Well wasn't this a ride!

I have a very hit or miss type of relationship with Mr. Kristoff but I was not going to pass up this beast of a Vampire book.

This book is a lot. There is a lot of character building, a lot of world building and a lot of plot but I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't bored. At no point did I ever think "OK, let's get this over with now". In fact, I desperately wanted more.

The story is told as a type of biography with deLeon spilling his life story for a vampire historian and it gave me very big Anne Rice vibes. I was hooked immediately.

Vampires are coming back in a big way and Kristoff is leading the team!

Empire of earth he vampire drew me in from page one and has left me desperately awaiting book two’s release .

I recommend this book to fans of the Anita Blake vampire hunter series as well as to those looking for a reverse interview with the vampire style set up.

Ended preordering two different editions for me and a friend .

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: The beginning of a bloody epic tale that will give you everything you want from a gritty, dark, and action-filled fantasy novel. 

THE EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE is the vampire book you have never thought you needed in your life. Kristoff does it again with an amazingly dark, bloody, twisted tale of pain, loss, revenge, love, and friendship. The writing is nothing short of brilliantly constructed to beat the crap out of you as become immersed in the world created by the author. 

Here is the thing. I will not sit here and retell the story of Gabriel de León. Read the damn book for yourself. It is well worth the time and quite frankly if you don’t, you are missing out. What I will say is that this book takes the best of gothic vampire tradition and makes it fresh, compelling, and bloody addictive. The characters have grit, heart, and wit. The lore and history built within these pages is a complex web setting the stage for what is to come. Then, if that wasn’t enough, there are illustrations added throughout the book that make the experience of reading even better. 

Seriously, this book is a must-read. Though I will warn you, it may leave you hating and loving the author at the same time. Kristoff has the remarkable ability to craft a story that will tear your heart out, but still, have you coming back for more. The next book cannot come soon enough.

Unfortunately I DNFd this about 200 pages in. It's very heavy in world building and I wasn't super connected with it. It felt like it was slow in building. Typically I absolutely love Jay's writing and other series! I think I'll definitely try to come back to this but I do feel as though it might not be for me.

I was so excited and thank you for the early access to those 400 pages!

Purchased the whole book from Audible.
Um what just happened!? I listened to the audiobook, and it was wonderful! I am in shock, awe, mad, sad, confused... so many things! Disclaimer - this is an adult book, not recommended for a YA audience. Includes a good amount of violence and cursing.

Empire of the Vampire is a recounting of a man named Gabriel, a Silversaint. He is recounting his life to a vampire historian while locked away. I am going to try to be as vague as possible throughout this review because everyone should go read/listen to this one. Especially if you like a good dark fantasy and a TON of worldbuilding.

In this story, it is forever dark/eternal night and so vampires have come out of hiding and now exist with humans, only they are constantly at war with one another since humans are a food source. We are not really sure how or why it is forever night, but the vampires are there to stay. Gabriel has been enlisted, in a way, to be a vampire hunter and help humans as a Silversaint.

The overall story is bold, violent, blunt, and coming from a jaded, burnt-out man it makes it all the more ominous and wonderful. You just feel everything about this world, the characters, and it plays like a TV show in your head. (Maybe because I am watching The Witcher right now also).

Gabriel is a bit broken as a character, but his tale is epic with fights, love, revenge, twists, and a weird religious undertone. There was a lot of religion in this book, and it was an interesting take on faith/ hope, blind faith, and understanding to world around you based in faith. I really liked Gabriel's story, sarcasm, and persona throughout this tale.

Overall, I have lot of questions... which will be hopefully answered in the coming books. But this one was almost 900 pages and what felt like a billion hours on audiobook... we got some much in this book, which was spectacular but still it left so much to come. I am so excited to continue this series!

(Sorry if this review was all over the place... sometimes word-vomit is the way to go when I have all the feels about a book)

This was only a sampler of the novel (the first 400 or so pages), providing the first half of the book. However, upon reading this half, I definitely wanted to finish the story of Gabriel de Leon. The prose, the characters, the story- all of it drew me in and kept me intrigued in the story. Kristoff's writing is unique, which is an aspect that he changes with each of his stories. He includes plot twists that I did not see coming, and I imagine there are even more twists in the story to come. The characters are dynamic and I wanted to see what happened in each of their stories. The world building was amazing- I felt like I was immersed immediately in the world of the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and cannot wait to finish this incredible story. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2021 and I was so excited to get this sampler! I'm honestly very disappointed in this books, not because it's not good, but because the hype was so high that my expectations were too high. It's interesting and it held my interest but there were so many points that the writing just made me cringe.

Always love a good vampire story and Jay takes the classic monster and puts an amazing spin on it. Loved the "Interview with the Vampire" style writing. At first I was concerned with this type of story telling but it really turned out to be so good and wonderfully done. I fell right into the story without feeling like I was just listening to someone tell me about what happened instead of feeling like I was actually there.

This book was so unbelievably bad. The mistreatment of women, and children, is disgusting. I DNF'd quickly and will never pick up a Kristoff novel again. I'm so disappointed after being so excited to finally check him out only to find out that his writing is basically just shaming women on every page. The humor was abysmal, the writing was juvenile and underwhelming. All in all, a major disappointment.

As with most vampire stories, this book was faced-paced and sexy and fun! Vampires are always an interesting fantasy component and this story really had it all! Krsitoff's writing was great.

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Manage the spinned words as you want..

let's begin with the standard caveats: I obtained an advanced studying copy of this e book, without cost, from the publisher. I suppose Jay Kristoff is a pleasing individual. and i think that neither of these two things will have an effect on my sincere evaluate of this ebook.
First impressions: 879 pages! And it's most effective the primary part of the tale. So for folks who like to move into a book and stay there for several years, this is for you. it's a wealthy, nicely-found out international of darkness and chance. You may not be bored there.
The black and white illustrations within the ARC I acquired are very dramatic and nicely ideal to the story. I did not obtain a page with credits, so I can not call the artist, however desire I could. The artist merits praise.
0.33, and this must probable have been a caveat. i am not huge on vampire tales. however this changed into from Jay Kristoff, so I gave it a attempt. it is still not my preferred sub-genre, but i'd say Empire of the Vampire is an awful lot extra than a vampire tale. And i am grateful that, for all in their best manners and sartorial elegance, those vampires are nonetheless nasty, evil, awful villains. As vampires should be.
Now, you all probable recognize that I hate spoilers, so i'm going to dance around a few here. If you like coming of age testimonies, or even 'sent off to a special place to learn stuff' testimonies, there's a huge bite of this e book that you will actually experience. If you want lovingly certain combat scenes, you will get a blood spattered exquisite serving of these. Mysterious library? some sex? Grumpy mentor, forbidden assignations, a protagonist at the lowest of the pecking order? test to they all!
ok, before anybody says, "Oh, those sound like clichés," i'd remind you that you can check off quite a few the ones matters in MY books as nicely. I choose to assume of those matters as 'beloved, savory components' inside the delusion feasts we all crave. So what else could be introduced to make this a full ceremonial dinner? Multi racial, multi gender characters. How about an infusing of mysteries for the reader to speculate about? a few romance, a few precise old school vendettas. Ooooh, what else can pass into the Grimdark banquet? some dumplings of philosophy? at the beginning glance, it can appear like garnished with bitter cynicism, however within the very backside of the tale, while you stir it, you may discover a rich gravy of faith and belief in humanity and the virtues of friendship.
So this is my evaluate, extra like a recipe for a totally enjoyable story than a critique of plot or characterization. because i've referred to so many matters that may be seen as 'trendy' in fantasy novel, let me assure you that there aren't any popular characters nor a standard plot among these covers. it is an engrossing examine in a rich global.
encouraged.

Holy cow!! What a wild ride this book is going to be. I can’t believe the stop that this sampler stops at! Like seriously, what am I supposed to do now‽‽ I need to finish this ASAP.

I'm still reeling from just finishing this book!! I kind of want to give it 5 stars but I also don't want to?? I think we'll say 4.5. It was just so slow at the beginning. Not that it didn't suck me in and all the plot parts worked together to make a whopper of a denouement and ending, but still, in such a long book I could've used a bit more at first. Soo beyond excited for the next book in the series, these characters and this world are truly compelling in the most gruesome way!

It was very edgy, to the point where there were parts that were uncomfortable. It certainly does not shy away from blood and gore and is definitely not a YA novel like a lot of people like to assume about Jay Kristoff's books. It was okay, it was an enjoyable read, and was heavy-handed with the anti-religious rhetoric, which I can appreciate as someone who underwent quite a bit of religious trauma.

Thank you for providing a sample of this book. What I’ve read so far has really been dark, brutal, and at times funny. I cannot wait to sit down and finish this book! I will admit that I didn’t realize it was a sample when requesting. At least, it was a decent sample and I could really get a feel for story.

I have been putting off writing a review for this book because I am not sure how I truly feel about it. I mean, its Jay Kristoff, how could I not love it? But at the same time, it was very slow and took me a lot longer to read than I anticipated. I know when I reread it I will enjoy it much more but the first overall read through left me feeling unsatisfied. I hope the next book/books are better for me.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me just start by saying this book is not for the faint of heart, the blood smut is REAL. I absolutely loved the way in which this story was told, it’s told in a duel timeline but in story form. It’s done so well. I was fully emerald from the beginning, and the audio book is definitely the way to go! This story follows Gabriel De Leon through his life as the last silver saint in a quest for the grail to end the darkness. I loved the characters and the twist and turns in this book. I did feel a little of this book was dragging but it was necessary to get the full scope of the story. And the ending!!!! Ugh loved it all around! Can’t wait till the next one comes out!

I mean what can I even say about this that hasn't already been said?!

Its dark its violent its funny?? idk ya'll I laughed - I'm personally not Kristoff's biggest fan but dammit this is on another level.

I was so grateful to be approved for the preview of Empire of the Vampire. Unfortunately, after learning about the author Jay Kristoff’s problematic behavior toward the AAPI and broader BIPOC community, I can’t in good conscience read and review a book by this author. I sincerely hope you’ll consider not amplifying this author’s voice any further.

How would I describe this book? Combine Anne Rice's vampires, the Marvel comic/hero "Blade," "The Name of the Wind," and "The DaVinci Code" and you have "Empire of the Vampire," the latest novel by Jay Kristoff.

This is NOT a complete review because this is NOT the complete novel. This sampler consists of 2/3 of the actual book. And, while that is NOT ideal, it is more than enough of the book so when the book is released (or, whenever you decide to read the book), you have more than enough of the story in order to continue reading. Not to mention, the cliffhanger/twist at the end of the sample will make you want to read the rest of it.

Anyone who is a fan of the author and/or wants to read a great story about "real" vampire should read this book.