Scott's Take: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie and John Anthony di Giovanni (Illustrator)

 

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie and John Anthony di Giovanni (Illustrator) is a popcorn quippy fantasy novel set in a medieval religious world. Brother Diaz is called to lead “The Devils.” They are basically a group with forbidden powers sent on a mission to place a street orphan who seems to be the descendant of a dead empress on the throne. The group has powers that are forbidden by the church. Yet, the church is sending them on this mission to do this or they will be killed otherwise.

 

The Devils include a man who can’t die, a necromancer, a werewolf, an invisible elf, a con woman, and a vampire. Of course, there are the other descendants who want to keep the throne themselves. They also have access to their own sets of powers including witches and human/animal hybrids.

 

This read is nowhere near as dark as his other books. I liked it more than some of his other series, which I still need to finish. This read is far less tedious, in my opinion, since we don’t have extended travel and eating scenes while talking about the world. There is still worldbuilding that takes up multiple pages as one character is tutoring the street orphan about where they go to and the background history of each place.

 

This seems to be like a summer movie in book form. If you don’t like a world where everyone is quippy than you should pass on this book. Everyone is a jokester to some extent. This tale is told through multiple shifting povs.

 

The few sketch illustrations are good. but not helpful since they are not labeled. I was able to figure out who they were supposed to be. But, almost always, the idea in my head and what was drawn did not match up despite the high quality of the sketch.

 

There is a lot of violence, graphic sex, and death so this is a mature book. Some of the jokes that are reused stop being funny after the more than five times after the joke is used. I think the reused jokes should have been done maybe three times and certainly not more than five. The ending left me unsatisfied, but interested still. It’s a realistic ending, but I don’t exactly read a fantasy novel for realism. There should be a second book sometime in the future. 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4eol1PI

 

My reading copy came through the Libby App by way of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2025