In the case of gore and violence, over time I felt myself becoming desensitised to the horror described, having read so much of it. 5 of a star is that some of these things were slightly overdone in places. However, part of my reasoning for dropping that. The kind of dark and scary vampires should be.

Vampires bathing in the blood of babies dark. While there aren’t any footnotes (thank God), it’s similarly full of violence, revenge, corruption, foul language, moody-vibes, smut, religious themes, and emotional moments. I think it’s safe to say that if you loved JK’s Nevernight books it’s likely you’ll enjoy EotV. It’s weird because the spoken language isn’t really discussed so it looks like they’re there purely to try and French-ify things. There were a couple of things raised and not fully explained but there’s got to be material left for the sequels, right? The one thing that bothered me a little was the use of random French words like ‘oui’ or ‘ma famillie’. I was engaged in the world right from the very beginning and really enjoyed learning about its vampire lore and bloodlines, the Silver Order, Elidaen’s religion, and how the loss of the sun and vampire invasion affected people’s lives (a diet involving lots of potatoes, apparently). It’s a Vampire’s Worldįirst off, the world building in this book is fantastic! It’s complex, intriguing, intricate, and somehow JK breaks it down for the reader in ways that are easy to understand without bogging down the story. Gabriel details his youth at the monastery of San Michon, rise to fame as a Chevalier of the realm against invading vampire forces, forbidden love, and journey with a small band of allies to find the Holy Grail, prophesised to bring an end to the eternal night. In a prison cell, awaiting his death for murdering the vampire emperor, Silversaint Gabriel de Leon, the last of a holy order dedicated to defending humans against monsters of the night, is compelled to tell his life’s story to a vampire historian. Who, What, Where?ĮotV is set in the world of Elidaen – an empire conquered by vampires after its sun disappeared one day twenty-seven years ago. Yet, to my complete surprise, this book managed to meet them, mostly.

Okay…in truth, it was more like a few months short of 3 years, but this led to some pretty high expectations – something I generally try to avoid for fear of heartbreak. Until this month, I’d been waiting to read EotV for forever.

Jay kristoff empire of the vampire 2