D.N.F.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to shelf this one for now. I only made it 4%, which I usually prefer to push farther, but there were so many different characters and plot lines just in that small amount of time, it is very hard to follow. I couldn't tell you who any of them were or what the story was even about. None of the characters peaked my interest either, they all seem very downtrodden.

A decent entry into the packed collection of current YA fantasy. Not bad but not anything that really makes it stand out among the pack.

I'm unable to provide a review at this time. Unfortunately, I DNFed this book in the first 17%. It just didn't grab my attention. I apologize for any inconvenience.

This book was very confusing to understand. There were so many characters to follow. However, I thought the world-building was very creative, and the story well-written.

I rather enjoyed this novel, I found myself engrossed in the story and rather impressed with the author's ability to weave that many different stories into a cohesive whole. I enjoyed the writing style and the characters and would definitely read another if there were to be a second installment which seems to be the case from the ending.

This sounded like a fantasy book that I would love, but turned out to be one that I really struggled with. The beginning is confusing and doesn't really give much grounding in the world and what's going on. There are too many threads that aren't woven together in an engaging way for me. I was struggling to find the bigger picture and how everything was supposed to fit together. If you're ok with not being entirely sure what's going on, you'll probably be fine. For me, it was confusing and I wasn't able to finish it.

The Empire's Ghost is the first book in a new fantasy series in which the great empire Elesthene rose and at the same time ended the use of magic. (If you want a more thorough summary, I definitely recommend you check out the Goodreads summary, as it will provide much more information.) Honestly, the more I think about this book, the more I love it, and I definitely plan to purchase a copy of this book for myself.

The most prominent thing about this book, in my opinion, is that there is a lot of dialogue. That might sound odd, but it really is true. Fortunately, I found Steiger's dialogue to be extremely entertaining and realistic, and I really enjoyed it. I have never been a huge fan of extensive action scenes in the first place, so the amount of action that was interspersed throughout this book was perfectly balanced. Plus, the actions scenes were wonderfully written, and every sword battle or confrontation was written with precise detail and an engaging narrative.

There is a lot of politics, strategy, and social play at work here, and I loved every second of it. The political interactions and discussions included so many subtle snide remarks and wisdom that I could not help but hang on to every word.

The characters in The Empire's Ghost are amazing. There is a wide variety of characters, which extremely impressed when I discover how distinct each character's voice was. Along with the many characters, there are also many alternating third person points of view throughout this book, and I - surprisingly - didn't really mind. Each character had such an interesting storyline and fascinating personality that I sincerely enjoyed each one. I'm tempted to go into more depth about some of the characters, but trust me when I say that if I did that, this review would be far too long, so I will not do that for this review for the sake of brevity. (You're welcome.)

The worldbuilding in this book is subtle in how it is told, but strong in the way in which it draws the reader in. There is no info-dumping (yes!), and there really isn't much of an exposition either. It took a little while to get into the world Steiger has created in this book simply due to being thrown right into the world, but her charismatic characters really help to lead the way kept me interested.

The best part of this book, in my opinion, is the sheer depth of history of the world and the character backgrounds that are presented. The attention to detail made this book so real and I could not draw myself away from it. Steiger has also proven herself to be incredibly deft at carefully writing in twists and elements that impressed me immensely.

I can already imagine that there are going to be two main camps for this book: those who love it because they enjoy slow character-building and a plot that is mainly focused on settings things up, and those that hate it because it is too slow-paced. I'm in the former category and I cannot recommend this one enough. Overall, I am giving The Empire's Ghost five stars!

An exciting, engaging read that was hard to put down. I loved the world, the fantasy, and the characters!

The Empire’s Ghost was a book that sounded right up my alley: an epic fantasy that touts a complex, multi-faceted story complete with a rich cast of characters and many points of view, not to mention the potential of a brand new setting filled with unique cultures and warring kingdoms—all set within a world where magic has once been lost but is ready to be found again. And indeed, it was a solid novel that delivered on all its promises, but it also had its share of stumbling blocks common to a lot of debuts—namely, that of trying to do too much.

The story opens on the empire of Elesthene, now just a ghost of its former glory. In the aftermath of the Ninist conquest, almost all traces of magic has been wiped clean from the world, leaving broken kingdoms behind to rebuild. However, it was only a matter of time until an ambitious leader like Imperator Elgar came to power and sought to create a new empire in his name, invading neighboring lands that have little hope of fighting back. In the kingdom of Reglay, young Prince Kelken clashes with his father on his idea for an alliance, refusing to risk his sister’s frail health in a political marriage. Meanwhile in Issamira, the richest and most powerful of the kingdoms, the royal succession is thrown into question following the disappearance of their crown prince. On the other hand, no such uncertainty exists in Esthrades where Lady Margraine has taken her father’s throne as his only heir—and is ruling with a determination to rival Elgar’s.

But far away from the royal courts and noble houses also stands the Dragon’s Head, an unassuming tavern tucked among the dank narrow streets of a rough and rundown Valyanrend neighborhood called Sheath. Its owner is a woman named Morgan Imrick who frequently gives shelter to the mercenaries and rogues in the area, and many of the regulars have become a group of friends. Not too many people in Sheath talk about their pasts, but when one of Morgan’s kitchen boys is arrested by the guard, certain difficult truths come to light. The Dragon’s Head crew inadvertently find themselves caught up in the tangled web of Imperator Elgar’s plans for domination, and are subsequently forced to carry out a special mission for him.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of perspectives involved, on account of the huge cast of characters. Normally, this would not be a problem—multiple POVs come with the epic fantasy territory, after all, and one of the advantages to writing a large cast is that you can quickly use them to create a rich and diverse new world. So, having a lot of characters in this genre is a good thing—but only if you don’t introduce them all at once. The first warning signs came early, when I felt I needed a dramatis personae to keep track of everyone in the prologue alone. It made getting into this novel difficult, mostly because so much of my energy was exerted towards trying to remember names without having to resort to building a spreadsheet.

With a large number of characters also comes a large number of plot threads. I enjoyed the story weaving Isabelle Steiger has done here, and by the end of the book I was really starting to appreciate how everybody and everything was coming together. Still, it took a long time for the big picture to come into focus, and while it was doing so, the narrative struggled to balance out the multiple plot lines. Some characters were parked for long periods of time, occasionally given short filler chapters (almost as if to remind us they still exist) while bigger, more important events were happening elsewhere. As the connections started to form, this also made some of the developments feel too convenient to be actually believable, what with all our key players encountering each other supposedly by chance in this vast empire.

Plus, in covering so many characters, the story may have spread itself too thin. Lady Margraine was probably the most fleshed out of everyone there, followed by perhaps Prince Kelken, while character development was disappointingly limited for the rest. Some, like Marceline, feel almost like a footnote. There were also others I would have liked to know better, like Elgar, especially since he is shaping up to be a formidable antagonist. Still, to the author’s credit, the characters that do stand out are superbly written. Lady Margraine, for all her irritating pomposity and claims to be bored, is a real force to be reckoned with and I am most excited with the future of her storyline. I’m sure the other characters and their individual plot threads will come to fruition in time, but for now, I find myself emotionally invested in only a few.

All told, The Empire’s Ghost is a solid entry into the epic fantasy genre and an admirable debut, though it does take bit of time and patience to realize the author’s vision for all her disparate characters and the great number of perspectives. The novel also has the distinct feel of an introduction, and a long one to be sure—many mysteries remain unsolved, and even with the big game changer close to the end, the final conclusion was underwhelming in the sense that no real resolution presents itself. That said, I will definitely be reading the next book, now that the basic setup for the series is complete. I expect the sequel will be throwing us straight into the action, and I’m looking forward to more revelations and answers.

The Empire’s Ghost is epic on many levels. The massive empire of Elesthene is now history, fractured into separate lands. Magic has become fable, thought to be rooted in superstition rather than historical fact. The story gives viewpoints from several rulers, all with their own agendas and ruling styles. You also get the view point of many citizens and soldiers as well. It gives a sweeping view of what life is like across the board, giving the reader insights into the life and happenings for commoners as well as intrigue from within the palace. Though the perspectives are all unique, they become intricately intertwined as the story progresses.

Through perspectives on the struggles between adjacent lands that used to be part of the Empire, we meet the rulers of all three and three and see the contrasting styles of rule. We see hints of magic, enough for speculation. The story can be dark at times, but this is not a brutal and gritty story. It is epic with ups and downs, and definitely death and blood. It’s not a happy feel good story that glosses over battles, but it is not terribly graphic either (at least not by my standards).

Now, one of the hallmarks of many epic fantasies is often a large cast of characters and varying lands to keep up with, along with all the political maneuvering, etc. This book takes the epic number of characters to, well, an epic level. Even for a large cast epic fantasy, the number of people to keep up with could be overwhelming. This is not a bad thing, just go in prepared that you will be introduced to what may feel like at times to be a staggering number of characters. I did find myself at times working to keep them all straight, but I have to say, overall, I did. That said, I truly hope the publisher includes a Cast of Characters, perhaps even with a visual representation of people and relationships/alliances (a friend was joking it could use a flow chart, and honestly, I think it really could). I do worry readers may complain that they had a hard time keeping characters straight, or remembering all the details. Some kind of reference or aid to help keep them straight would be highly beneficial. Maybe I’ll create one myself 🙂 Another downside of so many characters is that I can’t say I found myself as attached to any of them as I would have preferred just because no single character had as much page time as a book with fewer characters. Time learning about another new character is that much less time to grow attachment to existing or primary characters. I certainly was not detached, but the more page time a character gets, the easier it is form emotional attachments to them.

Another forewarning for those that love fully contained stories that can stand on their own and have a hard time when that is not the case, you may want to wait for subsequent books to be released. This is an exciting and fun book, I know way more than I did in the beginning, and there were a ton of revelations (and some great opportunities for speculation), but I left it feeling like the story is really just getting ready to take off instead of feeling like there was closure of any type. That is not something that bothers me, particularly in a book 1 of an epic fantasy series. Just mentioning it because I know different readers have different preferences. Personally, I enjoyed the journey and am anxious for the next installment.

Overall, I think this was a very ambitious and good debut. Considering the page length (this is not the heftiest epic fantasy), it is crammed with information and people and a crazy amount of things going on. I may have talked about the number of characters being hard to keep up with, but sometimes epic stories require more perspectives to really give the reader a comprehensive understanding of the world and all its facets. For me, it was worth it. Without a doubt, I plan to read the next one. I need to find out what happens next.

This was surprisingly a great read! It was fascinating and interesting at the same time!I loved how the story progressed slowly and every character had a back story.I would love to read the next book!

DNF. I normally always finish a book but I just couldn't find any connection to the numerous plot lines that were creeping along. I left it and came back 2 times, thinking a mood change or a different day would change my perspective. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The Empire's Ghost, at 25% (which was probably close to the length of a regular novel) still didn't hold my attention and I have to admit defeat, this read wasn't for me.

The Empire' Ghost is a book full of mysteries and dark secrets, fading magic and the plots of the cunning. There are a lot of characters involved which I came to love.Braddok for example is one of my favourite outlaws.

I loved how the story progressed slowly and every character had a back story, and depth that not many authors accomplish without being boring. I found that Steiger has mastered the art of not telling much, but having said everything that is needed. The hesitant stories and pieces provided by the characters left you wondering what would happen next and how the war for the continent would end.
Of course, the reader is left hanging because we don't see what is going to happen next, at least not in this part of the series. This is actually the only reason I have 4 Stars. I would have liked there to be a little more plot, overall. Even though I enjoyed the book and its characters extremely, I cannot write this review without telling my readers that even though the plot is well-built and thought-through, it is progressing slow because the important thing for now are the characters and world-building.

But it is worth reading because the world building is at least just as awesome as character development! The history of the different kingdom is told through its intriguing and fierce characters who will try everything to stop their kingdom from being overrun by the Emperor. Every one of them has their own way to go about it, though. We visit lots of ruined and thriving places, learn their story and the story of all those involved.

It was fun reading about this new and intriguing world where magic has almost been forgotten. I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to read something new and exciting and doesn't mind that's it's the first book of a surely awesome series and things have to be explained in this part first.

A hefty read, The Empire's Ghost weaves together a multitude of tales - mysterious and adventurous into this colossal first book of what promises to be an epic series.

In the wake of the fall of the empire of Elasthene, Imperator Elgar has no qualms about airing his ambitions to reforge the huge kingdom under his rule, and only three more kingdoms have yet to fall to his control. In Esthrades, the calculating and unnerving Lady Arianrod Margraine has taken her father's throne upon his death, with an assassin and perhaps something even more mysterious on her side. The deformed and young Prince Kelken in Reglay has seen his father brutally murdered in front of him and is now contending with a weak kingdom and the avaricious Elgar turning towards his lands next. And in the faraway and isolated Issamira, the succession of the crown is shaky after the disappearance of the crown prince. Within Elgar's own kingdom, trouble may also be brewing.

While it took me a chapter or two to fully sink into this book, made a bit more difficult by the plethora of characters and plot lines introduced from the very beginning, I found it a fascinating and interesting read. The storylines are well woven with each other, and the characters are enigmatic but just revealing enough to keep the reader hooked. The novel surprisingly addresses and questions ideas of service and loyalty and what vows of fealty mean in the face of disagreeable rulers. A fantasy, the novel does not contain much magic, but it plays a role in the history and aspirations of the book's characters. While I found some storylines less interesting than others (and some which seem to have no significance to the overall story - at least not yet), I overall found the novel to be incredibly interesting and filled with differing characters who are painted as humans with all the flaws and caprices of humanity. While a male-dominated world, I appreciated the strong and sneaky women who also starred in the tale.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in picking up an epic fantasy full of wonder and amazement with a splash of sword fighting and pickpocketing.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a fair review!