Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #307644 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 375 pages

Synopsis
John Constantine meets Chow Yun-Fat in this near-future occult thriller! Detective Inspector Chen is the Singapore Three police department's snake agent - that is - the detective in charge of supernatural and mystical investigations. Chen has several problems: In addition to colleagues who don't trust him and his mystical ways, a patron goddess whom he has offended, and a demonic wife who's tired of staying home alone, he's been paired with one of Hell's own vice officers, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, to investigate the illegal trade in souls. Political pressures both Earthly and otherworldly seek to block their investigations at every turn. As a plot involving both Singapore Three's industrial elite and Hell's own Ministry of Epidemics is revealed, it becomes apparent that the stakes are higher than anyone had previously suspected.

Customer Reviews

Interesting and Eastern
It is sometime in the future, the internet has been superseded by the bioweb. But that doesn't really matter.

In Singapore 3 there is a policeman, who deals with the supernatural, this is Inspector Chen. The borders between Heaven, Earth and Hell are now more flexible than before, and he is blessed by one of the goddesses with some magic so that he can help the spirits of the dead.

Doesn't really cover it.

OK the Heaven and Hell are of the Chinese variety. We don't see Heaven at all, however Hell appears to be very bureaucratic there is a ministry for war, a ministry of epidemics, vice and so on. Into this walks Inspector Chen, originally to find out why a dead teenagers spirit destined for Heaven has ended up in Hell, however he eventually ends up involved in a struggle between two ministries aided by a demon, all the while trying to find his wife.

Cannot really do the story justice without revealing more than I would wish, however the book itself is well written, relatively light, and from my POV interesting in giving me a greater insight into Chinese beliefs. Recommended, however there is a lot of back story leading me to suspect that this may be the second book in the series, although if that is the case I have not yet tracked down the first.

Fast-paced and fascinating, and even better, more to come
Each one of Liz Williams' novels shows a different aspect of her apparently inexhaustible knowlege of different cultures and their mythology, which provide fascinating exotic backgrounds while never alienating the reader from her characters. Here a near-future Chinese nation-state is the setting for a novel with her other typical strengths of tight plotting and a tone that is light while never becoming flippant (some material is almost more like horror).

I'm really pleased that this author has found a setting and characters she likes enough to explore in more detail over several books. I've already ordered the second in the series.

Awesome chinese flavoured occult investigation - not to be missed!
Liz Williams' Detective Inspector Chen series starts off with a bang with 'Snake Agent' - the first in a supposedly 4 part series. Set in near future China this novel is interesting and compulsively readable, fusing a huge array of exotic concepts and genres including police procedural, near future Sci Fi, occult magic, goddesses, demons and flitting between parallel worlds.
A shakey partnership between occult detective Chen and demon Zhu Irzh develops during a fast-paced investigation into the ministries of Hell, virgin ghost killings, a cross world kidnap and a government sanctioned bioengineered plague.
What follows is one of the best new novels i have read in months - a great display of cultural knowledge, interesting concepts, beautiful description and tight plotting. Williams has outdone herself creating an ornate world, populated with memorable characters and scenes and monsters and magic to put many fantasy novels to shame.
About 3 years ago i read 'Banner of Souls' by Williams - it was an awful novel of bad plotting, ineffective description and concept absurdity that i was hard pressed to finish.
i am SOOOO glad that i gave this novel (Snake Agent) a chance (on the strength of its cover - of all things!) and that Williams has proved that she can write - Snake Agent is well structured and readable, understandable, tightly plotted and fast paced.
Chen is the police liason with hell and when Chinese goddeses, dragons, ghosts and demons walk between realms he has got his work cut out for him.
Overall a great novel, pick up this new paperback edition (although the truely beautiful cover is missing and hard and expensive to find) and enjoy something very unique in a genre (supernatural investigation) that can be very stale.
10/10