Empire of the Vampire

Holy shit.
Witty, edgy, grim. Only critique I can give is that there was too much angst for me towards the middle of the book. But that's it.
Last third reminds me of a certain very popular video game by Sony. That plot is almost one to one copy. I hope Kristoff won't be inspired by the shitty postmodernist “everything must burn” sequel but luckily he doesn't strike me as woke cultist.

This felt like some sort of marathon. It was just so long - only Outlander and Harry Potter books I've read are longer - and I definitely felt like the editors could have chopped it up a bit more.

The vampire traits stick to the most common tropes (silver, sunlight, how to make more, etc.) but it's made unique with terminology, ancestry, and the half-blood (what become Silversaints) race. These are badass creatures.
I really liked Gabriel's snark and that he was a pretty multi-dimensional character, but that can't be said for the rest of this very swollen cast. You don't learn Gabe's real motivations for the latter events of the story until 700 pages in and then it becomes a bit of a sob fest with it ending abruptly when the sun comes up and a good chunk of the story left untold. There's some graphic sex but nothing I'd clutch pearls over but a lot of gore, swearing, and chockablock with religious idealization (it's technically a fictional religion but obviously Christianity of the most zealous kind).

While I did really enjoy this, I'm not sure if I'll continue or if I'll just let someone else read it and get the Cliffnotes version.

It took me one whole week to read 20% of this and I can't go on. This book is similar to [b:The Name of the Wind 186074 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) Patrick Rothfuss https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270352123l/186074.SX50.jpg 2502879]. Now many a Rothfuss fanboy will scream at my face about how KKC is liekm the best series EVER and it's absolute genius. No, it isn't. Nor is this one so. You know the feeling when you are like... 14 and everything is dramatic? You are so deep and every annoying piece of comical melodrama is the best thing ever? This is it. Except... it isn't? Because it has a lot of adult content. Which is fine, I am an adult, but because I am, the attempted gravitas is just pathetic to me, but also the content makes it not really suitable for actual kids. It's also very verbose. People of a certain country or region or whatever are obviously the world's version of black people. Yet we have to read repetitive descriptions of them being black and having dreadlocks. Pro tip, after making it obvious they are the black people, just mentioning they are from that place is pretty much enough, you don't have to also say they have dark skin every time. I also can remember a character having feckles. You don't have to tell me every scene. She is freckled, yes. It just never seems to get anywhere. We are going with the story and it's still setting things up without making any progress. I like me some vampires. That's not the issue. But this is such a stiff book. No flow, no playfulness, not wit. Just overwritten angst. It takes itself so seriously, meanwhile the story itself is really not clever or anything. I found some unintentional comedy in it, except I was also really dang bored. It has illustrations, though. They are pretty nice, I have to give that to them. A bit samey, Instagram, webcomic style, but with impressive detail.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for the review copy.

I have to say, I requested this one just because of the hype it's been getting. I had no idea what it was about, other than it had vampires. I am so glad I read this!
This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year. So gritty, attention grabbing, with some humor sprinkled in. Gabriel has cemented himself as one of my all time favorite characters.

I also purchased the audio, and Damian Lynch is fantastic!