The Kingmakers

October 22, 2012
In the final installment in the Vampire Empire series, newly crowned Empress Adele faces off against the vast predatory empire that has laid claim to much of the northern hemisphere. Armed with 12-foot-tall walking armor, stupendous magical powers, and assisted by an assortment of doughty allies, Adele must contend not just with the vampires, who have had the temerity to do to the North what Adele's ancestors had done to the equatorial nations, but with the ambitious Americans, well meaning anti-vampire extremists on her side and the very real possibility that her magic, so deadly to vampires, will prove equally deadly to the Empress herself. Those unfortunates, whose knowledge of the actual history of colonialism undermines their enjoyment of one group of imperialists outraged at being subjected to the same oppression their subjects face, may take comfort that there is an acknowledgment, although brief and muted, of the parallels. Readers seeking a blessed end to this interminable, derivative series will be pleased to know this volume does provide the necessary closure and resolve the various dilemmas; the grim slog toward genocide will arrive at an actual destination.