Review: The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire #1) by Clay Griffith

My rating:4.5 out of 5 stars
First part of a trilogy, The Greyfriar is an excellent start to a great series. It has everything required of a good steam punk/ urban fantasy book. Set in the future, Earth is being ruled by to forces humans and vampires both at war with each other. The humans are now confined to the warmer regions of the planet of which Adele is the Princess of an Empire called Equatoria. On her way to visit the far reaching corners of her future Empire she is kidnapped by an army of vampires from the vampire nation of Great Britain.She is rescued by the fabled Greyfriar, the legend of the Northern Lands saviour of humans. The adventures that proceed from then on are breathtaking.

Adele was a fanastic character. She was brave, courageous, loyal and strong. Even though she went to hell and back not once did she loose hope or cry at her fate. She was not a princess waiting to be saved by the knight in shining armour. She has got skills and she is not afraid to use it. She was vulnurable and strong at the same time.

The Greyfriar was an excellent character too. At first I did not think much of him but as the story moved on I liked him more and more and before I knew it I was totally in love with him. I can’t say more about him without revealing his identity (which is part of this book’s fun) but the more you know him the more you understand him and you can’t help but like him too. He is so lonely that I found my heart breaking for him. I really want him to find his happy ending.

Yes, there is politics but it is not so much that it would take you away form the action and adventure. The politics adds dimension to the story and pushes it forward. The action scenes were nicely done and the writing was excellent. The description of vampire ruled London were bone chilling and I could visualise each and every scene in my mind.

What I disliked was the changing point of view. Although it was written in third person, sometimes the characters were referred with different names.For example, Adele was called Adele, sometimes Princess and even young woman. I found that it became distracting in an action scene where it is already hard to get a grip on the scene unfolding. The slow start also did not help it. I wasn’t that keen on this until 50% of the book had gone and then it was brilliant. The ending almost brought tears in my eyes and I loved it.

I can’t wait to start the next book in this series The Rift Walker to see what happens to Adele and Greyfriar.