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A review by tsunni
Shackled Fates by Thilde Kold Holdt
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I took a while to finish reading book 1 Northern Wrath. The characters thus far — while interesting in other ways — don’t have a ton of emotional depth, and the first book felt a bit slow outside of the action sequences; lots of buildup that leaned on characters that couldn’t quite always carry the story emotionally.
In book 2 Shackled Fates, stuff is happening; the characters still feel kinda emotionally empty (again just like characters in Norse myths, so it feels right in context), but there’s so much interesting stuff going on that the plot threads starting to come together made up for any character deficiencies. The chapters are relatively short so the pace never drags down as we bounce between all the character viewpoints, and it feels like something significant is happening constantly. One prime example of what I’m talking about: one of the later chapters has a 7 year timeskip. It barely mattered characterization wise; character acted pretty much the same albeit 7 years older, and it moved right onto the next big plot point. I don’t think the timeskip even affected any other remaining viewpoint characters in future chapters; a throwaway line explained away the discrepancy and alls well.
I enjoyed Shackled Fates a lot. I’m emotionally invested in most of these characters nowexcept Finn, that dropped plot point of him stabbing Einer in book 1 still rankles me and all the juicy Norse myth goodness you could ever want is being woven in expertly as the overarching plot goes at full speed. I’m fully on board in seeing where all this goes. There’s a lot to like here and if you stuck with book 1, I think this is way better and worth the read.
In book 2 Shackled Fates, stuff is happening; the characters still feel kinda emotionally empty (again just like characters in Norse myths, so it feels right in context), but there’s so much interesting stuff going on that the plot threads starting to come together made up for any character deficiencies. The chapters are relatively short so the pace never drags down as we bounce between all the character viewpoints, and it feels like something significant is happening constantly. One prime example of what I’m talking about: one of the later chapters has a 7 year timeskip. It barely mattered characterization wise; character acted pretty much the same albeit 7 years older, and it moved right onto the next big plot point. I don’t think the timeskip even affected any other remaining viewpoint characters in future chapters; a throwaway line explained away the discrepancy and alls well.
I enjoyed Shackled Fates a lot. I’m emotionally invested in most of these characters now