In the first of a series, Jay Kristoff shows what happens when Vampires rule the world:
It has been 27 years since the sun became nothing more than a faint light on the horizon, that barely anything that is still alive can grow. This does not mean the darkness has not brough new "life" to the world. The Vampires are now able to move about at any time of the "day" and they take advantage of every aspect of the new lack of sunlight. Vampire and Humanity have been waging war with very little light of hope left. Gabriel de Leon is half man, half monster and the last remaining Silversaint from the brotherhood of the Silver Order, who had dedicated their lives to destroying the creatures of the night. But at last he has been captured by the enemy and before he meets his death, A mistress of death wants his story in the hope that he will reveal where the only hope of Humanity remains, with the Holy Grail.
In the illustrious words of Gabriel "Fuck My Face"
this book was awesome. I did not know what to expect when going into this book,
so i was extremely happy with where Kristoff took the story and characters in
this book. I was just looking for a down and gritty vampire book and this book
fucking delivers (there are a lot swears in this book so I am just reciprocating).
I don’t think I can state how good this book was, and it will take you through
all the emotions not only as a reader but for what Gariel goes through in the
book, both the highs and the lows and lets say there are quite a few lows.
Gabriel as a character is gruff to say the least, but at the
same time he lives up to the attitude that he had. He has lived more lives in
his one than many of the people we meet along this quest and that includes the
vampires. Yes, he is gruff a lot of the book, but once you hear all of his
story it makes sense. One thing that Gabriel is good at is surviving and
surpassing all the odds.
I really enjoyed that Kristoff has this world set in a more medieval
world with the weapons, beliefs, some culture and religion that are more common
in this time. The world that Kristoff created here is immersive but no
overwhelming which I appreciate. The idea of the Holy Grail being the savior of
this time is not something new, but how Kristoff presents it in this book is,
and while the book does center around the idea of the Silver Brotherhood and
the circle I did not find that this book was preaching God to me (which I appreciate).
I like that Kristoff had Gabriel tell his story and there
are the slight interludes with the current timeline. Though we do not get a
round POV this way, I think that the story is so well done that we do not need
multiple POV to fill it out. The book does jump around a bit with the timeline
but i never felt lost or didn’t know which part of Gabriel's history that we
were being told about. As you learn more about Gariel it makes sense why he
would not want to talk about certain aspects of his life.
I also liked Kristoff's take on vampires, in the sense that
not only the type of vampire you will be depends on which line turns you but
also how long you stay dead after you are killed. So if you have stayed dead
and your body is rotting away you are basically a mindless vampire set on
killing anything in your path, but if you arise not long after being killed you
will be more deadly.
This is a chunky book and i was able to read the physical
copy as well as the audiobook at the same time and this saved me lots of time
when i could not have the physical book with me. I will say that Damian Lynch
brought the book to life with his voice and when i was reading my physical copy
it was his voice I heard in my head. Also I was not expecting the illustrations
in the book these were a nice surprise and beautifully done
This will easily be one of my favourite reads this year and
start the car, I'm on my way to get the second book as not only was this book
fantastic but there is still so much that needs to be told. Highly recommended
book.
Enjoy!!!
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