The Devils

The sun was sinking. A bloody sunset over a valley of blasted mud, of splintered stumps. Columns of dark smoke towered into the wounded heavens. Specks of ash rained down like snow. "State of this," muttered Jakob, limping on. The path slunk into a forest. But not of trees. Of sharpened stakes, hammered into the earth, point up. Of swinging gibbets and studded racks and dangling chains. Of great wheels like the one on which the Saviour gave her life for all humanity.

A team of “Devils” who do dirty work for the (10-year old girl) Pope (and are otherwise kept under lock and key): set in an alternate 12th(? guessing) century where Rome lost to Carthage, women dominate the sorta-christian church hierarchy, there are monsters and a great deal of magic. I was first on the library waiting list for this book, having read many of the “First Law” stories: all of which is to say that I had high hopes. It is, of course, a well written book with very strong, distinct characters. It started off a little slow but then picked up at the first big battle, unfortunately there were four big battles in the book and I found my self slogging through them because once the characters where developed (around the time of the first battle) they were not surprising me any longer and the battle themselves did not have an interesting connection to the plot. The dialog is just too sitcom for me: it felt like it needed a laugh track. The main through-line of the book is that every seemingly good, noble person who interacts with the Devils is in reality a sneaky snake villain waiting for the right time to betray and if they do not fall in to that category then they are just obviously villains.

This book has a lot going for it, vivid characters, there are some actual character development arcs and the story is built on a fun, interesting world but for whatever reason I was not sucked in, perhaps this is the case where I am a jaded reader who just needs something new(er) to tickle my fancy. I did “finish” the book but I was super-skimming, through the last fourth of the book. It looks like there will be a sequel, the Devils who survived their adventures ended up back in their cells and cages. :-/