Let’s all take a deep breath, and then noisily sigh it out. That’s how I feel about this book.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Jay Kristoff’s. Two of his series, The Nevernight Chronicles and The Lotus Wars, are some of my favorite books. He’s an author who has grand ideas, puts them into practice, and genuinely has fun with his writing. The downside of these attributes is that sometimes grand ideas just don’t pan out. I believe this is what happened with his newest novel, Empire of the Vampire.
Empire of the Vampire is about a disgraced monster-hunter who has been captured and is being interviewed about his part in the apocalypse. If that sounds like an excellent and absurd premise, it is. The premise of the book and the world it’s set in are both unique and extremely interesting.
For example, these monster-hunters are actually half-vampires who are fighting against their bloodlust to kill other vampires. Rather than drink human blood, they smoke a distilled version of vampire blood to sate their thirst. This empowers them to be strong enough to fight true vampires, though the older the vampire the stronger it is. In this world, the elder vampires have a few different bloodlines, with each bloodline having their own particular strength. The monster-hunters that are descendants of a vampire with a strong connection to one of these bloodlines may also garner this strength.
There are a lot of unique aspects to this world that blend with traditional vampire lore in a way that would be fascinating if the rest of the book were up to par. Unfortunately, the writing style of this novel is a big distraction from the unique story and worldbuilding.
Kristoff emulated the style of this book after Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. It’s an interesting choice and does make sense as this is one of the most popular vampire novels of its time. The format is of an interviewer and interviewee speaking to one another throughout the entire book. This means that the entire story is told through dialogue. While this isn’t an inherently bad decision, it does constrict the mode of storytelling immensely. We only learn detail through what the main character says, which limits the amount of detail we can learn about the world.
Anticipating this restriction, Kristoff employs a caveat: the interviewer wants the main character to tell the story as if he was telling it to a young child, or someone who knows very little of their world. It feels a little cheap, but it at least calls attention to the fact that the main character will have to explain details that the interviewer, having lived in this world a long time, would already know.
The main issue I have with this isn’t actually the caveat itself, but just how many times the interviewer reminds the main character that he needs to explain things. This exchange happens many times throughout the novel:
Main character: Mentions a concept the reader is unfamiliar with
Interviewer: Remember, full details. As if you’re speaking to a child.
Main character: “Fuck you!” Proceeds to explain concept to reader.
One time at the beginning of the story would have been enough to let us know that Gabriel de Leon will be explaining basic concepts to us. Is it the best mode of storytelling? No. But I can get past it in favor of continuing on with the actual story. However, I cannot get past the amount of times we’re reminded why the main character is explaining these things to us.
On the point of tedious interactions, there are several other interactions between the main character and interviewer that are repeated again and again. The interviewer asks the main character to tell the story in chronological order, but the main character refuses, wishing to tell the story however he wants. Again, this would be fine if mentioned once, the first time when the main character jumps out of order. Mentioning it again and again throughout the story is so unnecessary. Especially because it goes something like this:
Main character: “Ah, but for that bit of information we have to jump to this point in time.”
Interviewer: “No, you MUST tell the story in chronological order. Stick with your current line of thought, please.”
Main character: “Fuck you, I do what I want. My story, my way, you bloodsucking fiend!”
This interaction takes place at the end of nearly every chapter, I shit you not.
There are other inanities present aside from these tiresome recurrences, like Kristoff beating you over the head with the main character’s personality. You see, Gabriel de Leon is not a good guy. He’s never been a good guy. How dare you accuse him of being a good guy!
The amount of time Kristoff spends making sure the reader knows that the main character is prideful, selfish, and unpleasant takes up most of the book. I don’t mind an unlikeable main character at all, but I don’t need the author to continually tell me just how unlikeable the main character really is. Their actions or thoughts should do most of the talking, and really Gabriel de Leon isn’t the worst in that aspect. He regularly stands up for others, he genuinely cares for his friends, and he wants to do what is right. So, spending a bunch of time telling me how much he sucks is kind of incongruous.
The argument can be made here that the book is from de Leon’s point of view. We are listening to his hours of dialogue, after all. Maybe this is really how he sees himself, and that’s why he harps on it so much. Even if this is the reason for all this edgy “I’m not a hero” talk, it’s still overkill. Kristoff is not known for his subtlety, but it never bothered me in his other books. In this one, the overkill was egregious.
It’s like Kristoff took all the complaints about his writing from other novels and decided to morph them into a single style that he uses for this book. I wish I’d counted how many lines made me roll my eyes. The repetitive storytelling, the over-the-top “Fuck you’s”, and the general edge-lord style of the main character was enough to make me tune out. As a genuine fan of his other books, I was supremely disappointed.
Kristoff has such a gift for imagination that I desperately wish I enjoyed the writing of this book more. Everything I’ve read by him, including this series, shows how adept he is at worldbuilding. His worlds and their characteristics are so unique, and every time I find myself completely invested in the story. I was still supremely invested in the story of Empire of the Vampire, but each time I felt truly hooked I would be ripped out of the story by the disagreeable writing style. I will continue to read the series as it may get better, but I have little hope for that.
My verdict is to skip this book. Both The Nevernight Chronicles and The Lotus Wars are leagues better than Empire of the Vampire. While many have found fault with his writing in those series as well, I found the story and the writing style of both books very enjoyable. I think the only true complain I have is for “bee stung lips”. He uses that phrase a LOT throughout The Lotus Wars, and it’s not a pleasant image. Thinking of bee-stung lips makes me think of getting stung by a bee on my mouth, not the full-plump lips Kristoff wants me to think of. Anyway, skip this one.
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