Book Review: Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel

• Title: Black Shield Maiden
• Author: Willow Smith and Jess Hendel
• Year: 2024
• Type: Fiction

What if the Vikings captured a young woman from Africa and made her into a thrall (slave) back in Norway? That’s the premise of this historical fantasy novel (with more emphasis on historical than fantasy), and it’s one that was really intriguing to me.

The story itself didn’t keep me turning the pages late into the night, but it did at least keep me reading. I didn’t feel much connection with any of the characters, and the plot was fairly predictable, but it was executed well enough that I wasn’t bored.

I’d been expecting to read a lot more about culture shock in the book, and how the two main characters negotiated the differences in their backgrounds, but was somewhat disappointed. The African character felt more African American than a Ghana native from a thousand years ago. It never really seemed like she felt truly out of place among all these white folks. The weather seemed more of a challenge for her than relationships with her captors.

So it was OK. Nothing to write home about, but diverting enough for a pre-sleep read.

Oh, one more thing: I didn’t realise until after I’d read this book that one of the authors is a popular musician and the daughter of Hollywood royalty. So now you now, too, in case you care about such things.