Scan barcode
middlekmissie's review against another edition
4.0
I must admit that the gorgeous cover art is what drew me to this book. However, the story is just as beautifully plotted, and the different elements come together perfectly.
bookwyrm13's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting and different - really like the premise and setting!
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
This was really really good. A nice change of pace and a wonderful first novel in a series that fuses fantasy/supernatural/futuristic/mystery elements in a just a little crooked reinventing of the future. I loved it. The world building is well done, no long expositions but inserted glimpses in the plot and action. You "see" the world thru the eyes of the characters, the writer is not telling you about it. I especially liked the mythology of Hell and demons. I liked how Chen walks a very narrow line and "doesn't" fit in anywhere really. I liked the political plot and comments. This was a nice surprise even if I knew it was good and it was recced by people I trust. I got the book last November and it has been sitting in my TRP since then. Needless to say, book 2 is on its way.
karenakie's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Not quite as engrossing as expected and sometimes seemed like it wasn't the first in the series. Will try out book two.
lsneal's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed the world-building in this series opener. The attention to detail made the atmosphere of both Singapore 3 (a franchise city, located somewhere in South China) and Hell seem both palpable and believable. I also appreciated the deep dive into Chinese religious beliefs and traditions, and I DEFINITELY want a teapot badger.
nitessine's review against another edition
3.0
Snake Agent was a very entertaining novel.
Detective Chen is another entry to the ranks of the urban, mystical officers of the law, joining Peter Grant and Harry Dresden and I suppose Lord Darcy in turning back the dark with their brains. Much like Grant's a member of the London Metropolitan Police and Dresden hangs his hat in Chicago, Chen's home is Singapore Three.
It's not, as far as I can tell – and I may be mistaken – a real city or even the cognate of one. Snake Agent, while primarily being a supernatural detective story, is also near-future science fiction, where Singapore is founding franchise cities and information is transmitted on the bioweb.
Over all this, Hell exists as a superimposed world that you can cross over to at temples or via certain rituals. This being China, it's the Hell(s) of Chinese myths. There's a throwaway reference about the African Underworld suggesting that other places have their own similar circumstances.
I'm completely ignorant about the concept of Hell as described by Chinese folk myth, Buddhism or any other major religion other than Christianity that operates in the religion, so I can't gauge the accuracy of Liz Williams's depiction.
That said, the worldbuilding is the interesting thing in the book, the interaction of the world of the living with Hell and Heaven. The plot didn't really do anything to me, being a fairly basic "heroes deal with supernatural threat" thing, but the setting and characters are fascinating. One of my favourite scenes is when Seneschal Zhu Irzh, the vice cop from Hell, sits into a cab with religious crap and cruft like bobblehead Buddhas on the dashboard, and he has an allergic reaction.
Zhu Irzh is also one of the more interesting characters in the novel, being the wisecracker to Detective Chen's straight man. Another favourite of mine was the extreme Maoist demon hunter No Ro Shi, who's as badass as they come and likely also insane, as well as Inari, Chen's demon wife, who somehow manages simultaneously to be the damsel in distress, retain agency, and kick ass.
The prose and the plot did not grab me, but the world is something I want to see more of. It's only three stars this time, 3.5 if it was an option, but then, so was [b:Storm Front|47212|Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)|Jim Butcher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1419456275s/47212.jpg|1137060], and look at where that series went. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Detective Chen is another entry to the ranks of the urban, mystical officers of the law, joining Peter Grant and Harry Dresden and I suppose Lord Darcy in turning back the dark with their brains. Much like Grant's a member of the London Metropolitan Police and Dresden hangs his hat in Chicago, Chen's home is Singapore Three.
It's not, as far as I can tell – and I may be mistaken – a real city or even the cognate of one. Snake Agent, while primarily being a supernatural detective story, is also near-future science fiction, where Singapore is founding franchise cities and information is transmitted on the bioweb.
Over all this, Hell exists as a superimposed world that you can cross over to at temples or via certain rituals. This being China, it's the Hell(s) of Chinese myths. There's a throwaway reference about the African Underworld suggesting that other places have their own similar circumstances.
I'm completely ignorant about the concept of Hell as described by Chinese folk myth, Buddhism or any other major religion other than Christianity that operates in the religion, so I can't gauge the accuracy of Liz Williams's depiction.
That said, the worldbuilding is the interesting thing in the book, the interaction of the world of the living with Hell and Heaven. The plot didn't really do anything to me, being a fairly basic "heroes deal with supernatural threat" thing, but the setting and characters are fascinating. One of my favourite scenes is when Seneschal Zhu Irzh, the vice cop from Hell, sits into a cab with religious crap and cruft like bobblehead Buddhas on the dashboard, and he has an allergic reaction.
Zhu Irzh is also one of the more interesting characters in the novel, being the wisecracker to Detective Chen's straight man. Another favourite of mine was the extreme Maoist demon hunter No Ro Shi, who's as badass as they come and likely also insane, as well as Inari, Chen's demon wife, who somehow manages simultaneously to be the damsel in distress, retain agency, and kick ass.
The prose and the plot did not grab me, but the world is something I want to see more of. It's only three stars this time, 3.5 if it was an option, but then, so was [b:Storm Front|47212|Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)|Jim Butcher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1419456275s/47212.jpg|1137060], and look at where that series went. I'm looking forward to the next one.
hawisher's review against another edition
1.0
Horrible prose. Absolutely dreadful. I couldn't get far enough in to review the plot. DNF at 5%.
elusivity's review
3.0
3.5 STARS that I cannot justify rounding up to a 4
A typical Liz Williams work: solid world-building with interesting details, and good (even excellent) writing on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph basis. However.
She cannot create narrative tension for her life! Nor a real climax with an emotional "wowza!" that leaves you satisfied.
Herein are a myriad of story lines, of various levels of interest, involving a myriad of people. Each story, in and of itself, have the potential to fascinate. And the author chose to constantly inter-cut between them, snip, snip, thereby killing all sense of build-up and suspense. Just as things are STARTING to get good, snip, here comes some other meaningless segment in some other story. Now, if the snip came when things ARE good, that'd make for some fast page-turning... but not here.
Nevertheless, I recommend it for a casual read when you want to also relax your mind and meander off into the pale blue distance...
A typical Liz Williams work: solid world-building with interesting details, and good (even excellent) writing on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph basis. However.
She cannot create narrative tension for her life! Nor a real climax with an emotional "wowza!" that leaves you satisfied.
Herein are a myriad of story lines, of various levels of interest, involving a myriad of people. Each story, in and of itself, have the potential to fascinate. And the author chose to constantly inter-cut between them, snip, snip, thereby killing all sense of build-up and suspense. Just as things are STARTING to get good, snip, here comes some other meaningless segment in some other story. Now, if the snip came when things ARE good, that'd make for some fast page-turning... but not here.
Nevertheless, I recommend it for a casual read when you want to also relax your mind and meander off into the pale blue distance...
grimread's review
2.0
Two things wrong with this book:
1. The characters are like a void, they lack personality or any depth a person can have. In consequence as a reader you ask yourself why was a new character introduced to the story if he has no significant roll to play.
2. It is interesting to note that humans (Chen in particularly) know more about Hell and the working of it then the actual denizens (meaning demons) of Hell do. In effect it makes Zhu Irzh completely redundant to the story as just about anybody could be there to save Chens ass when he gets attacked or kidnapped.
1. The characters are like a void, they lack personality or any depth a person can have. In consequence as a reader you ask yourself why was a new character introduced to the story if he has no significant roll to play.
2. It is interesting to note that humans (Chen in particularly) know more about Hell and the working of it then the actual denizens (meaning demons) of Hell do. In effect it makes Zhu Irzh completely redundant to the story as just about anybody could be there to save Chens ass when he gets attacked or kidnapped.