Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff

Book Review

Sarah Deeming

The remaining heads of the vampire clans are descending upon the Empress Margot, demanding the death of the last Silversaint, Gabriel de Leon. Time is running out for Jean Francois, the Empress’s historian, to gather Gabriel’s final confession and understand why Fabien Voss, the now deceased head of the Voss clan, was so interested in the daughter of a prostitute, Dior Lachance.

But whether by execution or the curse of his heritage, time is short for Gabriel. The thirst, a curse from his vampire father, is growing, and soon Gabriel will be nothing more than a ravenous blood-starved beast, the very monster he has spent his life killing. Will the end of the last Silversaint be at the hands of the vampires or by becoming one himself? And what really happened to Dior, the socalled descendent of the Redeemer who can end the darkness and destroy the vampires?

Empire of the Dawn is the epic conclusion to the grimdark masterpiece Empire of the Vampire trilogy and picks up where the second book, Empire of the Damned, left off, with vampire royalty turning up wanting Gabriel’s head. The events of the previous books have led to this moment. From the beginning, I have always been suspicious of Gabriel’s apparent willingness to tell his enemies everything that has happened, and in Empire of the Damned, my suspicions were rewarded when we meet Gabriel’s sister, Celene, and she gives us her version of events, which were sometimes subtly different to her brother’s. Oh, the joy of unreliable narrator!. Finally, in Empire of the Dawn, we learn the secrets Gabriel has been hiding. Is he the hero he reluctantly paints himself to be, or is he the cowardly deceiver his sister claims? Or is the truth a little more complicated than either of them suggests? I won’t tell you here, but instead strongly encourage you to buy the book and find out for yourself.

From the first page, I loved Empire of the Vampire because these were vampires as they should be, cold-blooded killers who view humans as nothing more than cattle to be consumed. They are ruthless, without compassion or sympathy, and genuinely terrifying in their single-minded desire to subjugate humanity. This continues in Empire of the Dawn, with more deaths and betrayals. We finally meet Fabién Voss and understand his obsession with both Gabriel and Dior, and catch a glimpse of what eternal life means in this story.

For the sake of keeping my review spoiler-free, there is little I can tell you other than this book kept me spellbound, staying up late and neglecting my other responsibilities, so I could read the next chapter. And the battle scenes are intense. Kristoff is a master at taking you to the heart of the battle, in the trenches with the despair and blood, wondering if anyone will survive. I have always appreciated this element of his writing because he doesn’t gloss over things. He makes the reader aware of exactly how hard his characters have fought for their survival.

The character development remains strong in this book too, in particular, how Aaron and Baptiste’s relationship continues now that Aaron is a highblood vampire and fighting his basic urges every moment. Their story is so tender and tragic, and works as a forewarner than no one is safe in this series. I also enjoyed, if that’s the right word for it, Kristoff’s depiction of Gabriel succumbing to the thirst and becoming more vampire than human. The future of any silversaint is madness when the blood tincture they smoke to lessen their need for blood isn’t enough anymore. Even when all the vampires are dead, their half-human, half-vampire offspring will be the next monster needing elimination. The ultimate end for the silversaints is one of the elements that elevates this story about darkness and light beyond others I’ve read.

The Empire of the Vampire series is one that gripped me by the throat from the first page and kept me in a stranglehold of hope and despair to the very last one. It is one of my favourite series, up there with Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and Robin Hobb’s The Farseer Trilogy. It is a series that will only improve with a reread and will become a timeless classic of dark fantasy.