In his novel The Devils, Joe Abercrombie breaks away from the fantasy genre conventions so essential to his epic ten book First Law series. In assembling a new cast of characters, Abercrombie turns instead to horror tropes: werewolves, vampires, the living dead. With his customary lyrical prose, narrative wit, and memorable monsters, Abercrombie delivers a thrilling adventure, a story shining with soul—even if that soul appears within a flood of viscera and bodily fluid. Though it does not quite capture the depth of character and rich language of Abercrombie’s fantasy work, The Devils remains an action-packed tale that blends humor and violence as its misfit cast tries and fails to find true redemption.

The Devils takes place in an alternate version of Europe, imagining a seemingly medieval continent that is composed of city-states rather than individual countries. The theocratic government of this warped iteration of Europe schismed over a family skirmish, leaving the city-states vulnerable just as ravenous, man-eating elves amass at European borders, eager to breach and feast on human flesh. Enter Alex, a street thief with alleged royal ties to distant Troy. 

To unite the two halves of the ruling church, the clergy sends Alex on a quest to assume her rightful mantle. Alex must contend with the threat of various royal cousins, each sporting an army of hybrid creatures created in the former empress’s experiments to transport a human soul into an animal’s body. Defending Alex are the titular devils, archetypical horrors like the necromancer Balthazar and the vampire Baron Rikard. Each monster is bound by papal magic to ensure her safe delivery. Through the devils, the novel’s most central theme is made clear: each devil betrays some innate humanity despite their monstrous bodies and violent deeds.

These eclectic characters range from the Viking werewolf Vigga, whose bloodlust turns her into a barbaric killing machine, to mad necromancer Balthazar, whose efforts to break free of the compelling magic often leads the party into greater trouble. Each of these monsters walks a moral tightrope between righteousness and the depravity present in the enemy forces they battle against throughout the novel. 

The Devils bursts with bloodshed and imagination, another presentation of what Joe Abercrombie writes best: a story about monsters and madmen struggling to inch closer toward some redemptive light.

Tanner O’Neal is a writer from East Texas. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida.