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It is, to his mind, “a hostile alien organism that wants to eat my free time”. Nor does he like AI, calling its impact on music, books and other forms of creativity “depressing”, “theft” and a “bald-faced lie”. Ten years ago he wrote a chilling novel featuring an artificial intelligence that goes rogue, today he’s part of a lawsuit against tech giant Open AI. And he doesn’t do happy endings. But that super-powered imagination and outlook have brought the Aussie author to a pretty sunny place right now, via his phenomenally popular brand of “grimdark” fantasy. Kristoff is one of those Australians with a relatively low mainstream profile while crushing it in their chosen field – in his case, selling upwards of two million books around the world. He has just released Empire of the Dawn, the final instalment in his Empire of the Vampire trilogy, and is embarking on a tour of the US and UK to promote it and meet the fans (they are a dedicated lot – I have seen them queuing on the street to meet their hero). And Kristoff reckons Dawn is “the best book that I’ve ever written”. “I know you’re supposed to say this when you’re touring the new thing, but it is genuinely the best book out of the three (in the Vampire series) … in terms of the story beats and the revelations and the big dramatic moments,” he adds. The three novels – fast-moving and stuffed with action, gritty humour and sexual adventure – are set in a fantastical pre-industrial world of semi-twilight where vampires, no longer held in check by sunlight, not merely roam but form armies; mankind is not yet vanquished, but things don’t look good. “There’s a bit of a pact made between storyteller and audience that eventually it’s all gonna work out okay,” Kristoff says of his approach. “But I want to bring you as close as possible to truly believing that there’s no way out and everything’s gonna end horribly, because that’s where the tension lies. You have to believe that your heroes could die.” The idea came to out-and-proud “history nerd” Kristoff from accounts of the Late Antique Little Ice Age of the 6th century, marked by crop failures, famine, disease and massive sociopolitical upheaval. One theory is this was linked to a volcanic winter caused by a series of eruptions blotting the sun with ash and debris. “And then I just threw vampires into the mix because, you know, I write fantasy,” he laughs, something he does a lot in conversation. Like all Kristoff’s main characters, those vampires are complex, rounded and often morally grey – a familiar hallmark of the grimdark subgenre – and none more so than the leading man, Gabriel de León: son of a human mother and a “coldblood” father. With its cinematic scale and legion of personalities, it is no surprise that the Vampire trilogy has been optioned for screen and discussions are currently under way. Kristoff, however, can say little about that … for now. “It’s one of those things where you can’t talk about it until you can and then you want to say everything that you possibly can. But yeah, there are exciting things happening in the background.” Fantasy, with its many subgenres, is certainly having a moment again. Kristoff, who has authored 16 titles – some with Aussie Young Adult sci-fi/fantasy sensation Aimee Kaufman – credits the surge of “romantasy” titles for sparking broader interest, just as the headline-dominating Twilight novels and films did almost two decades ago. “There is a generation of readers that were brought to reading by something like Twilight, and now those people are 15 years older than they were, and they’re looking for something heavier and messier, and they discover my books. Romantasy serves very much the same function as a gateway drug. It brings people who would have only exclusively read romance novels to the idea of fantasy … and then they discover, you know, writers like me. I had a letter from someone the other day who said that she found my work through (romantasy hit) Fourth Wing.” While 51-year-old Kristoff, who lives in Melbourne with his wife, is optimistic about such human creativity and consumption – “a rising tide lifts all boats” – he has a very different opinion of the tech bros he sees as ripping off and devaluing the hard work of artists. Like many other authors, he was horrified to discover his books had been “stolen” by Library Genesis (LibGen), an online collection of pirated content being used to train AI models. Hence the legal action. As for the attention-grabbing monster that is his phone, the realisation that he had all his best ideas in the shower caused Kristoff to re-evaluate that relationship, something he recommends to all. “I was wondering what it was, whether it had something to do with the water or the sonic frequency of the spray. And then I realised no, it’s just because I can’t take my f**king phone in the shower with me. Yes. And so I actually have time to be bored and be alone with my thoughts and allow those thoughts to cogitate and seep through from my subconscious into my conscious mind.” Now, he says, the phone is banished to the other end of his house and definitely not allowed into the bedroom. “It sounds silly, but I treat it as a hostile alien organism that wants to eat my free time. And if I let it, it will eat all of the minutes in my day.” Still, Perth-born Kristoff is not glum for long. Looking ahead to his US book tour, where at one event the heavy metal fan will be interviewed by Lamb Of God legend and personal friend Randy Blythe, he is upbeat once again about his situation. “To travel the world and talk to people about my books. That’s pretty extraordinary.” Empire Of The Dawn by Jay Kristoff is out now, published by Voyager. Tell us what you think at The Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.
