Jay Kristoff’s Empire trilogy (Empire of the Vampire, Empire of the Damned, and now Empire of the Dawn) tells the story of Gabriel de Leon, the last Silversaint of the Empire of Elidaen. Years earlier, an unknown disaster darkened the sky, causing a perpetual night, which has allowed the land to be overrun – and nearly conquered – by vampires.
Gabriel, the last of a line of Silversaints (so-called because of the silver tattooed into their skin) whose purpose was to find and kill vampires, is now a prisoner of them. He sits in a tower recounting his epic tale of battles, love, kings, emperors, and a teenage girl who might just be the key to humanity’s salvation.
Over the course of three novels, Kristoff has taken well-worn vampire tropes and twisted them into something entirely new. Different bloodlines have different powers; only a few resemble traditional vampires, with the majority – the wretched – little more than bloodthirsty zombie-like undead. The Silversaints themselves are even part vampire, hybrids born of one human and one vampire parent, who can only function for so many years before the blood lust overwhelms them – something that is happening to Gabriel. It’s a fascinating, original reinvention of one of fiction’s most popular monsters.
When we left them at the end of Empire of the Damned, Gabriel and his vampire sister Celene (also a prisoner recounting her tale) had discovered the origins of vampires (which we won’t spoil here), and the connection to Dior, the teenager at the centre of things.
Plotwise, the book alternates between the two prisoners’ stories, with Gabriel visiting his hometown and Celene and Dior (who died and was resurrected at the end of the previous novel) taking a perilous sea journey (a large part of which is dedicated to both Dior’s training with Celene and her attempts to get laid) before the two stories converge in Augustine – the oft-mentioned but seldom seen capital of the Empire, where the bloody climax of this epic war between humans and vampires unfolds.
If this sounds inaccessible, it’s not in the slightest. What it is an epic, bloody, bawdy tale with twists aplenty to keep you guessing right until the end of this final volume. If there’s any justice, it’ll be snapped up by HBO and become a Game Of Thrones-level sensation. There’s enough sex, violence, colourful characters and lots – and lots – of unexpected twists and deaths to convert even the most hardened fantasy-sceptic. And unlike Game of Thrones, it has a beginning, middle, and (very satisfying) end. And the entire trilogy was published in just over four years, also known as roughly one quarter of a Winds of Winter.
Whether you’re a fantasy fan, a horror fan or neither, it’s hard to recommend this trilogy highly enough. It’s by turns action-packed, romantic, bawdy, funny, and terrifying. It takes an age-old horror trope and turns it into something that feels brand new. Essential reading.
