My Five Word TL:DR Review: This book!  What a Blast

I will say I had a great time reading The Devils and look forward very much to reading more from this absolutely crazy bunch of characters.  Joe Abercrombie has such a fantastic way with words – he actually makes you like the most unlikable people and be positively in their corner and this story is no exception.

The thing is here – I don’t want to give anything away – which does make writing a review a little difficult.

Basically we have a monk, Brother Diaz.  He’s about to be receive a holy assignment, aided by a strange band of murderers, magicians and monsters which I won’t elaborate on further because I truly feel that you need to discover them all for yourselves.  What I will say is that I definitely had my favourites, and I’m sure there’s someone here for everyone to fall for – but Vigga, she is all that.

This is a story that really does hit the ground running.  There is no hand holding.  We pretty much make the acquaintance of all the characters in fairly short order and the mission begins almost immediately.  Our unlikely group are thrown into all sorts of ridiculously dangerous encounters barely escaping with their lives.  There is plenty of tension and action but occasionally a few small asides where we get to spend a bit more quality time with certain characters as the group is separated for a spell.

The story is intriguing and the furious pace keeps you just ‘reading one more chapter’ meaning you’re going to bed at ridiculous o’clock.

What I really enjoyed about this.  The dialogue.  The humour.  The absolute ridiculousness that makes up this strange band of characters and the way they eventually all begin singing from the same sheet in a very satisfying way.

There are surprises and twists along the way.  Definitely an inordinate amount of blood is shed and some of the ‘monsters’ are really dire to say the least.  I kind of second guessed what was going to occur in the last quarter but even so that didn’t spoil the read for me.

I had a very good time reading this and have no hesitation in recommending.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.

The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars