Publisher’s Description
“It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness.
Gabriel de León, half man, half monster and last remaining silversaint – a sworn brother of the holy Silver Order dedicated to defending the realm from the creatures of the night – is all that stands between the world and its end.
Now imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy, the last silversaint is forced to tell his story. A story of legendary battles and forbidden love, of faith lost and friendships won, of the Wars of the Blood and the Forever King and the quest for humanity’s last remaining hope:
The Holy Grail.”
Review
One of my recent reads was the grimdark novel Empire of the Vampire by Australian author Jay Kristoff.
Empire of the Vampire follows the last SilverSaint, Gabriel de Leon while imprisoned, he recounts how he found and lost the holy grail to a vampire historian. The world that Gabriel lives in has turned darker and more sinister since a shadow blotted out the sun and the vampires roamed freely. Gabriel’s personal story begins with his childhood and unknowingly not being the biological son of his brutal alcoholic father. Soon after one of his sisters is turned into a reanimated corpse by the vampires. He destroys his sister’s blood-thirsty reanimate by burning her with his touch. When he gets a hunger for blood, he then learns the truth about his heritage. He is a ‘pale blood’, children born from a union between a vampire and mortal woman.
The SilverSaints of San Michon soon come for Gabriel and take him into training where pale bloods form a dwindling army of vampire hunters. Gabriel excels among the SilverSaints but only through acts of heroism. Disliked by his trainers for rashness, Gabriel still can’t explain his unusual and rare powers against the ‘high blood’ vampires. In the midst of his training, Gabriel meets the love of his life Astrid Rennier, a nun in the SilverSorority. Despite the threat of being banished from San Michon for life, Gabriel and Astrid begin a secret affair.
In Gabriel’s retelling of his life, darker elements of his story often overwhelm him. It is in this lingering darkness of the final days before he found the holy grail, a prophesied way to destroy the oldest of the vampires.
Final Thoughts
Empire of the Vampire is an expertly structured novel, the writing and characters alive with emotion and complexities. The accompanying illustrations evoke the world beautifully and add an extra layer to the storytelling.
Conclusion
Highly recommended for readers who like grimdark fantasy, horror and vampires. A fresh take on the vampire trope. A must-read!
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