Reviews

Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff

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missemleigh's review against another edition

5.0

4.5 stars - pleasantly surprised by the pacing of this, given the page count. kristoff's combination of wit and plot is top notch.

ddd55's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? Yes

4.75

victoriabooksaga's review against another edition

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2.0

Where to start? Well I guess by prefacing that I read an advanced reader copy that is supposedly a teaser/sample of the book. That said, I have a lot of thoughts.

Content Warning: habitually derogatory against women, graphically violent, explicit, strong language, s*x and bl*od slavery, animal cruelty, teenage smoking, adult illustrations

If you like Interview With a Vampire, The Witcher, and Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter, then this book is for you. Imagine if the Harkonens (Dune) ruled the world, but they were actually vampires and there wasn't much to stop them. That's basically the premise of the world.

PROS:
I really liked the map illustrations. They were gorgeous. I really appreciated the catch up notes at the beginning of the book. Those were really helpful. I liked the Nightblood (from Warbreaker) style talking blade. The opening line was fantastic. It was a really great hook. Stylistically, the writing is very well done. The extra star is for the quality of the writing. The world building and country dynamics are well done as well. The story has an interesting and intriguing take on religion, cults, and the concept of belief as a tangible thing to be wielded.

The reveal is very well done. As far as teasers go, that was a fantastic point to end on the story. But I won't be returning to find out what happens next for several reasons listed below.

CONS:
This book jumps right into s*x and blo*d slavery. That definitely sets the tone for the rest of the book. This book features masochistic and sadistic main character men who wear a facade of being a gentleman but who actually treat women as tools and less than. This book features terrible and derogatory language towards and about women.

I would describe this author as an "edgelord", meaning that his story has to be edgy all the time, includes offensive things to get a reaction, always tries to push the envelope in terms of content and language, and just generally chases that shock and awe factor for the sake of attention.

The only female who gets respect from the main character is a sixteen/seventeen year old girl. Why? Because growing up in the gutters of society apparently means that she's basically a guy with bo*bs and therefore worthy of respect I guess? Granted, there are still jokes, but he actually listens to her and views her as his child (this is where The Witcher undertones come into play). And the jokes go both ways.

Slaughterfarms: where humans are fed their unalived companions who have served their purpose and humans are farmed for their bl*od for vampires to consume. While we don't actually have a slaughterfarm scene in this book, we do get a description polished off with a wagon full of children being taken from a human town recently conquered by vampires on their way to make a new farming facility. *The children are all saved.*

There are honestly too many small yet glaring derogatory phrasing against women. I lost count by ebook page 50, and again, I only have a teaser of this book to read.

A grown man unloads his woes on a child who people had just tried to ritualistically m*rder. She literally almost died just moments before. Not the time.

The main character calls a woman a b**ch for not answering a question he never asked in the first place.

This book features crude and unnecessary "yo mama" jokes just for the shock and awe factor. And speaking of the dialogue, the main character drives almost every conversation he's a part of. Why?

There are illustrations every now and then throughout the book. As with the subject source, these illustrations are both graphic and explicit.

The author has an obsession with cat fights and unnecessary squabbling between women over the stupidest little things.

**Animal cruelty: There are two instances of horses being unalived. The first is off page but described enough for the reader to get a good picture of what happened. The second is on page and somehow even more violent. I'm talking gruesome and needless sla*ghtering here.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review is voluntarily written and the thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own.