The last book I read from Mr. Abercrombie was the tantalising The Wisdom of Crowds. This was, in my opinion, Joe at his absolute best; rounding off a fantastic trilogy in his beautifully crafted fantasy world, with the promise of interesting times to come.
Of all the books I was expecting him to release next The Devils was not it. Set in a high fantasy, and I suppose expectedly grimdark, version of Earth the book tells the story of a Dirty Dozenesque collection of undesirables, retained by the Pope to resolve God’s greatest challenges. The adventurers are released to undertake the sort of do or die mission most D&D dungeon masters would be proud to lead their adventurers on.
It was a surprise because I associate Joe’s work with a more human fantasy. Yes, he brings a dark sense of humour and the occasional sex scene you wouldn’t want to read with your parents, but personal and political introspection are at the heart of his writing. The demons and dangers of fantasy exist on the peripheries to further unsettle the fundament chaos of human machinations. So, to find myself, as a reader, launched into a world of vampires, werewolves and elves was unexpected. Add to this a relatively straight forward course that the story plots from beginning to end and it all felt very different.
I’ll be honest, it took me a little while to get into, because it seemed to be less complex than his previous work. As I progressed through the book I couldn’t help but wonder if this wouldn’t have made a fantastic comic book (one of the big classy ones, like Watchmen). And it was at that point, as I enjoyed the humour and became marginally unsettled by the amount of werewolf sex that the penny dropped. Whilst the storyline was not as layered as his more recent work, the characters were incredibly well developed, and in them was the depth I’d expected.
This might not have been the book I’d expected, but it rapidly became the book I’m hoping forms the basis of his next trilogy. Simply put I’d recommend this to any fantasy fan looking for a bloody good questing tale.
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