When Brother Diaz is summoned to the Holy City to meet with his superiors, he is hoping for great things. While he is given a promotion within the Church, it’s not exactly what he was expecting; to say the Chapel of the Holy Expediency is a congregation of misfits would be an understatement – most of them are serving under duress, and their ranks include a vampire, a necromancer, and an often-invisible elf. Not only that but Brother Diaz and his band of convicts and monsters are given a mission to escort the recently-discovered rightful ruler of Troy to the city where she can reclaim her throne. Naturally, there are many who wish to stop them.
The Devils is set against the backdrop of a twisted medieval Europe where the church is in schism, poverty and famine are rampant, and greedy royals seek nothing but to further their ambitions, all with the spectre of evil looming in the form of the elves, prophesied to return and eat everyone. It’s everything we’ve come to expect from a Joe Abercrombie novel – tropes and conventions of the genre are played with and while some twists may feel obvious to experienced readers, it’s the ones that have been walking in their shadows that truly deliver. This is apt, as this is possibly Abercrombie’s darkest and deepest book yet, with characters being challenged mentally as well as physically and forced to ask questions about themselves and society’s established norms.
It’s a story of high adventure packed with breathless tension, brutal action and intimate moments that will warm readers’ hearts, making them ripe for Abercrombie to squeeze. Characters are created with his usual skill, so be prepared to get attached to them, to cry with them and for them. There’s plenty of humour to balance this, perhaps more so than any other Abercrombie novel, but it works as dark and cynical banter between comrades and even enemies; placed and pitched perfectly, it’s never tiresome and provides much-needed relief. Once again, Abercrombie has delivered a story that grabs readers and never releases until the final page; 19 years since his debut, he still thrills, and The Devils is a wonderful work showing that even in the darkest of times, there is still light that shines.
