Review: Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire #1)

Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire #1)
By Jay Kristoff

Published By: Harper Voyager UK
Publication Date: September 7, 2021
Date Read: October 14, 2021
Genre: Adult – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Hardback
Pages: 752

From Goodreads:
From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hands 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 couldn’t 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.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Nevernight Chronicle, Jay Kristoff, comes the first book of an astonishing illustrated dark fantasy saga.

“A life without books is a life not worth living.”

There are no words to describe just how excited I was to read this book. I have recently developed an absolutely love of everything Jay Kristoff. I just love his books and I was so excited to see what his take on vampires was going to be. I haven’t read and loved a vampire book for such a long time, and I couldn’t wait to see whether this would be the next one I obsess over. Jay Kristoff is a mastermind for writing this book. This is such a great vampire book and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

One thing I have discovered is that I am just utterly in love with Jay’s writing style. It’s hilarious, raw and real, and I love everything about his writing. This is one dark and twisty book… and I loved it! I love how he has this knack for writing these super dark storylines, while managing to get these incredible meaningful lines in there that really resonate with you and will stay with you forever. That is one hell of a talent. His writing is so beautiful and lyrical… while also being able to pull off a whole conversation consisting of only one word…. if you know you know!

Empire of the Vampire is raw and real and such a fantastic take on vampires. There are no good vampires in here. They are evil and they have taken over the world and left all the humans fighting to survive. I loved this dystopic feel to it and it really made me love the concept of this fantastic book.

I know so many people are completely in love with this book, and while I really did love the premise, the writing style and the characters, I did think this book had some pacing issues. It took me quite a while to get through this book and honestly, I struggled with some of it. It’s split into separate books and the time jumps around quite a lot. The ‘books’ that told of Gabriel’s younger days when he was first training really dragged for me. I felt like not much was happening and I was just dying to get back to the days where he was older and fighting. I felt like they were much more plot-heavy ‘books’ and as a plot-driven reader, I preferred them. Honestly, I love this book, but I do feel like it was a lot longer than it really needed to be. I ended up switching from Hardback to Audio half-way through and if you’re struggling, I highly recommend the audio edition. The narrator is FANTASTIC! Though slow… speed it up to like 1.5.

Empire of the Vampire is fantastic! I did really enjoy it, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. Regardless of my issues with the pacing, I am completely and utterly in love with all things Jay Kristoff and I can’t wait for more from him. I highly recommend picking this one up, it’s definitely worth it.

“I’d not just walk. Not just run. No, in this place, I’d fucking fly.”