The Devils Review: A Rollicking Fantasy Epic

The Devils Is a Rollicking, Old School Fantasy Adventure (With Teeth)

In terms of sheer scope and volume, there’s rarely been a better time to be a fantasy fan. More people than ever are reading in this space than ever before, spread across a wide variety of popular subgenres. There’s dystopian fantasy, urban fantasy, cozy fantasy, and of course, romantasy, which is dominating so much of the publishing industry at the moment. As someone who reads in all these spaces, it’s genuinely so exciting to see the impressive creative variety of the titles hitting shelves. But if you’re feeling overwhelmed by this influx of new kinds of stories and are secretly longing for a book that feels like the best kind of old-school fantasy throwback, then Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils is for you.

A doorstopper of an epic that clocks in at over 500 pages, The Devils has a little bit of everything: A high fantasy world with deeply considered lore and history, a squad of morally gray central characters bound together whether they want to be or not, and a seemingly impossible quest. There are also monsters, magic, religious strife, murder, and betrayal of almost every stripe, and a variety of complex relationships that run the gamut from familial to romantic. Despite its epic size and scope, the story is propulsive and briskly paced, easy to follow, and features an alternative version of medieval Europe with plenty of sly, entertaining nods to the more obvious differences that will delight history buffs.

The story follows the titular Devils, known more formally as the servants of the Church of the Holy Expediency. They’re a group of criminals, monsters, and other undesirables who are working off their various ecclesiastical convictions in the service of Her Holiness Pope Benedicta, the youngest (at just ten years old) to ever hold her position. But, despite her youth, she is powerful in the ways of magic, and firm in her convictions that evil (or devils in this case) can be deployed in the service of good. If you’ve seen any variation of Suicide Squad, you’ve heard all this before, but it’s as effective a set-up as ever.

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When a young street thief named Alex turns out to be the long-lost Princess of Troy, the Devils are charged with seeing her safely to her throne. This isn’t as simple as it sounds, considering that her now-dead sorceress aunt Eudoxia had four sons who all want the crown for themselves and left behind no small number of creepy science experiment-esque creatures whose bodies she fused together with dark magic. Led by Brother Diaz, a nerdy, overly pompous librarian who was really only looking for a promotion when he was reassigned to the Church of the Expediencey, the group includes everything from a cursed knight who cannot die and a battle-hardened jane of all trades to a vampire, a Scandanavian werewolf, an elf that can make herself invisible, and a necromancer. Papal magic binds them to Alex and her cause—and indirectly to one another—and, as with any good quest, it’s the journey that matters as much as the destination, and each member of the squad will face choices and reckonings aplenty along the way.

The story is as bonkers as you might expect, full of political wrangling, team infighting, and plot twists around seemingly every page. Betrayal is rampant, as are surprises and plot twists, but it’s the relationships between and among the characters that will catch and keep your attention throughout the story. Alex and Father Diaz get what are the clearest and strongest arcs as each finds a purpose they hadn’t known they needed before, but each of the various group members goes through some character growth of their own. (Okay, fine, maybe not Baptiste, but she certainly seems sure enough of herself that she possibly doesn’t need it.) Readers will doubtless have their favorites among the group, from Bastian with his high opinion of himself and his skills, to the hedonistic Vigga, who struggles to control the wild animal within. (If anything, I would have loved to hear more about Baron Rickard, and whatever it was he did that was horrifying enough to earn him a slot on the Devils’ bench.)

Evocative and atmospheric, The Devils’ world is vividly rendered, from the crowded streets of the Holy City in which our tale begins, to the various villages and pilgrim camps they visit along the way. There’s blood, violence, and no small amount of shockingly descriptive gore. The book is stuffed with battle sequences and action set-pieces, ranging from a haunted house where our heroes have to use severed heads to communicate their positions to a high-seas battle with what is essentially a squadron of crab-people. Most of the Devils’ adversaries (save for a pair who show up towards the story’s end) are largely one-note and unmemorable—save for the one royal cousin who has somehow managed to sew literal wings onto his body.

Delightfully unhinged in all the best ways, this is a book that’s as much about vibes as it is about plot, and the vibes are (not to put to papal a spin on it) pretty darn immaculate. The character dialogue and banter is top notch, and the story is unafraid to acknowledge the trauma that dogs its heroes’ heels and has helped shape them into who they are. This is a crew I’d go on many more adventures with—and hopefully we’ll get the chance to do just that.

The Devils is available now wherever books are sold.

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB

The Devils Is a Rollicking, Old School Fantasy Adventure (With Teeth)