The Devils Summary: Joe Abercrombie’s Savage New Crusade
Introduction
Joe Abercrombie built his name on morally grey warriors and battles with no clean hands, and The Devils opens a new story in that same style.
This summary breaks down the plot, cast, and structure of the 560-page novel so readers can decide if it fits their shelf before picking it up.
The story follows Brother Diaz, a disgraced monk handed control of the Church’s most dangerous secret: a locked chapel full of heretics, monsters, and criminals kept alive for jobs too dirty for anyone else.
Paired with a street thief posing as a lost princess, the group is sent across a fractured, war-torn Europe toward the city of Troy.
The book has already drawn attention beyond publishing circles, with director James Cameron acquiring film rights. Below is a full breakdown of the plot, characters, and central ideas, with spoilers clearly marked where they appear.
👉 The Devils Summary & Recap on Youtrube
TL;DR: Monks, Monsters, and a Manufactured Princess
- Brother Diaz, a disgraced monk, is put in charge of the Church’s secret prison-chapel of monstrous heretics, known as “the devils.”
- A street thief named Alex is passed off as the long-lost Princess Alexia and sent to claim a foreign throne.
- The ten-year-old Pope magically binds the devils to protect Alex on her journey to the city of Troy.
- The trip becomes a running disaster of ambushes, betrayals, sea battles, and forced alliances across a war-ravaged continent.
- Faith, fraud, and loyalty run through the story, since nearly every character is hiding something from the people around them.
- The ending leaves some devils free, some caged again, with the door open for a sequel.
The Devils’ Ensemble Cast
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Brother Diaz (later Father Diaz) | Disgraced monk appointed Vicar of the Thirteenth Chapel, later chaplain to Empress Alexia in Troy. |
| Alex (Princess Alexia Pyrogennetos) | Street thief who assumes a dead princess’s identity and is crowned Empress of Troy. |
| Jakob of Thorn | Immortal, cursed Templar knight who protects the group throughout the journey. |
| Sunny (Sunnithilien Darktooth) | An elf who can turn invisible and becomes Alex’s closest ally. |
| Baron Rikard | A vampire who can hypnotize crowds using his magical glamour. |
| Balthazar Sham Ivam Draxi | A necromancer bound to the group who repeatedly tries to break his magical chains. |
| Baptiste | A lay minister and assassin who serves as Balthazar’s cynical foil. |
| Vigga | A Norse werewolf who struggles to control her violent wolf form. |
| Duke Michael of Nicaea | Alex’s supposed rescuer and uncle figure who arranges her false claim to the throne. |
| Cardinal Zizka | Head of the Western Church’s Earthly Curia who orchestrates the mission to Troy. |
| Pope Benedicta I | The ten-year-old Pope whose magic binds the devils to their task. |
| Lady Severa | Warden of the Imperial Chamber in Troy, later revealed to house Empress Eudoxia’s soul. |
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The Devils Book Summary: What Happens in the Book
(Spoilers Ahead)
You Can Read 1st: Detailed Summary of All Chapters
The story opens in the Holy City during Saint Aelfric’s Day, where Brother Diaz, a disgraced assistant librarian, is summoned to the Celestial Palace.
Cardinal Zizka appoints him Vicar of the Chapel of the Holy Expediency, the hidden Thirteenth Chapel that holds the Church’s most dangerous heretics.
Diaz meets his new “congregation”: the immortal knight Jakob of Thorn, the necromancer Balthazar, the invisible elf Sunny, the vampire Baron Rikard, and the assassin Baptiste. A werewolf named Vigga joins them soon after.
Meanwhile, a street thief named Alex is cornered by debt collectors in the slums. Duke Michael of Nicaea rescues her and announces she is Princess Alexia Pyrogennetos, heir to the throne of Troy.
Church oracles confirm Alex’s fabricated identity. The ten-year-old Pope Benedicta I magically binds the devils to escort her safely to Troy.
The group leaves the Holy City under Papal guard. Balthazar’s first attempt to break his binding backfires and leaves him violently ill.
The convoy is ambushed at an inn by Duke Marcian’s beast-men. Vigga transforms into her wolf form and tears the attackers apart, while Jakob is revealed to be unkillable after taking a sword through the chest.
To avoid further attacks, the group disguises itself among pilgrims led by Bishop Apollonia. Apollonia betrays them for a bribe, but Rikard’s vampire glamour hypnotizes the mob into forgetting the group entirely.
In Venice, the crime lord Frigo agrees to give them a ship in exchange for a cursed box from a haunted house. The group is trapped inside a looping illusion until Alex forces Balthazar to break the spell.
Sailing toward Troy, their ship is rammed by Duke Constans’s warship. Fire breaks out during the battle, and Vigga’s wolf form kills Constans’s fish-hybrid crew.
Jakob duels Constans directly, letting himself be run through so he can kill the Duke in return. Both men go down as the burning ship sinks.
The survivors wash up separately along the Dalmatian coast. Diaz and Vigga grow close, while Balthazar and Baptiste rob a battlefield for supplies.
This stretch of The Devils also pulls the group into a regional war between Count Radosav and Countess Jovanka — a conflict that turns out to be a married couple’s ongoing feud.
Reunited at the standing stones of Niksic, Balthazar learns that even a demon cannot break the Pope’s binding. Soon after, Duke Sabbas and his sorceress allies corner the group at a ruined abbey.
Balthazar raises hundreds of buried plague victims to drag Sabbas and his allies underground, ending the siege.
The devils finally reach Troy, where Alex is crowned Empress by the Patriarch. She is then forced into a political marriage with Duke Arcadius.
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On her wedding night, Alex’s handmaidens reveal themselves as enemy sorceresses and kill Arcadius. Alex flees to the top of the city’s great lighthouse and signals for help.
The devils fight through the palace to reach her. Balthazar duels Lady Severa, who turns out to be the soul of the dead Empress Eudoxia in a stolen body.
Duke Michael is unmasked as the mastermind behind the entire plot. He arranged the war, the false claim, and the coup from the very start.
Jakob tackles Michael off the top of the lighthouse, killing them both. Baptiste is later found dead, killed by Vigga’s wolf during the chaos of the battle.
In the end, Alex holds the throne of Troy with Father Diaz as her chaplain. The surviving devils are sent back to their cages in the Holy City, and a new inquisitor arrives to take charge of the Thirteenth Chapel — leaving room for more from author Joe Abercrombie.
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The Ideas Beneath the Chaos
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Faith, Hypocrisy, and Religious Pragmatism | The existence of a hidden chapel for the Church’s “necessary” crimes, Cardinal Zizka’s cold political calculations, and Bishop Apollonia’s betrayal for sacred relics all set the Church’s stated ideals against its actual conduct. |
| Deception, Identity, and Self-Preservation | Alex’s theft of a dead princess’s identity, Sunny’s literal ability to vanish, and Balthazar’s grandiose title of “magician” all show characters using disguise and self-invention to survive. |
| The Brutality and Pointlessness of Conflict | Battles are shown as chaotic and unglamorous rather than heroic, most sharply in the Balkan proxy war that turns out to be a domestic dispute between Count Radosav and Countess Jovanka. |
| The Burden of Destiny Versus Chosen Loyalty | Jakob’s long search for a battle that “means something,” and the devils’ choice to return for Alex after their magical binding has ended, separate loyalty that is forced from loyalty that is freely given. |
If The Devils Left You Wanting More
- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie — the same author’s landmark grimdark debut, sharing the dry humor and morally grey ensemble cast found in The Devils.
- Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie — another Abercrombie novel built around a bickering crew of criminals and outcasts on a bloody, relentless mission.
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch — a caper following a silver-tongued street thief navigating high-society conspiracies and underworld debts, much like Alex’s situation.
- The Black Company by Glen Cook — a foundational military fantasy about a cynical band of mercenaries doing the morally grey dirty work of a powerful ruler.
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence — a dark, gritty fantasy centered on a ruthless young protagonist clawing his way toward a throne.
- Daughter of Crows by Mark Lawrence — the 2026 opener to his new Academy of Kindness trilogy, offering the same broken-world grimdark tone for readers who want something newer on the shelf.
Curious what other readers think? Which devil from the Thirteenth Chapel would you want on your side — Jakob, Rikard, or Vigga? Drop your pick in the comments below.
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