TL;DR Review: Razor-sharp dialogue, a wildly imaginative alt-history fantasy world, and wonderfully extravagant characters result in what may be Joe Abercrombie’s best work to date.
Synopsis:
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.
Full Review:
A hapless priest and a colorful gang of monsters and mischief-makers are tasked by the Holy Pope (who happens to be an adorable 10-year old child) to travel across Europe to set up a street thief as the Empress of one of the most powerful nations in the world. Sounds like the setup for either a really bizarre joke or a truly spectacular fantasy novel.
The Devils follows along with this nameless crew of misfits and malefactors—which includes a deathless knight, a foppish vampire, the third best necromancer in all of Europe (who will make sure you know it!), a jack-of-all-trades, an amnesiac werewolf, an invisible elf (the pointy-eared kind), and a bureaucratic monk who has no business being out of his rectory—on their journey across war-torn, magic-scarred, and immensely fascinating lands on this holy mission. But a more unholy company has never existed, and the story is all the more fun for it.
As ever, Abercrombie’s characters are truly colorful and extravagant to an extreme. Brother Diaz starts off as precisely the milksop you’d expect, but keep reading and watch him grow a spine in the most intriguing of ways. Balthazar (with too many names to list here) is a bloviating, self-aggrandizing arse who…well, he pretty much stays the same, but finds some humanity along the way. Alex the street thief is on her way to become Empress Alexia (with too many names and titles to list here), and in so doing, discovers the truth of what it truly means to be a leader and ruler. Vigga the werewolf has spent her whole life forgetting her grim past and every bad thing, and is the happiest, friendliest, horniest murderous force of nature you could hope to meet.
Go into this book expecting nothing and prepared for anything. The most unexpected twists and turns, the most shocking surprises and revelations, and you’ll still be blown away.
The balance between grimdarkness and those ever-so-precious-and-rare moments of happiness is spectacular. The characters grow by inches rather than miles, but their evolutions are such a delight to discover as you go along for this wild ride.
In addition to the amazing characters and pacing, the world is just an absolute treat. Imagine a Europe (and the rest of the world) where Carthage conquered the Roman Empire then s*** the bed and destroyed themselves in a magical cataclysm. The subtle (and not-so-subtle) alterations to history lead us to a Europe with two Popes/Patriarchs, two feuding churches, a Holy Land infested with bloodthirsty elves, and so much more. It’s a delight to marinade in this world and discover just how insane it can become when magic and monsters and mythologies are all real.
And, of course, the dialogue and narration are razor-sharp as ever. Every time you switch POVs, the voice shifts and becomes immediately identifiable as belonging to that character, vastly different from the other. You’re treated to a deep dive into each character’s heads, their struggles, hopes, fears, dreams, and particular appetites for blood or necromancy or theft.
The banter is spectacular, the repartees beyond witty, and the brief moments of introspection and growth a marvel to behold.
Abercrombie is at his absolute sharpest in this brilliant, bloody, and batshit alt-history fantasy adventure! It’s an adventure that keeps getting wilder in every possible way and I adored every minute I spent in it.
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