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# The Devils ★★★★★
- URL: https://log.desipundit.com/the-devils/
- Published: 2026-04-28T17:43:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T14:10:53.000Z
- Author: PM
- Tags: Books

Abercrombie doing what Abercrombie does best, and doing it well.

This is set in an alternate fantasy Europe soaked in its own ugly history, Crusades and barbarian hordes rewritten just enough to feel invented and just enough to feel familiar. Abercrombie pulls a handful of characters out of the First Law trilogy and sends them on a new quest, but the quest itself is almost beside the point. What makes this book work is the same thing that makes all his books work: characters who talk to each other like actual people, funny and cruel and self-aware all at once.

Some of the best chapters here are just two people talking. Vigga and Alex. Alex and Sunny. Brother Diaz and Vigga. Baptiste gets one of the sharpest lines in the book, complaining that you can spend years "*illuminating manuscripts, and singing hymns, and tending the monastery gardens*" and still be remembered for one scandal. There's a whole conversation that's just two characters walking to a river to fetch water, and it's one of the most memorable scenes in the book. That's a hard trick to pull off, and Abercrombie makes it look easy.

Jakob gets the book's most quietly devastating observations. At one point he reflects that "*nothing lasts for ever. No love, no hate, no war, no peace*," and that if a thing hasn't ended, "you haven't waited long enough." That's about as close to a thesis statement as this book has, buried in a conversation between two people who trust each other.

Baptiste and Jakob are billed as the warriors, but in every real fight, it's someone else who steps up. That's a smart structural choice. It keeps the violence, and there's plenty of it, from feeling like a foregone conclusion.

Gory, funny, and clearly built to be adapted into an extremely violent movie. I'd watch it. Courage being described as catching, spreading from person to person the same way fear does, is a small line that does a lot of work across the whole book..

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## Edition Read

- **Edition Type:** Hardcover
- **Number of Pages:** 547 pages
- **Date First Published:** May 6, 2025
- **Publisher:** Tor Books
- **ISBN10:** 125088005X
- **ASIN:** 125088005X
- **Language:** English

## Description

> Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.  
>  
> Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters, and the mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.  
>  
> Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

*Source:* [GoodReads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/233800039-the-devils?ref=log.desipundit.com)