Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff – Review

Published: March 12, 2024

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Series: Empire of the Vampire #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 709 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 3 Stars

Synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Nevernight Chronicle, Jay Kristoff, comes the much-anticipated sequel to the #1 international bestselling sensation EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE.

From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hands sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. Drawn into an uneasy alliance with the mysterious vampire Liathe, Gabriel must now deliver the Grail to ancients of the Blood Esani, and learn the truth of how Daysdeath might be finally undone.

But the Last Silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by terrors of the Blood Voss, drawn into warfare between the Blood Dyvok and duskdancers of the frozen Highlands, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the Grail learn her truth.

And that truth may be too awful for any to imagine.

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Imagine, to my horror, finding that I didn’t love Empire of the Damned like I expected to! I thought Empire of the Vampire was awesome. So much action! So much blood! Such excessive swearing! Well, it turns out those things are actually great when there’s a little bit of anything else to balance it out and Empire of the Damned didn’t really have that balance.

This continues to follow the story of Gabriel de Leon, Dior, and now the vampire known as Selene. Gabe has just saved Dior from being sacrificed by his former brethren who believe that she will end the eternal night known as Daysdeath. Since the brutal murder of his wife and child, Dior is all Gabe has left to fight for and fight he will. The unlikely trio are traveling together to find an alternate way to end Day’s Death without Dior’s demise and I swear to god, that’s all they do for half the book. Just traveling. And fighting off vampires. And arguing. I’ll be quite honest, it was simultaneously annoying and boring which is not a good combination. I was invested enough to continue, but I also just kind of wanted it to end.

Gabe and Selene argue with one another about everything, which in a way makes sense because they’re siblings (surprise). Both are exceedingly bullheaded and untrusting of the other – yet another terrible combination. Dior is shockingly naïve and warmhearted for someone who lived on the streets for most of their life and this results in some equally shocking shit decisions. It’s a comedy of errors. Something is always going wrong, almost nothing ever goes right. It was fatiguing to read. 

I realize that I sound very negative about this book, but these are the things that stood out to me the most and continue to be at the forefront several weeks after finishing the book. I recognize that it was actually a pretty interesting story, my patience had just begun to wear thin by the halfway point and I was no longer in the mood for this bleak tale. I was also too stubborn to give it a break because I knew I probably wouldn’t pick it back up. I think that if you liked the first book, you’ll probably like this as well. It doesn’t have the luxury of the flashbacks and training montages that broke things up in Empire of the Vampire so I didn’t enjoy it as much. This is one solid tale of blood, horror, and drudgery.