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garrettcz's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Gore, Sexual content, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
novelty_reads's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
In 2021 there was no book quite as hyped up as Empire of the Vampire.
I remember seeing it everywhere. You couldn't escape it on Bookstagram/Booktok and die-hard book collectors were scrambling to get ARCs of it. With such hype, I was a little bit worried about this book. I was worried if it would meet such high expectations or fall epically flat.
Well, let's just say this:
Empire of the Vampire takes a while to get into. Or at least for me it did.
The book starts off with our main character, Gabriel, the last Silversaint, imprisoned in a cell by vampires, telling a historian, Jean-François about his life and how he came to be a living legend. This book, just looking at form alone, astounded me at how it goes between the interview-like present, Gabriel's early days as a Silversaint, and a few years before his current situation looking for the Holy Grail.
The book's first "part" (350 pages in) was all about the world building, setting up the scene and the ambience of the novel. While it was interesting, nothing really grabbed me after the first 50 pages (in part one). I think that's mainly due to the fact that I wasn't really connecting to the characters much.
But then we got to part 2 and all of a sudden, I understood why this book got so much praise.
The book's slower beginning makes up for everything it lacked in part 2 where all the plot twists happen and all the loose ends are tied up. All of a sudden, we got that closeness/connection we wanted from the characters and I started to really enjoy my journey with this book.
Where Gabriel started off as a stoic-sort of character, by the end of the book you see just how much he has been through. Honestly, I didn't expect that ending though which I won't get into for spoilers reasons but it made me understand his character and everything he's been through. I love it when books come full circle and all the pieces of the puzzle come together, not just plot wise but character wise too.
I also liked Dior though admittedly not as much as Gabriel. I've been told book 2 follows this character as well as another so I'll be excited to discover more about Dior as the series progresses. Also, I absolutely loved the bromance between Aaron, Baptiste and Gabriel and it honestly elevated the book so much! I'm excited to see them all again in Empire of the Damned.
This book was unlike any other books I've read before: it was dark, moody, bloody and hugely atmospheric and while I've read darker fantasy before, none were as gothic as this one. It also was the thickest book I've read in a long time, which for a person like me who read 300-400 paged books, this was basically double my regular length. That being said though, I would be very excited to read book two and I hope Gabriel gets his revenge on Voss. He really has been through hell and back.
ACTUAL RATING: 4.4 STARS
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War
amy_reading_23's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
It's about Gabriel De Lion, a dhampir recounting his life to a vampire who has him imprisoned. He focuses on two tales, the one of his upbringing and the one of the adventure leading him here. Just when one tale comes to a cliffhanger he switches to the other.
I really enjoyed Gabriel's character. He is a destructive mixture of cynical, sad, fearless and hopeful, a man having lived an incredibly hard life. But although the book has dark and sad moments, he tells his story with humour and I couldn't get enough of it.
There were some bits I was unsure of, that made me a bit uncomfortable. E.g. I don't know why Kristoff felt the need to write such explicit sex scenes between teenagers in an adult fantasy book. That felt unessecary and having heard some criticisms of his other books I do have to wonder why he chose to do that. But other than that, the book was great and I'll be thinking about it for a while.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
simmich429's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
januaryt123's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Abandonment
novaleestar's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Excrement, and Death of parent
wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
violet_gray's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The “banter” is early 2000’s edgy stand up style humor.
The inconsistent mix of random French, faux old English and modern day English breaks all immersion.
I’m ok with mixing timelines but they don’t pay off. Also the contant moving of the goal post robs the story of anything remotely resembling a satisfying conclusion .
The world building is not there. There’s mushrooms, potatoes, water and vague other races. Where are they? How does that impact who they are and how the world treats them? 🤷🏼♀️
Now specifically for the audio version… oh dear. That was a hot mess of accents and styles.
Less objective thoughts.
This reads like fan fiction of many different properties , most blatantly The Vampire Chronicles (French Nobel woman in exile in the country side, married to drunk husband has a child that extra special and their name is Lion something) and The Last of Us (hear me out: grumpy dude who loses daughter must deliver children to authorities that will use her to save the world but then decides he’d rather burn the world than have her die. Also fungus monsters) but the author likes gritty comics and George Carlin humour and things they can do better and this was their attempt at that.
And as someone that likes all those things as well, I do wish this worked.
Hence the two starts instead of 1. But it doesn’t work cause the writing is bad. There is no real reason for this book to be this long unless you are aiming to appeal to Sanderson fans but can’t do all the world building he does.
If books were kids toys, Sarah j Maas would purple sparkly toy and this would the exact same crap plastic toy but in blue and black.
Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Murder
xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism
booksandstarss's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Body horror and War
Minor: Rape and Xenophobia