I wanted to love this book, I really did, but I am only giving it three stars instead of two because of the originality. I enjoyed some of it and hated other parts of it. I'm very frustrated with the author and can't believe it was written by an educated Western woman. But more on that later.The good parts are the unusual premise: the detective, Chen, lives in a technologically advanced futuristic Shanghai as a supernatural detective, investigating those cases that involve demons, ghosts and the like. (Excellent to have a spec fic story written in English that takes place in another city and culture on Earth than Western!) He has occasion to go down to Hell sometimes which is as complex as the Earth. He has a patron Buddhist goddess, Quan Yin, who helps him out on occasion. I like the Buddhist stuff but wanted more and felt it was a little weak. This fusion of fantasy and science fiction is clever and interesting. The problem is in the execution.There is lots of action and a fairly fast pace and the book opens with the hero in peril suspended in mid-air with a demon by his side. Sounds good so far but there are problems which weigh it down. The main character is boring and staid, way too much so for someone in his line of work, I think. I didn't find myself caring that much about him. I also didn't think he was that consistent. Sometimes he would comment on a demon's behavior as being bad (something pretty mild) and then later he would do something much worse. There was a cool hellion, a badger, who was interesting, although he was never explained. Hell is supposed to be kind of an opposite to Earth (which doesn't make sense when there is a Heaven, too) and there a very complicated way souls get there (people have two souls and both move around a lot). But the reality is that Hell is much like Earth only a little nastier and more bureaucratic with a lot of magic thrown in. Again, I found the depiction inconsistent: sometimes the reader is told that everyone from Hell is evil and you can't depend on them, and then they act in ways that are fairly virtuous and the most likable character of all is Chen's demon partner, Zhu Irch.The really odd thing was that from the very first page I felt that I was reading a book that was actually a sequel. The back story was a huge part of why things happen in this book and it just felt like they were speaking about stuff that happened as though the reader should already know. I found myself checking more than once to see that it was actually book 1.But by far the worst thing is the really pronounced sexism. I could understand and even tolerate it if it were clear this were a product of the sexist Chinese society or part of why Hell were evil. But the women in the book were weak and vapid. The *only* two females with jobs were a receptionist and a secretary, both completely idiotic and ineffectual. Everyone else in the ministries, precinct and stores were men. At one point a character notices a female (demon of course) assisting some laborers and he is completely surprised. Later the author refers to her as the "female helper" much like white people always point out race when it's not their own. Even China nowadays has a much more egalitarian workforce. Women are construction workers and day laborers and do all sorts of typically male jobs. There is no indication the Shanghai of the future has been set back socially, it's supposed to be modern. Wouldn't women's rights have stayed the same if not progressed even a little bit?There are very few female characters in the book and only two which make any kind of long term appearance: the goddess Quan Yin and Chen's weak and pathetic demon wife Inari. At one point she thinks to herself how ridiculous it is that men are always saving her and she vows to do better but it continues. (The only time she saves herself is when she runs away but even then someone else always rescues her or captures her because she is lost.) The sentence felt like an after thought because the author received criticism about it. At one point Chen (a human) and another demon struggle to move a huge piece of jade. Demons have superhuman strength but Inari just sits off to the side trembling. I wanted to throw up. Plus, she is kept in a houseboat and Chen is upset when she leaves it for any reason. What kind of life is that? It's the kind of thing abusive husbands do to their wives. It's positively revolting. My other complaints are minor: pits of blood in hell come from "adulterers and abortionists." (Of course, in the book menstrual blood is a particularly hellish thing, too.) The author also has some weird metaphors that don't really work like when something "ringed a room like a migraine." Hunh? I have migraines several times a week and I don't understand the metaphor. Migraines are on one side of the head usually and are a stabbing, throbbing pain. They don't ring anything. They're not like tension headaches which can feel like a band is tightening around your head. In fact, the closest analogy is an icepick stabbed through your eye. Another weird one was when the night sky was like "illuminated dark glass." Er, what? Another problem was that about a third of the way in, the detectives discover a truly heinous practice that they believe is the center of the mystery and that they need to figure out. It not only turns out not to be the center but not even related and they never bother to find out who is doing it or how to stop it. They don't ever even bring it up again. BIG plot hole.Overall the writing was good, the plot carried along fine, and the characterization of the demon detective and other police officers was good. However the main character and his wife were inconsistent and confusing and the sexism was really irritating. I doubt I will read further into the series even though the concept is intriguing and I do want to know more.
Liz Williams has written over a dozen books, it turns out, but I hadn’t heard of her until someone mentioned her on my blog as an example of an author writing non-European settings. So I picked up this book and I've had it on my TBR shelves ever since. Well, a few days ago I finally was in the mood for a detective story / fantasy, so I picked it up. And it was really good! It’s a rather dense urban fantasy that in some ways feels like SF, because it’s set in the future.Chen is a detective in Singapore Three, the third city of the Singapore franchise, which is currently constructing a sixth city down the coast, if I recall correctly. He works under the auspices of Kuan Yin, the Compassionate and Merciful, She Who Hears the Cries of the World. At the moment, though, he’s not in good graces with the goddess, having recently married a demon wife – hardly the act of an impeccable servant of Heaven.Chen deals with supernatural crime, as you might imagine, and when the story opens, he is trying to find out what happened to a murdered girl – not so much what happened to kill her, though he does find that out as well, but his focus is more on why her ghost has gone missing rather than making its way to Heaven, and his priority is not so much on the crime that killed her, but on making sure the ghost is sent properly on its way. In the course of this investigation, he partners with a demon employed by Hell’s own police force, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, and searches out nefarious activity both on Earth and in Hell.This is all a lot of fun. Not that the book is humorous or light; it’s actually rather gritty and quite dense; but the structure of the world and the detailed worldbuilding is so unusual and a great delight. We have big stuff like the bioweb in which girls earn the money to pay their dowries and the Ministry of Epidemics – we get a rather horrifying tour of the Ministry of Epidemics – and the path that departed souls take on their way out of life. Then we have a huge number of little details like the rosary and the use of incense and the badger-teakettle (seriously: a badger-teakettle!). Though the world is gritty, the writing is quite lyrical. When Chen finally catches up with the lost ghost of the dead girl and sends her to Heaven, the scene is described this way: Chen had a glimpse of a place that made him cry out: a golden sky above glittering, diamond-blossomed trees, and the fragment of shadow that was Pearl Tang running among them until it was lost in the light.Even Hell, for all its grindingly frustrating bureaucracy and everyday horrors – cloaks made of human skin and so forth – is often described lyrically, as here: The worst thing about the lower levels was not the thin, high voice that sang incessantly through the streets like the whine of a vast mosquito, nor the jets of acrid flame that shot at random from between the stones, but the dust-laden wind that blew in from the distant barrens. Dust stained Inari’s skin and seeped beneath her clothes, matting her hair and blocking her nose. She couldn’t stop sneezing; it was worse than the hay fever to which she’d been prone on Earth.Actually, Inari is wrong: the dust isn’t the worst thing about the lower levels of Hell. But still, that’s enough to make it clear you wouldn’t want to visit.So, beautiful writing, an unusual setting, and sympathetic characters – Seneschal Zhu Irzh is likeable, for a demon, not to mention Inari and Sergeant Ma, and of course Detective Inspector Chen is a great protagonist – I can see why Williams has been nominated a couple of times for the Philip K Dick Award. I’m glad someone drew her to my attention – thanks, whoever you were! – and I’ll be picking up the next Inspector Chen story soon, especially since I found SNAKE AGENT engaging and yet best enjoyed in small doses, easy to put down when I needed to get my own work done.
What do You think about Snake Agent (2006)?
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an review copy.This is one of those books which you simply have to savor. Author Liz Williams first novel in the Inspector Chen series is a book to be enjoyed slowly. An urban alternative reality police procedural mystery sent in near future China, the book is the story of a Chinese police detective, handling cases caught between Heaven and Hell. Working with a demon inspector straight from Hell, Inspector Chen must placate his guardian goddess, protect his hell sprung demon wife, and solve the mystery of young women being murdered and their souls stolen before they could make the transport to the gates of either Heaven or Hell. The imaginative use of Chinese mythology is quite interesting and extremely well researched. But the main charm in this novel is the descriptive passages, the painting of Heaven and Hell. The only word that comes to mind to describe the writing is "dense". Page after page of descriptive passages describing the different levels of hell and its unfortunately denizens. I usually don't like this much exposition in a novel but this was so well written and so evocative, it made the reading experience much richer.I will definitely read the others in the series (at least six to date) and recommend to friends. Ms. Williams has written something quite different, which doesn't fit in a particular genre. The imaginative power behind this work is quite astounding.
—Dana
Really loved it, but more like four and a half stars. I haven't read many books in an Asian setting, much less urban fantasy. Detective Chen is the familiar world-weary but still hopeful police officer who does his best to help people. Williams took that and turned it sideways in a most enjoyable way. The world is something like modern Asia, only cities have been franchised, and Heaven and Hell are real stops on the reincarnation wheel. By the end, (view spoiler)[ I could see how the other facets of the world-weary detective were going to come into play, including the somewhat challenged but staid sidekick, and the uneasy alliance with the criminal (demon) element that is acting with honor in it's own way, and the unobtrusively supportive superior who will throw him to the wolves if the Detective fails. (hide spoiler)]
—Carol.
Singapore 3:n kaupungin yliluonnollisten tapausten parissa työskentelevä komisario Chen ja helvetin siveyspoliisin palveluksessa työskentelevä demoni Zhu Irzh joutuvat molemmat tutkimaan erikoista tapausta, joka kytkeytyy äskettäin kuolleeseen, vaikutusvaltaisen liikemiehen tyttäreen tai oikeammin tämän haamuun. Käy kuitenkin ilmi, että taustalla on jotakin suurempaa ja infernaalisempaa kuin kukaan olisi osannut arvella.Liz Williamsin "Aavekauppiaan tytär" (Like, 2012) on kohtalaisen älytöntä höttöä, mutta hyvin viihdyttävää sellaista. Nopeatempoinen juoni sukkuloi niin maan päällä kuin helvetissäkin, kiroukset lentävät siinä missä verikin ja monenlaista öhkömölliäistä tulee vastaan. Huumoriakaan ei ole unohdettu.En tiedä, olisiko "Aavekauppiaan tytärtä" jaksanut välttämättä lukea loppuun, ellei sen henkilögalleria olisi ollut niin kiinnostava. Chenin ja Zhu Irzhin välinen suhde on mukavasti kuvattu, ja tuo asetelmaltaan mieleen Tappavan aseen tyyliset buddy-toimintaelokuvat kuin myös Neil Gaimanin ja Terry Pratchettin sivuhahmot "Hyvistä enteistä". Sivuhenkilöiden galleria on vallan mainio: mukaan mahtuvat niin rakkauden takia maanpäällisen elämän valinnut naispuolinen demoni, teepannuksi muuttuva mäyrähenki kuin tiukan maolainen demoninmetsästäjäkin.
—Matti Karjalainen
