Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Empire of the Vampire

is there even any words to describe this masterpiece?

i was engaged from the beginning to the very end. there wasn't a single moment of this book where i wasn't on the edge of my seat. it is worth every single bit of its 700-something pages because the story simply couldn't be told in less than that.

the atmosphere? unable to be duplicated. take every hard, dramatic aesthetic of the church and turn it up to eleven. it's blood and silver and hopelessness and battle fury.

the characters were intensely flawed and intensely loveable. no one could have told this story like gabriel did.

i didn't realize this was an incomplete series when i started it (i don't usually read incomplete series) but i am absolutely locked in. i cant wait for the rest of the story.

if you want a grimdark vampire fantasy epic, why aren't you already reading this?

Content Warnings

grets_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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givemedatangst's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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breazy777's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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violet_gray's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This review is specifically for the audio version with no pretty pictures to distract me from the hot mess which is the writing.
The “banter” is early 2000’s edgy stand up style humor.
The inconsistent mix of random French, faux old English and modern day English breaks all immersion.

I’m ok with mixing timelines but they don’t pay off. Also the contant moving of the goal post robs the story of anything remotely resembling a satisfying conclusion .

The world building is not there. There’s mushrooms, potatoes, water and vague other races. Where are they? How does that impact who they are and how the world treats them? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Now specifically for the audio version… oh dear. That was a hot mess of accents and styles.

Less objective thoughts.
This reads like fan fiction of many different properties , most blatantly The Vampire Chronicles (French Nobel woman in exile in the country side, married to drunk husband has a child that extra special and their name is Lion something) and The Last of Us (hear me out: grumpy dude who loses daughter must deliver children to authorities that will use her to save the world but then decides he’d rather burn the world than have her die. Also fungus monsters) but the author likes gritty comics and George Carlin humour and things they can do better and this was their attempt at that.

And as someone that likes all those things as well, I do wish this worked.
Hence the two starts instead of 1. But it doesn’t work cause the writing is bad. There is no real reason for this book to be this long unless you are aiming to appeal to Sanderson fans but can’t do all the world building he does.
If books were kids toys, Sarah j Maas would purple sparkly toy and this would the exact same crap plastic toy but in blue and black.

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lifeonasofa's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Empire of the Vampire 🧛🏼‍♂️ Review

“Finally, he retrieved a tarnished royale from his pocket. 'Here.'

'What is that for?' Jean-François demanded.

'I want you to take this coin to market, and buy me a fuck to give.” - Jay Kristoff 🪙

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 Stars

If you’re looking for an adult vampire world to live in for the foreseeable future…this is it. At over 700 pages, this is only part one and Jay Kristoff is taking his TIME telling Gabriel’s tale. But for an opening, this book was art 😘

It took me some time to get through this. It’s definitely not a relaxing read, it’s an experience. Having said that, when I did read it, the plot still moved pretty quickly. The book jumps everywhere along the timeline so it keeps it interesting 🤔

I LOVED Gabriel, his character was so fleshed out. He felt so real. The whole silversaint thing, so interesting. Surprisingly, the religion side of this was probably my favourite part. Particularly, the loss in belief and light - it really helped flesh out the history of the world👌🏻

Heads up, it’s a blood bath so if you’re put off by blood, death (some pretty sad) and foul language…I’d be wary 😂 it’s definitely not a kids book. I really loved how Kristoff combined such a classic story telling writing style with the relaxed banter dialogue, it somehow kept it light 👏🏻

Content Warnings

hannaws's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

There’s no misery so deep as one you face by yourself. No nights darker than ones you spend alone. But you can learn to live with any weight. Your scars grow thick enough, they become armour.

It took me 507 days to read this book. It was my most anticipated book for 2021 and I preordered two copies of it. I started reading immediately when it arrived at my doorstep. BUT IT IS A BEAST OF A BOOK! IT IS A BRICK YOU CAN HURT SOMEONE WITH! Yes, I do read big books, that is not the main problem. The reason it took me over a year to finish, is that it felt unnecessary for it to be this long. I finished it today just by doing my plant chores and listening it on audio. I really like the narrator.

To be completely honest, even though I tapped the life out of this book when I was reading the physical copy, I don't remember much of the start. I have to admit, I had a year long reading slump where I only read couple books and this one every now and then.

But I didn't like the multiple timelines. Mostly because there were so many of them. We jump from present to the past but multiple different times of the past. I'm fine with back and forth but if there's too much to keep track of, it takes all my will to keep things straight in my head.
With the timelines, there came so many people! Some of them stuck with Gabriel and his adventure, some of them didn't. And those who didn't, might pop up sometime later.

I don't really care about the characters in this book. Though my heart goes out for Gabriel, he didn't have it easy. Well, none of them does.
But I'm a little baffled by the fact that the females don't make it in this world. No matter how kickass they may be, they simply die a horrible death at some point. Men's world.

What else. The historian, whatever his name was, has no manners. I hate it when someone interrupts someone else, and with this book, it was no different. Why do you make someone tell you their story, IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LISTEN?! Gosh, that dude irritated me the most. Just shut up and listen.

All in all, this was a journey. This book has definitely been one to go with me over a year. I didn't want to DNF it, in hopes that it would pick up and pique my interest enough to devour it. It never came. And I'm a little sad about it. I really wanted to love this book! I mean, I have never kept on reading a book for over a year. Never.

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