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Shkode #2

The Fettered Flame

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The Fettered Flame is a genre-bending fantasy novel that continues the saga of two dying worlds, plagued by their own unique struggles for power. Follow the journeys of Cor – a woman striving to understand her powers of magic and how the connect to her past, Atesh – her contemplative dragon companion, and Jwala – a dragon plunged into a rebirth of ancient ideals. The Fettered Flame is the second installment in the Shkode trilogy: a quirky and modern take on dragons and wizards, exploring themes of identity, prejudice, violence, compassion, and the ways we are all connected.

376 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2016

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253 people want to read

About the author

E.D.E. Bell

36 books210 followers
E.D.E. Bell (she/her or e/em) loves fantasy fiction, and enjoys blending classic and modern elements. A passionate vegan and earnest progressive, she feels strongly about issues related to equality and compassion. Her works often explore conceptions of identity and community, including themes of friendship, family, and connection. She lives in Ferndale, Michigan, where she writes stories and revels in garlic. You can follow her adventures at edebell.com.

Bell was born in the year of the fire dragon during a Cleveland blizzard. After a youth in the Mitten, an MSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, three wonderful children, and nearly two decades in Northern Virginia and Southwest Ohio developing technical intelligence strategy, she started the indie press Atthis Arts. Working through mental disorders and an ever-complicated world, she now tries to bring light and love as she can through fantasy fiction, as a proud part of the Detroit arts community.

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for L.L. Reynolds.
Author 2 books108 followers
July 5, 2016
E. D. E. Bell is a paradigm shifter. Her fantasy books defy gender roles and are chock full of modern social themes caused by age-old societal ignorances and prejudices.

The series began with a four-dimensional researcher’s child causing a world to split into dangerously unstable twin worlds of Teirrah and Arev. Each world knows nothing of the other's existence, except as stories, legends and myths.

Humans inhabit the one known as Teirrah, and anthropomorphic dragons (How cool is that?) populate the other world. At the moment, mutual destruction seems eminent unless the worlds can reunite.

My favorite storyline has been between Atesh and Cor, a dragon and human, who are now together in Teirrah. Initially, they’re pretty surprised to see each other and learn of the other’s existence, but are now communicating with the the four-dimensional researcher (as best they can and it isn't easy) via a plant known as Ha, and seeking to stabilize the worlds.

There are other thought-provoking characters and stories in each world, but I have to say the storyline which follows the Grande Dame of Teirrah, Francie, is now vying for my favorite spot. (No spoilers, but I can totally say, I didn’t see it coming.)

I’m anxiously awaiting the last book in the trilogy. It’s shaping up to be a spectacular finish! This talented, quirky author has my attention!
Profile Image for Terry Gene.
Author 4 books14 followers
August 2, 2016
Hi!

First, I commend Ms. Bell in her fine presentation within the High Fantasy genre, without diverting to current 'must do' low/urban fantasy tropes. Enough foreshadowing has happened by the second book, "The Fettered Flame," that I anticipate a rousing climax at the end of book three.

I caught Ms. Bell on her first Shkode book, and gratefully got the the opportunity to read the advance review copy of this second of the series. This book continues the quest of the odd couple, wizard and dragon. Their lives get complicated by politics and revolution in both worlds, and a 'helper' who may or not be helping.

Unlike most series, enough of the first book is interleaved in the story line that you should be able to read without confusion.

Profile Image for Cynthia.
52 reviews14 followers
June 11, 2016
The second volume of the Shkode Books was definitely easier to follow than the first. Probably because the central ideas were already established and we know all the characters now. They are fleshed out in this book, and we aren't struggling to follow along.

In this volume, our main characters are dealing with conflict and the destruction of life as they know it. The worlds of humans and dragons have been split in two, as explained in the analogy of splitting a sheet of paper, not cut in half, but literally splitting the sheet in two, leaving two thin, but same sized worlds. They are fragile and are beginning to tear. Places even disappear as the structure of the universe and time rip apart.

Our heroes, mainly the non-violent, vegan Cor, who has discovered her legacy of magic, handed down by her deceased parents, and has joined up with Atesh, a scientist dragon who has crossed the barrier of worlds to join with Cor, are trying to find a way to heal the worlds. They both see the benefits of the plant, ha, which allows them to communicate with a mysterious "voice" that is trying to get them to understand how to heal and possibly put the worlds back together.

There is violence happening in both societies, on the dragon side mostly because the Emporess Zee has a murderous second in command called Dronna. In human society, the disparity between the haves and have nots, and the government that enforces a strict societies rules and the different groups who have formed to oppose them, have resulted in the destruction of the University where Cor used to learn (without permission) and the Capitol. President Greg King is being defied by his General Stone, who prefers a more aggressive response to the OLS group that caused all the destruction in the resistance to the Unified Government. Human society doesn't allow women to live unencumbered lives and gay individuals are deep undercover. Dragons settle differences violently and live in fear of their ruler.

Only a few people realize that while society is being ripped apart, the world is not going to be there for them to put it back together. I am looking forward to the last volume to see what will happen.

I was given a free ebook in return for my unbiased review.
Profile Image for Angela Meas.
Author 1 book200 followers
August 16, 2016
A child plays innocently in a mother's lab and a world is torn apart. Time passes for life within the split world, history becomes lost to myth and fables and soon their reality is truly separated. Until, they start to collide. Nothing can save them from their impending doom, not even the promise of a mother to a heartbroken child.

But, as long as life exists, there remains hope.

The Shkode series exists in a multi-dimensional universe of endless possibilities and E.D.E. Bell is stretching her imagination as far as it can go. A diverse and excitedly inclusive book, the series showcases three worlds trying to come together to save each other.

The Banished Craft is a wonderful world building piece and sets the stage for book two. We discover what motivates the characters, what hinders them, and just exactly what they'll do to get what they want. There is a great comparison between the two separated worlds that builds in The Fettered Flame with amusing similarities and common ideas.

The dragons are anthropomorphic, which I hadn't been expecting. It's another unique view of dragons, seeing them as free thinking, free spirited beings rather than mindless killing machines in search of war in many dragon novels I've read. I enjoyed reading how dragons would compare to humans in things like jobs and clothing and the dragon world is cleverly thought out and full of life.

The books are very inclusive and very revealing of the characters, all their faults and personal experiences. There were several moments I did not see coming. The story is definitely unexpected. There is a lot to learn about the world, but it's all in there and well laid out. I really enjoyed this series and can't wait for book 3!

When I was approached about the books, I did ask for a favor... I asked for physical copies to give away!

I have a hardcover copy of The Banished Craft with a beautiful dust jacket and I also have an Advanced Readers paperback copy of The Fettered Flame, both signed by the author. Enter the rafflecopter on my blog (angelaburkhead.blogspot.com) Starting 8/5/16 and do not miss this exciting sequel!
Profile Image for Beth Teliho.
Author 3 books169 followers
July 12, 2016
A boundlessly imagined, expertly crafted tale of compassion, connections, and war, seamlessly anchored in refreshingly progressive themes and well-developed characters.

Truly one of the most complex and intelligent high fantasies I've had the pleasure of reading, and right up there with George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series. It takes a seasoned writer to pen dragons, other-worlds, and magic so that the reader starts to think of them as real. I connected with Cor (human) as much as Atesh (dragon), and I loved their particularly storyline, as well as the one involving Francie...ohhhh and Win. I loved Win. I found this story so evocative and easy to visualize. Can you tell I loved it? :)

Profile Image for Laura Custodio.
13 reviews4 followers
May 4, 2016
*Free ARC in exchange for honest review*

This is one of those rare times where I felt the second book is actually better than the first. I loved reading this book as the characters underwent an ongoing metamorphosis. This book builds upon on the genre busting, multiple thread tale of catastrophic change with vegan, LGBT, and non violence themes.

If you want something different than this trilogy is definitely for you.
Profile Image for J.S. Bailey.
Author 25 books250 followers
November 22, 2016
I really enjoyed this installment of the Shkode series. The many plot threads introduced in The Banished Craft are finally starting to weave together. Looking forward to see what Book 3 brings!
275 reviews6 followers
October 24, 2016
This was really good. The first book was a solid introduction to the setting(s), the characters and the conflicts. With all the set-up out of the way, this book gets to delve deeper into everything, to build on the foundations, and to escalate everything. It does this very well, taking intriguing ideas and making them more compelling. The characters are well-developed. And there sure are a lot of them. There's over a dozen viewpoint characters, though some get less focus than others. It's interesting seeing which characters get a shift in focus from the first book. A couple characters who were major parts of the first book end up moving a little more into the background here, while lesser characters from the first get more attention.

In my review of the first book, I warned that there was some vegan elements, and for readers to be careful. I'm sorry to say that it's a lot more prominent here, as Bell forces her pro-vegetable agenda down our throats. Gross. (I'm joking around, of course.) Also much more prominent, though, is the LGBT content. The first book had a little bit of LGBT content, mostly restricted to the dragon world (though there was a human lesbian couple in the first book, and they continue into this one). This one has a lot more, and a lot more of it in the human world, with a couple of the major human characters being revealed as gay. There's even a transgender dragon. So it's nice to see more of that.

The most frustrating thing about this book is that it ended. I'm very much invested in what's going on, and now I have to wait for the next book.
Profile Image for Dana Busenbark.
2,801 reviews29 followers
May 24, 2017
This is an interesting book, dealing with different kingdoms throughout the world that they're on. Each of the different areas is called something different from Oceanland to Caveland for example. I think my favorite character of the book is the Grand Dame. She was not at all what I expected. I loved her Moxy! Watching the play with gender identity, race identity (human vs. dragon), war (human vs. human), food choices (vegan vs. carnivore) makes it all very interesting. It was a lot of fun to read. This is the second book in the series and the first book I have read by this Author. I look forward to more in the future. It was full of unexpected surprises and was a fun read for me.

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M. Brennan.
Profile Image for Amy.
20 reviews
June 13, 2020
Enjoyed the deeper dive into the main characters. This book feels so relevant to today's real life events too. Great job, Emily!
Profile Image for Kris Sellgren.
1,071 reviews26 followers
July 18, 2017
My ideal SF novel would have LGBT humans and dragons on spaceships with cats. The Liaden novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have all this, except for LGBT characters. The Fettered Flame, the second in E.D.E. Bell's Shkode trilogy, has all this, except for spaceships, and the presence of four-dimensional aliens meddling with our three-dimensional lives mitigates that lack.

A world once inhabited by humans and dragons has split apart into two unstable worlds, due to said four-dimensional meddling. Each world is now on the verge of dissolution. Two heroines, Corundum (human) and Jwala (dragon), strive in each universe to somehow rejoin them, with the help of a remorseful four-dimensional being. Jwala’s husband Atesh (dragon) can fly between the universes.

It is charming (and funny) that “ha” (marijuana) is key to travel between the two worlds and to communication between three-dimensional and four-dimensional beings. “Ha” also unleashes mystical powers and magic in each world.

Dragon (“gon”) culture provides sly pokes at our popular culture. A teenage gon rebels against her parents by getting tattoos. A scientist gon relaxes with a graphic novel. Another gon refers to the adventures of Spidergon. All dragons think of humans as mythical beasts.

LGBT characters surround our (straight) heroines and hero. Two female characters are lesbian. Another is M to F transgender. It is a shock to find yet another character is a gay male forced to live in disguise as a woman to be able to marry and live with his husband. The dragon world is more socially liberal than the human world, with its witch hunts and oppression of women. The novel is pendantic in places; it can read sometimes like a tract on the rights of women, LGBT people, disabled people, etc. I agree with all of the author’s points but they could have been perhaps made more subtly.

The novel is suspenseful in many places, especially towards the end. A dramatis personae page would have been helpful, to keep track of all the characters scattered across two worlds. Overall I enjoyed this imaginative SF/F novel, and I look forward to reading the conclusion of the Shkode trilogy, The Scattered Bond.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing this novel to me in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Jane Shambler.
799 reviews32 followers
May 4, 2017
I admit I did not realize at first that this was book 2 of an on going series. I would definitely advise you to read book 1 first. It definitely is not a stand alone book. So I stopped and read number 1 and it all fell into place. I'll admit I loved the dragons.


The author covers many social issues especially those relating to LGBT. The book is very intense and at times hard to keep up. But perseverance is rewarded with an excellent story. It's really well written.


I gave it four stars instead of five because it so intense and took a lot of reading and at times rereading. The author has an amazing imagination. Actually I would very much like to get to know this author better. Although the story is good and very interesting I found it slow going. Best way to describe it is a lot of words. But then maybe that was part of this world.


Would I recommend it? Yes I would but read book 1 first. This one will then flow easier. Enjoy.

*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*
Profile Image for Ann McDowell.
23 reviews2 followers
July 9, 2017
I agree with another reviewer - I liked this book better than the first in the series (The Banished Craft). Bell does a great job with character development, as always. I'm interested to see how some of the subplots will come together in the final book. The author gives the characters depth and provides thought-provoking detail into their points of view on topics ranging from LGBTQ to veganism to war-fighting. Waiting for #3.
Profile Image for Laura.
606 reviews24 followers
June 14, 2018
This book continues the story threads from the first book, though my favourite chapters were about Atesh, Cor, and Mother (the four-dimensional being watching the two worlds slowly collapse). I'm curious about how some of the threads will come together in the final book--there are still a few character subplots that are at the edge of things -- but time is running out as the Change/Avalanche advances. If you liked the first book, you should enjoy this one too.
Profile Image for Kat.
1,656 reviews6 followers
May 9, 2019
Yay, dragons!

The storyline with Francie at the very beginning of the book came completely out of the blue and was not foreshadowed in book 1. As such, it didn't resonate and just felt poorly written. Thematically it pivots away from women's rights which feels jarring based on the emphasis on this theme in the first book. Some plotlines, like Ssarh and Jelt are still dull. Otherwise, this book was an improvement on the last and I look forward to the conclusion of the series.
Profile Image for Misty Gunderson.
115 reviews4 followers
July 29, 2025
It is very rare for a second novel in a series today be anything other than fluff or more world building. It is nearly impossible for it to be as good...or dare I say...better. This book far surpassed my expectations. Very strong first 2 books in this series and looking forward to the next.
Profile Image for Donna Fernstrom.
Author 11 books21 followers
September 9, 2016
This is a rough one. Really, the book is well written, and the story itself is actually pretty interesting. The world-building impressed me a lot - the dragon culture was fascinating.

But...
Unfortunately, this book was slooooowwww... incredibly slow. This book took me an insanely long time to finish, because I just didn't get sucked into it and kept putting it down. It was full of detailed interactions between people that went nowhere and barely (if at all) advanced the plot. I really felt this story could have been told with half the length, and would have been better for it.

A somewhat different issue - the author clearly wanted to present the issues of LGBT rights and animal rights, but did so in a clumsy and obvious fashion, so that, unfortunately, there's an excessive amount of time spent on the unfairness of the social injustices faced by the LGBT characters (often in the form of their talking about them), and it comes across as a bit unnatural in presentation - more about the issues than the people themselves, as if the characters were LGBT simply so the issues could be talked about. It's good to see more LGBT characters in fiction, but it was just a bit too artificial. And vegan dragons are a bit whimsical, as is the unusual amount of legal resistance faced by human and dragon who talk about animal rights.
Profile Image for Kristian.
387 reviews2 followers
June 19, 2016
Let me premise this review by saying that I won this in a Goodreads giveaway and am thankful for the opportunity to read a new author. I will say I broke my own rule by not reading the first book in the series. This book definitely NEEDS you to read the first book in the series so that you know what is going on. I felt like this book was trying to cover everything that is wrong in today's society today. I didn't feel that the dragon race needed to be dragons. The author could have made them aliens or another nation or race of people. There were a lot of issues and a large cast of characters that I feel were probably set up better in the first book in the series. On a picky note that has nothing to do with the story, I find the maps in the beginning of the book to be a bit busy and hard to read. Thank you the opportunity to read your ARC. I will read the first book before I try this one again so I will enjoy it more.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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