Snake Agent by Liz Williams

Take a healthy dose of mythology and eastern religion, mix in the humor of Big Trouble in Little China and the buddy-cop banter of Lethal Weapon and adorn with a fantastic Jon Foster cover and what do you get? Well, you get the beginnings of an entertaining new mystery series by author Liz Williams.

The Snake Agent is a difficult book to categorize. A blurb from the publisher’s website reads:

John Constantine meets Chow Yun-Fat in this near-future occult thriller. Detective Inspector Chen is the Singapore Three police department’s snake agent, 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 seem to block their investigation at every turn. As a plot involving 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.

“Constantine meets Chow Yun-Fat” is a tremendously accurate description of Liz Williams’ protagonist, Detective Inspector Wei Chen. Mary and I recently re-watched The Replacement Killers and I could not help picturing Chow Yun-Fat as Wei Chen’s adventures unfolded before me. If ever filmed he would be the perfect choice.

I said that William’s novel is hard to classify and it is. The story abounds with magic as does a typical fantasy novel. It is a mystery, set in a near future science fiction universe replete with technology that would be at home in a story by Phillip K. Dick. It is also a primer for eastern mysticism and a view of earth, heaven, and hell steeped in ancient mythology. In addition there are elements of horror reminiscient of the aforementioned John Constantine and a wry humor similar to that in the very best cult classic comedies.

Having so many varied influences in the wrong hands could result in a mess of a story. Fortunately Liz Williams crafts her tale with deft hands making The Snake Agent a fun introduction to this series of detective novels. It is easy to see why she has been twice nominated for Phillip K. Dick awards. The Snake Agent unfolds at just the right pace to keep one engaged in the story without ever overwhelming the reader. There is a lot going on with the genre-mixing plot but the reader never feels lost.

At its core The Snake Agent is just pure fun. The best thing about the novel is the characters and their relationships. Wei Chen is a mortal man married to Inari, an denizen of the Underworld whom he rescued from an unwanted marriage. Inari has a protective animal companion that masquerades as a tea pot in earthly realms. On earth Chen has a law enforcement partner who is a perfect combination of Reginald VelJohnson’s character in Die Hard and Danny Glover’s in Lethal Weapon. Of course the nether realms have their own enforcement agencies and so Chen’s counterpart, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, figures prominently in the tale as well. There is nothing better than a science fiction/fantasy tale flavored with chivalrous romance and solid friendships.

If you are a fan of any of the above mentioned films I would venture to say that you will enjoy Liz William’s debut novel in the Detective Inspector Chen series. As of this writing the second novel in the series, The Demon and the City, is nearing release and I really look forward to rejoining Wei Chen in his investigative adventures. Funny, adventurous, scary and magical, The Snake Agent is a great opportunity to try something a little different in your reading. I tip my hat to you Ms. Williams. Well done.

18 thoughts on “Snake Agent by Liz Williams”

Love the cover as you know. I can’t wait for that Jon Foster art book to come out. Glad you enjoyed the story, too. Sounds totally different than anything I would normally pick up but I might have to try it someday.

The cover quote references A.A. Alfanasio and China Mieville. Have you ever read anything by either of them? I’ve heard of them both and seen there books in the stores but I haven’t talked with anyone who has read them or read them myself and I’m just curious about there works, too.

No. To be honest I haven’t heard of Alfanasio but I have seen China’s books for years but have never picked one up.

I think you’d probably like this book Jeff though its hard to say. There are things that reminded me of Hellboy and Gaiman stuff and I know you like many of the films I mentioned so you’d probably enjoy it. It qualifies on some levels as fluff reading which matters little to me, if I enjoy it, I enjoy it.

I love the cover art. Oddly, it would seem I’ve liked Jon Foster’s art for a while without realising it.

The book sounds interesting – not what I’d usually go for, I think, but I’ll keep it in mind.

Alot of my Friday Favorites artists first came to my attention because of book cover work. What is weird about this one is that this his art style hear so closely resembles that of James Jean who does the cover art for the Fables comics as well as others (Batgirl, Green Arrow).

Speaking of bookcovers as we did recently, this cover is beautiful! With a cover like this, I keep referring to it as I read the book and the symbolism is revealed. This one is going on my list. Thanks for the great review.

Sounds good. Love the cover art, also.

Yes booklogged, this is one of those covers that actually reflects the story between the covers. Several things, down to little minute details, are accurate to the tale.

It is great and the cover art for the sequel, also by Foster, looks great.

I also saw this cover for Brandon Sanderson’s new book Mistborn in the store today. It looks 10 times as fantastic on the book than it does in this image:

Fluff? What is this Fluff you speak of 🙂 I suppose 99.9% of what I read would qualify as fluff but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Mistborn cover looks great too. I read you did a little browsing today. So did you find anything cool. I hit Half price in Olathe today. I just had a NEED to get into a book store today. Seems we were on the same wave length. Book shopping really helps relax me but hurts my wallet. I picked up a book for Ashley ( Unicorn Sonota by Peter S. Beagle ) and a short story on cd by Micahel Chabon for me that is supposed to be a mystery. I’ll let you know how it was soon because I’ll be driving a lot the next two days and it’s only 3 and half hours long. I’m sorry too because I left it in the car and now I can’t for the life of me remember the title. I know I’m a shmuck.

I did more than browse. I bought a Young Adult book called Kiki Strike with a phenomenal cover by Tara McPherson and another little surprise that I will include in my post tomorrow…or maybe later tonight if I get it done. You’ll just have to tune in then…same Bat time, same Bat channel.

The Tara cover looks much better than in the picture because it is actually this shiny, embossed image on top of the flat texture of the rest of the dust jacket and it has some really cool Tara-drawn head shots on the back. I’ve read alot about this one on other sites and decided it was time to get it while there was still a nice copy left in the store.