Booklog 42/2025: Joe Abercrombie: The Devils – Devils #1 – Audiobook

Another Grimdark winner for Joe Abercrombie, well read by Stephen Pacey.

Europe is in turmoil, plague and famine go hand in hand, the church is split and her holiness the pope, a ten-year-old child, calls upon the services of her 'devils', tried and convicted transgressors. There's a vampire, a werewolf, an undying knight, a female soldier, an elf, and a necromancer, all shepherded by an unwilling monk who would rather be a librarian. Their task is to make sure Alexa, newly discovered heir to the empire of Troy, gets safely home and crowned. But there are complications. Alex has been brought up on the streets of the Holy City, living by her wits. She's a better thief than a princess, but her newly introduced Uncle Michael says she's the true heir, and it's better than being shredded by the shady folks she owes money to, so Alex goes along with it. They have many adventures on the way to Troy. They are attacked, shipwrecked and attacked again, mainly by Alexa's cousins who believe they hare the rightful Emperor.  And then... when they reach their destination, there are betrayals, from the highest, disguised as political expediency. The characters are fabulous, the plot twists, twisty. If anything, the fight scenes - which are well written - last a little too long. It does resolve but then there's a bit tagged on to the end that leads into a second book in the sequence. Not exactly a cliffhanger (thank goodness). Stephen Pacey does a marvellous job differentiating the voices and accents from a growly, insane werewolf to a cheerful elf with little to be cheerful about.

Booklog 43/2025: Ben Aaronovitch: Stone and Sky – Rivers of London #10 - Kindle

DS Peter Grant and his extended family are trying to take a holiday in Scotland - Aberdeen to be precise. There's his partner, Beverley, a minor riber goddess, their twins, cousin Abigail (and DCI Nightingale who is training her in the arcane arts). And then there's Peter's mum and his dad, and old jazz musician, plus his band and their disreputable manager. Dad and the band have a gig at the Lemon Tree, a well known Aberdeen venue. It turns out to be a working holiday as a strange corpse (with gills) turns up, and Abigail's talking foxes spot some strange things. Expect giant seagulls, corrupt oil companies, selkies, mermaids, the local police force and some very strange goings-on culminating in danger on board an oil platform in the stormy North Sea. T(I was particularly intrigued because in my muso days, I played a gig at the Lemon Tree, and stayed  in Foot Dee (Fitty) which gets regular mentions.) The story was entertaining, but not my favourite Rivers of London book. This is from both Peter's viewpoint and Abigail's as the story diverges and comes back together. I did find Abigail's teen slang a bit wearing, and wonder how that part of the book will age, as slang changes so rapidly. It's good addition to the Rivers of London series, but not the place to start.