This is a return to form for the series. The Town of Strife two-parter was disappointing, and the first Side Colors was unusual (but definitely enjoyable!), and now we return to the good stuff. Here we have another economic problem for our two leads to puzzle out, and they puzzle it out themselves. In Town of Strife, they were oddly disconnected, like passive side-characters who didn't know what was truly going on. Here they are properly active.
Also, more supernatural stuff. The old gods are involved in this problem that the Kingdom of Winfel is experiencing. And not only that, but it relates to Holo's homeland issue. She and Lawrence basically know where Yoitsu is by now, but this story approaches the subject from a different angle. It's very interesting.
What we have here in this story is a three-way confrontation between Brondel Abbey, a very large landowner in Winfel as well as the chief producer of its biggest export, the king of Winfiel, and the Ruvik Alliance, which is a basically a conglomeration of trading companies. To give the reader a sense of the scale of this alliance of merchants, just one of its middle-managers, never mind its top rank, is equivalent to or greater than the head of the guild that Lawrence belongs to. Lawrence, Holo and Cole enter this confrontation seeking tales of wolf god bones. What I find most interesting is how the trio goes about doing this.
Their plan is to use human connections. One cannot simply walk up to a Christian abbey and ask them if they're storing the bones of a pagan deity. That's not going to work. So they learn about the local situation and find someone who can assist them in discerning if the wolf god bones are real and present. Their two main resources here are Piaksy, a merchant working for the Ruvik Alliance, and Huskins, a very old shepherd working for the abbey. However much they want to confirm the truth of the wolf god bones, neither Lawrence nor Holo want to use the force of a living wolf god.
That is what their relationship is like at this point. They recognize how much the other means to them, but that recognition is implicit. It is not enough for them to stay together at this point. Lawrence feels that he needs to be of use to Holo in order to continue traveling with her. He is a merchant with a merchant's mindset, and so his narration is about providing for her. There is one powerful and sweet scene where he confides in Cole about how he enjoys being the one she relies on (Holo is, of course, eavesdropping, and arranged for the scene to take place, and Lawrence only realizes these two facts after the embarrassing words have left his mouth).
It is scenes like these that make the series so enjoyable. It is never just about the economic puzzle of the book, or about finding Yoitsu or interacting with the mythic or real presence of the old gods. It is a blend of those things with aspects of Lawrence and Holo's relationship. Piasky, for instance, is held up as a foil of Lawrence as a good man and a merchant, but better. Simultaneously, Lawrence feels admiration for Piasky and a certain anxiety because he feels that Piasky is an "objectively better" choice for Holo. Who, for her part, is indirect at best about her unending loyal to Lawrence. Then this comparison blends with something else.
I'm looking forward to the next volume.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Spice and Wolf volume 10" an A+
Click here for my next book review: A Certain Magical Index - light novel volume 2
Click here for my previous book review: Sweetness and Lightning volume 2
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
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