The Devils

There’s something about the ‘assemble a rag tag team, give them a mission, and watch it blow up in their face’ type of plot I love. Mistborn sort of started off that way, there’s also movies like Ocean’s 11 and the Italian Job. I think Six of Crows is another book like that, or The Lies of Locke Lamora. Perhaps Jason and the Argonauts is one of the first examples of this.

The Devils is like the Suicide Squad of fantasy horror. The rag tag team in this case consists of a priest, a werewolf, a vampire, an immortal knight, a thief, a necromancer, an elf, and a pirate. I personally felt Vigga, the norse she-werewolf, was the most interesting and ridiculous, but every character seemed to have their time to shine in their own way.

The setting is placed in an alternative version of our world during a medieval time where the plague is rampant and the church in power, which felt like I was in a similar setting to Between Two Fires.

I’ve always meant to read Joe Abercrombie, and felt this would be a good introduction since it’s a standalone book. While it is fun, I felt it was derivative from the plot and setting of many works before it. The strong points of the book kept me hooked especially the unique cast of characters and how they all fit into the wonderful set pieces of combat and infiltration during the journey facing off against other monsters and humans. So if you like these kind of stories and this setting, then you’re going to love this one, highly recommended!