The slow drip of worldbuilding and mystery reveals are a huge reason why this series stands so strong. Also shoutout to Jay for making his vampires bisexual because who can live for thousands of years and not find everyone attractive? Although it has been mistaken for YA (I blame rhyming ’empire’ with ‘vampire’ – I still can’t get past that title), EoTV is not for the faint of heart. Every character, every scene - even setting, which plays a huge role the story - are ramped up to 1,000.

Yes, for those of you who don’t know, every edition of Empire of the Vampire has more than 30 interior artworks illustrated by Bon Orthwick (Monolime). Liathe saves and heals Gabriel, revealing she is his half-sister Celene Castia; turned into a vampire by Laure when she destroyed their village. I would not recommend nor gush about it, it would just be a thing for me, like all the books I read are. This is still action-packed, twisty, fast-paced, and as frustratingly, excitingly elusive as book one.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. And then, he decided to use three words for every situation and sentence, no matter how random and awkward they’re placed. While I am beyond thankful to be chosen as an ARC reader for this book, I'm actually sad/mad at myself! The Castlevania franchise is one of my favorite games to play, and Hellsing Ultimate is one of my favorite animes of all time.

This interview format, perhaps a nod to Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire, allows Kristoff to construct the plot perfectly, maintaining tension and anticipation of answers until late in the game. Despite how much I loved reading the last 300 pages of Empire of the Vampire, I cannot give this book a full 5 stars rating due to the issues I had with the first half of the novel. All hope lies with the last remaining silversaint, Gabriel de León, awaiting execution for the murder of the vampire emperor.It felt like Kristoff, who constantly say he cursed a lot in real life, just finally found out he can use the word fuck, fucking, and whoreson. The only thing holding it back from a full 5 stars for me was that I just really missed Gabe's glory day stories in the time jumps from book 1! I am a fan of framing narratives; seeing how the details of the legends explored and achieved often felt satisfying to me. How did Liathe/Celene become an Esani sanguimancer vampire with ancient blood when she was turned by a Voss? The grip this installment had over me 💀 It’s such an intricately crafted story that contains multitudes.

Especially when a character has done absolutely nothing to suggest they’re a bad person or done something to wrong Gabriel. The highly anticipated sequel to the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE 'Bloody brilliant'V. From the New York Times bestselling author of the Nevernight Chronicle, Jay Kristoff, comes the first book of an astonishing illustrated dark fantasy saga. The book was well received by critics, who praised its exploration of vampire lore and the character of Gabriel. Since its announcement, especially after hearing it will be an illustrated novel, I was undoubtedly excited to get to reading Empire of the Vampire.

From the Sunday Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Nevernight Chronicle, comes this masterful new series. While I loved the characters in the first book, I found myself adoring the ones introduced in book 2.