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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: There is a time for grief, and a time for songs, and a time to recall with fondness all that has been and gone. But there is a time for killing too. There is a time for blood, and a time for rage, and a time to close your eyes and become the thing heaven wants you to be. My only problem when it comes to world building (and unfortunately it's a relatively big one in terms of personal preferences) is that I'm not typically a big fan of vampires in fantasy. They've never really been my thing. But even though the vampires here come with all the usual bells and whistles - you know, the typical powers and traits - Kristoff's writing goes a long way to saving the day for me. It's was so well done that it made even the most "vampire cliche" parts pretty good - although I'll admit I did skim a few of them. This is daring and risky of Kristoff, but no, the style of the framing narrative is not the main issue I had with this book. I am a fan of framing narratives; seeing how the details of the legends explored and achieved often felt satisfying to me. And I believe this storytelling style should be featured more prominently in the fantasy genre. I mentioned at the beginning of this review that I experienced both hell and heaven reading this book. So I'm going to start with the bad experience first. There is no easy way of saying this: I hate-read the majority of the first half of Empire of the Vampire. There’s only [redacted] named characters—as in major characters—left alive at the end of the book,” Kristoff teases. “Everybody else is dead.”
Fridging. Jay Kristoff seems to looooove a good fridging. This is the phenomenon of a female character dying purely for the purpose of furthering a male character’s storyline. Just about every single significant woman in the main character’s life dies to push him on his little story. Leído en inglés, será publicado por Nocturna el 19 de Septiembre, en unos días. Os animo estimadas amistades, encarecidamente, a leer esta joya. Le auguro muchísimo éxito, como ha tenido en su lengua natal.)
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but honestly, the waves of nostalgia i constantly felt throughout is what surprised me the most. the narrative format reminds me so dang much of ‘the name of the wind.’ from the prologue/epilogue combination, to how a man of legend recounts his tale of how he has fallen so far, and just the overall vibe reminded me how much my heart loves these kind of stories. The writing is also definitely a strength (not to say the strength) of this book. It is dark and lyrical, but it was not too much or too descriptive. Be aware that the dialogues are vulgar though and there is a lot of blasphemy. There was a good balance of descriptions, action, and snark, and I LOVED IT. UPDATE 9/6/21: I’ve stewed in my thoughts for a while now, and I’ve decided to lower my rating completely. i got about 25% in before i realised my ARC was only an extended sampler and, because of that and personal reading preferences, i am going to hold off until i have a complete copy. but what i did read. oh my goodness. release day cant come soon enough.
Gabriel de León es el último miembro de la Orden de Plata, dedicada a defender el reino y la iglesia antes de que los arrasaran. Su destrucción fue imparable cuando la luz del día nos abandonó. It is also the most emotional book I have read in a minute. I cried early and often. Sometimes smiling through my tears of joy; other times consumed by sadness or fear. I'm also gonna talk about the language in here, and by language I mean not-English and how the author doesn't seem to get that YOU CAN JUST WRITE IN ENGLISH IT'S OKAY using 'oui', 'merci', and 'ma famille' instead of yes, thanks, and my family ( gonna ignore the halfway-started use of KEN for KNOW/KNOWING) okay! It doesn't add multicultural flavor; it just makes you look like an appropriator and looks dumb when used like that. I'll forgive it on Wattpad but not in a book published by a major company nor from an author who should really know better. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for access to this eARC sampler, in exchange for an honest review. The characters are so likeable and life-like that I felt invested in their stories and their mission. I loved the way this story is told too, as our protagonist is recounting his adventures to a vampire who has him prisoner. I didn't expect the amount of emotion this book has and what it made me feel, and there were many moments where I physically reacted.
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That being said, some of the things are loosely based on or inspired by Christian and Catholicism beliefs. As a Christian (am not a Catholic), some of the things felt slightly uncomfortable to read. There's mention of Almighty God, Redeemer, some of the things and perspectives are Biblical in nature. So when they're used in vain, and to act in vain..it's not an easy read for a Christian. There are more complexities to the events that happened in the book biblically, but I won't get it into that cause if it's Almighty God's Will, He will reveal it to others. I honestly did not have a lot of expectations for this one. For me, the jury's still out on Jay Kristoff. I was NOT really impressed with Nevernight to the point where I didn't continue the series and am still debating if I should give it another try, but The Aurora Cycle series was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. It blew my damn mind. I'm glad I gave Empire of the Vampire a shot, though. Aside from it taking me more than a week to finish because, despite the incredible story of Gabriel de Leon, the story really dragged on and on. There were times when I just couldn't focus, couldn't read anymore and that was really frustrating. Es muy agradable de leer, y pinta el paisaje con detalles que realzaron la emoción y elevaron las apuestas de un mundo gobernado por vampiros. I thought I'd be able to get through this but it's really a litany of vulgarity, and I'm bored of how many times I have to read that Gabe is into women, or something about their milky thighs, or some serving woman/thrall who reminds him of whoring or/ of a brothel or something to that effect that I've already tuned out and forgotten. Oh, and of course, breasts. All of this being said, this one slightly missed the mark for me, hence the 4.5 star rating. I felt like this wasn't anything particularly new from Kristoff. Many paralells can be drawn between this and Nevernight (one of my favourite series of all time) and nothing took me by surprise because everything that unfolded was everything I expect from a Kristoff novel.
The characters are so nuanced and incredibly well-drawn, fitting into archetypes while feeling unique, complex, and flawed in the best and most intriguing ways. Durante tres décadas, los vampiros han luchado contra los humanos, cimentando así su imperio eterno mientras el nuestro se desangra. Ahora los que sobrevivimos somos sólo unas chispas de luz en un mar de oscuridad creciente. I enjoyed this a lot. The dreary atmosphere was unparalleled, I loved Gabriel and enjoyed the parallels between his youth as a naive young boy full of hope and his early thirties, where he is a bitter man who has lost all faithBut music, de León…” The vampire leaned forward, animated for perhaps the first time since their conversation began. “Music is a truth beyond telling. A bridge between strangest souls. Two men who speak not a word of each other’s tongues may yet feel their hearts soar likewise at the same refrain. Gift a man the most important of lessons, he may forget it amorrow. Gift him a beautiful song, and he shall hum it ’til the day the crows make a castle of his bones.” Those aren’t generally the sorts of vampires we tend to see in much contemporary fiction nowadays, however. From The Vampire Diaries and True Blood to the Twilight franchise, recent mainstream pop culture has embraced the idea of the vampire as a version of the ultimate bad boy boyfriend, a secretly romantic figure still searching for true love after centuries of loneliness.
Blasphemy- Look, I get it I signed up for a dark fantasy and I got it. This is the first time I am reading anything from this author so I had zero idea. I also understand that the religion portrayed in this book is not real but it is based on or inspired by Catholicism. Thought it was a bit much. Our good initiate will eventually figure out that your breasts, whilst magnificent, aren't any real impediment to combat prowess." I’ll be honest and say that technically these are much too violent for me (fair warning: these are bloody and at times just gross), but the story is so good that I stopped caring.Las ilustraciones que acompañan al libro le dan otro toque acorde. Hace de su lectura algo más completo. But don’t expect bestselling Australian author Jay Kristoff’s new book, Empire of the Vampire, to follow this modern trend. In this story, the first in a new epic fantasy trilogy, vampires are 100% terrifying again, vicious monsters who kill violently and indiscriminately, and whose powers mean that few humans are capable of standing against them for long. The book was near falling to pieces, but the lettering was still visible, faint and faded, oui, but still there. This, too, was a strange immortality. Poems, stories, ideas, frozen forever in time. The simple wonder of books.”
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