I don't know if the world is a horrible place, but we humans make it one. Being a pessimist by nature, I tend to believe that whatever good we can do hardly compensates for the harm others do. I don't think Mother Teresa of Calcutta makes up for Hitler, for crying out loud. We should be constantly apologizing to our children.

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.