Isabelle Steiger

Wow! Just… Wow. If you enjoy epic fantasy go get yourself a copy of The Empire’s Ghost by Isabelle Steiger and make sure to pre-order book two, The Rightful Queen, which comes out on July 21, 2020.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read an epic fantasy book. I think I was put off because I was reading the wrong ones. Ones where the women have big breasts and are scantily clothed. I should have known I need to seek out female authors. Authors like Steiger who has numerous strong female show more characters, not everyone is constantly thinking about or having sex, and where the men are allowed to have a feeling other than rage.

The characters are so well developed and I look forward to meeting up with them again. You have the usual tropes; magic is missing, quests for the royalty, hidden revolts, and more, but it doesn’t feel like you’ve read it before. Steiger takes a fresh approach that I really enjoyed.

And the world that is built is amazing. You feel like you’re actually there with her vibrant descriptions. You can smell the stew cooking in the tavern and feel the dampness of the prison walls seep into your bones.

Steiger masterfully had the story progress giving just enough information to have you believe you know what is going on with a particular character and then she gives you some more insight that has you second guessing yourself. This made me want to read faster to see how the different characters were intertwined and I was actually saddened when the book ended. But you know that’s a great book when an author leaves you wanting, no needing, to know more. show less

If you are a reader of epic fantasy or enjoyed watching Game of Thrones and want to read a book like it, then I think you will really enjoy The Rightful Queen by Isabelle Steiger. This is the second book in the Paths of Lantistyne, and unlike other series, I really recommend that you read the first book, The Empire’s Ghost, before diving into this one. If it’s been awhile since you’re read The Empire’s Ghost then I also highly recommend that you read the list of characters at the show more beginning of The Rightful Queen to help you remember the characters… unless you have a great memory, then you may not need to, but I definitely did!!

Steiger begins right where the first book ended and continues to weave various characters into each other’s paths while keeping others apart when all you want for them is to meet up again. There are events that are happening in about four different regions and they all tie together, some of the adventures come together in this book, while Steiger writes up even more circumstances that will carry us into the next book. To me, this makes for an excellent writer, someone who can manipulate the story seamlessly and leave the reader wanting more.
Another thing that is great about this epic fantasy series is the female characters not only being in true power, but not being written into the story scantily dressed and only waiting around in the wings as a love interest. Having read epic fantasy since the 90’s I read a lot of books where this happened, and I didn’t even realize it since this was the only type of story that was available, or at least that I knew about.

Another cool thing, not only is Steiger introducing us to new characters, but she even gives us a new plot line in this book. Not just a subplot, but something entirely new from the first book. And I love the direction it is going. A new mythology that I am interested to see how it plays out and if it will end up crossing into any religions/myths that I am aware of.

I highly recommend The Rightful Queen (and The Empire’s Ghost), and since epic fantasies take longer to write then other genres, I will be patiently waiting for book three… hopefully not as long as for George R. R. Martin’s next book. ;) show less

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2017/05/15/review-the-empires-ghost-by-isabelle-s...

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 show more 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. show less

The Risen City by Isabelle Steiger is the third, and final book, in the Paths of Lantistyne, and Steiger does a fantastic job tying up loose ends and giving the reader a solid conclusion.

If you read fantasy you know that there are so many characters and side stories that a reviewer can’t really go into it all if they want to keep any surprises. Plus since this is the last book in the series, I really don’t want to give any spoilers away.

I appreciated that Steiger has a list of characters show more at the beginning to reacquaint the reader with who everyone is, and Steiger is able to seamlessly bring the reader back into the story and her wonderful world building. Now that the story is finished, I know I’ll go back to them in a few years and read them one after the other to be able to dive more into various details that I may have missed having read them so many months apart… but that is one of the wonderful things about Fantasy series, if they are good then the reader wants to go back and read them again.

I do wish the Paths of Lantistyne got more recognition since I can see a lot of readers (and viewers if they were to make this into a TV show) enjoying it! show less