2.5 stars I started out loving this book which was a real surprise as I didn't like the last one that much and was really on the fence about even reading further. My biggest complaint with the first one was how sexist it was both in a lack of women characters in general. Even the extras, those that are there to hold the door or answer the phone, were almost exclusively men. The women were stupid and weak, other than the goddess who was just annoying. Other readers liked Inari but I found her whiny and weak and subservient and controlled by her husband because he cared about her so much! How many abusive husbands use that excuse to manipulate their wives?But I really liked the demon Zhu Irzhs, the dark humor, and the complex world Williams created. And though it may not be that accurate, the depiction of a culture other than white American in an urban fantasy novel was refreshingly, well, novel. With trepidation, I decided to give the second one a go since my favorite character Zhu Irzhs was the main protagonist and Inari wasn't even in the book. So paint me shocked that within a few pages I was introduced to several strong lesbians who were integral to the plot. The first few chapters were so good that I thought that a rating of five stars might be in this book's future. Williams continued to describe this complex world through showing rather than telling. (Actually the telling was more confusing than the showing.) The plot at that point was complicated but understandable and not at all predictable. But oh how quickly do hopes get dashed. Very quickly it was revealed that the lesbians were all evil, in love with men, dead, or a combination of the above. Come on! Why can't there be a positive lesbian character in a mainstream urban fantasy novel? (There are several series with gay male characters that I love, but not with lesbians that I've found. If you are aware of any let me know!) This trickery is so early 20th century, so The Well of Loneliness et al where a lesbian cannot survive being a lesbian. They all die or find men. But I read on because I liked the plot, there was lots of action, and I was curious what would happen next. But suddenly, around the middle of the book, I realized I just didn't care anymore. I read a few more chapters to see if it was just a loll but no. By the time Chen came back a few chapters later (the chapters are very short) I was bored stiff. The original murder mystery didn't even seem important anymore and the rest of the plot didn't make a lot of sense, at least not yet. I didn't like most of the characters and even the demon was annoying thus time around. There was some caricature of a vengeful magic user who kept cropping up even though he appears to have been a plot device more than anything. A few more nitpicks: Yin & Yang are not positive and negative. A child is repeatedly referred to as "it" even though gender is known, the demon takes a cold shower to lower his libido but he's always cold, they call a woman in her late 20's a girl, and the worst thing of all, a BIG pet peeve: It's "another THINK coming" not "another thing coming"!I wrote this and was all set to mark the book as abandoned but I then remembered that most of what I loved about the last book was the banter between Chen & the demon. So I went back and sped-read through the scenes that didn't involve both of them until about a quarter of the way from the end the action picked up, the different story lines braided together and things started happening. The end was one long action sequence which would probably have left me breathless if I cared about any of the characters a whole lot. I have to say the goddesses were strong and intelligent and one of the human females was almost recognizable as a 21st century metropolitan young woman (but not quite).The biggest problem at the end I can't tell you without spoiling things but suffice to say I wanted to kick a woman upside the head for thinking she was strong when she did something heinously not. But the second worst problem was continuity. For example, at one point someone is fragmenting/melting/dissolving and the next scene he's fine and no explanation is given, a very important storyline was not completed and will be problematic in the next book, and new creature and ideas kept being introduced too late in the game. So once again I am left giving this 2.5 stars and thinking I'm not going to read the next one. But I've said that before so who knows. Maybe if I'm desperate.
Detective Chen Wei goes on vacation for a couple of weeks and the whole city of Singapore Three goes to Hell. Literally, not in a hand basket though. More bad puns below. You've been warned. (j/k)After helping Chen unravel Hell's plot in Snake Agent, Seneschal Zhu Irzh has decided to stay on Earth to assist Singapore Three's police department during Chen's leave. The work is fine for Zhu Irzh who works in vice back in Hell, but he finds it hard to fit in at the PD and stay in Captain Sung's good graces, being demonkind and all. His only ally other than Chen is the affable Sargent Ma, who is usually easy going but has a general distrust of all things from Hell. As he makes his way around the city to investigate a socialite's gruesome murder, Zhu Irzh stumbles upon a sinister force brewing right beneath the city. Then a feng shui dowser is murdered and Zhu Irzh feels himself losing control of his demonic nature, but before he could investigate further, he finds himself entwined in an affair with an associate of that sinister force.Robin Yuan, a young woman from an impoverished background and the girlfriend of the dead socialite, is also entwined in this affair--no, not like that. She works for Paugeng, a huge shady pharmaceutical corporation that more or less owns Singapore Three, and she has the misfortune of being assigned to a top-secret experimental drug project that, if successful, could bring down the walls separating Heaven and Hell.Jhai Tserai, showrunner of shady Paugeng and a shady character herself, is trying to keep the company's secrets under wraps and her own secrets buried, but Zhu Irzh is making life inconveniently difficult for her. She may or may not have a hand in the socialite's and dowser's murders and have strong ties to Hell, and she may or may not be conspiring to bring down the walls between the worlds.Mixed up in all of this is Mhara, a creature of mysterious origins. He is one of Paugeng's secret experimental projects and holds the key to bringing chaos to the shores of Heaven. But unfortunately for Paugeng, he escapes from a testing facility and, unfortunately for Jhai Tserai, he is running loose in the city.More chaos and conspiracy (and hilarity) ensue when Chen returns from vacation to find Singapore Three in a state of upheaval, so close to the Day of the Dead, when the barriers between the worlds grow thin. He and Zhu Irzh work frantically to unravel this mess with barely enough time to capture the sinister force and save the city.The rest, along with spoilers and discussions, at Wordpress
What do You think about The Demon And The City (2006)?
DNFI've finally admitted that I'm not going to get into this book. I really enjoyed book one in the series, however book two has taken too long to get going. After having read a serious amount of Urban Fantasy this year, I was hoping that this series would build a solid lead character, carrying on from the last instalment. The big problem I ran into was that the first part of the book doesn't even introduce the protagonist from the last book. As such, I've struggled to get into it. Call it a short attention span, or a long "To read" list, but sadly, DNF.
—Neil
I was somewhat disappointed in this book. I really, really liked The Snake Agent and love this unique world that Williams has created with Heaven, Hell, and Earth in the balance. I love Agent Chen and his "sidekick"/partner Zhu Irzh and his adorable, feisty wife Inari and their badger/teakettle. But this plot - to me - was a big ol' mess. I often dislike a novel with the structure of having each chapter from a different point-of-view, and this book was difficult because a few of the point-of-view characters weren't people I recognized, nor cared about. Some of the action I couldn't picture. I still loved the major characters and the inventiveness of the world, but I was disappointed that I didn't get into it and love it more.
—Jenn
Even though a lot of people who know a lot more about Chinese culture than me felt the series was shallow and appropriative, I read Book 2 because I liked Book 1. (Shallow, appropriative, and charming to white people! Also I like Detective Chen and Inari.) Book 2 is so much worse, OMG. Detective Chen and Inari are gone for most of the book, and the hedgehog teapot just doesn't make up for everything himself. Two women who have only referred to previous lesbian relationships end up in long-term relationships with men by the end of the book -- and I don't have a problem with a bisexual default, but I would have liked to see any successful lesbian relationships and any lesbian-by-the-end-of-book who wasn't an abusive ex and a dog monster. But what turned me off most was the change to Chinese religion/mythology -- I was really put off by Mhara (?), the son of the Emperor of Heaven, and his revolutionary ways. (If you're going to have a revolution to mirror/promote change on earth, why are you involving the hereditary rulers at all? Pull your revolutionaries from the intelligentsia or the proletariat.)I have enough fond memories of the first book that I might borrow later books in the series to see if they improve, but this is such a come-down from the first novel in the series it left a bad taste in mouth.
—Mely
