Snake Agent (Detective Inspector Chen, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Jan 21, 2009 Terence rated it it was ok

Shelves: speculative-fiction, mysteries-noir

It is unfair to any author to wander into a book expecting something and then being disappointed when it's not delivered but I'm human and I can't help it. Reading this book, I had hoped to read something like Barry Hughart's adventures with Master Li and Number Ten Ox (Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was et al.) or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories (Judge Dee at Work: Eight Chinese Detective Stories et al.), except in this case the celestial and infernal bureaucracies It is unfair to any author to wander into a book expecting something and then being disappointed when it's not delivered but I'm human and I can't help it. Reading this book, I had hoped to read something like Barry Hughart's adventures with Master Li and Number Ten Ox (Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was et al.) or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories (Judge Dee at Work: Eight Chinese Detective Stories et al.), except in this case the celestial and infernal bureaucracies are real. Or a mystery along the lines of Colin Cotterill's Sari Paiboun novels, where a Laotian coroner is the reincarnated soul of a Hmong shaman. With Hughart and Cotterill there's a spritely, lyrical quality to their writing that makes you believe (or want to believe) that what you're reading could really happen; van Gulik delivers interesting, Holmesian whodunits solved by a character I find delightfully fascinating.

Liz Williams manages to create moderately interesting characters but I didn't find the story terribly interesting or the execution distinctive enough to make the work stand out. The two chief characters are Chen Wei and Zhu Irzh. Chen's the human, and his dearest wish is to be just an average cop allowed to do his job with a minimum of interference from mundane or spiritual powers. Unfortunately, little in his life conduces to this aim: He has a near unique access a rapport with Heaven and Hell and he's married a fugitive demon (Inari) who hides out on his houseboat with her family's familiar - a spirit that alternates between posing as a tea kettle and ambling about as a badger). There's little explanation for Chen's uniqueness but I can put up with ignorance so long as it doesn't interfere with understanding the storyline. Besides, it's a series and presumably readers who continue to follow Chen and Zhu will have more revealed to them.

Zhu Irzh holds a similar position as Chen in the hierarchy of Hell - a middle-level functionary who'd like to get his job done without crossing the paths of his superiors too often. In many ways, Zhu was a disappointment. As Williams portrays him, he's a typical, swashbuckling rogue in the tradition of D'Artagnan and Han Solo. Essentially a human with strange eyes and a pointed tail. It would have been more interesting and challenging if his character really had been demonic and he became Chen's "friend" (or at least "ally") because of the logic of that nature. Not because he's been "infected" with a conscience as is intimated at one point in the book. This is one of the strengths in C.J. Cherryh's Pride of Chanur series: Pyanfar manipulates the unique psychology of the kif to get them into the Compact and obeying its rules; they're not just humans with prosthetic foreheads a la "Star Trek."

I could raise a similar objection to Inari, Chen's demonic wife. She's basically a human woman escaping an arranged marriage.

Without giving away too much, the story revolves around Chen and Zhu uncovering an unsanctioned plot by the Ministry of Epidemics to unleash a plague against humanity using stolen human souls (many intended for Heaven). It's not a bad plot but not especially remarkable, and Williams invokes a couple of deae ex machina (Kuan Yin and the Goddess of Plagues) to bring everything to a happy conclusion, which I found unsatisfactory.

I like Williams. It's been years since I read it, but I remember really enjoying Empire of Bones and saying to myself, "I'd like to see more of her stuff" but I don't think she's at her best in this book. I may pick up the further adventures of Inspector Chen if there's opportunity but they're "brain candy" - something to read when I need a break from "serious" novels or nonfiction. ...more

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Mar 21, 2009 Brad rated it really liked it

Shelves: personal-mythology, fantasy, sci-fantasy, speculative, urban-fantasy

I was born and raised Roman Catholic, so despite my atheism I have demons ingrained in my consciousness.

I'm talking about literal demons here. Demons with tails and horns and leathery wings, demons of sublime beauty and terrible mien, demons that torment and corrupt. It doesn't matter that I no longer believe in the concepts of good and evil; it doesn't matter that demons are fiction; they are so deeply programmed into me that there is no escaping their intimate hold on portions of my imaginati I was born and raised Roman Catholic, so despite my atheism I have demons ingrained in my consciousness.

I'm talking about literal demons here. Demons with tails and horns and leathery wings, demons of sublime beauty and terrible mien, demons that torment and corrupt. It doesn't matter that I no longer believe in the concepts of good and evil; it doesn't matter that demons are fiction; they are so deeply programmed into me that there is no escaping their intimate hold on portions of my imagination.

So considering my preconceptions of demons, which are predictably Western European, my time spent with Detective Inspector Chen was never likely to be trouble free. I don’t know exactly what trouble I was expecting, but I was surprised to discover that the trouble, if it can be called trouble, came from Liz Williams’ demons feeling shame.

Demons, the way I’ve always imagined them, feel no shame. Indeed, they are shameless creatures of villainy, cruelty, nastiness. They terrorize, torture and punish, delighting in their heartlessness. Clearly my conception of demons is the conception on the walls and ceilings of churches or the popular culture of Christianity.

Thus when Zhu Irzh or Inari showed signs of shame, or when Inari’s brother Tso was motivated by shame, I reacted with annoyance and even tossed the book aside with a snort. But I knew that my reaction was purely emotional, and I found myself considering the idea of demons and shame for most of the day; it didn’t take long for me to see what Williams was doing – and even to absorb it into my personal mythology of demons.

After all, demons being intimately acquainted with shame makes perfect sense.

Those humans who go to Hell, after all, go to Hell to feel shame. No matter their crime, no matter if Hell is eternal or transitory, no matter their punishment, they go to Hell to learn or feel shame. And it doesn’t matter what religion’s Hell one’s talking about. If there is a Hell, it is a place for shame.

Now, if this is a truism of Hell, something we can all agree upon, then demon characters must be able to feel shame. If a demon is to exploit the shame of a human or cause shame in a human, they must be able to understand shame in all its forms, and the only way to do that is to know shame personally.

My brain got that, and I went straight back to reading Snake Agent, but my gut still reacted every time a Demon felt shame, and I fear that my gut got in the way of my fully enjoying of Liz Williams’ creativity, which is one of the reasons I look so forward to The Demon and the City. Once I have had time to fully integrate shame in the world of Singapore Three into my gut, I am sure that I will be able to better appreciate the implausible, surreal, stickily humid Hell Noir landscapes that Detective Inspector Chen and his partner Seneschal Zhu Irzh inhabit.

And if it improves as much as I think it will, this series should become my must read, must buy, must share piece of pulpy goodness.

Previously written: I was surprised by how much I liked this book, and I have much to say about shame in demons, but that will have to wait for another day, maybe even for the next book. I will be going on with this series, though, and soon. It is definitely good enough for that. ...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Nicky rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, fantasy, mystery, cyberpunk

Snake Agent is mostly urban fantasy, with a touch of cyberpunk if you think about the technology involved in the bioweb, which turned out not to be just background and world-building, but a serious part of the plot. It's notable because it relies more on Eastern mythology and culture than Western: however, as with Liz Williams' other book, Empire of Bones, it didn't feel all that different.

A couple of other reviewers note their problems with Inari, and the lack of importance of female characters ...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Bruce rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2009-reading, fantasy, science-fiction, groupreads

An engaging blend of mystery, science, fantasy and Chinese mythology that takes place in a unique and totally believable world. The principal character is a detective in the Singapore police station who has the ability to move between the real world and the afterlife. His wife is a demon who has escaped the underworld to be with him. The following paragraph about her comes from early in the book.

"She thought back to the market: a marvelous place, filled with lights. When evening began to draw c ...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban_fantasy, sci-fi, dtb-own, witches_wizards, best_covers, gods

in asia's future, successful cities have franchised, and singapore appears to be doing quite well at it. the 3rd iteration of the city lies somewhere on mainland china overlooking the south china seas, and has everything you'd expect a modern chinese metropolis to have: banks, city officals, temples, portals to hell...

chen is the occult specialist for singapore 3's police force, which means he spends plenty of time filling out the bureaucratic paperwork for posessions or hauntings in the city, w ...more

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Mar 15, 2009 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, mystery, fiction, detective

An unusual fantasy, set in modern China, where there is improved communication with heaven and hell due to modern technology. A mystery, with two primary protagonists a human mystical police inspector and a demon vice inspector. It took me awhile to get into this book, perhaps because the setting was so unusual, but it grew on me a bit as it went on. I'm not about to rush out and read the next one, but I am interested in continuing the series. ...more

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