The Devils

I have never read this author before but although the humor can be quite juvenile and silly, I found I really enjoyed this book. When it was finished I immediately missed the found family of the group. I will absolutely read the next book. Also it’s such a cool edition with end papers art and some art throughout the book.

Pros. Overall, a great book. Characters all display very different personalities, humor fills almost every page, and it’s very linear.Cons.There was very little depth to the characters, absolutely no backstory to any of them. A vampire, a werewolf, an immortal knight, there should be ample opportunity to give us at least something.Length, it did drag on a bit at the end. 2/3 were great. Ending was meh. Plot twist could be seen a mile away.Worth a read but definitely not deserving of a spot on my favorites bookshelf

The massive dramatic fight scenes got to be a bit much for me. But otherwise one of the best books I’ve read. Great characters and storyline and everything. Funny, scary, sweet - the whole shabang. Great writing! Super original. Wonderful. Hope there’s a follow up.

Joe Abercrombie’s “The Devils” is the best fantasy novel I’ve read so far this year. It’s hilarious, brutal, fast-paced, and full of heart. The premise: a young monk is ordered to lead a team of magically bound monsters—vampire, werewolf, necromancer, and more—to escort a streetwise thief who might be the lost princess of Troy. The setting is a clever alt-medieval Europe, where the Pope is a ten-year-old girl and the Church wages crusades against the elves. The characters are unforgettable (the necromancer steals every scene), the worldbuilding is sharp, and the action ranges from thrilling to harrowing. If you enjoy Abercrombie’s usual blend of grit, wit, and perfectly-timed twists, this book is a must. I tore through all 500+ pages and already want more.

Loved the character builds, the traits of each good or bad. Loved the pauper to princess storyline. Loved the sharp twist on human history to bring it all together in a way familiar, yet foreign enough. This book was a rollercoaster from the very beginning and leaves you waiting more in the way only Joe Abercrombie can do. Hope he continues this.

A fantasy novel should have a main character the reader cares about. I found it hard to root for Alex, a whiney teen, living by her wits on the streets and surviving on what she could steal. We learn she is the long lost successor to the throne of Troy. The how and why of that is some what murky. The church determines she must be returned safely to Troy to ascend to the throne, although she has no understanding or memory of her royal past. To get her there safely Alex is accompanied by a retinue of strange and fantastic companions (a soldier who cannot die, a vampire, a werewolf, an elf, a magician and more) who are led by a naive friar who has no understanding of why was chosen to lead this group, The Devils of the title.Turns out Alex has a number of siblings who would rather they be the next ruler and one by one they and their forces do whatever they can to murder Alex. This provides Joe Abercrombie with plenty of opportunity to do what he does best, describe brutal battle scenes in gory detail. Each of Alex's companions "do their thing" as necessary to save her and get her closer to Troy.The story gets somewhat complex as the characters explore their emotions toward themselves, their duty and Alex. As a result the book bogs down from time to time as these relationships are pondered and analyzed. I found the whole adventure to be highly predictable, in fact trite, although there are a few interesting twists. Monsters, human and otherwise, abound and are dispatched gruesomely with regularity. Lastly, I did not like the ending. I suppose it was written to potentially set the stage for the next book but I found it unsatisfying. Read this book if you are a Joe Abercrombie fan, as I am, or are a committed fantasy novel fan.

I’m a big fan of Joe Abercrombie, so I might be biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next installment in what promises to be a good series. I don’t think it’s quite as dark as his incredible The First Law series, but still offers enough grit to separate it from the usual two dimensional sword-&-sorcery novels out there

I have been fortunate enough to read all the works by this author, and truthfully, I have to say there has never been a book that I haven't binged. He is able to bridge the gap of fantasy and reality to create a very believable scenario. The characters are developed in.such a way as to seem human while not actually being so. The action is gripping and intense,while often infused with ironic humor. If you enjoy a well written story,detestable villains,action, with a protagonist you can root for,don't cheat yourself . Devils is a great place to start!

Do not read if you cannot take religious criticism.The religion in this book is very similar to Catholicism so fair warning.I enjoyed this book. It was funny but mainly just full of vibes. I will admit I did not exactly see where the plot was going, which is a good thing. The fighting kind of felt monotonous and like the same battle over and over again. I didn’t particularly enjoy the ending, but I think this is going to be part of a series so hopefully things will be better resolved.I really liked this book while I was reading it and laughing along, but also found myself getting bored. Maybe it was the pacing? I’m not entirely sure.While this book has many POVs, they weren’t difficult to follow along, which I appreciate.0.5 🌶️* please disregard grammatical errors due to accessible voice texting. Thanks.

I was recommended this book by my best friend and it did not disappoint in the slightest. I’m a picky reader but this book caught me early on and held my attention until the end. My only disappointment is that I discovered it so close to its release and now have to wait for more to be written, which is a good problem to have (unless that author is George RR Martin).The character development for each character is so well done that I found myself looking forward to dialogue scenes more than action ones. I wanted to know more about them all and see them grow. Root for them and maybe see a few slapped in the face once in a while.The world building was amazing. Alternate history with both monumental and subtle changes made to the world, its societies and the beings living in it. I wanted more lore, which only plays more into my need for more to read.In short, I want more. Not from the book itself, but from the world the author created. 5/5 would definitely recommend.

Man what a book! It is a novel in medieval times with a group of monsters with a mission from the pope.it is a what if scenario of Europe with magic and engineering, and a lot of cursing. It is amazing! Loved every bit of it. Also the style is so Pratchett and Adams; it is funny and comedic but still withholds its gravitas and drama.A lot of things happen, there are plenty characters to keep track of.But it really does an amazing job of telling the tale of everything and luring you with its narrative.Joe's prose is clean, fast, violent, entertaining and as I said before it has that dark British comedy property that, only people from the British Isles know how to conjure and those who learn English in the British council -Like myself- can appreciate.Some people will say its crude and rowdy. I say it is smart and curated with a style that we need more of in the world.I recommend it. Wholeheartedly.

One of my top reads for 2025, and I read 5-7 books every week! Great characters, compelling plot, and enjoyable from cover to cover. I actually hated for the book to end! I see it advertised here as “Book 1” and I can guarantee I will be picking up the second as soon as it’s available. I’m not usually a big fantasy reader, but this was so well-written and the characters were thoroughly developed that I fell completely in love with the book.

The First Law and the Age of Madness are among my favorite fantasy books so I was waiting for this one. I overall I liked it. Great characters, the usual mix of cynism and fun, great action etc.. all the things that Joe Abercrombie excells in.But I gave 4 and not 5 because of a few issues.First the story was not super original. For example, I guessed the twist at the beginning which is funny since the book seems to think this is a great twist nobody saw coming and even says it. Abercombie usually writes better ones.All the arcs and developments were pretty standards, well done, but not logical while surprising like the other books. It's what you expect.The nowadays mandatory lesbian love story was also disappointing. I hoped we could get a story of friendship between two girls that never had any friends but no it had to be sex.Abercrombie is not known for his world building but I really want to know more about this world, its history, what happened to the Persians/ Indians/ Chinese, were do the Elves come from exactly and since this world "Jesus" also comes from Judea, what happened to Judaism. But will he tackle these issues seriously or did he just invent a world that sounds fun without thinking too much about it, we will see in the next volumes.

The "Devils" is all about characters. The plot is meh is almost entirely predictable unfortunately. But the characters (not all but some of them) are the saving grace.Lets go over some of the characters and my likes and dislikes of themThe best characters are without a doubt areJakob of Thorn, Vigga, and Zizka they all feel like real complex people while at the same time fulfill a specific archetype. Most time spent with these characters was highly enjoyable and they are the reason to even open this book.Now, onto the slightly worse charactersBalthazar, Sunni, Baptiste. Those are decent but they don't quite hit the mark. Not complex, not "real" and don't feel alive and interactive enough.Now some of my least favorite charactersAlex - technically the main characters and without a doubt the worst character of the book. The most stereotypical "zero" to "hero" journey we've seen in a million other stories and full of inconsistencies, ramblings and generally she was just being annoying. Completely unlikeable, inconsistent.Baron Rikard - this guy felt purely like a plot device. Not an ounce of personality. Stayed hidden most of the events, show up only during most convenient moments. Based on description he was one of the most powerful entities in the book, but his real impact on the story and other participants was super low. Didn't feel alive, complex, or anything close to a real character. Felt like wasted potential to be honest. Dislike.Eudoxia - the easiest plot twist ever. Went from "I'm super evil" to "I don't care about anything" within a couple of pages to then disappear. Left me mostly with frustration.Michael - this guy was the epitome of "hurr durr ima bad guy" completely lacking the characteristic abercombie talent and genius. So disappointed with michael. Also the reveal was so obvious it made me yawn. This character was very cartoonish and completely disappointed me.

A well told story, with a fine plot, excellent characters, and near perfect pacing, told by a skilled writer who builds a very believable world. If you like well-written fantasy that will keep you engaged, this is for you.Highly recommended.

this was a slow but good read. i definitely think that as readers, you have to become invested in the main character's personal motivations and desires, otherwise this will be fairly bland for you. fortunately, Abercrombie does an EXCELLENT job at characterization. I felt like each character had their own history, motivations, tone, speech- it was very easy to not only identify each character from one another but care about them in their own little way.brother diaz- our man brother diaz is tasked by the pope (a little girl!) to travel with a band of "devils" to help escort the long lost princess to the throne. brother diaz is one of the less complex characters (in my opinion) in that he just wants to do the right thing and keep people safe. I can respect that, brother diaz.vigga- our resident werewolf. but remember, she's a NORSE werewolf. I loved vigga. her lines were quite funny, and I felt like her character was very intriguing. she at times will shift into her wolf form and be "vigga-wolf", basically meaning she is not herself. she is very violent and destructive and doesn't really know what she's doing until the after the fact. she struggles a lot with whether or not she is a monster, and I think that makes her a very interesting character overall.sunny- probably up there as a fave character with vigga, sunny is an elf, and she can go invisible. sunny actually has a VERY sad backstory that made love her even more. she used to be with a circus where people would abuse her since she is an elf (in this book, the elves are carnivorous and bad). there was one part where sunny talked about how she felt like she just wanted to do good things, so she would fold clothes while invisible and do other small acts to show she cared about her cohort. it was very sweet.baptiste- she's a pirate! my favorite part about Baptiste is that you learn just a little more about her backstory/character as you go along (kind of true for everyone, but more true for her in my opinion). the other thing I loved about her is that she alwaysssss says "I should've quit after Barcelona". we love a gal who sticks around even when things get rough lol.baron rikard- rikard was our vampire. in typical vampire fashion, he could "compel" or "glamour" others with his speech, which was always very entertaining. there were a few aspects of his character that were not in typical vampire fashion, which I really enjoyed, but I will leave that to you to find out!balthazar- I will admit, Balthazar was really hard to like. he was the necromancer, but he was always trying to break his slavery (each of the characters are bound to the pope to complete this mission as well as others). he always felt kind of like an outsider to the group, which makes it harder to like him. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few books, he becomes a favorite.Alex- Alex here is a street thief that is apparently the heir to the throne. I do think she had quite a bit of character development throughout the story, and she learned quite a bit about herself while traveling with the rest of the crew. I'm very interested in seeing where her story takes her in coming books.jakob- not going to lie, I feel like Jakob was the least impressive to me. we did get snippets of his past, and he always alluded to knowing more than what was on the page. out of everyone in the devils, he seemed to be the one that was there because he wanted to be there, which is something I'd like to explore more of in the next book.overall, I enjoyed this book despite it being slow. I do wish I took my time with it to really dive into the characters, but alas, I finished it in 2 days. after about the 50-60% way, it sort of flew for me. there is a part of me that feels like this was a super long prologue and that the next books will be more action packed (not that this was by any means not action packed!) and more focused on the elves. with that being said, I really hope the next few books are focused on the elves, because I felt like the elves barely showed up in this book. The Devils really felt like an introduction to each of the characters so you could learn where they are at in life and what motivates them and what has led to them being who they are today.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he's still got it.And really, who was doubting that? I count myself among a (rather large now I'm sure) group of people who could quite easily proclaim themselves lifelong fans of Joe Abercrombie. His work in the world of the First Law was just that good, and had just that kind of effect. And so, of course, I was eagerly awaiting The Devils. And, happily, it delivered.I mean it's Joe. So of course the character work is going to be outstanding. Of course the worldbuilding is going to be intricate and interesting. Of course the action is going to be sudden, visceral, and intense. He's just a fantastic writer. Lyrical at times, but stark. Never gets in his own way. He has a knack for writing about some of the darker elements of the world, and reveals a beautiful design to these things. He writes the experienced; the weary; the broken. And as usual, each character feels distinct, with their own voice, right down to the narration itself. And funny! He's always funny, but he gives himself even more leash for it here.And so The Devils is a promising start to a new series from one of the best fantasy writers working today. I think it's a great starting point for readers who are new to his work, too. So I'm sure that we'll have a whole slew of new readers discovering The First Law after this one. I hope so, anyway.“I believed in destiny, once. That I was bound for great things. An instrument of God’s purpose! That every obstacle must be swept aside, and any method used to do it. There were trials along the way. Tests of faith. Tests of commitment. I told myself I couldn’t waver. What kind of great purpose, after all, is easily realised? So I sacrificed everything and everyone. I covered myself in glory and steeped myself in blood. And there, at the summit of a hill of corpses, I reached my destiny, and passed through it to the other side…” He slowly opened his aching fingers, and let his hand fall. “Where there was nothing. And I saw I’d never followed God’s plan, only the lies I told myself to justify my greed and my ambition.”

Disclaimer : Joe Abercrombie rates in my top favorite authors. His First Law books are some of my all-time favorites. So this is kind of fanboyish.The Devils is alternate universe history, and done with Abercrombie's flair for characters and dialogue. Abercrombie's characters have always been realistic. They are flawed people, and you don't always like them. They are mean, and cowardly, and selfish. You get frustrated with them. You still root for them, though. You want to see them scratch out a little goodness and redemption.This book moves faster than The First Law. I was a little surprised at how quickly we meet The Devils, and how fast the show gets on the road. First Law is really one book split into three parts, and so the warm up on that one is slow. Not here - We meet Brother Diaz, we meet his Devils, and we get to the killing. And there is a lot of killing. The Devils weren't put on this quest because of their kind words and gentle natures.This is also Abercrombie's most filmable novel, and I think it'll be the one we see on the screen first. The fast pace and the comparative lack of inner monologues make it an easy sell. I hope we see it on the screen at some point, even though all book readers know the show is never as good as the book.Buy it. Read it. Joe Abercrombie is fantastic, and I'll read everything he writes.

First of all, Joe Abercrombie is my favorite author. That predisposes me perhaps to be less severe (or moreso, for not delivering masterpiece after masterpiece). For the first third, I had come ready to worship and was ready to walk away with disappointment. The premise was intriguing, a Suicide Squad of dark archetypes with very flawed personalities. But as the story got off the ground, I became used to this new style of Joe, because it can be jarring going from his very grounded First Law series, and even his Half a King one (all of which I've read several times and delighted in hearing Pacey narrate more than once), to this fantastical realm of supernatural dsrkndss and far more liberal use of magic. The humor too, could stand to be dialed back 25%, though mostly it lands. But by the end, the sheer narrative magic of the tale and its plot twists (one of which I was upset about given its similarity to another one in a series), I was dazzled and now judge this perhaps his best. I say perhaps to account for recency bias. I can't wait to see what James Cameron does with it (no really, Google it). So, Joe? Bravo. 5 out of 5 even relatively speaking to the other 5s out 5s.

Joe Abercrombie's "The Devils" dismantles the mythology of power rather than celebrating heroism, its uses, abuses, and the bruised souls it leaves behind. Set in a world whose scaffolding is constructed from the charred beams of history, theology, and myth, this novel does not so much invite the reader in as dare them to survive its pages with their convictions intact.A quest is at the heart of the narrative, though the word barely fits. A young woman of dubious lineage and even more questionable luck is thrust toward a throne in the crumbling imperial city of Troy, accompanied by a group that resembles a church-sponsored death squad more than a band of heroes. Among them: a vampire with an aristocrat's charm and none of his soul, a werewolf whose candor is as cutting as her claws, a necromancer who prides himself on scientific rigor while vomiting at divine interference, and an elf whose existence is considered an abomination by most of humanity. Together, they form the "Chapel of the Holy Expediency," a name that drips irony from every syllable.Abercrombie's refusal to let the reader rest in comfort, moral, narrative, or otherwise, drives the book's engine. Every act of kindness is suspect, every miracle has a cost, and the supposedly righteous often wield darker tools than their enemies. This is a world where faith and magic are indistinguishable in their consequences, and the divine may be little more than well-branded sorcery. Abercrombie systematically dismantles our expectations about moral categories by populating his quest with traditional fantasy archetypes—vampire, werewolf, necromancer—then forcing them into the role of protectors. The monsters become the most reliable allies, while holy figures prove pragmatic to the point of cynicism.The magical elements in "The Devils" function less as a coherent system than as the world's dark history made manifest. Every spell, binding, and enchantment carries the weight of past decisions—Carthaginian witch-engineers whose legacy still shapes the landscape, an empress whose forbidden experiments created ongoing threats, a child pope whose finger-painted sigils prove unbreakable. Magic here is archaeology, each manifestation revealing layers of moral compromise and institutional hypocrisy.Abercrombie's worldbuilding is encyclopedic in scope and rigorously coherent. There are echoes of Carthage, Byzantium, and medieval Christendom, filtered through a lens darkened by war, schism, and apocalyptic threat. The cultural fissures and political maneuvers feel pulled from the bloodstained pages of real history.Ultimately, "The Devils" doesn't offer the reader a savior. Instead, it provides a tangle of conflicting aims, questionable prophecies, and characters who don't rise above their flaws so much as weaponize them. Abercrombie excels at crafting dialogue that snaps with wit without sacrificing gravity, and his characters, particularly Balthazar the necromancer, are memorable not because they are likable but because they are vivid, specific, and uncomfortably honest. The author's dark humor emerges naturally from character interactions rather than imposed commentary, whether it's the vampire teaching deportment to a street thief or a monk's mortification at traveling with 'devils' who prove more reliable than saints."The Devils" is not a story of light triumphing over darkness. It is a story where light and darkness trade disguises, monsters become companions, and the most dangerous thing may not be the evil one faces but the good one justifies."The Devils" doesn't seek redemption. It seeks recognition for the brutal, compromised, and painfully human elements that underlie legend and history. Rather than offering comfort, the novel provides an unflinching examination of what we become when survival demands we abandon our certainties. For readers prepared to question their assumptions about heroism and virtue, it offers no easy answers but ample truth.