Book Review: Empire of the Vampire

Age Rating: 18 (contains violence, sexual themes and language)

Genre: Dark Fantasy

‘Empire of the Vampire’ is a novel written by Jay Kristoff in 2021. It follows Gabriel de Leon, the last remaining silversaint, as he recounts his life defending the realm against the dead, while being imprisoned by vampires.

This book is 718 pages long, however, it is surprisingly an easy read, even for a slow reader such as myself. Kristoff’s writing is easy to understand and has a lot of personality as it perfectly captures the essence of the first-person narrator, Gabriel de Leon. It was also really rewarding to read a couple of pages and get greeted with stunning artwork by Bon Orthwick. So much so, I am now of the opinion that more fantasy books should contain illustrations.

‘Empire of the Vampire’ best quality in my opinion is the characters. I really grew fond of each of the characters and their relationships with one another. It makes the outcomes of the story have a lot of impact as a result. The only critique I have on the book is the fight scenes, I found them rather hard to follow and choreograph in my head. This could very well be a problem with me, so I would love to know if others had a similar issue.

Overall, I believe this book is worth reading specially if you are a fan of fantasy and for romance lovers there is something to be gained as well (although it is a minor subplot). If I had to give this book a rating I think it is a solid 4 out of 5.

~Stay Curious~