Abercrombie fans like myself will delight in this non-stop action fantasy that turns history on its head and empowers rogue fantasy characters to be their best or worse selves while battling unabashed evil.

The Devils delivers a whirlwind of fast and bloody action. While this can be enticing for plot progression, it often leaves very little room for character development, which is unfortunately what happened with this book.

The novel’s tone is dominated by its lowbrow humor, never missing an opportunity to go for cheap laughs (we're talking poop and fart jokes...). Although I found some of the jokes amusing, the nonstop onslaught of awkward humor became overbearing after awhile and it made me lose interest in the book while I was reading it. I was getting "the ick" as the kids say.

Despite an interesting premise, The Devils just did not work for me. Abercombie's backlist has so many gems and I was more than surprised that this ended up being a dud for me.

I will likely try his work again in the future but, if there is a sequel, I am unlikely to read it.

I’ve been a big fan of Abercrombie since the release of The Blade Itself. Throughout the second instalment of the First Law series, it was an honour to witness Abercrombie hone his craft. The Devils demonstrates Joe’s sharp-as-a-blade writing style, keeping the same charm and exquisite battle sequences First Law readers will know and love, with just a dash more hope and whimsy. The Devils is extremely accessible for high-fantasy. Set in another, more medieval earth dimension, there is little to no world building readers will need to digest before strapping in for this absolute thrill ride. With that said, the magic system may take a beat to get your head around.

The Devils follows the story of lost princess Alex and her ensemble cadre of apocalyptically powerful (albeit unwilling) caretakers as they try to return her to the royal seat of Troy. This reads like a Brothers Grimm edition of Anastasia, dosed with Acid. It has extremely clever exposition, and even better character development. Sunny and Viga were standouts for me. Delving into themes of sin, absolution and self-determination, The Devils was a 5/5 read for me with almost unmatched entertainment value. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to get into Fantasy. There’s even a little spice for the romance girlies. Although, Joe Abercrombie’s particular flavour of spice may not be for everyone. Enjoy!

This book grabs you from the first chapter, not gently or politely. What starts as a tale of a holy journey quickly unravels into a blood-soaked, laugh-out-loud, emotionally charged chaos by one of the most unlikely crews fantasy has ever dared to assemble. Brother Diaz believes he's been called to a righteous mission., a grand religious calling. Instead, he walks into a nightmare filled with teeth, blood, and brimstone. His new flock includes a married of gleeful assassins, monsters, and a spellcaster whose loyalty is anyone's guess.

The world is gritty, irreverent, and steeped in a matriarchal religious order that's far more dangerous. The Goddess worshipped here is no passive symbol. She's fierce, demanding, and not at all concerned with your comfort, which sends this group of barely contained sociopaths into the heart of enemy territory with holy orders and unholy methods. The pacing is relentless in the best way. The action is unbounded, mixed with delicious banter and plot twists that knock the wind out of you. The fight scenes are brilliantly bloody and packed with a punch. They're not just physical battles, either. Every fight shifts alliances, whispers of threats and betrayals simmering beneath the surface. This is a story where no one's motives are pure, everyone has secrets, and survival often means compromising or weaponizing your beliefs. The characters are wildly different, devious, and endlessly entertaining. You get the sense that if they weren't all heading toward certain doom, they might learn to like each other. Maybe. And just when you think you've figured someone out? They twist. Hard. But what do you expect from a band of misfits, monsters, and maniacs? It's a fast, funny fantasy that is just a little unhinged. Also, where's the good meat?

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group, Tor Books, for an opportunity to review the ebook.

This review was originally posted on sffinsiders.com

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.

Alex is an orphan, a gutter rat, a thief and a liar. She's also, apparently, the heir to the throne of Troy... providing she can get there with her head still attached to her body. Luckily she has the Chapel of Holy Expediency to guard her journey - an inexperienced monk, an aged vampire, a dejected necromancer, a barely tethered werewolf, an invisible elf, a jack of all trades and a warrior who is well past his prime. But can they stop fighting amongst each other long enough to get the job done - a job none of them wanted, but are forced to do by the will of a ten year old pope. The Devils is everything you'd hope for, everything you didn't think to hope for, and better than the sum of its parts. IF bad language is not your thing, you'll want to skip it, but if that's not an issue for you, joe Abercrombie's plot, prose, and sense of humor carries you through to the end of the story, an end that leaves you hungry for more.

Literally what! Joe Abercrombie is incredible and this is my first read for this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I think this is one of, if not the best, fantasy novels I’ve read. Its beautifully written and he really makes us fall in love with the main character, who to be honest, is pretty unlikable considering her situation. The dialogue and writing in this was absolutely hilarious, I actually giggled out loud. Its not a comedy by any means, if anything its pretty dark, but it makes light of the situation happening. It follows the story of Brother Diaz who was tasked by the church to guide these other holy people on a journey to put a princess on the the Serpent throne of troy. Its just basically this whole squad of very morally ambiguous and questionable people, if you can call them people at all, trying to get the princess to Troy and everything can can possibly go wrong at any moment does. This book had my heart pounding like crazy! Its so suspenseful and there are twists at every corner. Definitely going to read more Abercrombie novels now.

I have putting off trying Joe Abercrombie because I knew once I started reading his books that I was going to be hooked. There is a reason they called him a master of his craft and I can see it in The Devils. I knew from the moment that I started this book that Joe is going to be one of those top-tier authors for me not only did his dialogue hit for me. I loved his style of writing and how he transitioned the first chapter into the next as he was introducing the characters. Having some of them overlap but basically not meet just yet. The switching of the POV’s was with such ease. You will know exactly what I mean when you read it!
In this book, he gives us a group of characters that come together that you wouldn’t expect. We have Alex(ia), Jakob the Thorn, Baptiste, Balthazar Sham Ivan Draco, Sunny, Baron and Vigga.. They are all lead by Brother Diaz. Their mission to get Alex to her throne so she can become the empresses she never knew she would be.
I can see why they say Joe Ambercrobie is the master of grim dark. The book is dark but fantastically written but also very humorous. While I can see not all of the humor being for everyone it definitely was for me. I highlighted and annotated a lot of the things that did end up making me laugh. I also feel as I read Joe’s other books I will find that he just a very quotable author.
I can’t wait to continue on in this series as it is being written. I have a feeling that his backlog will all be read by then as I already own it!

For many years I have been too intimidated to pick up a Joe Abercrombie book but the start of a new trilogy sounded like a great time to try it out. It was everything I expected it to be: dark, gory, brutal and cruel. But it was also hilarious! An unexpected outcome of reading this book was some embarrassing public outbursts of laughter. I do love a morally grey character and this book is full of them. Each character has many layers that pull you into the story and make you feel hope despite the horrible series of events. This book is all about the journey and it is a very wild horrific ride. Time to read Abercrombie’s backlist.

Abercrombie has crafted yet another beautifully dark tale. This one was often hard to put down. From the very beginnng I was enraptured by how he set the scene. I could vividly picture exactly where we dropped in.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

This is grim-dark as slapstick. A joke somewhere about pirates, necromancer, and priests walking into bars is somewhere to be made—knowing the three in question it would be a hell of a story all on its own.

Captivating prose as always, but to see a cast of seven unique characters so well displayed on page is a feat true to the skill Abecrombie shows. Their snappy dialogue is truly hilarious, and the stakes of their quest grand.

All this without mentioning, the magic and strange historic changes. Pyromancers and werewolves, elves and the Catholic Church. The messiah is a woman, the success of Troy a legend, the witches that built Carthage.

A worthy read! One of the best of my year so far 💕

Abercrombie remains my favorite contemporary fantasy author. With The Devils, he leans harder into the humor of his previous works but never loses the balance of great characterization and high-stakes storytelling. The world-building is fun and familiar, yet completely original. A mix of historical Europe and fantastical fairytales. Using the shifting POV he's employed so well in his other books, Abercrombie creates a fun and poignant story about found family, duty, honor, and expectation. The rogues' gallery of characters is fantastic--think Suicide Squad with classic fantasy and horror archetypes. This road trip/quest story worked for me on every level and I can't wait to read the next installment. It's going to be a top recommendation here at the store and sure to be a big hit.

What a stunning new book from Joe Abercrombie!

This read like a solid DND campaign where every single person rolls either a Nat 1 or Nat 20 at all times. Complete reckless chaos that was a joy to read. I loved the balance of harsh circumstances and witty banter throughout the entire story. A ragtag group of near-humans on a mission for the new pope goes horribly wrong and right at every turn.

I loved this new addition to the authors backlist!

Alternate history medieval Catholic suicide squad featuring a reluctant thief, a cowardly priest, an undying crusader, an invisible elf, a food-obsessed vampire, a werewolf with a broken brain, a pompous necromancer, and a lady with a really cool hat? I'm so in.

The Devils combines Joe Abercrombie's trademark dark storytelling with his signature black humor, empathetic characterization of a cast of colorfully morally gray characters, and some deeply intriguing worldbuilding tidbits that are only hinted at on the page. Grim, hilarious, surprisingly moving, and full of more chaotic action setpieces than you can shake a saint's femur at, The Devils is easily my favorite read of 2025 so far, and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

Could be the best book of 2025. I can’t wait for the next one. A dark epic fantasy with characters that I couldn’t help but love. Fast action. Lowbrow humor.

3.25 stars - Joe Abercrombie takes readers on a wild, action-packed ride in The Devils, set in an alternate history where the Carthaginian Empire once dominated Europe, shaping a world both familiar and strange. A ten-year-old girl Pope and her cardinals plan to install a street orphan named Alex, believed to be the long-lost Alexia Pyrogennetos, as the Empress of Troy, hoping to use her as a puppet ruler and mend the schism between the Western and Eastern branches of the Church.

To pull this off, they round up a crew of “devils”, which includes an immortal swordsman, a necromancer, a werewolf, an invisible elf, a jack-of-all-trades rogue, and a vampire, all led by a monk, Brother Diaz. Their mission is to get Alex to Troy and make sure she takes the throne. This book is a wild, fast-paced ride packed with chaos, dark humor, and nonstop action.

That being said, the humor didn’t always land for me. Some jokes were funny, but it also got repetitive pretty fast. And with so much action happening all the time, there wasn’t much room for deep character moments. It was also hard to really connect with any one character, though I found Alex the most interesting and likeable of the bunch.

The antagonists were another weak point. They felt like Disney villains, with lots of dramatic monologues that made it hard to take them seriously. I don’t mind an over-the-top bad guy, but this felt more like a trope than something that fit naturally into the story.

Still, The Devils is a fun, fast-paced read with a cool premise and interesting cast of characters. If you’re into Abercrombie’s style and don’t mind his brand of humor, you’ll probably have a great time with this one. I just wish there had been a little more room for character depth and better antagonists.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Tor for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

📖Review: The Devils by #joeabercrombie

Publishes May 13, 2025
Thank you @torbooks for the e-ARC!

This was my first Abercrombie book and I’m pumped to get to the rest of his books. I loooved this one. It was close to 600 pages and I wasn’t bored once with the breakneck speed at which this book sprints. I really loved the main group of characters, flaws and all. The banter was great, too. I am very excited to see where this series goes.

#thedevils #torbooks #tylerreads #grimdark #fantasy #historicalfantasy #bookreview

This will probably be a different review than many others you’ll read about The Devils, and that’s because…this is my first Joe Abercrombie novel.
I know…I even have a paperback of Best Served Cold on my bookshelf, but I just haven’t gotten around to his work so far. Part of it would probably be the Grimdark genre itself -- I’ve kinda distanced myself from it a bit, but I’ve tried to get back into it in recent months. Even then, from what I understand, The Devils is a step away from the darkest parts of Grimdark for Abercrombie. In fact, I may be the target audience for The Devils - a fantasy fan but perhaps a little bit more mainstream than his typical fare.
So, you won’t hear any comparisons with his First Law books or any Abercrombie novels here. Can’t compare what you don’t know. I know he’s written some very popular and well-received fantasy novels - I just haven’t gotten to them yet.
But after reading The Devils, I’m a lot more likely to.
I LOVED this book. Abercrombie takes a base of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and DC’s Suicide Squad and mashes them up with Universal’s Monsters, a healthy dash of an alternate history Europe, and a pinch of the Spanish Inquisitution (no one expected that!). For me, this book ticked so many boxes and it’s already neck and neck with Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop of Corruption for the best of 2025.
OK…so what’s this book about? Abercrombie gets into the meat of the story fairly quickly. I remember thinking of the adjective “frenetic” as I was reading the first few chapters. We start with a bang and don’t relent for quite a while. When the first break comes for our characters, I kinda had to take stock of my own reading and assess what had happened so far…and it was A LOT.
We get a team. What, or who, is on this crack commando unit? A geriatric vampire, an unkillable warrior, a sometimes invisible elf, a magician who claims to be the third (or second) best Necromancer in Europe, and a werewolf. A couple of humans, including our the reader’s eyes and ears, Brother Diaz, a Catholic Priest, are along for the ride to install a long-lost princess to the throne of Troy.
I compared it to both Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad. I generally like GOTG more, but there is an element that keeps our antiheroes from straying from their assigned mission, so that’s how I roped the Suicide Squad into my comparisons as well.
Abercrombie certainly had fun rewriting the history of Europe, going all the way back to painting Carthage and Troy as more successful in their IRL doomed military campaigns. As far as the church aspect, Abercrombie chose to totally restructure how the church was composed, starting with a female savior who died for humanity’s sins. In spite of that, he probably correctly predicted that any church that would emerge still would have issues with women in leadership roles.
So many great themes undergird the plot from found family to what it humanity really means, what role faith plays in our lives to what that faith even means when trouble finds you.
I find myself still thinking about The Devils weeks after reading it and know I will be anxiously awaiting Abercrombie’s followup for this masterwork. Maybe I’ll even go back and read some more of his before the sequel comes out.

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is a historical dark fantasy with a blend of wit and humor during a treacherous journey.

Brother Diaz, a monk, is summoned to the Holy City for what he believes is his entitled calling. Upon arrival, he is tasked with a flock consisting of a variety of monsters. From a “magician” to a werewolf, the group are a collection of “devils” used to conduct holy missions. Their current objective is to help a princess claim a throne, but encounter blood thirsty cousins who are fighting for the title.

There are hardly words to help convey how GOOD this book is. Upon reading, I immediately knew that this was going to be one of my new favorite books, worthy of a 5/5 rating. Not only is it amazingly well written, it’s a perfect dark fantasy built into the existing historical world with a great adventure and treacherous encounters along the way. I was literally cackling at every other page and felt the tension during the fighting. There were several twists towards the end that had my jaw dropped. This story is character driven and told through multiple characters perspectives so there is a robust picture of character and story progression. If you’re a fan of Suicide Squad, this is your book.

Overall, I would give this book a big ol' chef’s kiss. I have already recommended this book to several of my friends and asked the public library to make sure it makes it onto the shelf. I can’t wait to reread this book and for the next book in the series!

This was one of the best books I’ve read by Joe Abercrombie. The characters in this book were damaged and flawed, yet you come to love them.