魔女の旅々

If you like キノの旅, give 魔女の旅々 a try!

Overall Thoughts

I heard about this series after looking for recommendations similar to キノの旅. Similarly, in this book the protagonist (イレイナ) travels to different lands, each unique in their own way, and like キノの旅, it is a collection of short stories more than anything. Main differences from キノの旅 are (1) this book is much more lighthearted (although there are 1 or 2 darker stories), and (2) in this book you'll find far more magic & fantasy elements. I would also say it is not as deep/philosophical as キノの旅... but overall still very good and I highly recommend if you like the キノの旅 series but maybe want a break from it and want to read something a bit more fun/lighthearted.

Language Learning Thoughts

Prior to reading this book, I'd read 7 キノの旅 novels, so I was expecting this to be quite comfortable in terms of difficulty. While the beginning was still quite difficult as it was a new author for me, after the first few chapters I was able to read at roughly the same speed as I had recently for the キノの旅 novels (roughly 20 pages/hr).

Some other quick language learning notes:

• Furigana? Not really, only for difficult words (maybe 5% of words?). I read on Kindle so I could easily look up unknown words if needed.
• Kanji? Heavily used. You're not going to find any kanji-based words written out in hiragana here.
• Grammar? N2 grammar is often used, some N1 grammar is also used fairly often (e.g. ものの、ものを、〜たところで,　とはいえ)
• Difficulty can vary quite a bit between chapters. My reading speed varied from 15-25 pgs/hr depending on the chapter.
• If you want to read along with the Anime or Manga, see here.