I had never read anything by Joe Abercrombie before, but when one of the buyers at Head Office recommended this I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did. This tale of a motley crew of so-called devils, (a vampire, a necromancer, an elf & a werewolf) escorting a long-lost princess to take up her rightful place as heir to the throne of Troy, was really entertaining. There was plenty of action, as various assassins try to kill the princess before she reaches her destination. There is also a lot of humour, as the group try to get along with each other. By the end they feel like a family, and I am missing them already! I believe that this is the first in a series. I cannot wait for the next book!

I loved this very much. It was funny, clever, irreverent, fast paced, twisted, dark and utterly brilliantly written, but most of all it was the characters I loved. The author is a genius in his creation of characters that you think you know, but then he makes those characters evolve, and twist, and change in ways you just didn't see coming. There is no remaining static in this book, everything is moving at breakneck speed and the reader just has to hang on and blumin' well keep up! A triumph of a novel that I very much hope leads to a truly stupendous series.

Excellent concept, excellently executed. The characters are incredibly well-written and their interactions are both believable and hilarious. I'll definitely be reading more from this author, but I do hope that there's a follow up to this story....It feels almost destined to be adapted at some point.

I really don’t know what else I can say about this except to read it. There have been other new fantasies these past few years but this blows them all out of the water. Essentially it’s like (the DC comics) Suicide Squad and The Lord Of The Rings had a baby, and all during the Inquisition. The characters, the plotting, the cranking of the narrative stakes, and above all the writing are all top notch. Abercrombie is literally at the top of his game: possibly no better epic fantasy this year.

Very enjoyable read