Usurper's Crown

by Sarah Zettel

Book Overview

In a sweeping new epic of breathtaking excitement and adventure, Sarah Zettel, author of A Sorcerer's Treason , tells the enthralling story of a courageous woman from small-town Wisconsin caught up in a maelstrom of empire-shaking politics and sorcerous conspiracy on a dazzling world far removed from our own. It is 1872. Ingrid Loftfield and her sister Grace are living uneventful lives with their family on Sand Island, Lake Superior, until the day...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312874421
• ISBN13: 9780312874421
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 525 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

More Isavaltan magic

The second book in Sara Zettle's Isavaltan trilogy is unusual in that it pre-dates the first book. Although that seems strange at first, it actually works really well. This time the story revolves around Bridget Lederle's parents, again the story moves between Earth and Isavalta, a land of magic and intrigue. To get there Ingrid Loftfield must follow the sorcerer Avanasy across the land of Death and Spirit. This is a highly enjoyable read that is skilfully written. Sara Zettle is proving as competent a writer of fantasy as she is of sci-fi.

Very enjoyable prequel

I was reluctant to read this when I learnt that it was the story of Avanasy and Medeoan... there are things which we already know, but as is revealed, knowing of them and knowing the WHY of them are completely different. The tradgedy is in Medeoans blind love for Kasha and his complete contempt for it.. We learn what can make Medeoan so completely ruthless, and how it happened... Absolutely fascinating and VERY Enjoyable.

Isvalta of the past

I must say, that I at first was disappointed, when I learned that this book was a prequel to "A Sorcerer's Treason". Now though I would not have missed it. It is true that you know how things between Avanasy, Ingrid and Medeoan will end, but still this time you get the details and get to know the characters on their own accord. So I ended up liking the book, it's well written, and I think "The land of death and spirit" are a very interesting mythology.But I do hope that the last book in the series takes us back to Bridget.

enchanting fantasy

When it is discovered that the princess and heir of Isavalta is a sorceress, the emperor and empress ask the powerful sorcerer Avanasy to teach her how to use her powers. Over the years the two become friends until a political marriage is arranged to Kacha, the nephew of the king of Hastinapura. The princess falls in love with him, but Avanasy warns her that he is treacherous and not to be trusted. His charge turns on him sending him into exile.When the two are wed, she doesn't realize that Kacha is taking over her duties and replacing her loyal supporters with his own people. Only when it is almost too late does she see Kacha for what he is and flees the kingdom, ordering a loyal retainer to find Avanasy and bring him to her at a place she designates. When Avanasy hears her summons, he is posing as a fisherman on Sand Island in Wisconsin. He stands ready to return to his homeland to help the empress defeat her enemies but he brings with him Ingrid Loftfield, the woman he loves, the wife who will sacrifice much to give her husband what he desires.This novel takes place twenty years before the events in A SORCERER'S TREASON and it is just as good as its sequel. Readers watch the empress grow wiser and stronger, willing to admit she is wrong and take steps to rectify the problems her emotional blindness brought about. Avanasy is a true hero torn between duty and love while the mere mortal Ingrid contains more inner strength than the two sorceresses do. THE USURPER'S CROWN is an enchanting reading experience.Harriet Klausner

An Isavaltan History

The Usurper's Crown is the second novel written in the Isavalta series, following A Sorcerer's Treason, but is the first in internal order. In the previous volume, Bridget Lederle is a lighthouse keeper on Sand Island on the shore of Lake Superior in 1899. Her father and her love-child have died, she has never know her mother, and she is estranged from her aunt. Moreover, she has been accused of her infant daughter's death and shunned by most of the town of Bayfield. Then she rescues a stranger from drowning and he convinces her to return to Isavalta with him.In this novel, Ingrid Loftfield follows her sister Grace to a meeting with a drowned man's ghost on the shores of Sand Island in 1872. When Ingrid separates the ghost from Grace, she is saved from the ghost's wrath only by Avan, a foreigner living on the island as a fisherman. They return Grace to the family home, facing hostility from Ingrid's father, mother and brother, but later find a way to meet and exchange stories. Avan is really Avanasy Finorasyn Gorianaiavin, a sorcerer and former tutor of Medeon, a powerful sorceress and the High Princess of Isavalta. Medeon had fallen in love with Prince Kacha of Hastinapura and had become betrothed to him. However, Avanasy had found evidence of falsehood in Kacha and warned Medeon, but she believed Kacha, banished Avanasy and married Kacha. Now he is in exile, but still can perform sorcery with great effort and subsequent extreme weariness, so he struggles to weave a net to overcome the ghost and thus free Grace from its power.Meanwhile, in Isavalta, Medeon's parents, the Emperor and his consort, have died of a mysterious illness and she has become Empress, with Kacha as her consort. While looking for a cure for his withered hand, Medeon has accidentally discovered Kacha's treachery and then she looks for allies to escape him, among whom are Peshek, Captain of the Imperial House Guards, Bakhar, Keeper of the Imperial Godhouse, and Iakush, Lord Sorcerer of Isavalta. Medeon manages to flee to Hung Tse, but Kacha detects Iskush's duplicity and kills him, yet Iskush uses his own death to bring warning to Avanasy. When Avanasy prepares to leave for Isavalta, Ingrid insists on accompanying him. On the voyage there, she finds that the touch of the ghost has allowed her to see into the spirit world and to separate her spirit from her body. She is drawn away from the boat through the Land of Death and Spirit. She encounters the Vixen along the path, but is allowed to continue to the house of Baba Yaga, where she and Avanasy's spirit confront the witch and refuse the demand to assist in the recovery of something stolen.When Kacha discovers that Medeon has fled, he announces that she is pregnant and in confinement, for it is very difficult for a sorceress to bear a child. He has replaced all Medeon's loyal maids in waiting and Chekhania, the first among these ladies, is his minion, scripting notes in Medeon's hand to authorize his actions.