Tired of waiting for new episodes? You can read about Holo and Lawrence instead.
Summary:
- Spice and Wolf is a light novel series.
- The story ended with Volume 17, but there are sequels.
- You don’t have to read them to experience the main story, but they’re also great.
The Spice and Wolf (Ookami to Koushinryou) remake keeps airing and making fans happy with its impeccable quality. But waiting for new episodes is not the easiest thing to do, that’s why Spice and Wolf newbies want to know if they can experience the story any other way, too.
Of course, there’s also the original Spice and Wolf anime that aired in 2008, but there’s no point in watching it now that the remake is going strong. However, you can read the original source, and that’s the light novel series.
Is the Story Over?
The novels are written by Isuna Hasekura and illustrated by Ju Ayakura. The first one was published in 2006 and the series is technically still ongoing.
We say “technically” because the main story of Spice and Wolf ended with Volume 17, which was released in July 2011. However, five years later, in 2016, another volume came out, and since then there’ve been more. As of now, there are 24 volumes of the novels.
Everything that happened in the story after Volume 17 is some sort of sequel featuring Holo and Lawrence, but fans prefer to consider it an extended epilogue or just a bunch of side stories because the real story was finished years ago.
Volume 17 is still the end of Spice and Wolf, so you needn’t worry that you’ll read 17 volumes and be left without a proper ending. The volume concludes the story perfectly, so you might even stop reading the series after it.
Spring Logs and Wolf and Parchment
All the volumes after the 17th are called Spice and Wolf Spring Logs, and they’re just more of low stakes stories than the main one. Something like quiet slice-of-life adventures to entertain you after the actual journey is over.
There’s also the Wolf and Parchment spin-off of the series, and fans say that it reminds them of Spring Logs a lot. These are also chiller stories that you can read if you can’t let go of the world of Spice and Wolf.
There are 8 volumes of Wolf and Parchment and fans are pretty sure that more are coming in the future. They suggest reading both Spring Logs and Wolf and Parchment, since they have references to one another. And it might be even better to alternate between the two series for an even better experience.