The first volume of Spice & Wolf was one of the better light novels I've read. I finally decided to read the second volume. If you've seen the anime: the second half of season 1 covers the events of this volume. It's been long enough since I last saw the show that I'm not entirely sure which details differ, but the general events are the same.

Holo and Lawrence are still traveling together, and, with Holo's help, Lawrence is able to get a really good deal on a wagon-load of armor. Lawrence knows that, at this time of year, armor sells pretty well at their next stop, Ruvinheigen, and the money would bring him one step closer to his dream, settling down and opening a shop.

Then things turn very sour. Lawrence learns that his wagon-load of armor is now worth one tenth what he'd estimated. He has two days to repay his debt to the Remelio Company, which is itself close to bankruptcy because of armor's sudden drop in value. The guild Lawrence is associated with can't lend him money, and neither can other guild members. If he can't repay his debt, he'll be sold into slavery. Holo could transform into a wolf and help him escape the city, but his life as a merchant would be over and he would be on the run forever.

A good chunk of my description could be considered a spoiler, because Lawrence doesn't find out the bad news about the armor until halfway through the volume. That was one of the things I didn't like about this book: the pacing. Although the introduction of Norah, the shepherdess, was necessary, and it was nice to see Holo and Lawrence bickering and flirting, I wish Hasekura could have tightened all that up. The first half of the book was a bit of a slog for me, as I waited for something to actually happen. The second half was much more exciting.

It did not help that the writing/translation (it's hard to be sure which one is the problem) could have used some improvement. Some sentences were a little strange, such as this one, describing Holo's reaction to Lawrence's description of peaches preserved in honey: “Her eyes were moist and blurred with overflowing anticipation” (17). And this, after Lawrence learned the bad news: “Lawrence's hoarse voice was all that tied him to reality” (124). The “him” that sentence referred to was Lawrence, so Lawrence's own voice was tying Lawrence to reality. I understood the general meaning, “Lawrence is deeply upset and in shock,” but it could have been phrased better.

I also noticed that Hasekura had a bad habit of telling readers in the narrative what would have been better communicated via dialogue. For example, there was one bit near the end where it seemed like Lawrence was thinking about ways his group could avoid being taken down by wolves. However, the two paragraphs outlining a possible strategy ended with this: “Lawrence listened to Holo's hasty explanation and saw that Norah moved to do just that [kill one of the wolves]” (224). It wasn't until that point that I realized the two paragraphs of strategy were actually things Holo had been telling Lawrence and Norah. It would have been much clearer if Hasekura had written it as dialogue.

That doesn't mean I hated the book – it just means I'd hesitate to recommend it to someone who wasn't already an anime/manga/light novel fan and willing to put up with less-than-stellar writing. Spice & Wolf is still one of the better series I've come across.

The things I enjoyed about this book: Holo and Lawrence's relationship, the world details and the way they're framed, and the economics stuff. Holo and Lawrence grew a little closer in this volume, and Lawrence actually told Holo that she is special to him. But what I loved even more was Lawrence introducing Holo to his guild master in Ruvinheigen. He warned her that his fellow guild members would probably assume she was his fiancee, so she said she'd be fine with him claiming that they were lovers. Instead, he introduced her as his business partner, and was proud when he described the profit she'd helped him make in the past. Okay, so it doesn't sound very romantic, but this was coming from a guy for whom business is everything. He had pride in her as a partner, and he trusted her as a partner. I loved that.

Speaking of Lawrence and business – his identity as a merchant colored pretty much everything. It was how he viewed the world, and it was even part of his small talk. There was a bit, early on, dealing with the role the Church had in the formation, development, and ongoing existence of one of the towns Lawrence was passing through, and the focus was all on trade, the flow of currency, and taxes. The Church was just one more thing with the potential to affect his business. Lawrence's mindset, and the economics in general, really worked for me in this book. I even got a chuckle out of Lawrence's revenge by way of loan near the end.

All in all, it was an okay book that would have been improved by a shorter first half. The ending was pretty satisfying, aside from the unanswered questions about Norah and Enek's future. She irked me early on in the book, mostly because of Lawrence's reaction to her (he liked how sweet, gentle, and quiet she was compared to Holo, never mind that she'd have bored him to tears in the long run). However, she later proved herself to be an awesome shepherdess, well-partnered with Enek, her dog. I wanted to know if her dream worked out, and what she decided to do with Enek. I wouldn't mind a cameo appearance in a future book.

Extras:

Eight color pages (five color illustrations), seven black-and-white illustrations, and a short afterword written by the author.

Rating Note:

I never know how to rate light novels. Had the writing/translation been better, I might have given it 4 stars. The second half was exciting, and I was thrilled to actually be able to understand all the economics stuff. Or maybe 3.5, because the beginning was so slow. I'm settling on 3.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

This light novel and the ones that come after it inspired the anime, but I saw the anime first. I had actually heard about this book long before I saw the anime, mainly because of the controversy over the cover. The cover image you see in my blog is not the cover the original Japanese version of this book had, and, from what I can remember, it was extremely difficult to get the version of the cover with the original artwork. I remember assuming that the cover re-design was an attempt by Yen Press to market the book to a wider audience. In my opinion, the new cover is hideous. Also, what was point, when the original cover actually matched the illustrations inside the book?

This book is almost exactly like what I remember of the anime, up to the resolution of the story arc involving the silver trenni coins. The primary difference is that a character who was female in the anime is male in the book - I'm assuming he was turned into a she in the hopes of attracting more male otaku.

As is usually the case with light novels, I found myself preferring the anime to the novel the anime was based on. I didn't find all the financial scheming any easier to understand in the novel - in fact, I think more of it went over my head this time than when I was watching the anime. I found the interplay between Lawrence and Holo to be more charming and clever when I could actually watch and hear the two of them. That said, just as their relationship was the strongest part of the anime, it was also the strongest part of this book, and I really enjoyed reading about the two of them getting to know each other and learning how to work and live together.

There were a couple things I thought the book accomplished better than the anime. First, I thought the book created a better, fuller picture of this world. Readers got to learn details about this world that couldn't be easily conveyed in the anime. For instance, in one passage it's mentioned that Holo's long, beautiful hair would cause people to immediately assume she was likely fairly well off, because only nobles could afford to wash long hair in hot water on a regular basis. Details like this couldn't be as easily communicated in the anime.

Second, I thought Lawrence himself was more fully portrayed in the book. Readers got to know more about his thoughts, which gave insights into his life that the anime may have tried to get across but which must have gone over my head. I think I only understood the full extent of Lawrence's loneliness after reading the book - the merchants' story about horses learning to talk, Lawrence actually wondering what his horse would be like if it could talk, Lawrence's thoughts about the shop he'd like to open up, etc.

One scene I thought was particularly effective was one that not only brought up the loneliness of a traveling merchant's life again, but also underscored how similar Holo's loneliness is. Holo had had a nightmare in which she got to the northern forests only to discover that all her wolf friends were gone, reminding Lawrence of tales of traveling merchants who returned to their home towns after 20 years, only to discover that no one there remembered them - or that the towns themselves no longer existed. I don't recall any moment in the anime that was quite as chilling as this one passage.

In addition to giving a better window into his loneliness, Lawrence's thoughts also showed just how much he was analyzing every little thing from a merchant's perspective. Lawrence considers the potential worth of everything he sees and evaluates people in terms of what they can do for him (and against him) in an easy and automatic way that even extends to a stray thought about the value of Holo's tail fur.

Lawrence isn't the only one looking at the world this way - profit and business are vital to every character in this book. Somehow, Hasekura manages not to make this a negative thing. Yes, the characters do sometimes play tricks on each other in the name of profit (one incident, in which Holo negotiates a higher price for a wagonload of furs, comes immediately to mind), but none of it's done in a "businessman crushing his opponent" sort of way. In this world, if someone manages to trick you into paying a higher price than you should have, you accept it as a learning experience and move on. When a big company almost leaves Lawrence and Holo high and dry because they're no longer worth the trouble to help, Lawrence doesn't rail against the company, but instead thinks of a way to turn things around so that it is worth the company's while to help them.

The importance of profit and business is even woven into Lawrence's relationship with Holo. Holo simultaneously wins Lawrence's respect and offends his pride by showing how quickly she can grasp information about markets and currency that took him years to learn. Near the end of the book, during a part where the hero of another book might have shouted something like "don't leave, I love you" to the heroine, Lawrence instead shouts about the cost of the clothing Holo ruined. To Holo, the meaning of his words would be clear - she could leave, if she wished, but as a merchant he would be compelled to follow her to the ends of the earth to get back what she owed him. I'm still not sure whether I can call this romantic, but it certainly fit the characters.

Most of the light novels I've read haven't been very good. I think this one could have made it to my short list of good light novels, if it weren't for two things. One, my continued inability to understand the storyline about the trenni silver coins, and, two, the writing. Like I said in my post about the anime, I have something of a mental block when it comes to economics. I would have thought that it would all be easier to understand in book form, because I'd be able to go back and reread anything that didn't make sense, but I just ended up more confused. I'm still not entirely sure how anyone managed to profit from the scheme.

As far as the writing goes, I don't quite know how to describe it. At times, the style reads a lot like something written 60 years ago (at the moment, I am reading Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Mara, Daughter of the Nile, first published in 1953, and there are aspects of its style that are very similar to this first volume of Spice and Wolf). Also, there are occasionally some very strange and awkward phrases. Here's one I thought was strange enough to include in my notes: "Her whispering voice was itchy" (144). At the time, Lawrence had just had the surprise of getting into bed only to find Holo already there (and naked? I can't remember), and Holo was just about to warn him that they needed to make a quick escape. I'm guessing "itchy" refers either to Lawrence's involuntary excitement at finding Holo in his bed, anticipating a pleasant near future, or to a quality in Holo's voice that relates to what she's about to say. Either way, it's an odd word to use.

Overall, I liked this book enough to want to read the next volume, but it doesn't sway me from my opinion that most light novels aren't very good. In this case, the actual story was fairly good, and I enjoyed Lawrence and Holo, so the main fault lies either in the author's writing style or in the translation. I would recommend the anime over this book, but I don't regret reading the book.

Extras:

Several full-color illustrations at the beginning of the volume, black and white illustrations throughout the volume, and an afterword written by the author (which is little more than a thank you and "yay, I won a writing contest!").

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)