Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
Empire of the Vampire #2
Publication Date: March 12, 2024 by St. Martin’s Press
709 Pages
Goodreads Summary: 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.
Review: Words cannot express how excited I was to receive an advance copy of Empire of the Damned! I’ve been a huge Jay Kristoff fan ever since I read an ARC of Nevernight and also have a massive fascination of vampires so to combine the two… perfection. Empire of the Vampire, book 1 of this epic trilogy, was one of my favorite books in 2021 so I had very high expectations for this book. Read my review here if you need any reminding on how awesome it was!
The book starts off with two maps by Virginia Allyn and then a reintroduction to the characters we met in Empire of the Vampire so you wouldn’t necessarily need to read EOTV again before kicking off Empire of the Damned. I LOVE when authors include these because as much as I would always love to be able to re-read a previous book in a series before continuing on, I don’t always have time to do so. Then the book opens on Jean-Francois reliving the memory of Gabriel attacking him in his cell. I really enjoyed seeing a little more of what goes on with Jean-Francois and more of who he is. When Jean-Francois goes back to Gabriel’s cell to continue recording his story… that’s when we are thrust back into the action immediately after Gabriel massacred his former brethren at San Michon as they had attempted to sacrifice Dior.
The relationship between Gabriel and Dior really develops in this novel. They bantered and bickered, but very obviously cared for each other a great deal. The more Gabriel is with Dior, the more he takes on a fatherly figure role with her, trying to protect her no matter the cost. Everything Dior says and does in this novel just makes me love her even more. She is just so adorable but also fierce, kickass, extremely brave and courageous. In addition to Gabe and Dior, we get a much better sense of Celine as the story goes on. I’m still not sure how I feel about her… is she good, is she bad?? I don’t really know and I think that is kind of the intent.
One thing that really fascinated me in this book was the addition of the duskdancers. I would happily read an entire book about their territory of Elidaen. They kind of add the element of the weres so you have the vampires vs weres going on here.
I ended up taking this book fairly slowly for two reasons. The first being that I wanted to savor this book, knowing that it would be awhile before book 3 would be publishing and I knew that Jay Kristoff was going to tear our hearts to shreds. The second being that there was just SO much going on in this book and so many jaw dropping moments that taking breaks was almost necessary for my heart! Everything just kept building and building with twists, turns, betrayal and heartache. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen BOOM!!!! Mind blown! That final sentence! My jaw was dropped and I just sat there staring at the book after I completed it. EPIC doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Obviously with this being a rave review, I HIGHLY recommend reading this book! And if you’ve gotten this far in the review and haven’t yet picked up book 1…. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!
5 Stars
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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