Scan barcode
A review by teawolf
Snake Agent by Liz Williams
4.0
I love the worldbuilding in this book. The crazy bureaucracies of Heaven and Hell, and of course Earth, the characters trying to deal with them, the names and descriptions of the settings, the mish-mash of mythologies... it was very engaging. I was mostly engaged in the world, but I rather enjoyed the characters, especially Chen and Kuan Yin, and was surprised by how attached I felt to some of them and their adventures.
I think I understand why some reviewers said it didn't deliver the way they expected; I wasn't blown off my feet but it was still a fun whirlwind of adventure, and very memorable. I'm not sure I feel compelled to read the rest of the series, though, and that's partly to do with the writing style. There are several things I'm enjoying about Liz Williams' writing (I'm currently reading Worldsoul), but she has a tendency to write longs strings of long, complicated sentences without enough variation. Short sentences sometimes come as a surprise, in a distracting way that tears me from the story. Definitely not what they should do. There are a few things here and there that bother me but I suspect it's just me being picky and not a detriment to her writing; there are plenty of other things I particularly loved. That's the main reason I give this 4 stars rather than 5, and I would happily recommend it.
I think I understand why some reviewers said it didn't deliver the way they expected; I wasn't blown off my feet but it was still a fun whirlwind of adventure, and very memorable. I'm not sure I feel compelled to read the rest of the series, though, and that's partly to do with the writing style. There are several things I'm enjoying about Liz Williams' writing (I'm currently reading Worldsoul), but she has a tendency to write longs strings of long, complicated sentences without enough variation. Short sentences sometimes come as a surprise, in a distracting way that tears me from the story. Definitely not what they should do. There are a few things here and there that bother me but I suspect it's just me being picky and not a detriment to her writing; there are plenty of other things I particularly loved. That's the main reason I give this 4 stars rather than 5, and I would happily recommend it.