Spice and Wolf, Vol. 1

By: Isuna Hasekura, Paul Starr

Narrated by: J. Michael Tatum

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?

©2006 Isuna Hasekura (P)2022 Yen Audio

A true classic!

This first volume of the Spice & Wolf series is truly on of the most iconic light novels ever written. Having an audio version of it narrated by the English localization voice of Lawrence makes it all the more enjoyable!

Something is missing...

I love Spice & Wolf and I was very excited to know that it is getting the audiobook treatment. Having Michael Tatum being the narrator is excellent, My personal problem with the same any narrator is when trying to voice the female lines.

Tatum is an amazing talented narrator but he can not replace the iconic voice of Holo's voice actress Brina Palencia.. I sure hope that Yen Audio add Brina Palencia in future releases.

Other than that, the book is amazing. 9.5/10.

Great listen

I would like to reccomen this light novel to anyone who was a fan of the animation. The narrator reading this is the same person who voiced Lawrence in the English dubbed version so reading this book became quite easy to get into as his voice acting is great. What I also enjoyed about the book was that it gives you Laurence’s point of view quite well so I felt like i was more invested in the character here as compared to the animation. It was also nice to see the similarities and the differences between the novel itself verses the animation.

Good but need female voice for Holo

I enjoyed the novel and anime, glad now audiobook.

A bit to costly for the length of book. Also need a female to do Holo lines. Tatum good but Holo lines missing impact.

A Great Listen

Wow, this was cool! When I heard that Yen Press (Yen Audio for audiobooks) was going to produce their light novels as audiobooks, I was interested in the concept. The execution of this was excellent, I've never seen the anime or read the manga so this novel was entirely new for me... So hearing J. Michael Tatum reprise his role of Lawrence from the anime to this audiobook was so sweet! Half the time I couldn't tell if I was enamored with the story or J. Michael Tatum's fantastic narration.

OK, outside of me gushing over the narration – the actual story was really interesting. We've got Lawrence who is a traveling merchant who stumbles upon Holo a "wolf goddess" for lack of a better term. They began traveling & working together as financial partners and friends. I loved the banter between the two of them, along with the implied flirtation & romantic vibes. What really won me over is Lawrence's strong pursuit of business obligations, he constantly talked about being a merchant and how different aspects of trade work in this world. At first, that might sound dull, but it was a great opportunity to get a better look at the world through Lawrence's eyes and I enjoyed him not only teaching Holo about trading but also getting her insight into certain deals.

Can't wait to see where their travels take them next & I hope Lawrence gets enough money to open that coveted shop he wants with Holo by his side.

amazing reading!

J Michael Tatum did amazing with the reading, I loved everything about it! The story itself was perfect, but I can here after watching the anime, so I already new I would enjoy this story.

Simply amazing.

best anime/ novel/ manga I have ever experienced, hands down. After chapter 2 I immediately purchased the first 5 volumes of both the manga and light novel. I also watched season one if the anime in one sitting.
It's such an original and compelling story, and so endearing, witty, mature, funny and makes you fall in love with the 2 main characters. It's not a typical romance. It's like neither are hardly ever willing to really show any affection but instead give each other shit all the time. But when there is any affection it makes it so much better because its rare.

finally

I started reading the light novels but I just didn't have time to keep reading and my schedule is just so difficult. I was using book Walker or I like novels but I saw that they had the audiobook and I was really excited but I wasn't sure how well it was going to do it so I was very thankful that audible has the audiobook as well. I like the voice of the narrator for Lawrence but I do kind of wish that they had a female narrator for Holo. Regardless, listening to it at work today made today a great day. I usually don't buy things until it's all out and I know that having to wait for every book to get done is going to be a little hard on me but I am excited for the rest of the novels yet their audiobook adaptations. I really loved the anime.

Great audiobook!

This is a great story. The anime was great and the book is Amazing. The Narrator does an amazing job!!

It’s great!

Narrator is great and the story is great :) I like holo and lawrence relationship and their adventure together :D