Alright, buckle up, buttercups, because your friendly neighborhood SFF blogger is back from the blood-soaked, morally ambiguous trenches of Joe Abercrombie’s latest masterpiece, The Devils! If you thought Abercrombie was done dragging fantasy through the sewer, think again – he’s found new depths, and trust me, it’s gloriously grimy down there. This isn’t your grandma’s epic fantasy; this is a full-throated, steel-to-the-gut, laugh-while-you’re-bleeding kind of ride. So grab a stiff drink, because we’re diving headfirst into this bad boy. 😈

Plot Synopsis: A Right Royal (and Unholy) Mess 👑

Okay, folks, this is where the spoilers flow like cheap ale, so if you haven’t read it yet, consider this your MAJOR SPOILER WARNING. You’ve been notified!

Our story kicks off in the ever-corrupt and chaotic Holy City, a place that makes a medieval plague pit look like a health spa. We meet Brother Eduardo Diaz, a monk whose ambitions far outweigh his piety. He’s late for an audience with Her Holiness the Pope, a ten-year-old girl named Benedicta I (yes, you read that right), and ends up getting roped into something far bigger and nastier than he bargained for. He’s introduced to the grim-faced, immortal knight Jakob of Thorn and the endlessly experienced, knife-happy Baptiste. Cardinal Zizka, the Pope’s pragmatic right hand, tasks Diaz with becoming the Vicar of the Chapel of the Holy Expediency – essentially, a handler for the Church’s most morally flexible “assets.”

Meanwhile, in the grimy underbelly of the Holy City, we find Alex, a street-smart thief whose life is a masterclass in bad decisions and worse debts. After a botched swindle leaves her at the mercy of the ruthless enforcer Bostro, she’s “rescued” by the noble Duke Michael of Nicaea. His bombshell? Alex is none other than Princess Alexia Pyrogennetos, the long-lost heir to the Serpent Throne of Troy, and he’s her uncle! Right.

Alex, skeptical but desperate, plays along. She’s whisked through a farcical “authentication” by the eccentric Cardinal Bock and the Church’s Oracles, who deliver a suitably vague prophecy about her being “born in the flame.” She learns her claim to the throne is contested by four extremely dangerous cousins – Marcian, Constans, Sabbas, and Arcadius – sons of the deceased, sorcerous Empress Eudoxia, who was infamous for her grotesque experiments fusing men and beasts.

To escort this “princess” to Troy, the Chapel of the Holy Expediency’s finest (and I use that term loosely) are assembled:

• Balthazar Sham Ivam Draxi: An arrogant, long-winded magician (don’t call him a sorcerer!) with a penchant for necromancy.
• Sunny: A quiet, unsettlingly perceptive elf who can seemingly vanish at will.
• Baron Rikard: An ancient, suave vampire with a wit as sharp as his fangs.
• Vigga Ullasdottr: A ferocious, unpredictable werewolf with an insatiable appetite for, well, everything.

This motley crew, the titular “Devils,” are bound by Pope Benedicta’s magic to protect Alex and see her crowned. Their journey begins, and almost immediately, disaster strikes. They’re ambushed by Duke Marcian and his savage beast-men. In the brutal ensuing battle at a fortified inn called the Rolling Bear, many of their papal guards are slaughtered. Jakob of Thorn is seemingly killed (spoiler: he can’t die, it’s a curse), and Vigga unleashes her full werewolf fury, tearing Marcian and his forces apart. Duke Michael, severely injured, is forced to return to the Holy City, leaving Alex to make a fateful decision: give up, or press on to Troy with her monstrous protectors. She chooses Troy.

The perilous journey continues. The group decides to avoid the main port of Ancona, fearing Marcian’s allies, and instead heads for Venice. Along the way, Alex and Sunny form a tentative bond, sharing secrets and bread. Balthazar, much to his chagrin, repeatedly fails to break the Pope’s binding, usually resulting in projectile vomiting or worse. For cover, they join a massive pilgrimage led by the pious Bishop Apollonia of Acci. This gives us a fantastic look at the grim realities of medieval-style travel – mud, disease, and hypocrisy in abundance. Discussions among the Devils reveal more about their dark pasts, the ever-present threat of the elves (who, by the way, eat people), and the general moral decay of their world.

Arriving in Venice, they seek passage from Frigo, a baker who doubles as a powerful crime lord. In exchange for a ship to Troy, Frigo tasks them with retrieving a mysterious white box from an illusionist’s cursed, magically sealed house. This segment is a descent into madness, as the house’s illusions prey on each character’s deepest traumas and fears:

• Vigga relives her brutal Viking past and the traumatic marking that branded her an outcast.
• Jakob is thrown back into the horrors of a long-lost crusade, facing his younger, more ruthless self.
• Sunny confronts the misery of her circus days, where she was paraded as a freak. Balthazar, with some remote assistance from his “talking heads” (literally, he uses reanimated heads of twins for communication), eventually unravels the illusions.

No sooner do they escape the house than they’re betrayed by Bishop Apollonia, who, it turns out, is in league with another of Alex’s cousins, Duke Constans. A confrontation ensues, but Baron Rikard, revealing his potent glamour (vampiric mind control), mesmerizes Apollonia and her forces, allowing the Devils to escape.

Their troubles are far from over. After setting sail from Venice, their ship is rammed and attacked by Duke Constans’s war galley, crewed by more of Eudoxia’s bizarre fish-human hybrid warriors. The battle is brutal and chaotic.

• Vigga, with Brother Diaz surprisingly effective as her “weapon-passer,” slaughters numerous fish-men.
• Balthazar and Baptiste fight a phrenomancer (mind-controller) in the flooding hold, with Balthazar cleverly using a reanimated corpse and Baptiste’s timely intervention to win.
• Alex and Sunny, pursued by a crab-man, climb the ship’s rigging. Sunny, in a desperate move, causes a lantern to fall, setting their own ship ablaze.
• Jakob duels Duke Constans. Despite being outmatched and wounded, Jakob, in a classic “if I’m going down, you’re coming with me” move, impales both himself and Constans on the Duke’s own sword, sending them both (presumably) to watery graves.
• The Vigga-Wolf, unleashed, goes on a rampage aboard Constans’s galley, decimating the crew and even attacking the mast before Brother Diaz, showing unexpected bravery, manages to (temporarily) bring her back to a semblance of Vigga. Alex, attempting a desperate leap from their burning, sinking ship to the galley, is knocked unconscious but saved by Sunny. The survivors escape into the Adriatic.

The group is scattered. Vigga and Brother Diaz wash ashore together, a strange bond forming between the traumatized werewolf and the increasingly disillusioned monk. Alex and Sunny also make it to land, with Sunny having been injured by a horse during their earlier escape from Sabbas’s men. Balthazar and Baptiste, after a harrowing time adrift on a makeshift raft, also find land, their bickering relationship reaching new heights of begrudging respect. Meanwhile, Jakob and Baron Rikard (who apparently sat out the sea battle) are fished out of the sea by soldiers of Count Radosav of Niksic, who is embroiled in a local war with Countess Jovanka of Pec. Rikard, ever the opportunist, spins a tale positioning Jakob as a legendary hero who can aid Radosav.

The scattered “Devils” slowly reconverge. Alex and Sunny are pursued by more mercenaries, including a particularly nasty werewolf known as “the Dane,” all in the employ of Alex’s third cousin, Duke Sabbas. Sunny creates a diversion, poisoning the pursuers’ stew and scattering their horses. Balthazar and Baptiste are captured by Countess Jovanka’s forces, but Jovanka turns out to be an old friend/acquaintance of Baptiste from her days as a lady-in-waiting (Baptiste has been everyone, apparently).

All parties find themselves at the peace talks between Count Radosav and Countess Jovanka, who, in a classic Abercrombie twist, are revealed to be husband and wife whose “war” is more of an elaborate, destructive lover’s quarrel. It’s during these farcical negotiations that Balthazar, desperate to break the Pope’s binding, summons the powerful demon Shaxep. The demon, however, reveals that even she cannot break a binding tied to the Pope’s unique, possibly divine, power. This is a huge revelation, hinting that Pope Benedicta I is far more than just a child ruler. The “Devils” are reunited, somewhat battered, but still heading for Troy.

Their arrival in Troy is met with a carefully orchestrated public welcome, engineered by Duke Michael, who, along with Lady Severa, greets Alex. The city is a marvel of ancient Carthaginian Witch-Engineer architecture, dominated by the colossal Pillar of Troy and the Pharos lighthouse topped with Saint Natalia’s Flame. Alex is acclaimed by Patriarch Methodius of the Eastern Church, thanks in part to Brother Diaz’s diligent research in the Athenaeum archives, which discredits the land claims of greedy nobles. All seems to be going surprisingly well… until Duke Michael proposes that Alex marry her last remaining cousin, Duke Arcadius, for political stability.

Alex is horrified. In a private moment with Sunny, she confesses the truth: she isn’t the real Alexia Pyrogennetos. The true princess died of the Long Pox years ago. Alex, her childhood acquaintance, stole her identity, her half-coin, and her story, desperate to be “not nothing.”

The wedding night arrives, and with it, the final betrayal. Alex’s handmaidens – Athenais, Cleofa, Zenonis, and Placidia – reveal themselves to be Eudoxia’s surviving apprentices. They attack, aiming to kill Alex and seize power. Baron Rikard intervenes, sacrificing his regained youth and much of his vampiric power to defeat Zenonis (a pyromancer) and Placidia (a cryomancer), leaving him ancient and withered once more. Alex flees through secret passages, only to confront Duke Michael. She discovers a letter from Cardinal Zizka to Michael, revealing their conspiracy: Michael was to marry Alexia (or Alex) and then dispose of her, taking the throne himself with Zizka’s backing, all to reunite the Churches and fight the elves. Michael admits to poisoning his sister Irene (Alexia’s mother) and starting the original civil war. Just as he’s about to kill Alex, Sunny intervenes. Jakob, who miraculously survived his fall into the sea (again), bursts from Saint Natalia’s Flame itself, aflame and furious. He tackles Duke Michael, and both plummet from the top of the Pharos to their deaths in the sea below.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Devils, waiting on a ship to return to the Holy City, see Saint Natalia’s Flame turn blue – a signal for an elf invasion, or in this case, a sign of Alex’s dire peril. They rush back. They are confronted by Lady Severa, who is revealed to be possessed by the soul of Empress Eudoxia (her final experiment was a success, transferring her soul into Severa’s body). Eudoxia, using her phrenomantic powers through Severa, turns Vigga against her companions. In the ensuing chaos, Baptiste is tragically killed by the controlled Vigga. Balthazar, in a stunning display of magical prowess and quick thinking, realizes Severa is Eudoxia and manages to break her control over Vigga by exploiting a loophole in the phrenomancy. Eudoxia/Severa then unleashes her ultimate “leftover” creation – a grotesque, multi-limbed monstrosity. Vigga, in a grief-fueled rage, fights and destroys the abomination, literally tearing her way out of its belly after being swallowed.

Balthazar confronts Eudoxia/Severa in the Athenaeum. Eudoxia, impressed by Balthazar’s intellect and power, offers him an alliance. Balthazar, however, has undergone his own transformation. Humbled by his failures to break the binding and now convinced of Pope Benedicta’s divine power, he declines, choosing to remain in the Pope’s service. Eudoxia, respecting his choice (and perhaps seeing a kindred spirit), lets him go.

In the aftermath, Cardinal Zizka arrives in Troy. Alex, now truly Empress, confronts Zizka with her treachery. A new, uneasy alliance is forged. Alex will rule, but the Eastern Church will make concessions to the West. The surviving “Devils” – Vigga (devastated by killing Baptiste and now fully committed to muzzling her inner wolf), Balthazar (newly pious, in his own way), Sunny (heartbroken but resilient), and Brother Diaz (who has become Alex’s chaplain in the Eastern Church) – are to return to the Holy City, their mission technically complete, the binding still in effect for most.

The book ends with a new character, the stern and formidable Mother Beckert, en route to the Holy City. She’s been summoned by Zizka to become the new Vicar of the Chapel of the Holy Expediency, implying the cycle of using “devils” for the Church’s dirty work will continue.

Phew! What a ride! Abercrombie packs more into one novel than some authors manage in a trilogy. It’s a sprawling, bloody, and surprisingly moving epic.

Character Analysis: A Motley Crew of Magnificent Monsters 👹

Abercrombie’s characters are, as always, the twisted, beating heart of the story. No one is purely good, and even the “evil” ones have their moments.

• Alex (or “Princess” Alexia): What a journey for this one! From a gutter rat to an Empress, all built on a lie. She’s a quintessential Abercrombie protagonist: cynical, resourceful, and deeply flawed, yet you can’t help but root for her. Her constant internal struggle with her stolen identity versus the person she’s forced to become is fascinating.

  • Strengths: Street smarts, resilience, surprising adaptability, a liar of the first order.
  • Flaws: Self-doubt, impulsiveness, a tendency to trust the wrong people (and distrust the right ones).
  • Arc: Learns that power comes with immense burdens and that sometimes, even a lie can lead to a kind of truth if you survive long enough. Her bond with Sunny is the emotional core of her story.

• Brother Diaz: Oh, Diaz. He starts as such a weaselly, ambitious little monk, terrified of his own shadow. But the crucible of this insane journey forges him into something… more. Still flawed, still often terrified, but he finds a surprising backbone and even a capacity for genuine compassion.

  • Key Relationship: His utterly unexpected and bizarrely touching relationship with Vigga. It’s a testament to Abercrombie’s skill that this pairing feels earned and almost sweet amidst the carnage.
  • Arc: From self-preservation to a fumbling sort of leadership and faith. His final stand against Patriarch Methodius is a standout moment.

• Jakob of Thorn: The unkillable man. He’s the stoic, grim anchor of the group. Cursed with immortality, he’s seen it all and is weary of it all, yet his sense of duty (and his oaths) keeps him going. He’s a walking tragedy, a relic of countless lost causes.

  • Motivations: Atonement for a dark past, adherence to his vows.
  • Impact: The moral compass, such as it is, and the group’s primary heavy hitter. His “deaths” are always dramatic and his endurance legendary.

• Baptiste: The woman who’s done everything and been everywhere. She’s the worldly-wise, cynical glue holding many situations together. Her quips and pragmatism are a delight.

  • Tragedy: Her death at Vigga’s hands is a gut punch, especially because she was one of the most “survivable” characters. It underscores the brutal unfairness of their world.

• Vigga Ullasdottr: The werewolf. A force of nature. She’s a whirlwind of appetites – for food, for sex, for violence. Yet, beneath the savagery, there’s a surprising vulnerability and a desperate desire for acceptance.

  • Internal Conflict: Her struggle with “the wolf inside” is central. Her devastation after killing Baptiste is a powerful moment of consequence for her actions, even if influenced.

• Balthazar Sham Ivam Draxi: The pompous magician. His arc is one of constant, hilarious humiliation. He’s brilliant but his ego is his greatest enemy. His grudging development of something akin to respect for his companions, and his eventual, surprising turn towards a twisted form of faith, is masterfully handled.

  • Comedy Gold: His interactions with Baptiste and his repeated, messy failures to break the Pope’s binding.

• Sunny: The quiet elf. Perhaps the most enigmatic of the group. Her ability to go unseen is a metaphor for her existence on the fringes. Her trauma is palpable, but so is her quiet strength and loyalty, especially to Alex.

  • Key Relationship: Her bond with Alex is the book’s most tender and arguably most important relationship. It’s a slow burn built on shared hardship and understanding.

• Baron Rikard: The ancient vampire. He’s all suave cynicism and manipulative charm. His powers of glamour are formidable, and his transformations from decrepit old man to youthful powerhouse (and back again) are always entertaining.

  • Sacrifice: His final confrontation with Eudoxia’s apprentices, where he expends his power to save Alex and Sunny, is a surprisingly noble end for such a self-serving creature.

• The Villains (Duke Michael, Eudoxia’s Sons, Eudoxia/Severa, Zizka): Abercrombie excels at villains who are not just cackling megalomaniacs but are driven by recognizable (if twisted) ambitions, fears, and desires. Michael’s betrayal is particularly effective because he initially seems like a benevolent figure. Zizka is less a villain and more a ruthless pragmatist – the ultimate political animal.

Thematic Resonance: It’s a Grim, Grey World After All 🌍

Abercrombie doesn’t do black and white morality, and “The Devils” is a masterclass in exploring the murky grey.

• Identity and Belonging: This is huge. Alex’s entire arc revolves around a stolen identity and her struggle to define who she is. The “Devils” themselves are outcasts, monsters in the eyes of the world, forced to find a twisted sort of belonging with each other.

  • Key Point: Characters constantly wear masks, literally and figuratively. Even “Princess Alexia” is a role Alex plays, and it changes her.

• The Nature of Power: Power corrupts, power is a burden, power is a game played by the ruthless. We see this with Eudoxia’s legacy, her sons’ squabbling, Duke Michael’s betrayal, and Cardinal Zizka’s cold calculations.

  • Key Point: The Serpent Throne is less a seat of glory and more a magnet for ambition and bloodshed.

• Faith, Hypocrisy, and Expediency: The Church is a deeply cynical institution, rife with corruption and political maneuvering. The “Thirteenth Virtue” – Holy Expediency – is a wonderfully Abercrombie concept, justifying any atrocity in the name of a “greater good.” Brother Diaz’s journey explores what true faith might mean in such a world.

  • Key Point: The contrast between the Church’s proclaimed ideals and its brutal actions is a constant source of dark irony.

• Redemption (or the Lack Thereof): Can these characters ever truly be redeemed? Jakob seeks it endlessly, Vigga grapples with her monstrous nature, Balthazar finds a strange sort of piety. The book suggests redemption is a bloody, painful, and perhaps unattainable goal.

  • Key Point: Past sins have very long, very sharp claws.

• The Monster Within (and Without): Who are the real monsters? The literal werewolves and vampires, or the “civilized” nobles and clergy orchestrating wars and betrayals? Abercrombie delights in blurring these lines.

  • Key Point: The “Devils” often display more loyalty and (twisted) honor than the supposedly righteous characters.

• Found Family: Despite their monstrous natures and dysfunctional personalities, the core group forms an incredibly compelling, if deeply unhealthy, found family. Their loyalty to each other, forged in blood and desperation, is one ofika the book’s surprising emotional anchors.

World-Building Deep Dive: A Tour of a Troubled Land 🗺️

Abercrombie’s world here feels like a grittier, more cynical cousin to our own late medieval/early Renaissance Europe, but with ancient, terrifying magic and a history soaked in even more blood.

• Geography & Key Locations:

  • The Holy City: The corrupt heart of the Western Church, clearly analogous to Rome. It’s a teeming, stinking, vibrant mess of pilgrims, prostitutes, priests, and con artists. The Celestial Palace is its seat of power.
  • Troy: The jewel of the East, reminiscent of Constantinople/Byzantium. Dominated by the impossibly ancient and colossal Pillar of Troy (built by Carthaginian Witch Engineers) and the Pharos lighthouse topped by Saint Natalia’s Flame. It’s a city of fading glory, political intrigue, and dark secrets.
  • The Journey: The lands between are depicted as war-torn, plague-ridden, and dangerous, reflecting a fractured Europe. We get glimpses of places like Venice (a city of canals and crime lords) and the Dalmatian coast.
  • The Barony of Kalyatta: A plague-cursed, interdicted land, highlighting the grim realities of disease and religious authority.

• History & Lore:

  • Ancient Carthage & the Witch Engineers: A fallen, magically advanced empire whose ruins and relics litter the world (like the Pillar of Troy). Their power was immense, but they “opened a gate to hell and destroyed their own city.”
  • The Elves: A major antagonistic force. They are not Tolkien’s graceful beings but terrifying, human-consuming Others from the East, driven by “blind mad hungry gods.” Past Crusades have been fought against them, and another is always looming.
  • The Schism: A deep divide between the Western Church (led by the Pope in the Holy City) and the Eastern Church (led by the Patriarch in Troy). This is a major political and theological fault line.

• Political & Social Structures:

  • The Church: A dominant, wealthy, and deeply political entity. The Papacy in the West, the Patriarchate in the East. Cardinals (Zizka, Bock) wield immense power. The Church bureaucracy is vast and often self-serving.
  • Empires & Nobility: The Empire of Troy is a declining power, beset by internal strife. Dukes, Counts, and other nobles vie for power and influence, often with little regard for the common folk.
  • Social Hierarchy: A stark divide between the rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. Pilgrims, mercenaries, thieves, prostitutes, and peasants populate the lower rungs.

• Magic Systems & The Unnatural: This world is crawling with magic, most of it dark and dangerous.

  • Sorcery/Black Art: Practiced by Empress Eudoxia and her coven. This includes pyromancy (fire magic), cryomancy (ice magic), phrenomancy (mind control), and, most disturbingly, sarcomancy – the art of fusing flesh, leading to Eudoxia’s man-beast hybrids (fox-men, crab-men, fish-men, etc.) in her quest to locate the soul.
  • Necromancy: Balthazar’s speciality, reanimating corpses.
  • Divine Power: The Pope’s binding is incredibly potent, unbreakable even by demons. Saints’ relics are sought after for their supposed miraculous properties. Oracles can glimpse the future, however vaguely.
  • Vampirism: Baron Rikard’s powers include glamour (mind influence), regeneration through blood, and transformation (e.g., into bats).
  • Lycanthropy: Vigga’s werewolf transformation is a brutal, terrifying force. The Dane represents another, perhaps more controlled, werewolf.
  • Elven Abilities: Sunny’s “invisibility” seems more like an innate elven trait of going unnoticed.
  • Demons: Shaxep, Duke of Beneath, is a terrifyingly powerful entity from another dimension, summoned by Balthazar.
  • Cursed Immortality: Jakob of Thorn cannot die, a curse from a witch.

• Overall Feel: The world is old, scarred, and cynical. Ancient wonders exist alongside squalor and decay. Faith is often a tool for power, and survival is a daily struggle for most. It’s a perfect playground for Abercrombie’s brand of storytelling.

Genre Context & Comparisons: Welcome to the Grimdark Party 🍻

“The Devils” is pure, unadulterated grimdark fantasy. If you’re familiar with Abercrombie’s previous work, especially The First Law series, you’ll feel right at home – or perhaps uncomfortably familiar, which is part of the charm.

• Abercrombie’s Signature Style:

  • Morally Grey Characters: Check. Our “heroes” are a collection of monsters, thieves, and disgraced clergy.
  • Brutal Violence: Oh, absolutely. Fights are messy, painful, and have lasting consequences.
  • Dark Humor & Cynicism: The dialogue crackles with witty, often bleak, humor. The narrative voice is deeply cynical about power, religion, and human (and inhuman) nature.
  • Deconstruction of Tropes: The “chosen one” (Alex) is a fraud, the “holy quest” is a chaotic mess, and the “noble heroes” are nowhere to be found.

• Comparisons to Other Works/Authors:

  • George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: Shares the political intrigue, the sudden character deaths, and the gritty, realistic portrayal of conflict. However, Abercrombie is often even more focused on the ground-level brutality and personal failings of his characters.
  • Glen Cook’s The Black Company: This feels like a strong spiritual predecessor. Cook’s series also features a band of morally ambiguous soldiers/sorcerers undertaking dangerous missions for questionable employers. The camaraderie (and dysfunction) of the “Devils” echoes the Company.
  • Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire or Book of the Ancestor: Lawrence also revels in dark protagonists and harsh worlds, though often with a different philosophical bent. Fans of one will likely enjoy the other.
  • Within Abercrombie’s Ouevre: “The Devils” feels like it could exist in the same world as The First Law, or at least a very similar one. The themes, the tone, the types of magic and political corruption are all hallmarks of his style. If you loved Logen Ninefingers, Glokta, or Monza Murcatto, you’ll find kindred spirits (or delightful antagonists) here.

• Originality: While it operates within the grimdark subgenre he helped define, Abercrombie still finds fresh ways to explore his favorite themes. The specific setup – a con artist princess and her monstrous retinue on a mission from a child Pope – is unique and allows for a fantastic blend of high-stakes adventure and black comedy. The focus on a group of “monsters” as the protagonists, forcing the reader to empathize with them, is a powerful choice.

Influences & Inspirations: Echoes from the Mists of Time (and Pop Culture) 📜

Speculating on influences is always a bit of a game, but here are some potential ingredients in Abercrombie’s creative cauldron for “The Devils”:

• Historical Parallels:

  • The Late Roman/Byzantine Empire: Troy, with its ancient Pillar, intricate politics, and position as a bulwark against Eastern threats, strongly evokes Constantinople. The schism between the Eastern and Western Churches mirrors historical religious divides.
  • Medieval Europe: The general level of technology, the power of the Church, the prevalence of plague and local wars, and the concept of pilgrimages are all deeply rooted in medieval history.
  • Viking Sagas: Vigga’s character, her pagan roots (however vaguely remembered), and her berserker fury definitely have a Norse flavor.
  • The Italian City-States: Venice, as depicted, with its crime lords and political maneuvering, calls to mind the often-treacherous politics of Renaissance Italy.

• Literary Influences:

  • Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: While tonally different, the idea of a pair (or group) of roguish adventurers navigating a dangerous, cynical world has echoes.
  • Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga: The anti-hero protagonist, the dark magic, and the often-bleak worldview are common ground.
  • Dark Historical Fiction: The gritty realism and focus on the brutal aspects of conflict could draw from authors who write historical fiction with a less romanticized lens.

• Mythology and Folklore:

  • Werewolves, Vampires, Elves, Demons: Abercrombie uses these classic fantasy creatures but often puts his own grim, cynical spin on them. His elves are terrifying, his vampires manipulative, and his werewolves forces of raw, often regrettable, destruction.
  • Heroic Quests (Subverted): The entire premise is a dark inversion of a typical “restore the rightful heir” quest.

• Modern Sensibilities:

  • Cynicism and Anti-Authoritarianism: A very contemporary distrust of institutions (especially religious and political) and established power structures permeates the narrative.
  • Black Comedy: The humor is often derived from the absurdity of horrific situations, a hallmark of much modern dark comedy.

It feels like Abercrombie takes a deep dive into historical periods of upheaval and decay, sprinkles in classic fantasy elements, and then filters it all through a modern, cynical, and darkly humorous lens.

Key Takeaways ✨

If you only remember a few things after crawling out of this delightful cesspit, make it these:

1. Identity is a Choice (and a Lie): Who you are is less about birth and more about the stories you tell yourself and others, and the desperate choices you make to survive.
2. Power is a Poison: Few who taste it remain untainted. Ambition, even with seemingly noble goals, often leads to betrayal and brutality.
3. Monsters Wear Many Faces: The most terrifying creatures aren’t always the ones with claws and fangs; sometimes they wear crowns or priestly robes.
4. Dysfunction Breeds Loyalty: The most unlikely bonds can form in the darkest of times, and the “Devils” prove that even a crew of outcasts can find a twisted sort of family.
5. Redemption is a Bitch (and Maybe Impossible): Characters may strive for it, but in Abercrombie’s world, absolution is rare and usually comes at a terrible price, if at all.
6. Expediency Over Virtue: The “Thirteenth Virtue” is the one that truly governs this world. Morality is flexible when survival or power is at stake.
7. Nobody Does Grimdark Like Abercrombie: He remains the undisputed king of making you laugh at the horrific, root for the deplorable, and question everything you thought you knew about heroes and villains.

Wrapping It Up 🎁

So, what’s the final verdict on “The Devils”? It’s Joe Abercrombie doing what Joe Abercrombie does best, and arguably doing it better than ever. This is a brutal, cynical, hilarious, and surprisingly moving romp through a world that feels both fantastical and chillingly real. The characters are a magnificent collection of bastards you can’t help but get invested in, the plot is a relentless series of gut-punches and blackly comic twists, and the themes will leave you pondering the nature of good, evil, and everything in between long after you’ve turned the final, bloodstained page.

If you’re a fan of grimdark, if you love characters who are more scar tissue than virtue, and if you appreciate a story that isn’t afraid to drag you through the muck and mire of a truly messed-up world, then The Devils is an absolute must-read. It’s a divine comedy of the damned, and I loved every profane minute of it.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he writes a hell of a book!