Review: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
Blurb:
A brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey
Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.
Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.
Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.
Review:
For a very long time I have heard only the best of things about Abercrombie’s books, be it from friends, fellow bloggers, or just random people I’ve stumbled across on social media. Now, thanks to Tor Books sending me an ARC through NetGalley, I can see what all the fuss is about.
Yeah, they were all right.
This is one of my longest reads of the year so far, but I absolutely TORE through it. The pacing in this book was exactly to my liking; no dragging, no rushing, no beating around the bush. Just fast paced, exciting, and full of action. I could not put this book down from cover to cover, and ate up absolutely all of it.
But now for the meat and bones; what was this book about? We start off with Brother Diaz, a monk who is ready for appointment and promotion to get away from a seemingly boring and monastic life and raise ever higher, if only to brag to others. Instead, he meets devils. The spawns of hell on earth, as the church would have him know, are now his to do with as he pleases. Partially. He ends up put on a quest to deliver our other main POV to the holy city of Troy and put her on a throne.
Meet Alex, a beggar, a thief, a con woman. And now a supposed empress. Much to her shock, an uncle of noble birth has come to scoop her away, in the company of Brother Diaz, a werewolf, a vampire, a necromancer, and a wretched elf. Not to mention a jack of all trades woman with every single job under her belt, and a knight who is physically incapable of dying.
Their journey takes them on the road against her competition for the throne; four brothers, all with illegitimate ties seeing as the crown can only be given to the first borne female; Alex.
Now, I won’t go on further to avoid spoilers that are hard to navigate around, but you get the picture. This is a ragtag group of people who largely hate each other, themselves, or every single person in the world. They’re forced to work together, fight together, laugh together, and do pretty much everything together or die trying.
My favorite character had to be Vigga, the norse werewolf who can hardly keep the beast inside her restrained. She goes through so much (to be fair, everyone does), but she’s a lot of fun to watch dole out carnage. The vampire, Baron Rickard, is a very strange, very amusing character that I think will also be a fan favorite, though with so many great choices, it might be hard to be pick. The only negative about the characterization is, I will say, that the enemies don’t really make you feel any sort of way. I felt little animosity towards the villains until at the very end.
The setting is a European inspired world in the middle-ish ages though its hard to say, and the atmosphere is all you’d hope for in dark fantasy. I was a bit confused with location names because of the time period being unclear, but it took nothing away from the story when more famous names came up.
The plot itself was very unique, in my opinion, or I at least hadn’t read anything with a similar concept before. It was a lot of fun in how refreshing it was. It inspired in me as a reader and writer a love for monster stories I didn’t know I had, and I fear it might become my personality. My apologies in advance.
The banter in this book was exceptional. I know it might not be to everyone’s tastes, and some might find it overdone or crass, but I was having a great time every step of the way. Maybe that says something about my sense of humor, but I don’t think so. Personally, I’ll never tire of the line “Should have quit after Barcelona” no matter how many times I hear it.
It is worth noting that there is a bit of romance in this book. Between a few pairs of characters. But it feels meaningful and well thought out. It isn’t just thrown on the page for a bit of extra character development. It makes sense. Its organic, and, maybe more importantly, it makes all these “devils” human. It makes us like them, connect with them, even relate to them at times.
Now, to the best part; the prose. It was all I could have hoped for and then some. Each scene was depicted wonderfully, the worldbuilding purposeful and organic in its placements. Even the characters that were less savory were meaningful, given fantastic dialogue that was fluid and fitting. The descriptions of people, places, even the use of magic—which is strange and not at all strict as we are used to—was masterful.
This is a story I desperately want more of. I need the rest, and I need it NOW. That said, I am shopping which of Abercrombie’s books to read next. He has, as you can probably tell, become an instant favorite of mine.
Perfect for fans of dark fantasy, The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is going to be a smash hit, and will definitely go down as one of my favorite releases of 2025.
