The Devils

, #1

by

560 pages

English language

Published May 13, 2025

ISBN:
978-1-250-88005-5
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(3 reviews)

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.

1 edition

reviewed The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (The Devils, #1)

More Abercrombie

A fun read. Very much more Abercrombie written in a lighter tone than some of his grittier works.

A band of antiheroes on a quest, similar to other reviews it definitely had a bit of a "DnD party on a quest" vibe - even down to their initial motivations via the pope.

Longer than it needed to be for the story, I think. It almost felt like two books in one.

I'd read another book with these characters now that I've grown to like them. I did love Vigga the scandinavian werewolf.

reviewed The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (The Devils, #1)

Very fun story with memorable characters…

The setting is the Mediterranean at the end of the Middle Ages, if Carthage had won against Rome, if the Muslims had not conquered the Maghreb and Spain, if Jesus had been a woman, and if Europe had been threatened over the centuries by many elvish invasions. Oh, and magic happens.

The characters are well defined, but perhaps too close to DnD classes: the paladin, the sorcerer (no, the magician!), the cleric, the thief, the barbarian… So the whole adventure feels a bit like a ttrpg campaign.

On the other hand, Abercrombie is a master storyteller and I’m curious about what’s happening next for the company.

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