Reviews

Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff

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randis32's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

bonkersbibliophile's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

shandyt's review against another edition

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4.0

4.33 stars.

I'm about 5 minutes past finishing this book and still recovering emotionally.

This second entry into the series narrows its scope in some ways, focusing on a concrete goal and developing its core cast, while simultaneously expanding in others. We have an additional POV this time, which I'll admit I struggled with. I've come to love Gabriel, and I enjoy his style of exposition, so it was jarring and disappointing to have to change over, even though the events of the second narrator's story were just as compelling. I just... don't care about the second narrator character, at all.

We do also get a little bit of the story, third-person limited, from Jean-Francois' perspective. That was interesting. He was more of a character in this book, than the framing device he was in the first one. It's fun to see him carried along by the emotional beats of the story, getting invested in the fates of characters who wouldn't have hesitated to slay him.

As I mentioned in one of my updates while reading this book, things get spicy. I hadn't seen anyone else talking about that aspect of the story in the spoiler-free reviews I read before starting, so I'll say it myself. This book is as sexually explicit as any E-rated fanfiction; more lovingly detailed than any other mainstream non-romance novel I've read! That's not a problem for me, in and of itself; just maybe don't listen to the audiobook while you're at work, like I did, lol.

Speaking of audiobooks, I have a few minor quibbles with the production. I get the sense the author did not include a pronunciation guide for all the characters' names, as I was certain "Lilidh" was supposed to be pronounced "Lilith," as in a Goidelic language like Irish or Scots Gaelic. This pronunciation was later confirmed in an interview with the author included with the audiobook. But the female narrator who covered most of the sections where Lilidh appears called her "Lily," or charitably, "Lileed." (It was hard to tell, as she had such a light, whispery touch.) In addition, the female narrator struggled with many of the French-isms in the setting. The ubiquitous "famille," she rendered as "fameel." The male narrator doesn't always do a perfect job, but it added to the jarring-ness of the narrator changeover to hear garbled French in that bizarrely seductive sotto voce drawl.

I've seen somewhere that the author "doesn't believe in happy endings," and, given the tenor of the whole story, and the events of this book, specifically, I'd buy that. However, unless at least some of the characters get a positive ending (because an ending doesn't have to be happy to be positive—I will accept heroic sacrifice as long as it's not in vain), then I will riot.