betty reviewed Snake Agent by Liz Williams
Review of 'Snake Agent' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Basically, the sort of book that justifies entire genres. Love, love, love. First off, the prologue was genuinely interesting, and made me want to read the book. In general, I automatically skip prologues. Secondly, this marries myth and science in truly satisfying and creative ways. Thirdly, it has everything: Gods and demons in disguise, police procedure, uneasy alliances that turn to uneasy friendship, a man trapped between love and duty, but not in a stupid way.
The setting is the Singapore of the future, or rather, a Singapore of the future: Singapore III, of a current five. The protagonist is Detective Inspector Chen, a man who is currently somewhat in his patron goddess's bad-graces for marrying a demon against Kuan Yin wishes. It comes to the attention of the police department that certain heaven-bound souls are not arriving there, and Chen is assigned the case. This probably gives you a …
Basically, the sort of book that justifies entire genres. Love, love, love. First off, the prologue was genuinely interesting, and made me want to read the book. In general, I automatically skip prologues. Secondly, this marries myth and science in truly satisfying and creative ways. Thirdly, it has everything: Gods and demons in disguise, police procedure, uneasy alliances that turn to uneasy friendship, a man trapped between love and duty, but not in a stupid way.
The setting is the Singapore of the future, or rather, a Singapore of the future: Singapore III, of a current five. The protagonist is Detective Inspector Chen, a man who is currently somewhat in his patron goddess's bad-graces for marrying a demon against Kuan Yin wishes. It comes to the attention of the police department that certain heaven-bound souls are not arriving there, and Chen is assigned the case. This probably gives you a fair idea of what to expect.
Several minor things threw me. One, Chen's wife is named Inari, which I kept reading as "Inara." This is my own fault, but did interfere a bit in the beginning. Two, the illustration on the cover made me immediately check to see if the artist was a man, and lo, he was. [http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/515u6B7Ws7L.SS500.jpg]See if you can spot what pinged for me. Three, I have no idea to what extent the Chinese culture and myth depicted is accurate, but it's certainly detailed enough that if it's made up, it's a master-piece of world-building. Fourth, there was the occasional bizarre intrusion of Western culture, as when Chen reflects on the applicability of the Western aphorism, "Between the Devil and the deep blue sea," to his situation. It's my experience that figures of speech from one language/culture generally make no sense whatsoever when removed from that context, and besides, surely "the Devil" would be nonsense to Chen?
These minor points aside, (and despite how I harp on them, they were very minor to my enjoyment,) this is an excellent book. It made me kick my feet in delight. Highly recommended.
