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.

Joe Abercrombie has outdone himself with The Devils. If you thought the First Law series was masterful, prepare to be blown away. This book is a masterclass in character development, featuring a cast that is not only diverse but also incredibly compelling. Each character feels real, flawed, and utterly human(or inhuman), drawing you into their individual struggles and triumphs.

The world-building is equally impressive. Abercrombie crafts a richly detailed and engaging world that leaves you hungry for more. You'll be desperate to explore every corner and uncover every secret. This is a must-read for any fan of grimdark fantasy and a testament to Abercrombie's unparalleled storytelling prowess. Five stars, without a doubt!

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

Joe Abercrombie’s "The Devil’s" is a captivating addition to his celebrated body of work, showcasing his signature blend of gritty realism, dark humor, and complex characters..

The story follows a cast of well-developed characters, each with their own motivations and flaws. Abercrombie masterfully intertwines their narratives, creating a rich tapestry of intrigue and tension. The character development is one of the highlights of the book; readers will find themselves deeply invested in their journeys, which are often fraught with moral dilemmas and unexpected twists.

Overall, "The Devil’s" is a compelling read that will satisfy both longtime fans of Abercrombie and newcomers to his work. With its intricate plot, richly drawn characters, and moral complexity, it’s a story that lingers long after the last page is turned. If you enjoy fantasy that challenges conventions and delves into the darker aspects of humanity, this book is a must-read.

What an absolute romp! Abercrombie's character work and sharp dialogue shine, more than making up for some small inconsistencies with pacing and plot reveals. There's so much to like here, so let's unpack.

Anyone who has ever read an Abercrombie book knows that you're in for some really memorable characters and this book is certainly no exception. This ragtag band of misfits reminded me of a bit of a D&D party - a crew of mismatched people who seem like they wouldn't typically run together if not for a common goal. It's a joy to watch each of these characters subvert the reader's expectations based on the stereotypes they would typically fill. And the surprises only continue as each character's unique attributes come to light, for example, the ability to turn oneself invisible, a character who (unfortunately) can never die, and another who is secretly a werewolf. Somehow these morally grey characters, who could easily read as unlikeable, become lovable and easy to root for as you watch them stumble and scheme their way through every trial and tribulation.

Abercrombie's writing style teeters on a razor-thin balance between camp, dark humor, and the most devastating sentences you've ever read. Prepare for whiplash in the best way. Intentionally neglecting context, but "what did you do?!" absolutely destroyed me. iykyk. But on the flipside, we get repetitive patterns in the dialogue (complimentary) that turn something mundane into something worth a chuckle. As a reader you get the feeling of witnessing conversations that feel well-trodden and almost intimate within their little crew. We get snips of phrases that allude to lore and closeness between these characters (looking at you, Barcelona) that leave you craving more of these delightful characters and their backstory.

I do have to admit that I struggled with the pacing towards the middle of the book. The first quarter got me hooked quick, but the middle meandered a bit more than I would hope for in a book of this length. Everyone says that journey sequences and the like are difficult to write (which makes sense) and it's not like it was bad, but compared to earlier parts of the book, I found myself eager for something more to happen. But all was redeemed around the 70% mark when suddenly we were thrust into a dead sprint that didn't let you stop for breath until the very end. I tore through the ending and honestly forgot about the lag I'd been complaining about a few pages prior. While some of the twists and turns felt a bit expected (including one that I predicted, then talked myself back out of only for it to end up happening after all) the ones that landed really landed. Ditto for the battle sequences, which somehow managed to always feel fresh and exciting and unlike the ones we'd read before. No context again: that one church?? that one tower?? that one ship?? Stunning, flawless, gimme fourteen of 'em right now. iykyk.

I think hardened Abercrombie fans and new readers alike will find a lot to love in this one. I'm thrilled that it's the start to a new series because I already can't wait to visit with these messy, yet much beloved terrors again.

Extra special thanks to Tor for sending me a copy in exchange for review. You guys are the best!

this book is thick and rich, dissolving on the pallette over the course of hundreds of pages of incremental world building, guiding you through the narrative. this book was fun and dark and bit crass at times, highlighting the absurdity of both the fantasy elements of the story and the real world counterparts the story draws from.

A devolution in what made Joe Abercrombie so great.

I read The First Law series when it first came out, and it revitalized Fantasy for me. Flowing prose with larger-than-life characters. So when I heard Abercrombie was starting something new in a new world, I was excited. While I loved the characters from his earlier novels, the tropes and voices started to feel repetitive with his later entries into the series.

Enter The Devils. An alternate history setting (in our world) featuring a cast of diverse characters. A vampire, a magician, an elf, a pirate, a knight templar, a monk, and a street urchin turned princess. It was all too much for me. While the first two or three chapters felt like Abercrombie was returning to his grove, the rest were too drawn out, too stuffed with characters, and often felt pointless as forward momentum into the plot. What I enjoyed most about characters in Abercrombie's early novels was that they felt like they've lived a rich life off the page. They oozed with history and detail. They all had their own unique voices, and it wasn't quite like anything I'd read in fantasy before.

The characters in The Devils feel like a regression. We learn about them exclusively through flashbacks and don't see their uniqueness play out on the page through their actions. Sure they are all different, but they all feel like caricatures, not characters. Top it off with far too many bad jokes that feel completely out of place.

The plot is incredibly repetitive as well. It' encounter after encounter until the midpoint where there is a shift that "splits the party" momentarily. Many 300 page novels can tell a complete story while I felt by the time I hit the 300 page mark in The Devils (around 50%) I hadn't even received half a story. Too many characters to juggle are what made the pacing suffer. Also, why are we turning an alternate history Earth into a fantasy novel? He has more fantasy elements in this than he had in his earlier novels which existed in a true Fantasy setting. I'm really not sure what he was trying to do with this novel.

Too many characters, a ho-hum plot, and a setting I'm still trying to figure out the justification for since it feels more fantasy than anything he's ever written.

Maybe Abercrombie's genius has already been written and he's floundering to find something new. The Devils is not it.

I absolutely loved this book. This was my first ever read by Joe Abercrombie and I could not it down! I am headed straight to the First Law Trilogy!

“Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
Trust me, you want to know these devils.

Brother Diaz must lead a crew of holily bound and irredeemable devils to ensure the safety of Empress Alex to her rightful throne. Brother Diaz has never lead anything in his life and Alex has never “empressed” anything in hers. You ask about the devils? Well, they are an unusual crew of blood-thirsty, moon- howling, magically stubborn, invisible shifting, sword and verbal assault wielding demons who would just like to have a day or a week off.

How do they fair in this deviant Tolkienian-like journey? “During the last few months’ of Alex’s life the insane had become standard, the horrifying unsurprising, and the impossible routine.”

Sublimely witty, extremely dark and humorous, and quite sage in its offerings and fellowship. I cannot write a review befitting how much I loved this book and the characters and invite you to meet and journey with them as well.

"The Devils" is my first Joe Abercrombie. I'd read a few reviews saying it's an excellent "first" for his work, and I will have to agree - as a standalone, it's easy to read, funny, and quick-paced. Think a fantasy heist story with a lot of bad eggs that are nonetheless charming and weird in their own ways. The tone was wry and brisk; I was never terribly emotionally involved in the proceedings, but engaged nonetheless; the book was a series of "now how are they going to get out of this one?", and I did want to know!

When Brother Diaz is summoned to the Sacred City, he's sure he is finally landing a prestigious position that will reflect his hard work and dedication. But instead of a noble, glorious assignment, he finds himself in charge of the Chapel of Holy Expediency, an arm of the wing the Church doesn't even officially acknowledge. Brother Diaz is now responsible for dangerous individuals, ranging from a blood-thirsty werewolf to an arrogant necromancer. Their current assignment: escort a lost princess across the continent and install her as the rightful empress of a neighboring empire. In their way: four dangerous cousins who want the princess eliminated so they can take the throne instead.

THE DEVILS is another fantastic fantasy novel featuring that signature blend of Abercrombie: violence, crassness, and a host of memorable characters. Unsurprisingly, my favorite part of the story was the characters themselves. There are several POVs in this book, and every chapter felt like it had a distinctive voice. You could tell when it was a princess chapter versus a werewolf chapter versus a necromancer chapter. All these POV chapters provide insights into the characters themselves, which allows the readers to grapple with a real question: How dangerous are the members of the Chapel of Holy Expediency? Are they being unnecessarily prosecuted? Or has the Church accurately determined that these people are a clear and present danger to society if left unchecked? There is not a cookie cutter answer that applies to all of these characters, and it was intriguing to unpick their backstories and make my own judgement about them.

Speaking of the Church, let’s discuss the setting itself. THE DEVILS is set in an alternate medieval Europe; while you’ll find references to familiar locations like England and Barcelona, you’ll also find the populace lives in fear of another invasion of cannibalistic elves. The Church is Christianity-adjacent, in that it worships one God, but they use different iconography, and their Savior is a woman, resulting in much of the upper Church leadership being women. All of this is in service of a VERY thinly veiled satirical critique of organized religion. It is a constant theme throughout the book, to the point of being slightly overdone.

The story itself was a blast to read. Our characters must journey from essentially the Vatican to Troy to return the lost princess to her throne. In their way are four royal cousins who want the throne for themselves, resulting in multiple attacks, traps, and attempts on the princess’s life. While individually, each fight is well done and distinctive, it did start to feel slightly repetitive by the end of this 500+ page book.

That doesn’t stop THE DEVILS from having one heck of a gut punch as the story concludes. While the mission of this particular book, returning the princess to her throne, is wrapped up by the end, there are multiple tantalizing hooks dangling that foreshadow things to come. I myself cannot wait to see these characters come back and grapple with a new problem, and see how events from book one have (or haven’t changed) their outlooks. In short, THE DEVILS is a fantastic opening for a trilogy that is sure to be thrilling and engaging journey.

Note: I was provided a free ARC by the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.

The Devils is an action-packed romp through magical medieval Europe, full of werewolves, elves, and magicians. An often bloody, often hilarious tale of a group of misfits sent by the 10-year-old Pope on a hopeless quest across the continent. I picked this up because I enjoyed the First Law Trilogy, and I absolutely loved it. Hope we get more from the Chapel of the Holy Expediency

The Devils is an instant Abercrombie classic, a darkly funny, gritty, brutal, and memorable romp through a vividly imagined world full of expertly sketched characters with a high-stakes plot that never disappoints. The story revolves around the members of the secret Chapel of the Holy Expediency (think "the Suicide Squad") being tasked to put a street urchin who is apparently the long lost true ruler of the nation of Troy on the throne. Our cast of characters include the aforementioned urchin and a collection of the Holy Church's most damned, cursed, condemned, and expendable resources being thrown into the literal meat grinder of an empire where powerful nobles and other forces are already jockeying for power and success is anything but certain.

An excellent starting place for readers who have heard of Abercrombie's work but are a little intimidated by his larger series, this book should have wide appeal (watch out for the gore, though!) and is a must for any fantasy collection.

This is sort of a fantasy version of the Suicide Squad. The Devils are a crew put together by the Church (in which all the most powerful people are female in this world), set aside for a day when normal methods to solve a problem will not do. Most people know that the Church has twelve chapels, but these folks are part of the secret thirteenth, Our Lady of Pragmatic Expediency.

This motley crew consist of: a vampire, a necromancer, an elf (elves are terrifying cannibals in this world), a truly terrifying Viking werewolf, and are led by a jack-of-all-trades and an immortal soldier. So we've got basically Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf(wo)man, Zombie and The Invisible Man along with a human Swiss Army Knife.

Added to this team are a new priest (because the Church needs this team to have a spiritual handler) and a long lost princess who's grown up as Oliver Twist only a lot less nice. The job is to get her to this world's version of Constantinople, which is undergoing a succession struggle. Our long lost princess, in theory, has the best claim to the throne if she can only get there. Achieving this might solve the schism between the Church of the East and the Church of the West (if you remember your European medieval history).

Things go wrong. Oh, do they go wrong. The other prospective heirs to this throne are not interested in a new princess and have lots of horrible ways to try to stop her. There's double-crossing, there's spying and messages gone astray, there are horrible inhuman monsters to fight. This is why the Church keeps its own monsters.

Abercrombie tells us what's up right at the beginning of the book and the climax did not come as a surprise to me. I don't know if his heart was in all of the characters. For example, I never cared about our princess; I was far more interested in the monsters around her.

But he's mostly on point. A tragedy concerning a character I'd grown to really enjoy hit hard. Fight scenes were lots of fun. Great banter and raunchy jokes. I'm interested in the world he's built and it feels like he's left the door open for a sequel, which I'd gladly read.

Joe Abercrombie writes a style of fantasy that I don't really see/ read from anyone else, and The Devils feels like a bit more standard high fantasy. You've got your quest, you've got your mismatched gang of ne'er-do-wells, the plot twists and turns and of course a good, healthy dose of magic.
I do not, however, say these things in a critical light. I absolutely LOVED this book and I hope Abercrombie expands this world to include further adventures of the church in this world. I loved the alternate history lens involved and of course the signature Abercrombie wit and banter.

Thanks to the publisher Tor and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Joe Abercrombie's still got it in this new series unconnected from any of his previous works. Everything one might expect is here: the prose, characters you feel like you're old friends with before the book is even half through, and an interesting and fast-paced story. Don't miss it!

This book was so good! Very different from Abercrombie's other works but having the same humor, themes and writing!
A lovable cast of characters each with their own secrets and problems whos relationships grow and change over the book.
Very cool magic and lore. Full of action and twists that really add to the book!
Can't wait for more.

A “Suicide Squad” for the gridmark fantasy crowd! A rollicking good time, Overflowing with action, humor, horror, and a cast of characters you won’t soon forget. “The Devils” will have you grinning from ear to ear as this band of oddities and odd balls guides a surprised and hesitant “lost” heir to her rightful throne. I dare you not to have a great time with this book. My only minor gripe is I thought it almost overstayed its welcome but overall it was one hell of a fun read and I hope to go on more adventures with this motley Crew. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!