I wish I could reccomend this book, I really do. But in good conscience, I cannot. It's not for everyone, not by any stretch.
I admit, I picked this book up because of the cover art. I know... I know.... Book... cover.... don't judge... blah blah bah...
But seriously, look at that cover art.... Would you not pick a book up just for cover art like that?
And the idea for the book intruiged me too. Sorta a near future cyber-punk setting with a little bit of hell thrown in for fun.
Here's the full publishers blurb
"Detective Inspector Chen is the Singapore Three police department's snake agent - 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.
The world lived up to my expecations. It was imaginative, well developed, and intriguing. A world parallel to our own, maybe a couple decades in the future, but the barriers between earth, heaven, and hell have eroded. Demons, angels and gods can travel back and forth. There are business transactions and political dealings that nudge the realms in to working together, or somethings against eachother. This book focuses on a place called Singapore Three, and you get the impression that the fabric between the realms is thinner here than other places. Liz Williams lays down the rules for her reality, and she sticks to them.
I've read plenty of books where you just don't buy into the world that the author creates. Either because the author never makes the rules clear, or doesn't stick to the rules they've made, or because it just doesn't make any sort of sense.
In this book, Liz Williams created a world that makes sense, whose rules are clearly defined, and that you can find yourself easily sinking in to. You can imagine her world existing apart from the characters, and apart from the novel.
That's the good part.
Both the story and the characters are weaker.
The story wasn't bad, but for a book with a detective as the main character it just wasn't very "snappy" either. Earlier this year I read all the the "Dresden File" books in a streak of biblio-gluttony. They were a sort of near-reality/alternate reality setting too. And they featured a detective (the wizard Harry Dresden) as well.
But what they had, that this book didn't, was a story line that "snapped". They were well paced with a mystery that fit nicely together at the end with a few twists and turns getting there. Snake Agent just sort of started at point A and plodded along in fits and stutters to point B, took a gentle curve, and ended at point C. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a memorable story either.
And the characters.... they lacked a certain... what's the word? ...character.
Yup, that's it, they lack character.
I think that a good character works their way in to your imagination. You feel like you know them, like you could lift them up out of the novel, place them pretty much anywhere, and have a decent idea what they'd do.
Not with these characters. I imagine picking them up and out of the book, placing them in a different setting, and watching them blink in stunned confusion waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
But, from what I've read since, most people have said that she only improves as she goes along.
So I'm going to keep reading the series. I like the setting enough, and maybe her characters sharpen up. And besides, the cover art for the next book is just as beautiful.
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