Empire of the Vampire – review

Author: Jay Kristoff

First Published: 2021

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: 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, half man, half monster and last remaining silversaint – a sworn brother of the holy Silver Order dedicated to defending the realm from the creatures of the night – is all that stands between the world and its end.

Now 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.

The review: Empire of the Vampire is epic – a 700+ page novel detailing a vampire apocalypse in a fantasy realm. The fantasy element has a medieval-like setting but the world is not our own, with different geography and details. The primary religion, for instance is clearly based on Christianity (and with aspects like the Inquisition, the absolute worst of it) but it is not – they have a Redeemer, and a Mothermaid but his symbolism is (for instance) the wheel, rather than the cross. It also, of course, has vampires.

It is a world where, on the event of Daysdeath, the sun was so weakened in the sky that vampires were able to walk in the day and started to impinge on humanity before invading in earnest. The vampires are split into four bloodlines, each with different gifts, though there is a fifth that is never spoken of. There are ancien (the book’s spelling) vampires, also those turned who are whole and powerful but by far the most populous are the wretched (or foulbloods), which are feral pack hunters – their brains decayed and normally cognisant of hunger only. They can be controlled, subsequently acting with more cunning, by the other vampires. Turning is random, some die and remain dead, others turn if fed upon. Drinking vampire blood can cause a human to become a thrall to the vampire.

The other order of vampire are the Palebloods, always male they are the sons of vampire fathers with mortal mothers and the order of the Silversaints are made up of these – clearly based on dhampirs (though that term is not used). They have the beast within them and smoke sanctus – dried vampire blood – to stave off their evil instincts. They carry the gifts of their father’s bloodline, though sometimes it is so dilute that the gifts don’t emerge and these are known as frailbloods. They are a religious order and vow celibacy to prevent fathering monsters. Their skin is heavily tattooed in silver with images earned as they train, kill their foes and take their vows, as they fight they remove their shirts and their faith causes the silver to shine. Their weapons are silvered.

Gabriel de León is a Silversaint, once the greatest, disgraced and captured by a vampire bloodline after he killed the King of Forever (the head of another bloodline). From what we can gather humanity has fallen and he is forced to tell his story. In this volume we get his origin story and the story of how he found the grail. The stories are intertwined, splitting the novels into books, one will cover one story and the next the other, swapping backwards and forth and revealing plot in an intelligent way. The Gabriel character is stunningly fantastic; seemingly broken in the bridging aspects (as he talks to his captors); idealistic as a new Silversaint initiate but stubborn, disobedient (to what he thinks is right) and proud; a drunken anti-hero when we hear the grail story. The whole range of characters are great but Gabriel is the lynchpin (as he should be). we do get a glimpse of some of the other terrors of the world - notably the mutated fungus/animal hybrids that are described in nightmarish tones.

The writing is crisp, dialogue (which interestingly adds a soupçon of French, as well as the guttural of the campaigning soldier) is convincing and the plot interesting and fresh. I was really very taken by this and considered maximum marks. The attention to detail in the hardback is great also, beneath the fly-cover the front board is printed with a silver coat of arms, illustrations pepper the volume but they are relevant as they are the drawings that Gabriel’s interrogator/scribe completes between transcribing his words. Quality of production aside, it is a great read but where to go with further volumes in the story if I give it maximum? Better to say 9.5 out of 10 – an impressive start that I hope will get even better in further volumes.

My thanks to Sarah for the volume, which was a Christmas gift.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK