As I mentioned in my review of the Spice & Wolf anime series, the basis for the story is a series of light novels written by Isuna Hasekura, with illustrations by Jyuu Ayakura. Since I wrote that review, Yen Press has released the third light novel volume, so I picked up all three over the holiday season. First, I must note that if you are interested in the light novel series, be advised that Yen Press first released the series with a photo-realistic cover, rather than the original covers. After the backlash from fans, they began releasing the volumes with a slip cover that had the photo-realistic thing, and then the original as the main book's cover. Alas, some places still have the first form of the first volume, so if you order online you might get stuck with that cover. I was happy I was able to get the 2 & 3 volume with the slipcovers as I tossed them immediately. Of course, if you like the photo-realistic thing, then you're good to go either way. I've put both covers for the first volume to the right for comparison.
So on to the light novels. Thus far I've read just the first volume, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Twenty-five year old Kraft Lawrence is a traveling merchant who dreams of owning his own shop in a town on day, but is content with eking out his lonely existence until then, making deals and building his reputation and wealth. After a seemingly normal stop in the town of Pasloe, he finds himself with an unexpected hitchhiker, a beautiful, naked girl who calls herself Holo and claims to be the wolf God who was once responsible for managing the harvests in the area. The people have grown tired of what they consider her capriciousness, though, and now rely more and more on technology, so she wants to return to her home on Yoitz, to the north. After some initial reluctance and disbelief, Lawrence agrees to take her along with him and see her to her home. In exchange she promises to help increase his profits along the way.
As they travel together, however, they find themselves drawn to one another, but it isn't until Holo risks herself to save Lawrence when he falls into a dangerous situation do they start to admit, at least to themselves, how much they care for one another. There are hints at a larger story forming, particularly around Holo's desire to return to Yoitz as Lawrence heard the town was destroyed long ago, but has yet to reveal this to her, and of course there is always the question lurking in the back of one's mind of whether a wolf-god being can have any sort of future with a human.
I found the volume to be well written, with perhaps a higher language level than I usually see in light novels. The translation is quite well done so the text flows smoothly, a blessing considering some of the hideous translations we've seen in the past (yes, I'm looking at you Digital Manga and the hideousness that was Ai no Kusabi. Yen Press' release is also nice, going with a good blend of a more standard American novel size (presumably lowering costs) while retaining the initial color pages found at the front of the novel. And as they corrected what I see as an error with the covers, I can really find no complaint about the release. Even the cover price of $10.99 is pretty reasonable, considering most manga volumes are now the same price and have far less content. While I liked the anime, I found the light novel more satisifying with its richer, deeper amounts of detail, particularly when it comes to what the characters are thinking and feeling at various crucial points. The events in this volume are depicted in the first six episodes of the anime, which is where the initial relationship between Lawrence and Holo is formed. I was surprised to discover how many changes the anime made to these chapters, though, with one of the most major being the changing of Pasloe village's Yarei from male to female. In the anime, she was a a potential love interest for Lawrence, while in the novels he was nothing more than someone Lawrence thought of as a compatriot.
So whether you have seen and enjoyed the anime, or just find the story premise interesting, I recommend picking up this novel series. Get all the volumes available you can because you will want to keep reading after you finish the first. As of the time of this post, the first three are in stores, with volume 4 due in June. So far, Yen Press has solicitied the first six volumes of the sixteen that form the series, so hoping they will not pull a Tokyopop and drop the series before it is done. So far, though, they seem to still be keeping up their usual release schedules and I haven't seen any signs of delays or the like. As it is owned by Hachette Group, though, I think it may be more poised to finish it out than the traditional manga publishers seem to be, so its worth taking the chance on.
Rating: A+
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