Grand Scale novels are popular in Science Fiction and Fantasy – you’ve got your Space Operas and Epic Fantasies. Horror, on the other hand, tends to the shorter tomes, but there are occasional Epic Horror novels… Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon, IT by Stephen King, Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons, the Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witch novels from Anne Rice, to name the most well-known. Add to this list Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. The novel has some elements of Fantasy and even Post-Apocalyptic fiction, in terms of world-building, but the dark tone and subject matter can easily slot this in horror. Moreover, the world can most definitely be seen as Post-Apocalyptic since a world-changing event in the past has broken humanity and left the world rather desolate. Like recent epic tomes from Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind) and Christopher Ruocchio (Empire of Silence), Empire of the Vampire centers on an infamous character who recounts his life story, years removed from the events that gave the character their reputation.
From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hand sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.
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 is a silversaint: a member of a holy brotherhood dedicated to defending realm and church from the creatures of the night. But even the Silver Order could not stem the tide once daylight failed us, and now, only Gabriel remains.
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.
It has been nearly three decades (27 years, specifically) since the sun has risen in an event known as “daysdeath,” allowing the Vampires to strangle the world with their power. Humanity is fighting back, though. Or rather, those people powerful enough to fight back, humans who are half-Vampire thanks to their mother laying with a Vampire. These people fighting back are known as the “Silver Order” and the story is told from the first-person perspective of one of its order, Gabriel de León as he chronicles his life from the early years of abuse from his father to his indoctrination into the holy military Silver Order to his fall into infamy and regicide.
This is not a linear tale, as Gabriel jumps from his more youthful days and years to the days after he became a vaunted swordsman with a heaping dose of nihilism and cynicism. In his youth, Gabriel was a willful and headstrong teenager whose heroic acts often, but not always, counter his disregard for rules. He seeks only to become a Hero and become the most accomplished swordsman in the world. The older Gabriel is a focused and determined man filled with anger and finds himself on a quest that will hopefully lead to the end of the Vampire rule and a brightening of the world. This quest involves the Holy Grail with Gabriel questioning his faith.
There are several homages to the genre, 27 years for the world being dark could be seen as an homage to the 27-year sleep cycle of Pennywise from Stephen King’s It, Gabriel and his sentient sword bear more than a passing resemblance to Elric of Melniboné and his sword, Stormbringer, and the method of story delivery and classes of vampire bears some resonance to Louis and the Vampires from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Kristoff is on record in saying how influential Interview with the Vampire, the first book of that series in particular, is an influence on Empire of the Vampire.
While Gabriel is the star of the story, Kristoff surrounds him with a great cast of characters. His brothers in arms during his training days as well as the woman who intrigues him in his youth as well as his traveling companions during his older, grizzled, and cynical days.
Another aspect of this book that is impossible to ignore, the sheer size of it. Granted, the book contains lovely illustrations, but it is very close to 800 pages further adding to its Epic nature. Did Kristoff maintain a strong narrative hold over that girthy tome? I would say he succeeded on the whole. There were some portions of the novel that felt a bit slow and reserved. Perhaps because I have a new puppy, maintaining focus on anything for a long amount of time with a puppy bouncing around the house is difficult, so it could be me. On the other hand, when Kristoff keeps that narrative tension high and gets into some meaty storytelling passages though great dialogue and balanced world-building, Empire of the Vampire is one of the most gripping novels I’ve read this year. Fortunately, those high-quality passages and portions of the novel far outweigh the pieces where my attention was perhaps draw away from the novel.
Empire of the Vampire delivered on something I’ve not seen enough of in my genre reading, something that could easily be thought of as Epic Horror. It is a fantastic blending of Horror, Epic Fantasy, and Post Apocalypitc elements. This isn’t to say there aren’t stories/series like this on the shelves currently, just that I’d like to see more! While this novel will definitely appeal to fans of fiction that falls in the Grimdark category, I wouldn’t say Empire of the Vampire is fully a Grimdark story. The tone of the novel, the gore elements, and the tropes of horror are all there, but set on the structural integrity of an expertly built secondary world/milieu that is a hallmark of Epic Fantasy. Into this dark setting, we’ve got an enigmatic, appealing protagonist telling us his story. Jay Kristoff has launched a bold, impressive, potent, EPIC A.F. Horror-Fantasy saga and I am completely onboard for the next installment of Gabriel de León’s gloomy, snarky, blood-soaked (with hints of hope) saga.
The version I read was an Advanced Reader’s Copy so only a portion of the wonderful illustrations by Bon Orthwick were in the ARC, but they were superb and add an extra layer of gravitas to the story.
Highly Recommended
© 2021 Rob H. Bedford
Book One of Empire of the Vampire
Published by St. Martin’s Press | September 2021
https://jaykristoff.com/books/empire-of-the-vampire/empire-of-the-vampire/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
