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A review by nitessine
Snake Agent by Liz Williams
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.