Books You Really Should Read, Part Something: Snake Agent
So I have been having a bit of a dry run as far as fiction goes recently- so many bad books out there and no patience to see if they will improve. This book however I picked up and it turned out to be the book I never knew I had always wanted to read.
How to convey the sheer awesomeness of this book?
Author reference shorthand: Barry Hughart crossed with Jon Courtney Grimwood. Plot: Police procedural set in a future Singapore where all of the Chinese mythological bureaucracy is real.
Have I told anyone HOW MUCH I love the whole bureaucratic nightmare of the Chinese Hell? I find it endlessly amusing. And the main character- Inspector Chen has his own troubles. His patron is Kuan Yin but she's pretty grumpy with him since he stepped from the path of righteousness by marrying a demon, who was engaged to a high-up official in the Ministry of Epidemics, and who is still being hunted down by the ex-fiance. Plus there is matter of an illegal trade in souls.
And Liz Williams is a Very Good Writer indeed. If you haven't read her other stuff yet, please do so and then I won't have to explain.
How to convey the sheer awesomeness of this book?
Author reference shorthand: Barry Hughart crossed with Jon Courtney Grimwood. Plot: Police procedural set in a future Singapore where all of the Chinese mythological bureaucracy is real.
Have I told anyone HOW MUCH I love the whole bureaucratic nightmare of the Chinese Hell? I find it endlessly amusing. And the main character- Inspector Chen has his own troubles. His patron is Kuan Yin but she's pretty grumpy with him since he stepped from the path of righteousness by marrying a demon, who was engaged to a high-up official in the Ministry of Epidemics, and who is still being hunted down by the ex-fiance. Plus there is matter of an illegal trade in souls.
And Liz Williams is a Very Good Writer indeed. If you haven't read her other stuff yet, please do so and then I won't have to explain.