The world-building is what I would describe as lush. I know that word is usually used to describe worlds in books, but I seldom disagree.
However, the worldbuilding in Northern Wrath is accurate. It made me feel like I was coming home again.
The tribe of Ash-Hill and Ash-Hill itself are definitely culturally accurate (which is a thing that tends to be a hit and miss with authors who try their hand at writing about Norse culture).
The worldbuilding has space for all the customs and the culture that people seem to forget Norsemen had, and it distinguishes between the Vikings (the warriors who would go on raids in the summer) and the farmers, who usually stayed and took care of their settlement.
People, in my experience, often reduce Norse culture to raiding Vikings which puts the culture as a whole into a very bad light.
Shackled Fates expands on the worldbuilding set in Northern Wrath by introducing Asgard, with the various halls of the gods and Ida’s plain, the battlegrounds that the Ragnarok will take place on.
It also introduces a number of new mythological figures and the like.
Once again, I loved everything about this book, because, like Northern Wrath, reading Shackled Fates reminded me of why I feel so at home in Norse mythology.
And I also liked how one of the underlying themes of the book is the conversion to Christianity.
As a pagan, this was very refreshing for me to read because the Christians – the southerners and Harald, the King of the Danes – were the antagonists for once.
Hilda, my poor, poor girl, remains my favorite character, and, having to witness her character arc change once again, I am excited to see where her path will take her in the next book.
I enjoyed Kold Holdt’s take on Loki. I have read multiple interpretations of his character, and it was interesting to be able to compare yet another, new version to the rest of them!
I take back what I said about Ragnar in my review of Northern Wrath. As I suspected, his character arc was only in the beginning stages, and now that the poor man has finally been told what his purpose is, I found his chapters to be quite comforting in the (albeit also very comforting) whirlwind that is Shackled Fates.

I was granted a digital ARC from Rebellion Publishing in exchange for an honest review, thanks to Ben from The Oasis blog for organising this with Rebellion Publishing. My opinions are my own.

Shackled Fates is the second book in the Hanged God Trilogy and the sequel to Northern Wrath. I reviewed Book 1 from this series, Northern Wrath here. It is a Norse fantasy written from the point of view of multiple characters. The action starts almost immediately after the end of Northern Wrath and I have to say, I wish there had been a ‘Story so far’ section, since a lot happened in Book 1 and it’s been nearly a year since I read it. I had trouble remembering everything! I loved Northern Wrath and was concerned that Shackled Fates might not live up to it, since sequels can often be weaker than the first book in a series, but I needn’t have worried. Shackled Fates is fantastic! It is equally as full of Norse lore and legend as Northern Wrath, displaying Thilde Kold Holdt’s wealth of knowledge and research. There is also plenty of action and a wonderful depth of characterisation. I really felt for the main characters during their many trials and was rooting for them.

All of the main characters from Book 1 continue into Shackled Fates, even the dead ones, and we gradually see how their Fates are shackled together in the afterlife, tied up in the important events which eventually lead to Ragnarok. Shackled Fates is written from the perspective of multiple characters, even Odin’s ravens Hugin and Munin get a chapter from their perspective and there is also a plural perspective from the forefathers of the giants.

There are more gods and giants in this instalment of the trilogy, with not only the more famous Aesir and Vanir of Norse legend, but we also meet Ran and her daughters from the depths of the ocean:

“From the shadows of the gate that the nine sisters guarded came a woman larger than her nine daughters, with long black seaweed as hair. It trailed behind her, dragged on the sand, and disappeared into it. Unlike her daughters, she wore clothes; a dress of green seaweed sewn together at the bust. At the waist it parted into long slips of straight seaweed that showed the tops of her firm thighs.”

There were many instances of certain characters being in the same world as the person they were desperately searching for but not finding them – which was highly frustrating and helped to increase the dramatic tension as everything moved onwards towards the inevitable. Some of the characters we had got to know in Northern Wrath turn out to be a lot more than at first meets the eye with surprise after surprise. Siv, Hilda and Tyra are far from being just a chief’s wife, a shieldmaiden and a simple girl from Ash-Hill. Their fates have many twists and turns and lots of unexpected surprises which I will not give away here! Ragnar, the former skald of Ash-Hill’s true identity was perhaps for me the most shocking:

“Ragnar could free them all; everyone imprisoned by invisible bonds sealed in blood. Only he could free them, and if their mother had been wrong, and he had even one drop of blood-given talent, he would.”

Thilde’s wonderfully descriptive prose also brings to life items from the Norse myths such as Freya’s falcon cloak, the threads of Fate woven by the three Nornir and of course Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. She describes the worlds of Asgard, Midgard, Niflheim, Svartleheim, Muspelheim and Jotunheim really well, making them each very distinct from one another, and also the Ginnungagap, referred to as The Darkness:

“A place of nothing and a place that was nowhere.”

Tyra’s visit to Ginnungagap while inside the ash tree at Ash-Hill in Northern Wrath can be smelt upon her by the Jotun giants and the Aesir and Siv urges her to trade her clothing with the aesir so that they will not notice her and pursue her. Siv always looks out for her loved ones to the detriment of her own safety. She was one of my favourite characters, along with Hilda.

I think it is fair to say that I loved Shackled Fates just as much as Northern Wrath – if not more! The ending is heart-rending, but the journey towards the end is so intriguing. The book will hook you in right from the beginning. I cannot wait for the final book in the trilogy, Slaughtered Gods.

Well, if this just doesn't take the series to a whole new level!! Everything that was so wonderful about Northern Wrath is expanded upon and fleshed out in this installment of the series. Everyone's future was thrown into chaos at the end of book one and if you thought you knew where things were going then hold on because events go in all different, unexpected directions. I don't want to spoil anything so all I will say is that the fantastic glimpses of the gods that were there in Northern Wrath are paid off in spades here. Odin, Loki, and Freya are all portrayed as such real people with flaws and plans within plans that it adds so much to the story and all the interactions the characters have with them. The rest of our characters lives continue to deal with upheaval and revelations and that ending just left me questioning how any of this is going to work out for my favorites. I continue to love Einer, Tyra, Hilda, Buntrugg and Ragnar and eagerly await the next book to find out their fates!! Go get this epic fantasy series, you will not be disappointed!!

ARC provided by NetGalley and Rebellion in exchange for an honest review

Shackled Fates picks up right after the explosive ending of Northern Wrath and definitely did not let me down. I immediately enjoyed that it all felt like a single epic saga. Even the chapter numbers continued on from the last book instead of starting over again. The overall progression from the first book to the second one was also handled immensely well and the evolution of the story came across as being very natural to me.

The first book started off almost like a historical fiction novel which began to introduce more and more mythological elements as our group of villagers from Ash Hill started encountering different elements of the Norse Mythos. Much of what made that book special was the intricate focus on Viking culture. Seeing the way they lived and what they believed in was extremely interesting and made everything feel authentic. In Shackled Fates, the author took that mythological aspect and made it the centerpiece of the entire experience. Instead of being primarily in Midgard we now traverse multiple realms meeting a huge number of different gods and creatures. Each of our characters had an exceptionally unique journey through the universe and it was fascinating. We got to visit Asgard and saw Valhalla in all its glory. We met characters like Freya and Loki. The World Serpent and Rán - goddess of the drowned. This is just a small glimpse of what we got to see and anyone even remotely interested in Norse culture should absolutely love it. All of this is culminating in a crazy finale which we get to see in a year and I am very excited.

To make things even better Shackled Fates fixed my main gripe with the previous novel which was that not all of the PoVs seemed necessary or compelling enough for me. I was always extremely happy to follow most of the cast but there were quite a few moments where we were put in the shoes of someone I did not fully care for which periodically brought down my enjoyment. This is entirely fixed in the sequel because every PoV was interesting and offered something unique to the story. I was also impressed because this also applied to characters who I was let down by in the first book.

This brings us to the only negative part of the novel - the ending. There were multiple things I felt were a little off compared to what I had been reading for so long. First of all, there was a very jarring time-skip right at the end. I understand the reasoning behind it and there were even lore explanations for this but it just felt weird to me. Part of this is connected to me being interested in the time period that was skipped over but part was definitely also the way it was introduced to the reader. I just felt really taken aback by that choice. We got to the actual finale right after and while it was an interesting scene it felt like it was lacking something. It wasn't even a bad scene but the ending of the last novel left me feeling hollow and emotional inside. Going from that to really enjoying myself for the majority of the sequel meant that I had quite high expectations which were sadly not met.

Overall, I had a great time with this novel. It is definitely an improvement on the first one and I am really excited to see where all this will take us. The journey was absolutely awesome and being immersed in the myths in this manner is immensely compelling to me. While the ending was a little disappointing it leaves us in a pretty good spot for the finale and I have full confidence that the author will deliver considering the improvement that I already noticed going from her debut to this. I can definitely recommend the series overall and anyone interested in Norse myths should feel right at home.

Firstly I’d like to thank Hanna at Rebellion for sending me a physical arc of this book as well as a Kindle copy for an honest review. I am proud to say all of my reviews are completely unbiased.

I just want to say that I absolutely love the covers of these books and if you haven’t seen them all you can view them on Thilde’s website here. They all tell a story and this one is no different!

They aren’t massive books but they’re definitely above your average fantasy size coming in at an average amount of 636 pages. The chapters for the books are broken down as always into different points of view (POVs) and this is something I like a lot since reading A Song of Ice & Fire (Game of Thrones) because you always have a favourite character(s) and when you get to their chapter you’re excited to find out what is going to happen. The chapters aren’t in a specific order so you won’t get the same POVs following each other.

“They are often angry, the forefathers. We all are. It runs in our blood and lineage. As you will soon come to learn.”

The story in Shackled Fates follows on immediately from that in Northern Wrath (my review here) and the chapters continue too starting with chapter 69 and not resetting to 1 since this is the same story spread over 3 books. I can’t imagine Thilde trying to sell an 1,800 page debut novel!

This is a book I was very much looking forward to. I felt it was very much a character driven story with so many different POVs. Within these POVs there are of course secondary characters and these range from a Christian King to Norse gods to a Prince to giants to other beings. The main characters in this story are all chasing their own ideals, they all want their own things and sometimes this comes at the detriment of others within the nine worlds.

“Asgard will stand even after the end, even if we will not. In red blood it shall stand. Flooded in corpses. There are worse in the nine worlds than Ragnarok.”

The characters are so well written and diverse. There are Norse gods, many of whom you have never heard of, chieftains, warriors and many other beings spread across many worlds that you visit. Most importantly they all feel very real. For example, Odin and Loki are absolutely nailed. I mean like perfectly. Forget what you have seen in the Marvel films, which are great by the way, because this is much more gritty, realistic and entertaining. Odin has a certain air of authority about him that isn’t told but is shown so delicately that you yourself would tread carefully if you met him. Loki on the other hand is as devious as you can imagine and you won’t know whether to believe the words you read on the page or not. Their descriptions too are really well done and true to mythology and not Hollywood. I won’t say much about them because I want you to find out for yourself but they’re just brilliantly written and they leave a great first impression.

“‘In the Darkness.’ His whisper slithered dangerously over the battlefield.”

It’s not just the gods who are alive, there are the main characters who shine as brightly as Thor’s lightning. Einer is brilliant as always but so many other characters are developed deeper than what they had been in Northern Wrath. Characters like Finn, Tyra, Siv and Buntrugg (probably my favourite character next to Surt who is as equally awe inspiring as Odin!) all come to life from the pages that make you want to learn about the Nordic mythology and way of life. The writing in this book is a testament to Thilde’s expertise on the subject.

“‘Time is slipping faster and fast,’ Buntrugg observed. At first it had been harder to tell; the difference had been no more than a few days. But that was no longer true. The nine worlds were being wrenched apart.”

The dialogue between characters brings them to life and you can see how each character affects someone else with their words or actions. When you think one person is in control you later realise it was actually the other person all along and this is just the humans in the story.

The battles and fighting in this book are just as well written as the first one. Again I don’t want to drop anything at all but there are parts I really enjoyed because everything is written in a way that is easy to follow but equally fast moving within the story. Weapons clash off the pages and into your ears while the next death is only a page turn away.

“‘We are all mere tafl piece to Ragnarok,’ he reminded Einer. ‘No one calls upon the war between giants and gods. Ragnarok calls upon itself.’“

Worldbuilding to me is important because I love diving into a new world. If you read Northern Wrath then have no fear, the worldbuilding in this book is as good as the previous installment. This story originally focused on Midgard and now Thilde really fleshes out a lot of the lore and worlds from the old stories. You will be impressed as you are taken across worlds new and far, learning about how they are connected and who inhabits which place. There is certainly much less focus on the Christian religion part of this story as it focuses so much heavier on the impending Ragnarok and the battle of gods and giants.

“‘The nine worlds may have let you live,’ said his grandfather.’ But Ragnarok will not be as kind.'”

This is not like other viking stories. Yes this has “vikings” but it has so much more. Gods, monsters, myths, magic. It really captures everything you would ever want from a Norse story and splatters it across the pages for you to wade through. You will not read another Norse inspired story of this quality.

Rating 5/5 – Shackled Fates is a blockbuster sequel that somehow out performs everything the first book gave us. The characters are amazing, the story brilliant and the worlds, alive. This will keep you turning the pages until the early hours and will leave an impact on you akin to Thor’s hammer. I can’t wait to see what Thilde has lined up in Slaughtered Gods next year because this is a fantastic fantasy story that really brings Norse men, women and gods to life. Everyone should read this series. Fact.

I adored "Northern Wrath" (the first book in this trilogy), so "Shackled Fates" had a lot of work to do - and it did it, effortlessly. The incredible imagery and depth continues to enfold the reader in the world of the characters, and as soon as you stop reading you want to go back. The writing is superb, too. Awaiting the conclusion with a mixture of sadness (it's the last one!) and eagerness (get me back to this world!).

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Another fine edition to the Norse style saga started in Northern Wrath; picking up the story at the previous tragic ending (even death does not stop the Hero's Journey). This is not a stand alone sequel ... so if you enjoyed the previous book with it's pseudo-archaic prose, you will do just fine with this one. Welcome to Fimbulvetr ... Ragnarok is coming.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#ShackledFates #NetGalley