Joe Abercrombie: "Sex and violence often go together."

BarcelonaThe last time that Joe Abercrombie (Lancaster, 1974) visited Barcelona, just two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic confined half the world to its home. Perhaps due to the pre-apocalyptic atmosphere he sensed in his new novel. The devils (Alianza, 2025; translated into Spanish by Manu Viciano) the Catalan capital is enigmatically mentioned: it is a place where something terrible and at the same time indeterminate has happened. The British author, who for more than a decade has been one of the most prominent references in the fantasy genre, presents in the book his most over-the-top story, starring a peculiar expedition, made up of a monk and several supernatural creatures such as a vampire, a werewolf, an elf and a necromancer. Their mission is to accompany Alex, young heir to the Serpent Throne, from southern Europe to Troy, which Abercrombie imagines as the capital of the East.

It is inevitable to ask him where all this alternative world that he proposes comes from. The devils, an 800-page novel that begins a trilogy set in the time of the Crusades, in which Christians, instead of fighting against Muslims, confront the elves.

— Many years ago, a British publisher approached me to encourage me to write a series of young adult novels. I thought they would be a good complement to my career as an adult author. The first idea I had was about a pope who had a group of monsters hidden in the basement of the basilica. I quickly abandoned it and, instead, wrote the trilogy ofThe broken sea [available in Catalan at Rosa dels Vents].

Why did the idea end up prospering?

— When I finished the trilogy of The Age of Madness [2021] I was eager to start developing a new world. I also thought that maybe this way I could recapture readers' attention. Ideas that you linger on for a long time are usually good ones.

Not only has it managed to attract the attention of readers, but also that of the filmmaker. James Cameron, which has just bought the rights to the novel to turn it into a film.

— This makes me very happy. I'm personally involved in the project as a co-writer. We've already started working, although James is currently in New Zealand, finishing the third part ofAvatar.

How do you think the luminous world connects and is suitable for all audiences?Avatar with the sordidness and violence of The devils?

— It's part of the challenge we face. James has made enormous, technically complex films. In this sense, he's the ideal person to bring some of the novel's battles to film. He's used to making films starring heroes who can save the world. My stories are more unique: for starters, I like my protagonists to have elements of both heroes and villains. And a sense of humor is a constant in everything I write.

Where does your sense of humor come from? It's now become one of your style signatures, but I imagine it would be a tricky commercial venture at first.

— It was. Irony has been very present in all my novels. The fantasy genre is usually quite solemn, but readers responded very well to my suggestion of toning down all that seriousness. Instead of following Tolkien's path, I let myself be inspired by authors like Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber. The devils I go a step further in this direction and the story I propose is, at many moments, openly comical.

He likes to play with the limits of plausibility: in the book, the Pope of Rome is a simpleton and only 10 years old. On top of that, he has published The devilsthe same year that Francis I died.

— It was a brutal marketing strategy. The publishing team went above and beyond, having the pope swapped during the novel's English promotion [laughs].

One of the most fearsome monsters in the novel is Vigga, a werewolf who is capable of killing without scruples and, at the same time, seducing whomever she wants.

— Sex and violence often go together. While reading The Hobbit I had a revelation with my daughter: in fantasy novels, there are hardly any important female characters. All the archetypes are male, from the boy chosen to be king to the wizard who guides him, to the intrepid and invincible knights... The few women who appear in them are, unfortunately, defined by their relationships with men. It took me a while to learn this lesson. In my early novels, there were many more men than women, and therefore, they were much less varied and engaging for the reader.

In The devils There are male and female characters to choose from and remove.

— There's a variety of genders, but also sexual orientations and social classes. Vigga is a Scandinavian warrior and her vocabulary is rather limited. Balthazar, the necromancer, has a pompous and intellectual way of speaking. He loves long words and subordinate clauses.

The character of Balthazar allows him to approach black magic.

— This novel is a tribute to a whole series of classic archetypes that have interested me since I was a child. Originality is fine, but only up to a point. Something similar happens with the fantasy genre as with Western films: readers and viewers like to recognize familiar characters or situations. The devils I give my own version of a vampire, who grows younger as the novel progresses, or of a werewolf devoted to Scandinavian paganism in a world dominated by organized religion.

And what about Balthazar? The necromancer will do anything to free himself from the chains that bind him to the expedition.

— Baltasar captures my passion for black magic. Could there be anything more fascinating than being able to awaken the dead? Imagine corpses crawling out of the graves and chasing you. It's terrifying, but also fun. Zombie movies are often quite ironic.

And Barcelona? How did you bring it up in the novel? What was so terrible about that?

— If I told you, I would be breaking one of the great secrets of The devils. Maybe in the second part I'll give some clues about what...