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

A well-detailed, well-described, and elaborate fantasy setting with dark prose, beautiful and vivid descriptions of characters, and meticulous and immersive world-building.

A well-detailed, well-described, and elaborate fantasy setting with dark prose, beautiful and vivid descriptions of characters, and meticulous and immersive world-building.

Gabriel glanced out the window to the mountains beyond. The dark, sinking like a sinner to its knees. The horrors that roamed it unchecked. The tiny sparks of humanity, guttering like candles in a hungry wind, soon to be extinguished forever.
‘Besides, who the fuck would want to inherit an earth like this?’

SILENCE CREPT INTO the room on slippered feet. Gabriel stared, lost in thought and the memory of choirsong and silverbell and black cloth parting to reveal smooth, pale curves, until the soft tapping of quill to page broke his reverie.
‘Perhaps we should begin with daysdeath,’ the monster said. ‘You must have been only a child when the shadow first covered the sun.’”

Jean-François looked up from his tome. ‘You feared them that much?’
‘The graveyards of the world are full of fools who thought of fear as anything but a friend.’
‘Perhaps your legend has swelled in the telling, de León.’
‘Legends always do. And ever in the wrong direction.’
The vampire brushed his golden curls aside, dark eyes roaming Gabriel’s broad shoulders. ‘It is said you were the most fearsome swordsman who ever lived.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far.’ The silversaint shrugged. ‘But let’s put it this way; you’d not want to flip me the Fathers if I had something sharp nearby.’”

The humor is interspersed sparingly but quite funny, counterposing the bleak apocalyptic setting.

“‘I was thirteen when I laid eyes on my first wretched.’
The historian tilted his head. ‘We prefer the term foulblood.’
‘Apologies, vampire,’ the silversaint smiled. ‘Have I somehow given impression that I give a solitary speck of shit for what you prefer?’”

The plot is meandering and yet captivating. It keeps you interested in wanting to learn more. A very good read and I’d highly recommend it for Dark Fantasy fans looking for that unique yet familiar setting. I understand why Jay Kristoff would say that this book was his greatest work to date; he has written something truly beautiful and terrifyingly dark. Utterly mesmerizing to behold.

“‘You lied to Aaron,” Dior said, her voice breaking. “I know what happened to them.”
“Don’t go someplace I can’t follow…”
‘I turned back to the window, the shadow floating in the night beyond. Her skin was pale as the stars in a yesterday sky, her beauty of edgeless winters and lightless dawns, and my heart hurt to see her – that fearful kind of hurt you couldn’t hope to bear, save for the emptiness it would leave if you put it behind you.
“‘Tell me you love me,” she begged.”‘

He is a true master. He has reached deep into my chest, plucked out my shriveled bleeding heart, and shattered it upon the wall. He then stitched it back together whole. More whole than it could have ever been had it not been shattered. All this, through words…I thank him for that.

“I WOKE IN darkness. Blood in my mouth. Blood in the air. And I wondered if this was hell. No flames, no fallen, no lake of brimstone. Just dark and silence unending. But then I moved, and pain lanced through me, broken bones and bleeding meat, and I realised life, cursed and hateful, still coursed through this wretched body.”