of May).

As a group, we only read the first book (usually) and then we let people set up "buddy read" discussions for later books in the series. Take a look at the Kieli 2 and Kino no Tabi discussions for an idea of how those are normally set up. ;)

I have the second book so would be up for giving it a try at some point, though like Selena I have several things in the pile that would have to come first.

A buddy read has started for volume 2 if anyone's interested: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

A youtuber I follow who does anime song covers did one of the Spice & Wolf opening. Thought I would share, since it's really pretty. :)

https://youtu.be/SpYXISeKFPg

I just finished this book, It was really good! I'm interested to see how the story plays out in the next books.

update: A second anime television series adaptation premiered in April to September 2024.

All 24 of the original LN series were translated into English a/o August 2023.

The spring off LN series Wolf on the Parchment (aka Wolf & Parchment) has 10 volumes. The 10th volume will be published in English April, 2025.
This series focuses on the characters Cole and Myuri.