So this is it. The end of the saga of Gabriel de León and Dior Lachance. This series has had be utterly captivated for the past four years, and I just knew that the conclusion was going to smack me in the face. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was how damn hard it hit me in the feels.
If you’ve read the previous two books, and don’t you dare read this one if you haven’t, you know how much pain and suffering that Gabe has gone through in this incredible saga even before starting out on the quest to end Daysdeath. He’s lost his family, his order, and, very often, his confidence. Shit thing after shit thing happens to Gabriel, and he is forced to just keep dealing with it.
Empire of the Dawn is no different. Well, it’s slightly different in that Mister Kristoff amps the pain and suffering up to about twenty, and drags a whole slew of other folks into the maelstrom of hurt.
So many shocking things happen back-to-back-to-back that I often found myself shaking my head in sympathetic dismay whilst churning through this hefty tome.
To say that this saga, especially this novel, is the best that Mister Kristoff has ever written is an understatement. Empire of the Dawn is an absolute masterpiece and winds this story around and around is such a perfect way. You do not see the conclusion coming until you are right in the thick of it, and that takes a lot of doing. Oh how I want to talk about the end of this thing, but there is no way in hell I would spoil this for anyone. I’m not even going to discuss it online with other folks who might have finished it out of fear of potentially providing spoilers to some poor innocent who might stumble across them. It’s that damn good. This is one I will only talk about face-to-face.
I heap a lot of praise on authors (deservedly), and their works, but a new bar has been set. Books one and two were already an incredible roller-coaster ride, but Empire of the Dawn really grabs you by the throat and flings you off the cliff.
I think I’ll go back and read that conclusion again.