Quick Take
- Best for: Folks who love dark humor and fantasy / historical fiction
- Vibe: Dreary and fantastical
- Pace: Medium-Slow
- One-liner: Hilarious and full of juxtaposed personalities.
Overview
The Devils is a grimdark fantasy novel set in a version of Europe not unlike our own during the renaissance period. Like other Abercrombie novels, it's got a good plot, and it's extremely character driven. Abercrombie is one of the greatest character writers of our time, and he shines again in The Devils. You'd be hard-pressed to find another author who can make you Love/Hate characters the way Abercrombie can.
What Worked
Character growth is a central theme in The Devils where we see a lowly guttersnipe become empress of Troy. Sounds far-fetched but somehow Abercrombie is able to pull it off. One of the things I love most about his novels is you can't ever really pick a 'Favorite Character' because they're all so damn well written! Even the characters that are unlikable have a tendency to grow on you over time.
Abercrombie is able to combine characters that you would usually consider incompatible, in the case of The Devils we have a Thief (Alex), a Priest(Brother Diaz), a Vampire(Baron Rikard), a Soldier(Jakob of Thorne), an invisible Elf(Sunny), a Werewolf(Vigga), a Magician(Balthazar), and a 'Jack-of-all-trades'(Baptiste). Each character on their own would be pretty normal for a Fantasy novel - But mix them together and you have a recipe for drama, hilarity, and... awkward sexual tension??
What Didn’t
There are a few moments in the book that feel like an unnecessary amount of meandering. I think this is true for any book with deep character growth though, and definitely not abnormal for Abercrombie.
Favorite Moment / Quote
Spoiler Warning
Brother Diaz - "My faith.... is shaken..." It had proved considerably weaker than a werewolf's buttocks, in fact.
Baptiste - "Cardinal Zizka, I must confess,"... "that I slipped while praying, my habit caught upon a stray nail, and my prick, engorged as it always is while filled with the love of our Lord, accidentally went up a lycanthrope's twat."
Baron Rikard - "What an inside-out world," ... "The priest argues for war, the knight for peace."
Sunny - "No one wants to hear my story." Alex - "Then tell 'em a different one." Sunny - "I'm a bad liar." Alex - "Then leave all the bad bits out till it's only good bits." Sunny - "If I left the bad bits out there'd just be silence." .... "I never can make any friends" Alex - "Youve made one."
Who Should Read This
I would totally recommend this book to anyone who enjoys seeing character growth. Especially if you like seeing a rag-tag group of misfits that really don't SEEM like they would go well together, but actually turn out to be an awesome and HILARIOUS team.
Final Verdict
Don't go into this book expecting fast paced Michael Bay style action, you will likely be disappointed - go into it looking for interesting character development and great writing and I think you'll be MORE than pleased with the outcome, like I was!