Title: Blood Wench Vol. 1
Author: Simon Robineau
Publisher: Simon Robineau
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 175
Genre: Fantasy
The Story
Blood Wench opens up with our main character Julia Ebonhearth tied to a pole. Apparently, she had been captured but, at first, we are not told why. After that introduction, we are taken back in time to see the events unfold that led up to her capture.
Julia lives alone in a house within the forest known as Valmeri. Outside of the forest is a town called Solseed in which our second main character, David Brocksteel, usually does his business. One day while picking herbs, Julia runs into David who is an old acquaintance of hers. After a rekindling, David invites her to Solsteed for their first-ever festival. Accepting the invitation, all Julia can do is bide her time until the festivities; however, a bit of a shadow is cast over the event when she returns home one day and finds a shadowy figure in her garden which also happens to be her mother’s final resting place.
The crone introduces herself as Beatrice Ravencroft and seems to know a thing or two about Julia’s mother. Before departing, she uses some chilling words as a forewarning to the festival. Once the festival arrives, things seem to go well until a monster shows up and starts wreaking havoc throughout the town. Things look grim until Julia reveals a deep and dark secret that helps them defeat the monster. Unfortunately, this secret leads people to lose their trust in her and results in her capture.
David, not having any of this, breaks Julia out. This sets off a chain of events where the corrupted mayor of Solseed, a Glaive from the House of Grasses, and some of David’s enemies from a rough and turbulent past, all are converging on the place he fled to… his sister Elise’s house in a city called Fairen.
Characters
There are quite a few characters in this volume with the majority of the spotlight being shone on Julia and David.
Julia is your typical girl on the outside. She comes from a family of alchemists and she usually sells her potions and medicines to the people in Solseed; however, she doesn’t sell them for money. Living alone in a forest, she could much rather have resources than coins so she engages in material exchange for her services. Outside of her alchemical talents, she’s your normal young woman with her own reservations such as how she presents herself, how she looks, and even self-consciousness over, what David aptly described as her small boobs. Even when her dark secret is revealed, she doesn’t really change much as a character, though. She remains grounded in her roots but she’s also not some dainty girl, either. She has a fire inside of her and an attitude where she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. To me, she has the perfect balance for a good main character.
David, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. One moment he seems rather charming and courteous, the other, he seems like your typical stubborn male. He likes to remain tight-lipped about his past, doesn’t care much to talk about himself, and has no problem getting into a fight here or there, but at the same time will be caring and considerate when he needs to be. He also has a rather whimsical side to him but it’s nothing over-the-top or cringeworthy. I would liken it to just typical stupid stuff men do and say. He is also pretty well-rounded and I also enjoyed him as a character.
As for the side characters, we have Edgar Braithway, the mayor of Solseed. He seemed charming and innocent at first but, like most politicians… whether local or national… she’s just another corrupted old coot. I mean, he brandishes a cane. That should be enough to tell you about the size of his ego and his demeanor.
Beatrice Ravencroft seems like a walking corpse. It’s obvious that she’s involved in the dark arts and later on, she makes another appearance where it seems as if she has some sort of vested interest in Julia. This could tie into the fact that she knew Julia’s mother, or it could be related to her dark secret. Either way, we didn’t get much with Beatrice in this volume but the parts she did play held significance and planted the seeds for future storytelling.
Vergil Greymare is our Glaive from the House of Grasses hired by Mayor Braithway to hunt down Julia after her escape. The Glaives are masterclasses at hunting people down; however, Vergil isn’t going to just bend the knee to anyone’s request. If something isn’t worth his time, he will have nothing to do with it. He comes off as if any work thrown his way is a bother but, at the same time, he takes his job very seriously. He has enhanced senses which help him in his searches and has a very intimidating presence. However, he’s not one who jumps into action. He’s more manipulative and threatening than he is brutish. Usually, that archetype means they are a very dangerous individual and Simon gets that point across fantastically.
Elisabeth “Elise” Brocksteel is David’s sister and, like Julia, is your average girl with a bit of fire inside of her. Without going into the details and spoiling things, she and David have a complicated relationship that they are trying to work through. Elise is a bit of a fun character but she comes across as a bit naïve. After a certain situation, she tends to easily believe things without questioning them for herself. Then again, after her rocky relationship with David, you can’t really blame her for drawing her own conclusions as, once again, David isn’t the type of person who likes to open up and share his feelings so willingly.
Outside of these characters, there are a few minor (for now) characters such as Teresa Davenport, the ruler of Fairen, Adrien Coffergail, and a mysterious rogue named Gabriella Winterglen who played a significant part in David’s past, some of which was revealed toward the end of the volume. I’m sure these characters will play more prominent roles heading forward but they didn’t really do too much here in the first volume.
Final Thoughts
I love a good fantasy story and Blood Wench delivered just that. Simon does a great job building his world and his characters to where they are relatable and believable. There wasn’t anything in the book that made me stop and question things as everything was laid out rather well.
While I enjoyed the story, if I were to offer some criticism, it’s that the book is too descriptive. Now, I will state that this is just my personal taste and in fantasy stories, the type of description offered here is preferred so what I might find dissonant, others will find harmonious. Before I give my feedback here, I will say that I don’t believe it detracted from the quality of the story which I did enjoy very much.
That being said, the book falls into a habit of having a character say a line and then spends 1-3 lines describing the most minute details. An example would be a character saying something and then being described as having a dry mouth or having to swallow the bile in their throat. I get that it’s to convey emotion and add gravity to a situation but I felt that it was way over done. You could simply say “Julia took a sip of her tea.” I didn’t need to know that the tea felt warm going down her throat. The tea was already served hot so that should be a given.
Descriptiveness is fine to an extent but when it’s done nearly after every line is said, it kind of took me out of the story, and, at one point, I was skipping the narrative to find the next line of dialogue just so I could move forward with the conversation that the characters were having as I was more interested in what they had to say rather than how their throats, faces, and bodies reacted to everything being said.
Again, this is not a slight against the author or the quality of the story. This is just a personal preference. We all have our own different writing styles and what doesn’t work for me does not indicate that it’s wrong. I still loved the story and would love to read the second volume when it becomes available and this is still a story I would highly recommend to fantasy lovers out there.
Overall, the story was interesting, the characters were impactful. Every character had meaning and purpose, the setting and land were described very well, and you felt as if you were in the world along with Julia and David. All marks of a good story and Blood Wench delivers on that in spades!
If I were to give this a rating, I would say 4.5 / 5 stars!
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This item was provided for review by Simon Robineau
