Saturday, July 17, 2010

Book Review: Spice and Wolf

I came across this anime while browsing in FYE. And after reading the back, I thought it sounded interesting. Especially the part about Holo the wolf goddess of the harvest. So, the next time I was in the book store I picked up the manga, which inspired the anime.

It was a fun story. Holo, the wisewolf, is the goddess of the harvest in a small pagan town. But she escapes and ends up with travelling merchant, Kraft Lawrence. She and Lawrence become friends, and I love their relationship. Holo may be a wise goddess, but she looks about 15 and sometimes behaves as such. She is very playful and loves to tease her companion.


So, then I found out that the manga is actually based on a series of novels. The first manga basically covers the first half of the novel. So I would assume the second manga will finish the first novel. Isuna Hasekura is a Japanese author. There are currently 14 novels in this series, but only the first two are available in English.

The story was only okay for me. As I said it's about a travelling merchant, so trading goods is a big part of the story. But I love the characters enough that I kept reading. And I can't wait to read the second novel. I love Holo and Lawrence and their relationship. It's worth checking out for that alone.


Synopsis:

Kraft Lawrence has been walking the lonely path of the itinerant merchant for seven years. His life changes forever when he meets Holo, the Wolf-God of the harvest, and the two begin traveling together. Soon they discover a unique opportunity to exploit the depreciating silver currency of the kingdom of Trenni, but their plans go awry when a competing organization captures Holo and threatens to turn her over to the oppressive, monotheistic Church. Lawrence rescues her, but in the course of the rescue, Holo is forced to transform into her terrifying true wolf-form. The two continue their travels with a much better understanding of each other than when they began.

4 comments:

Sandy said...

Hmm interesting so are you going to continue reading the manga or the novels? Which of them is in English, the manga? Sounds interesting I'll have to check it out :).

Name: Aine said...

There are two novels in English and one manga, so far. The second novel just came out last month. The second manga comes out this month and the third in December.

I prefer the books to the manga, but will probably read both since manga doesn't take long to read.

Something I found interesting... The pictures in the novel are like those in the anime. She comes into the series naked. And they show her naked. But the manga are shrink wrapped for mature audiences because she has nipples. There are no nipples in the novel or the anime. Apparently, a woman with breasts, but no nipples, is okay for teens. *shrugs*

Sandy said...

Interesting that's like in Fushigi Yugi there is a scene where the MC is bathing and she's of course naked but no nipples and its rated for teens. I think I'll check out the novel :)

literati_rain66 said...

Weird. Very weird.

And hey, you've won an award. :)

http://literatisliterarylibrary.blogspot.com/2010/07/amazingly-awesome-award.html

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