Book Review: Empire of the Vampire

From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hand sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness.

Gabriel de León is a silversaint: a member of a holy brotherhood dedicated to defending realm and church from the creatures of the night. But even the Silver Order could not stem the tide once daylight failed us, and now, only Gabriel remains.

Imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy, the last silversaint is forced to tell his story. A story of legendary battles and forbidden love, of faith lost and friendships won, of the Wars of the Blood and the Forever King and the quest for humanity’s last remaining hope:

The Holy Grail.

-Goodreads

Book Information

• Title: Empire of the Vampire
• Series: Empire of the Vampire #1
• Author: Jay Kristoff
• Page Count: 739
• Genre: Fantasy
• Rating: 4.5/5.0
• Date Read: October 12th, 2024

Opening Thoughts

Empire of the Vampire has been on my radar and my physical shelves in the home library since I got a good deal on the hardcover version in 2022. I’ve been wanting to get to this one since then. Unfortunately, it just didn’t make my TBR I think partly due to the beefiness of book whenever I looked at it on the shelf.

Then as I was looking for reading prompts for the Domain Reading Challenge in 2024 this book seemed fitting to slide into October for Eventide “A book set during fall or Halloween”. This along with our monthly buddy read kicked off my idea to make October my month of the Empire. I ended up with a total of 4 different books that included Empire in the title.

Pacing

The pacing of this one worked fairly well for me. The thickness of the physical book was intimidating to me but I opted to listen to the audiobook narrated by Damian Lynch who I thought did an excellent job bringing this story to life. One thing I’ll point out which may just be my own experience or perspective but I really felt like this was two different books combined into one. I’ll touch on some of this as I get into my other areas of review but the vibe in the first half just seemed quite different to me than the second half.

This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The entire book was enjoyable to me. The first half does a great job in setting up the world and characters for us. Another thing that was obvious to me was the second half of the book certainly got a bit more steamy in the relationship department. Thankfully it seemed to fit the story well and wasn’t gratuitous in my opinion. This normally isn’t something I care to see much of in my reads. The pacing seemed smooth, no glaring editing issues or difficult names of characters and places to trip me up. There is some time hopping as early on the read focuses on our protagonist telling his tale in a series of flashbacks.

World Building

The world building was also really good in Empire of the Vampire. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I knew this was going to be some type of tale involving vampires but that in itself is an ocean of subgenres and I was happy with this one. I was happy to see this was a familiar type of dark fantasy world with plenty of grit both from the world and it’s characters. There was plenty of action and political intrigue along with a nice twist on some religious aspects woven in. I rather like how the different vampire factions are used in this story.

Character Development

The character development might be the strongest aspect to this read for me. Obviously our protagonist Gabriel had a really good story arc from beginning to end. But there were some excellent supporting cast of characters both on the side of Gabriel and the antagonist side as well. The ending had some really awesome reveals that had me confused yet excited which for me is always a great feeling when experiencing a good story.

Roundup & Recommendation

Overall this was my first read from author Jay Kristoff even though he’s been on my radar for a few years. I know the second book in this series is out but I need to circle back and dive into some of his previous work in the near future as well.

I can’t compare this book to his other work since I just don’t have that experience myself. But if you’re like me and haven’t read any Kristoff yet, this might still be a good entry point as I had a really good time with Empire of the Vampire. If you’re looking for a good fantasy and vampire themed story with solid world building and good character development to go with the tale, this should be a good one for you!

Scoring

World Building 4.25/5
Pacing 4/5
Character Development 5/5