As much as I enjoyed the first book in the series, I had trouble immersing myself in this one and several times have started it only to put it aside to pick up again another day. I'd still highly recommend The Banished Craft and the layered world-building with all the hidden details of it and I hope to finish The Fettered Flame sometime too, as I'm still both interested and invested in this series.

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.

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.

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*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1987156926

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RBYQUKOEM5DEH/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv