Reviews with content warning for Torture - Empire of the Vampire

"Empire of the Vampire" is a journey. Its a long one as our main character, de Leon, is recounting his heart-rending life to a vampire historian. This is like, perhaps, an 18th-Century-esque French setting. There's a large amount of world building particularly around religion. The religion is basically Christianity but with subtle differences.

The book goes down a bit for its treatment of women. Many women are clearly there to entice the male reader. The main female vampire is often touching herself and trying to sexually manipulate the men chasing her...in public no less--very annoying. Women are often brutalized more explicitly than male characters. And if you're a woman, stay away from de Leon.

Besides a couple people, everyone else curses like a sailor. Every. Single. Person. There is an excessive use of the word c*nt, but most often its variations on f*ck. The book is also much more sexually explicit than I'm used to reading. There's even underage sex, including a drawn photo in the book, which is not a welcome addition. Finally, it's extremely violent and bloody.

With everything being said, there are epic battles, hidden religious secrets, a vow of vengeance, and a struggle of faith. De Leon is an intriguing character. Kristoff does have some beautiful passages about choice and life and fate. I don't know if I'd be able to read a book 2 as I can't imagine keeping all of this in my head!

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sws004's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

It's been 27 years since humanity has seen the sun. Ever since eternal gloom known as daysdeath settled over the Empire of Elidea, mankind has found itself beset by legions of vampires and their powerful lords. The dhampir warrior monks known as the Silversaints were responsible for hunting the creatures of the night but are now nearly extinct. The last of their order, Gabriel de Leon, is now a prisoner of the monsters he spent his adult life killing. The narrative framing of the story should be familiar to anyone who read "Name of the Wind", although as someone who hasn't read Rothfuss, having Gabriel be a prisoner reminded me more of Anthony Ryan's "Blood Song". Besides the present-day framing device, the story takes place in two timelines: one follows a teenage Gabriel as he learns his parentage and begins training. The other follows a twenty-something Gabriel (set a couple years before the present) as he and a motley band of adventures hunt a holy relic that promises to see the end of daysdeath.

Empire of the Vampire is a dark, pulpy, good time. The book's strongest point for me was its atmosphere. There's a powerful sense of dread and hopelessness that made this a fun Halloween read for me. The atmosphere was great, with dilapidated cities and scary-as-fuck forests filled with bizarre mushroom monsters. The vampires themselves work well as over-the-top cartoon villains whose level of atrocities start out as scary but quickly become kind of silly. If you want a complex take on vampires, à la M.L. Brennan's "Generation V" or Barbara Hambly's "Those Who Hunt the Night", look elsewhere. These vampires are here to kill bloodily and die painfully.

The most divisive element for most readers will likely be the narrator. Gabriel is a whiny, arrogant, and unabashedly edgy little shit. His character development is somewhat hampered by the dual timelines, as teenage-Gabriel displays considerably more faith and respect than his jaded, moody twenty-something self, and the book obviously needs to provide some reason for this. The eventual explanation is some of the most blatant fridging I've seen in a while (and it happens twice!), combined with a general attitude of misogyny from Gabriel that I found unpleasant. In general, the teenage sections are rough going, filled with cliche training montages, stock characters, and repetitive info-dumps. Gabriel narrates his story to a vampire captor, so why does he need to fill in the details that a vampire should know about his own kind? The narration does mention the absurdity of this but also provides no explanation and continually repeats information.

Thankfully the future timeline is considerably more enjoyable with characters who feel like real people and play off Gabriel well. His interactions and gradual friendship with the character of Dior, in particular, are handled very well. It gives the book a much-needed character who pushes back against Gabriel challenging his cynicism, providing some of the book's most emotionally satisfying moments. Their relationship reminded me of Joel and Ellie from "The Last of Us" and is the element I'm most looking forward to in the eventual sequel.

It's also worth noting that the book has just surprisingly good pacing. Despite its 700+(!) page count, it flew by with tons of action and quippy dialogue. The last 150 pages, in particular, have some of the most exciting showdowns (and one of the best final villain kills) that I've read in a long time.
Despite some issues, I greatly enjoyed the tone and action of Empire of the Vampire. If you want a read filled with bloody and intense monster-hunts and a fun sense of pulp and melodrama, I'd recommend checking it out.

3.5/5

CWs: Homophobia, Misogyny, Child Death, Animal Death, Extreme Violence and Gore

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clairew97's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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cc0906's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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fivexfiveb's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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anntharai's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

The bits I liked I REALLY liked.
The issues I have with it REALLY irk me.

The world building is immaculate if a bit on the nose, really vivid writing and visceral descriptions, a great mechanic. Love the use of tattoos and the lore building. Overall I liked the story itself.

The issues, though?
I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of the vulgarity because it was genuinely ludicrous at times. Swearing doesn’t bother me in the slightest but the lengths to which these characters went just to get a “banged your relative” joke in was over the top.

Everything has a simile. Everything. The doors locked like a secret. The floors cold like the night. The night air cold like knives. Wind like knives. Words like knives. Running frightened like a startled horse in a barn on fire and the devil whipping it all the way. The lips red like red things.

The repetitive phrases (fuck my face, like his lady’s lips the last time he kissed her, better a bastard than a fool) stopped feeling symbolic and started feeling like a crutch about half way through and using the same *twist* mechanic used twice (gender neutral names being the crux of two stories told so closely together) made it feel less polished than it could have been.

Thanks to various reviews etc I was also expecting a “big thing” to shock me at the end but I kind of felt it was obvious…?

Anti-climactic, in a word, but I do want to know what happens so it’s not like I hated it.

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caitlinbutcher's review

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Insanely boring. Like oh my god. I got EIGHT HOURS into the audiobook and I was still SO bored. I could have read an entire book in the time it took me to learn that Gabe is a horny watered-down-vampire but vampire-killing legend who swears a fuck ton. I was on the fence about whether to continue with it or not when I looked up some goodreads reviews. I was feeling a little weird about the portrayal of women in this book but the goodreads reviews really cemented it for me. Apparently only the women in the story die horrific and graphic deaths. So yeah. I understand now why people hate this author.

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