I was drawn to this book because I am a fan of Joe Abercrombie and his First law Series and when I saw the blurb, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to dive into another world of his. I am so glad I did as this book was a great gateway into what seems like a fantastic new series. It does not take place in the First Law universe, so Abercrombie is able to go in a wholly new direction without preconceived notions about how the other world worked.

The Devils are prisoners who are found in the bowels of the church which seems to equate to our Vatican City. Brother Diaz has been summoned to what he believes will be a commendation and assignment at the hands of the Pope, however one of the others draws him aside and tells him of his task to lead the group of “devils” to achieve their goals.

It’s gritty and dark and I loved it. The characters are well developed and though they are a bit messy, we are assured to have lots of chaotic fun in future books. Nd of course, when it comes to the church, we must have an apocalypse to throw around and a rag-tag bunch of misfits to save the day. Funny enough, the devils are trying to do good in whatever way they tend to define it. There is a lot of action and violence so it’s not a light read. But you can expect humor and good combat.

I highly recommend this book because it's one of the best I've read so far this year.

Thank you to Tor Books for an e-ARC of The Devils. Here are my thoughts!

Alexia is a bit of a street rat, but it is discovered she is the long-lost heir to the throne of Troy. The current queen is in a dire state, and her sons are vying for the throne. A group of ragtag miscreants, including a vampire, elf, and sorcerer, are forced to accompany Alexia to Troy for her to take her rightful place and of course absolute chaos ensues.

Joe Abercrombie is one of my favourite fantasy writers, so I was so excited to read this and it didn’t disappoint. It might have claimed the spot of my favourite book by him so far. The cast of characters were perfect. They were all delightfully sarcastic, witty and had traits that were so entertaining, they all had their own personal goals as well as an overarching goal which blended together really nicely. When there are a lot of characters in books, I can sometimes get them mixed up but each character was so unique that this wasn’t a problem at all.

The relationships built throughout the book were unlikely but worked out so well once they happened. The plots had a lot of levels to it, including adventuring, big ole fights and of course a few twists and one heart wrenching outcome. The book is long, but I didn’t find myself ever trying to power through it, I wanted it to keep going if anything.

The only downside to this book, is that now I have to wait for the next one. Why do I do this to myself?

Can’t recommend this enough and I will be buying a copy to sit on my shelf!

I have not read Joe Abercrombie before, but this books had me hooked on the first page. I am having a ball following The Chapel of Holy Expediency on their mission “which the faithful and unimpeachable are not suited.”

This is a hilarious ensemble of some of the least likely heroes who all have impeachable backstories.

I’m loving the characters, the prose and even the incredibly choreographed fight scenes (not usually my thing).

I was on the fence about reading this without having read this author before, but I am so glad I did! This is the most dysfunctional yet bad-ass D&D party ever assembled and I loved every minute of it!

A saint sends a set of devils to turn a thief into an empress.

Disclaimer: I read this as a tandem read with a physical ARC from Tor and a audiobook that I purchased myself. All opinions are my own. This is my honest involuntary review.

The Devils is the first book in a new trilogy featuring a whole new world with a new cast of characters for Joe Abercrombie. This is a good place to start his work if you are OK waiting for the next book. The books will be interconnected, but will focus on separate missions by the set of devils.

Joe Abercrombie's work really shines through with the humor and character development in this novel. With an absolutely stellar plot to back up the entire book. The new cast of characters is much more paranormal than his other works. Featuring things like werewolves and vampires and magicians. This was an absolutely fun, humorous, and yet grimdark world where everything that could go wrong likely will.

You cannot help but become endeared to every single character in this novel. They all have their high and low points and definitely feel very realistic and fleshed out. I found the twist and turns in the plot to be extremely fresh and unique. I did not guess the ending in this novel and I really liked the way it wrapped up at the end while leaving an opening for the next novel.

Absolutely a banger. Cannot recommend enough. It's just different enough from the first law world to be unique and fresh, but just enough like it to know that you're reading something by Joe Abercrombie, one of the best in the business.

4.25/5

This was probably Abercrombie's funniest, but even though I had a great time I am disappointed.

Like always the characters are pulling the story, but I don't think there's much else without them. Maybe it's my fault, maybe I've read too many of his books, but I saw that "twist" coming from the beginning. And I don't think this book needed that many mentions to twats and sex.

There are some characters who are trying to sell you something they're not and he's overdoing it thinking you'll buy it and be shocked later, but everything got a bit predictable. I still enjoyed the ride and I 100% want to know where this is going with the sequel, but I used to end up thinking "How did he do it?" and here I was left with "I saw this before".

This book might be best suited to people who just started their Abercrombie journey.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“Show me a man who regrets nothing and I’ll show you a man who’s achieved nothing.”

Wow! I freaking loved this book. Joe Abercrombie has done it again. As soon as this book began, Abercrombie's humor and worldbuilding kicked off this amazing book and had me fully invested. The group we follow gives us Suicide Squad vibes and I just loved the found family aspect we saw from them.

The characters in The Devils were my favorite part and if I had to pick my favorite character, it would have to be Jakob of Thorn. I'm always a sucker for the grumpy character within these character groups. The whole group is quite morally grey, yet you can't help but to love them and cheer them on.

I already want the next book. So sad we have to wait! Highly recommend this book and everything else Joe Abercrombie has ever written.

When I first heard the premise for this book, back when it was announced, I was instantly very interested in this book. I have to say, I liked this a lot more than I was expecting. The writing was phenomenal, the characters and plot were intricate and compelling. I will say there were a few moments when I almost felt like what was happening was almost too silly, but ultimately the shock of gore sort of balanced that feeling back out. Overall, I think that people will really love this book---it's tightly plotted and interesting to boot.

I loved this. Dysfunctional found family, gore, dark humor, satire~ it had all the things I enjoy. Monty Python meets…suicide squad? I can see this being a little *too* silly, or *too* gory for some people, but it worked for me! Every single character in this band of misfits grew on me.

Alongside the humor, there were deeper themes- the capacity for good in people deemed unholy- and the hypocrisy of the holy, who commit evil in the name of God. There was so much wit and cleverness throughout the story. I didn’t want it to end.

All the buzz around this book? Listen to it.

Abercrombie has it all in The Devils.

A lot of readers liken this to Suicide Squad and while I can definitely see the comparison, I think that this surpasses it in qualify.

The world set in a very dominant Catholic world leaves for interesting choices to be made since there are so many fantasy elements here.

I think the most dominant sign in quality though is the way that despite this book being a daunting length I read it in no time at all. Strong pacing, character work and jokes bless this book.

Joe Abercrombie strikes again with his first non-First Law book since the Shattered Sea. An alternate history mashup where a motley crew of monsters have to deliver a princess to the throne. This is easily Abercrombie’s fastest book to date with mayhem and dark humor from the first chapter.

Abercrombie’s character work continues to shine here. A tragic warrior, a magician necromancer (not to confused with a sorcerer), a vampire, a werewolf, an invisible elf, and a jack of all trades, all led by a priest. If it sounds like a familiar story of misfits forced together to do something good that’s because, well it is. But Abercrombie shines and by the end I was connected and invested in nearly every character and loved his take on this type of story.

This book could be described as a black comedy. It’s easily the most intentionally Abercrombie has leaned into humor. If you’re a fan of Abercrombies style of humor you’ll love this book from start to finish. At times I wished the humor had left off the throttle but it was consistent and worth a few laughs.

This is almost the most magical an Abercrombie novel has been. Joe wrote the magic and action with a great degree of fun. I had a great time with the combination of magic and alternate history, too. This would be a great starting point if you’re new to Abercrombie’s work!

Check out our spoiler-free and full-spoiler episodes for more detailed thoughts.

♡ 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚕𝚜 𝚋𝚢 𝙹𝚘𝚎 𝙰𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚋𝚒𝚎
𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚌 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢 • 𝚐𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔
This was much funnier than expected — a grimdark fantasy-comedy. Era of the Crusades. Cavort with a merry band of misfit villains, including an invisible elf, a geriatric vampire, an immortal knight, and a horny werewolf. Must be ok with gore. I was very impressed with Steven Pacey’s many voices on audio. Although I thought it a bit lengthy, Joe Abercrombie made me fall in love with all the characters by the end. I expected this to be more dark but I felt the jokes and levity really balanced the gory battle scenes.

If you enjoy grimdark with a side of slap-stick and a heaping helping of found family may I recommend The Devils!
Joe does nuance so well especially with his perspectives into religion, personal betterment, war, and the soul. I loved each of these characters and feel personally traumatized by that ending 😭 Also traveling to Rome right before reading this added a whole other level of nuance!
I still love first law more, something about the characters, but I have high hopes for the rest of this trilogy!

This book is what would have happened had the Six of Crows gang been adults. Also if Kaz Brekker hadn't been a genius that was twelve steps ahead of everyone else and Inej wasn't as skilled and hypervigilante. Basically Six of Crows if the crows were allowed to swear and also weren't super smart/lucky. Sufficeth to say, I loved every second of it and Joe Abercrombie's other works have risen highly up on my tbr!

3.75 - Unexpectedly humorous and grimy.

This is my first Joe Abercrombie book, so the amount of humor mixed in with the blood and gore had me quickly abandoning prior expectations and preparing instead for camp.

I enjoyed the motley crew of devils and company. Their interactions and growth throughout the book were the highlight.

It did feel a bit slow at times. I found myself paying a lot of attention to my e-reader’s completion percentage waiting for it to tick up.

But I suspect these characters and this world will be quite memorable, and I’ll surely pick up the sequel when the time comes!

Thanks to Tor for providing an arc through NetGalley for me to review!

This was my first Joe Abercrombie book and I haven’t been DYING to get into his work. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much a connection I gained to these characters throughout this book. For me, it’s one of those things that hits you after you have no more pages to read and I already miss these unlikely group of characters.

This book truly takes you for a wild ride with some vicious battles and surprising connections. This was just the high fantasy quest story I was looking for! Super grateful to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an early copy of this very anticipated read!

Fantastic author and a fantastic book. Took time for character development but not slow. Everything well paced. I think fans of the genre and those starting out in fantasy will be happy. Thank you to the publisher.

Sadly, I am pulling this plug on this one at 33%. I'm not invested at all. I couldn't care less about the characters, and am bored out of my mind. When I put it down, I dread picking it back up. I've loved the First Law world, but this just isn't doing it for me. I am not going to leave a star rating on GoodReads, or other platforms, as I don't want to drag the average down. For Netgalley purposes I will leave a 2-star, as I feel that best describes my experience with this book. I'm sure so many Readers are going to adore this story, it just wasn't for me, at least not in this moment.

I don't know if it is goodbye forever with this one, but it's definitely goodbye for now.

3.25/5 - I can’t help but compare this to Joe’s First Law books. I love those books but I’m sad to say that I didn’t love The Devils. Don’t get me wrong though, it was still a fun time, just not anywhere near my top reads of the year.

The tone leaned too heavily into comedy for what I was expecting. The book is fast-paced, very plot driven and followed a fairly predictable and repetitive formula. The group would travel to a new location, there’s an action sequence, then they move on to the next spot. Rinse and repeat. Additionally, a lot of the scenes felt side quest-y and I found myself questioning what the overall point was more than once. The book finally captured my interest around the 60% mark, but it didn’t last long and I had to push myself through the rest. The character work was just good but not great. I was left wanting more. Some revelations were predictable. Idk.. I will be continuing on with the series though 😅

This has been said a million times already, but this really is Suicide Squad meets fantasy. If you enjoy the humour in the newer marvel movies, liked Suicide Squad and/or are a fan of the tone in Dungeon Crawler Carl, you’re going to have a blast with this one

If you saw and loved the movie *Thunderbolts, you’ll love this brand of anti hero. I was absolutely charmed by each character and hope we get an expanded view of some of them in a follow up. The Devils took a darker look at religion while keeping the lightheartedness that goes hand and hand with found family. Did I mention this is a horror novel? Because technically it is. And it’s phenomenal. This was my first book by this author and it won’t be my last.

Also, I was lucky enough to receive a physical copy as well (love you, Tor! Thanks!) and the end papers and foiling on the hard case are stunning. If you can grab a physical copy, I would suggest it!

A monk, a vampire, a werewolf, a pirate, a magician, a warrior, and an elf are sworn to escort a princess from the Holy City to Troy. I had the best time with this book and these characters. The mix of fight scenes, background scenes for each of the characters, and humor sprinkled throughout made it such a fantastic read. This is my first Joe Abercrombie book, and it won't be my last.

I became so attached to each of these characters, and I hope they all come back together in book 2.

This book was definitely darker when it came to religion and morality, especially since the characters are led by a monk who has to constantly battle his faith as they continue on to Troy with so many obstacles in their way, which sometimes can only be resolved in the most gruesome of ways.

Lastly, Vigga & Sunny are my queens - I love them so much