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5/5

As excellent as this book was whilst reading the majority of it, I found myself waiting for that big, dark, emotional moment to bring it in line with the horror of the first book. To quote Empire’s star protagonist, Gabriel de Leon, well fuck my face, Jay Kristoff once again brought that good shit.

There’s a thing known in the book world as “middle book syndrome��. Some see this as a bad thing, I’m the opposite. Middle books to me always provide the best character development. We already know the characters from the first book, but we get to see them grow in the middle book. Layers are attached to the the story and its characters. Some of my favourite books from a series have fallen in the middle; The Two Towers from Lord of the Rings, The Mad Ship from the Liveship Traders, Words of Radiance from the Stormlight Archive, Golden Son from the first Red Rising trilogy, and of course Godsgrave from Kristoff’s other brilliant dark fantasy series - the Nevernight trilogy. Empire of the Damned without a doubt feels like a middle book, and to me that’s a good thing. We’re provided with some excellent characters arcs here for both Gabe and Dior. We learn so much about the history of the world, as well as much more about the other ruling Vampire noble houses. An entirely new culture is introduced - the skinchangers & duskdancers, which I assume to be Kristoff’s take on Werewolves, adding to the classic Vampires vs Werewolves trope. Jean-Francois, who whilst an interesting character in the first book, very much seemed to be a plot device in which Gabe recounts his story to us, is now fleshed out incredibly in this book. Middle books to me are great, because they’re character work books. A good book will always live and die with its characters for me; and Kristoff delivers with his characters in spades here.

Then we get the books climax. Everything that’s been built up by Kristoff throughout this book, both subtly and overtly, is brought to a head masterfully in the final 100 pages. It’s an intense whirlwind of action and emotion. An exhilarating battle is interwoven with a desperate race against time. A scene to rival the classic moment from Avengers Endgame, yet not half as cheesy as the two forces of light and darkness go at it. I couldn’t peel my eyes away during these pages, it really was fantastic. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s topped off with severe emotional trauma and heartbreak. If you thought The Worst Day from the first book was hard, just you wait for this.

Empire of the Damned is indeed a worthy sequel to the brilliant Empire of the Vampire. It’s once again an atmospheric dark fantasy with scintillating character work, badass battles and Kristoff’s classic dark humour. Plot points that were setup in the first book are built upon greatly in the second outing, with some great new additions to the cast of characters; Lachlan and Phoebe most especially. Sadly, we see less of Aaron de Coste and Baptiste this time around, but the times they are present, as well as their emotional arc in this book, further highlight why they are amongst the strongest characters in the series.

What an insane ride this was. The only thing I have to criticise is that I read this so quick and now I have to wait who knows how fucking long for book 3. Jay Kristoff you magnificent, gutless bastard.