[Book Review] Empire of the Damned (Empire of the Vampire 2) — Jay Kristoff
The bloodthirsty sequel to the dark fantasy series by Jay Kristoff Empire of the Vampire, is here, and we are well and truly damned. Sadly, Empire of the Damned falls into the classic “sequel”itis trap, and ends up being all bark, no bite.
I have been a fan of Jay Kristoff for awhile now, and devoured his dark YA trilogy The Nevernight Chronicles. His new series The Empire of the Vampire with its self-titled first book, released to near-mainstream acclaim, with praise for his gritty and violent storytelling, a fresh coat of bloody paint thrown on the vampire fantasy genre which has lately fallen into the mire of romantasy. The novel went a long way in bringing the vampire genre back to its dark fantasy roots with large parallels drawn to the massively successful Castlevania franchise. Being an avid grimdark fan, I picked up Empire of the Vampire and enjoyed the quick pacing, creative cast of characters and dense worldbuilding, all held together by Kristoffs hyperedgy prose (more on this later). When the possibility of reviewing the new entry Empire of the Damned came across my desk, I jumped at its throat, fangs bared.
Sadly, Empire of the Damned is all filler, no killer. And I am utterly disappointed.
The novel continues the travels of our protagonist, the paleblood (halfblood) swordsaint, Gabriel de Leon, as he tries to end the eternal night and eventual utter dominion of the vampire lords. He does this by protecting the scion of Heaven, heir to the great Redeemer himself, Dior LaChance. Similar to the first book, this tale is also told in the form of a “recounting of events” as our protagonist languishes in the dungeons of the dark Empress of Wolf and Man, via her faithful historian, Marquis Jean-Francois Chastain, a pureblood vampire of the ruling bloodline.
“There is no one more afraid of dying than things who live forever”
This time around, things are obviously more messed up than ever, as the scion of heaven is missing, her protector, the halfblood knight having failed to protect her from the clutches of the big bad Voss bloodline (who’s patriarch was killed by Dior in book 1 and hoo boy they’re pissed off now!) However, the similar format of the story was immediately a step backward, as it felt like the trope while novel in the first book, had run its natural course, and it was time to move the story forward. It also took away a lot of the danger and gravitas of the story when told backwards, when we know that key players in the narrative are still alive.
Empire of the Damned felt like a story cut short in the middle, and I am still unsure whether I received the entire novel as a review copy (and I tried to confirm… a lot) and it was not just “part 1”. That’s how abrupt and unfulfilling the climax to the sequel felt. While it felt like a natural stopping point in the overall narrative, it did not do a good job of setting up, what I assume to be the finale of the series. This book truly felt like Book 2 of 4 or even a five book series, at how little the story pushed the plot forward toward its grand sequence. It is to be expected that the middle book in many trilogies tends to flounder as the author tries to set up the board and move all the key players into the place for the final showdown, while adequately setting up just enough lore to expand the world, while also creating enough tension to leave the reader salivating for the next installment that will be the crescendo of all the hardwork put into a seemingly lackluster book two.
While this story does flesh out some of the side characters, namely a character relative of de Leon that dove into the story at the climax of the first book, many of the new side characters and plotlines felt like utter padding and provided very little in terms of setting the stage of the ultimate big-bad showdown. I waited patiently as the story plodded along, while the characters spent their time rue-ing the tragic and frankly, excellently crafted story and action setpieces in Empire of the Vampire, but did very little else to push forth the narrative in a new direction. The shtick of “I have to protect you from the forces of Darkness hot on our tails” does get a little tiresome, especially when the Darkness kinda stays away for so much of the book, that the threat never felt imminent to the reader, no matter how often Kristoff had our characters say it to each other.
There are precisely two action set-pieces, well written in classic Kristoff fashion. His action storytelling is among the best in the dark fantasy space, with eloquent descriptions of violence painted with an elegant hand. I wish he spent more time fleshing out the dire nature of a world on the precipice of darkness where mortals are no match for the blood lords, and are mere chattle to be fed by the immortal host.
Jay Kristoff’s prose has become a thing of a controversial argument in the dark fantasy spaces. Many criticize his overly flowery prose as nearing a purple hue, and he was certainly throwing all he had at us, flexing all his edge in Empire of the the Vampire. Sadly on Damned, while he seems to have reined his prose to be less needlessy verbose, it goes even further to make the entire affair rather bland and flat. In addition, his tumblr-esque wordbuilding like “swordsaint”, “duskdancer”, “wealdling”, “daysdeath”,
“dreamwalker”, does more to push the series towards a younger audience, and I can imagine, the grittier consumers among us would roll our eyes at the cheesy/edgy nomenclature. If that wasnt enough, his overly crass dialog crafting especially in the “quippier-than-thou, you f!@$# b@#!#$@” back and forth between Gabriel and Dior, while fun the first few times, gets awfully tiresome especially in book 2, where the stakes are considerably higher and the worldview more grim. Kristoff doesnt nearly have the helf that Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, or even Michael Fletcher has to use abrasive dialog as a value-add to the scene.
“It matters not what you hold faith in. But you must hold faith in something.”
It feels like Empire of the Damned wanted to deal with the emotional aftermath of the dramatic ending of the first book, where Gabriel has to run from human and vampire alike, while Dior struggles to come to terms with her pivotal nature as the savior of the world in the body of a teenage girl in a world of horror. Yet again, the actual narrative fails to capture much of this angst in a rewarding or sincere way. While de Leon spends a LOT of time pining away for his lost wife and daughter, and trying to care for and train LaChance, Kristoff simply did not devote enough time to weave the “meta” plot into the more immediate plotlines. The angst felt extremely “filler” and as a reader, it was a lot of “fine, lets move this along and get to the plot already”, rather than be walked through rewarding character development.
This book felt less like a story of Gabriel and Dior, and more about the new side character. While they are an absolute badass in terms of both character and action, they felt like more of a narrative anchor, forced into a “come with me to fulfill your destiny” while constantly at odds with the primary protagonist. It all felt entirely too tropey and hamfisted. Add a new set of meh antagonists, and you really have an overly dilute chalice to sip from.
While I will still eagerly thirst for the third, and daresay final installment of the series, Empire of the Damned felt truly anemic.
