The Devils

I finished Joe Abercrombie's new book, The Devils.

Not sure how I feel about it. Gave it three stars out of five in my reading log. Honestly, my impression for the first three quarters of the book was that I wanted to rate it even lower.

Perhaps I'm just too fond of the First Law world. By comparison, this world and these characters felt a little shallow. Pale imitations.

And then there's the actual setting where these events take place. A kind of bizarro world set in the post-empire Middle Age Europe. One in which the Carthaginian Empire defeated Rome in the Punic Wars. A world similar to our own in a uncanny valley sort of way. Where the world was united by a religion where "The Saviour" was female. Where the schism between east and west still took place, for reasons only God knows why.

Or perhaps not even He knows.

Maybe I'm just too deep into my Roman history lessons at the moment to fully appreciate a work of fantasy that leans so heavily on the history, the events, the characters and the scenery of those days.

And then there's the story itself. It feels obvious; devoid of any real surprises. But even that Abercrombie acknowledges with a nod, in a scene that borders on breaking the fourth wall. One of the main protagonists is in conversation with a secondary character, who ends up revealing a plot twist. To this, the protagonist says:

"Really, the PLOT TWIST? It's always the PLOT TWIST."

The secondary character responds:

"You saw it coming, then?"

To which the protagonist answers:

"Well, not really."

The entire story feels like this. And it is classic Abercrombie to acknowledge and joke about it within the story, in an archetypical deadpan sort of way.

There's everything else you like about Abercrombie's works here. Gore, violence, despondence, unmitigated nihilism and boundless quantities of dark humour. All the good stuff.

That's why I will surely be picking up the sequel as soon as it hits the (digital) shelves. Even if this wasn't my favourite of his works, and I still long for a return to the world of the First Law.