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New Amsterdam Hardcover – May 25, 2007

by Elizabeth Bear (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 243 ratings
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Abigail Irene Garrett drinks too much. She makes scandalous liaisons with inappropriate men, and if in her youth she was a famous beauty, now she is both formidable--and notorious. She is a forensic sorceress, and a dedicated officer of a Crown that does not deserve her loyalty. She has nothing, but obligations. Sebastien de Ulloa is the oldest creature she has ever known. He was no longer young at the Christian millennium, and that was nine hundred years ago. He has forgotten his birth-name, his birth-place, and even the year in which he was born, if he ever knew it. But he still remembers the woman who made him immortal. He has everything, but a reason to live. In a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, where Holland finally ceded New Amsterdam to the English only during the Napoleonic wars, and where the expansion of the American colonies was halted by the war magic of the Iroquois, they are exiles in the new world--and its only hope for justice.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Subterranean
  4. Publication date
    May 25, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1596061065
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1596061064
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in a New Amsterdam that's still a royal colony at the turn of the 20th century, this engaging dark fantasy collection from John W. Campbell Award–winner Bear (Carnival) introduces a tough, witty female sleuth. Abigail Irene Garrett is the perfect Victorian hard-boiled detective, with the added benefit of necromantic skills that make her a formidable forensic investigator in a world where sorcery is common. Teaming occasionally with vampire sleuth Sebastien de Ulloa, Irene cuts a figure of crime-fighting confidence through five of the six stories, grappling with demonic killers summoned for personal revenge or political intrigue, and plunging into wildly unpredictable adventures such as those recounted in "Lumière," a stunning blend of steampunk and eldritch horror. Bear's tales are not only ingeniously mysterious but also richly textured with details that bring the society and history of her alternate America to vivid life. Readers who like the grit of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels and the historical heft of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's vampire tales will find similar pleasures here. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The zeppelin bound for New Amsterdam in British North America leaves France in 1899, carrying the typically far-ranging group of passengers, including a famous American film actress, a Hungarian aristocrat, a writer from Boston, an attractive young couple seeking political advancement in the Pennsylvania colony, and young Jack, traveling companion of Sebastien, a well-known detective. Less well known is Sebastien's vampiric need for blood. Then, help! Is there a detective in the house? The blood thickens when Madame Pontchartrain, the group's eldest member, disappears, never having slept in her bed. The joy here arises from watching the story's twists and turns unfold, accompanied by speculation about who else on board may be "of the blood" and by Pontchartrain's penchant for opium. Once in the New World, Sebastien adds to his blood sources sorcerer Abigail Irene Garrett, who's actually an officer serving the Crown's Duke Richard; and the plot complexities multiply, as do the cast members, giving new resonance to the term characters in this fast-moving supernatural alternative history yarn that's just bloody well good. Scott, Whitney

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Subterranean; First Edition (May 25, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1596061065
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1596061064
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 243 ratings

About the author

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Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear

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ELIZABETH BEAR was the recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005. She has won two Hugo Awards for her short fiction, a Sturgeon Award, and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Bear lives in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
243 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

ADB
5.0 out of 5 stars Seductive and gripping
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2013
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I've read a LOT of books, especially in the scifi/fantasy/steampunk categories, but none of them was anything like this. Bear's novel almost defies a genre categorization, and her writing is so strong that the plot and the supernatural elements take a backseat to the characters but this isn't a bad thing. In short, the book is about vampire Sebastian de Ulloa's attempt at making his immortality meaningful, and sorceress-investigator Elizabeth Garrett's efforts to protect the crown. This book, and its sequels, address the choices each character makes when the price of indifference (in Sebastian's case) or loyalty (in Elizabeth's) become too high, along with what happens after the dust has settled.

What I loved about this book was the characters. They completely draw you in, and stay with you long after you've finished the last page. They are refreshingly real people with complex, contradictory motivations. They have hopes, fears and regrets. And Bear is nothing if not consistent; if you read the whole series, the characters' past experiences very much shape their actions. I especially applaud Bear for not making Garrett's love life the center of the novels or her the trait by which she is defined. Instead, Garrett is a woman with a past who embraces her own sexuality as much as she can within the confines of society. All in all, I can't say enough good things about this book- go read it!
7 people found this helpful
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M. Dionne
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Story, Lousy Editing
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2009
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This collection of stories has a lot to recommend it. The alternate history is intriguing, but doesn't get in the way. Instead, it left me wanting to learn more about the world. Each short story focuses on a paranormal mystery that's solved by one or both of the main characters: forensic sorceress Abigail Irene Garret and centuries-old vampire (wampyr) Sebastian de Ulloa.

The first story, Lucifugous, is rather heavy handed with the homo eroticism. Titillating for some perhaps, but I found it got in the way of the story -- particularly an introductory one. Thankfully, the author finds a better balance in the later stories.

My biggest complaint is the poor copy editing. Several times during this relatively short book, I stumbled over a passage because of missing and misspelled words. It definitely interfered with the flow of otherwise compelling story writing.
4 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Drawn in ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2020
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I started reading this because I like alternate histories. I had been tracing New Amsterdam colony me!best of my family, and while checking some dates and other information this book popped up.
I'm not normally a fan of vampire lit, but Sebastien, had already taken me by the hand before I had learned his secret.
Another reviewer objected to the structure, formatting, and failure to abide by the established rules of mystery writing. However, as I see it if you have constructed a steam punk, alternate reality where magic is part of the underlying fabric you may legitimately be excused from following the rules that give us locked room, country house and railroad time table mysteries. Put another way, there is no reason to make Sebastian into Poirot, or to make Garrett Miss Marple. The are their own unique people in a unique environment.
3 people found this helpful
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Karen Belciglio
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read but a bit overlong. I recommend it highly.
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2018
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Good book with well written characters and a tight plot. A bit too long but the author covered each main character in depth so it was engaging. I have read some of her other work and this is probably my favorite so far.
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lisaleo (Lisa Yount)
3.0 out of 5 stars okay, but Bear can do better
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2018
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I picked up this book because I adored Bear’s Karen Memory, and I also remembered kindly the long-ago fantasy/mystery short stories of Randall Garrett, to which these tales are supposed to be a homage. The book wasn’t bad, but having seen what Bear can do in the way of memorable characters, I was nonetheless disappointed.

Garrett’s tales were classic detective stories, but set in a standard medievaloid fantasy world in which magic is commonplace. Bear’s setting is more steampunkish, but with a twist. It’s the early twentieth century, and airships exist, but North America still consists mainly of British colonies: the American Revolution hasn’t happened yet, though by the end of the book it seems to be getting ready to do so. Magic also exists, though it doesn’t appear to play a large role in daily life. So do wampyrs, as they’re called here. Generally they don’t attack random citizens—they have “courtesans” (of either gender) who gladly donate some of their blood in exchange for the ecstasy that comes with doing so—and they’re ignored in Europe, but in some of the less tolerant American colonies they can be executed (by being forced to go into the sunlight) if discovered.

The chief detective is Lady Abigail Irene Garrett (her last name is surely no coincidence), an investigator of crimes involving magic in the colony of New Amsterdam (as New York is known in this alternate world) employed the British Crown. In between investigations, she, um, Gets Around: she has close relationships with several men at the heart of the colony’s politics. Early in the book she adds to her string of beaux a newly arrived wampyr who calls himself Don Sebastien de Ulloa (among other things). He also has detective abilities, in fact playing the lead role in the book’s first story, and he helps Abby Irene (as she prefers to be called).

Each of the six connected stories that make up the book includes a murder mystery, but the mysteries are forgettable. Of much more concern are the three main characters—Abby Irene, Sebastien, and Sebastien’s devoted “courtesan,” Jack—and their developing and changing relationships with each other and with the political fate of New Amsterdam and (presumably) the other American colonies. Although I did come to care about the three, I didn’t find them nearly as appealing as I had found Karen Memory and her friends. I also missed the humor that I remembered as being a part of the Randall Garrett stories.

I’ve gathered that Abby Irene’s adventures are continued in several later volumes, presumably with a similar structure (i.e. as groups of connected mystery short stories). I wasn’t interested enough to want to follow her further, however.
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M. Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and a bunch o likable characters
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2018
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I very much liked the characters in Ms Bear’s story. They were flawed, interesting, kind, self-centered, generous - and charming. I suppose I could have used a bit more place-ness in someways — New Amsterdam existed in words, there was a borough of Queens, and other similar icons. However there was little sense of the city — the wharfs that once lined the shores, the Hudson, the East River — what was once five points or its alt history version.

Having said that, I just bought the sequel and side-quel to New Amsterdam.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

BreadintheBone
5.0 out of 5 stars Elizabeth Bear is always good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2018
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The element of mysteries solved by detective methods takes third place to the personal and political stories, but Ms. Bear consistently tells a good tale.
There is, I think, a tribute to Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories (themselves a tribute; I do love them), and it's a good one. Thank you, Elizabeth Bear.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Better than i hoped
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2018
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Did not expect a fantasy book; vampire fiction and doubted i would enjoy it but it has been an interesting and fulfilling read.
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Lisa Sparling
5.0 out of 5 stars but what I particularly liked was the sense of an alternative history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2014
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Very original novel, much more original than you would think given that this is another novel about vampires - I'm not sure how to classify it, as it has Urban Fantasy, Crime and also Historical novel elements. The characters were likeable and interesting, but what I particularly liked was the sense of an alternative history.
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RGW
3.0 out of 5 stars Good and well-executed but not really for me.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2015
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Very interesting alternative history premise, good and interesting characters. Every aspect of person and place is carried out with wonderful attention to detail. However, the thing that didn't work for me is that the book is quite episodic...more like a TV series or a set of short stories than a novel. There is a bit of an underlying, continuous thread of plot but not enough to make the book hang together as a single story.

But this could just be me. I really don't like short stories (usually unsatisfying). If that's not a problem for you then the work is fascinating and well written.

(And oh, BTW, the blurb describing the book is rubbish. Doesn't seem as though whoever wrote the blurb actually read the book.)
One person found this helpful
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Dr. E. E. Ernstbrunner
2.0 out of 5 stars Vacuous
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2016
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The problem with this collection of short stories is that the crimes to be solved are mere excuses for describing the social (and pseudo-political) interactions of no particular interest in a "high society" that is thankfully long dead. The female protagonist's profession is as incidental as her vampire partner's criminological interests. Irritatingly floridly written nostalgia shading into pointless soft porn.
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