I really enjoyed this book the characters have pulled me in and made me want to see a better future for them, I can’t wait to read the next book to find out what has become of all of these wonderful people. I love how all the characters are coming together in their stories and how their individual stories intermingle. This is the first book I have read by this author but I know I will be reading more. I definitely recommend this book.

This was a great start to a new series. I thoroughly enjoy fantasy with large casts, complex plot threads, and switching perspectives. I dove into the world due to rich descriptions and latched onto characters easily. What is really wonderful about this novel, is that each character, good, bad, or in-between as most are, they were all well rounded and drawn with the keen eye of realism. When there is that sort of realism, the fantasy slips in unnoticed, feeling natural. I was lost in in the world in best possible way and loathe to put it down for real life. Everything about this is epic and I hope to get to read the next part soon.

I will be honest: at first I really didn't know if I would end up liking the book or not because it seemed a bit draggy. But as I continued reading, I found myself unable to put it down and stayed up late to finish this book. The worldbuilding is very amazing and I adored the characters!

I enjoyed the writing style of author. The plot was interesting and kept me engrossed. The ending was inexcusable. Literally the book ends without an ending. Granted there will be a sequel, but this is like stopping a song mid sentence.

A new fantasy world, great for the series reader who loves intrigue and endless trouble. Deep mysteries abound.

'The Empire's Ghost' is an epic fantasy adventure that centers around various kingdoms seeking control over neighboring lands, but with magic and cunning rulers, who will have the upper hand and who will be victorious? The imagery is quite exquisite throughout the novel and the locales seem to become characters themselves. There are a lot of characters, names, and places to remember, but don't let that dissuade you from starting this novel. The characters were a little hard to remember since they are called more than one name by different characters, but after sticking with the novel, they became clearer in my mind and I could picture each one in every scene. The characters slowly reveal more and more about themselves as the novel progresses to provide more depth and complexity to their choices and actions. Magic and the use of magic is a thread throughout the plot, but does not control the plot. The ending is definitely not a conclusion but opening to another book set in this epic world.
My reasons for giving 'The Empire's Ghost' 4 stars instead of 5 are primarily the time it took for me to get invested in the novel and the plot intricacies that were sometimes hard to follow. The second half of the book definitely seemed to come together more solidly than the first half. The action was easier to follow and the characters easier to delineate. I think a multi-faceted novel like 'The Empire's Ghost' would have benefited from a map and character list/tree at the beginning to give the reader some perspective.

*May contain spoilers*

Before picking up this epic fantasy novel, I did what I often do when attempting to decide if the book in question is one that I would want to read: I took a look at other reviews. Overwhelming, what I read over and over again was that there was a large cast of characters that left some confused during reading. For me, I like to read fantasies with large casts so when I got the book I dug right in. To help anyone who is considering this book determine if there are too many characters for their own preference I have attempted to create a list of the more major characters and their kingdoms or groups. My copy of the book did not contain this type of list, so I am hoping that the publisher will consider this in future books in the series.

Dragon’s Head (A tavern in town of Sheath): The Dragon’s Head is owned by Morgan Imrick and is what would be considered the heart or home of the story. It’s the most predominant location in the first half of the book as the story starts out not by focusing on kings and other royalty in their castles, but instead with a group of rag-tag friends who hang around the local pub. Characters are: Deinol, Lucius, Seth, Roger, Braddock, Morgan Imrick

Esthrades: Lady Margraine rules the land of Esthrades after the death of her father. Out of all the characters in the book, she is the one I found most intriguing: a character I was never sure if I should trust or distrust. I never knew if I liked her or didn’t like her. She definitely has a secret that you sense almost from the beginning that leaves you wondering what you are supposed to think of her through-out the story. If this were a movie, I’d call her a scene-stealer because she is someone you are always watching and makes the room more interesting just be being in it. Others at Esthrades are: Seren Almasy and Gravis

Hallarnon: Imperator Elgar is the character I was surprised by the most. With the book description describing him as a dictator, I was expecting to absolutely hate him. I was expecting him to be one-dimensional. With his goal of wanting to conquer all lands and neighboring kingdoms and place them under his control, it couldn’t be more obvious that he wants power and more power. But then he’ll do something that seems ‘slightly’ out of character for a dictator and demonstrates that he knows how to stop and think first. That there are calculations going on in the back of his head that you wish you were privy to. His actions and conversations had me watching him almost as closely as I did Lady Margraine. Others at Hallarnon are: Varalen and Shinsei

Reglay: This is the kingdom you truly like as individuals. They are decent in how they treat each other and how they treat others. Some will say that Prince Kel has “weak legs,” but he likes to think that they are “just stupid – they didn’t understand what they were supposed to do.” Alessa, his sister has coughing fits making traveling to certain locations dangerous for her. While Elgar schemes, and Lady Margraine calculates, Prince Kel has a very sharp mind and plays the game of politics better than anyone might expect. At Reglay are: King Kelken, Prince Kel, Alessa, Cadfael

Issamira: This is a land that is only referenced, but is seen by the other kingdoms to be in a calm-before-the-storm status. Prince Landon and heir to the Issamira throne is missing and presumed dead, creating an opportunity for his siblings to not follow hierarchical structure and grab the throne by force. Nothing has happened yet, but there is a lot of talk and speculation.

One issue I had that occurred mostly at the beginning was how the narrative switched between the different players and kingdoms in the book. This is not due to there being too many characters. Instead, my copy of the book did not include separators of any kind when switching from one group of people/locations to another. One paragraph I am with Shinsei in one location. The very next paragraph I’m with Gravis somewhere completely different. It caused quite a bit of confusion as I was still attempting to learn everyone. I hoping this is due to my electronic version of the book and is not in the final copy. But if not, I do recommend to the publishers to add a separator of some kind between scenes/locations, or subheadings that tell me where I am. Eventually, I went to the audio book, which is when I didn’t notice anymore.

Overall, a book I very much enjoyed and look forward to the next one in the series when it comes out.

Rating: 4.5 stars

I DNFed this book along the 20% mark and I just couldn’t read one more page. I tried so hard to read this book. I even restarted the prologue three times because I wasn’t following along. I knew that this book would be slow, but I couldn’t care for any of the characters and I don’t think I was a big fan of the setup of the novel. It would just to different points stories without warning and new characters would just jump in without no explanation and it was driving me crazy. I even drew out a concept map to follow along all the countries and characters and still… didn’t work out for me.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Empire’s Ghost was an intricate fantasy that did not feel resolved to me. It had a lot of detail and the characters/stories were harder to follow for me. I would not recommend this to someone that has trouble following more complicated stories with a lot of characters and details. I do usually enjoy that sort of a book, but this one struggled to fully draw me in and I lost interest more quickly. I found myself skimming thru more to get to the end.

I tried this book a few times but just couldn't get into it. I think some people will enjoy it, and it is usually my kind of thing, but in the end I just didn't finish.

I was super excited to have received this book as an ARC! It was such a well rounded book, from the amazing and detailed worldbuilding, to the thought out and well executed plot, to the characters that drew you right in!

I saw some very mixed reviews on this including a Could not Finish at 25% - well that person definitely missed out! This is an epic tale and whilst there are a number of threads that are woven, this is essential to provide the rich tapestry of the tale - as you immerse yourself in the book, those threads begin to converge more and more until you understand why each character needed to tell their own tale, in their own way.
With a stunning cast of diverse and interesting characters, intriguing rulers and several Main Protagonists, this was a hugely enjoyable read and the first of several in this world from how it ends- I am looking forward to the next one.
#TheEmpiresGhost

If you like complicated epic fantasy books that require you to constantly flip back to the cast of characters listed at the beginning, then you will love this book. I rarely have trouble keeping people and countries straight, but this book was a challenge. Still, I enjoyed the story. I want to know what happens!

I do think that the book raised more questions than answers, and I felt that the ending was abrupt, but I care about the characters.

The book was also pretty clean, just a few random, seemingly out of place, swear words.

Thanks Netgalley & publishers for the free e-arc

I can’t write a fair review of this as I did not finish and didn’t make it further than a couple chapters. Because of the format of the book, reading it on Kindle was difficult. It was hard to see where one paragraph ended and another started. Where one person was the main subject, then another. So I became frustrated and gave up. I do hope to finish this in the future.

This is very dense! It's very richly detailed and Steiger clearly has her characters' backstories well researched and plotted out. The imagery and world is very vivid, and really sets you right in the narrative. It's very lived-in.

I liked this. I didn’t love it, but it was a pretty good first book. There were definitely times when it was bogged down with introducing so many characters at once, but once you moved past that, this was pretty solid world-building. The second book actually sounds more interesting to me so my rating may change a bit after reading that one. Full review to come.

I didn't like this sadly. I found it sort of boring, the characters bland and not that interesting. Some people may like this book though.

I wanted to like <i>The Empire's Ghost</i>. I did. The set up was interesting, the kingdoms each had a distinct personality, but what really broke the book for me was the fact that all the introductions were so front-loaded. I had a hard time keeping track of character names. A large cast is an expectation for epic fantasy, but having a list of characters at the end of the book would have been majorly helpful.

For fans of sprawling novels, there's a lot to like here. I especially loved the scheming queen Lady Margraine and her body guard, Seren. The duels and battles were especially well done. There was a death scene that would have had so much impact if I had a sense of who the characters were and why I should care.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot to keep my attention in this one.

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.