The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Liis reviews The Devils, a standalone fantasy novel by Joe Abercrombie.

An eARC was received by Orion Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Liis recieved it a long time ago. Whoops.

Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2025 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freed from Desire

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.

“An ineffectual priest, an enervated knight, a misanthropic elf, and an antique vampire. It sounded like the start of a bad joke to which the punchline was yet to be revealed.”

I’m just going to get one thing out of the way first. Yes, this book is Abercrombie-level-dark-and-fun, but… If I was presented with The Devils and The Age of Madness books, I would choose the latter. The Devils is trying to be just a bit too funny, for me. It’s a hoot, don’t get me wrong, but I personally prefer the “serious and gloomy kind of wit wielding Abercrombie” rather than “dishing out punchlines kind of Abercrombie”.

The book does have a lot of the items in the grim fantasy reader checklist ticked off, though. No denying. Grim humour? Check. Anti-heroes? Oh, hell yes. A quest in a mixed bag company that would shame a beaten up piñata? Yup. So, absolutely, the wicked and dysfunctional found-family vibe is THE THING in The Devils. It’s all about throwing the least likely together and see what happens. The literary version of “fuck around and find out”. What’s also cool is that everyone will find at least 1 or 2 characters to really root for. The choice is yours, really. It’s hard to say who the main character in this story is, they all have a pretty big part to play. I guess Brother Diaz and Alex would be pretty big contenders for the MC spot? Anyway, my favourites were Jakob of Thorn (because broodingly grim and tired of life!) and vampire Baron Rikard (because classy!).

So… Character-wise, this book slaps! Dialogue? Punchy and often very, very naughty/dirty! Especially where werewolf Vigga is included. Ye gods. Plot? Abercrombie-isque mix of mission-driven momentum, religious weaseling, political spasms and a fuck-ton of violence. I do love that The Devils did a gentle nod to European history and that Estonian places like Narva and Parnu (Pärnu) got a mention. That was a really nice moment for this Estonian reader. Mm-mm-mmm.

Ultimately, The Devils is all cool vibes of fun and misery hand in hand. Would I recommend this book as someone’s very first Abercrombie book? Mmm, maybe, but likely not. The Devils is Abercrombie testing something slightly different, something lighter. Funnier. Think superhero/villain movies and instead of being all Avengers vibe, it’s Deadpool. But I would definitely still recommend the book. It’s THE book of 2025 for lots of folks!