The 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.