Omg, I finally placed who one of the Racefail09 authors are!

Her book sucked! I was all pissed off at being recced it too. I even made an angry angry little review of it that's somewhere on my computer. If it shows up at the end of this post, that means I've found it.

Title: New Amsterdam
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Report by: Jinx

How I Found Out About This Book: It was recommended on a forum I frequent. In retrospect, I should have considered the other people who frequent that forum. It was advertised to me as: steampunk, with a bisexual detective. I can't remember if they told me said detective was also a vampire. And that he was the kind who had a guy and a girl at once. Because all bisexuals need two ccs of cock and a good dose of vagina before they can get a good night's sleep.

I may be being harsh, but bisexuals are portrayed so rarely yet so often as non-monogamous in the slightest. Drives me insane.

The rest of the book will be reviewed on its own merits, though.

Did I Finish The Book: No.

If No, Say Why: I lost it. And then I didn't care about finding it again.

Describe The Book: Okay, so, they're on this... floaty thing. The OH THE HUMANITY thing. Blimp? Zeppelin? Thing. It's taking them places. Our characters are Bisexual Vampire Dude and his I TOTALLY WAITED UNTIL HE WAS LEGAL Boytoy thing that still manages to come off as a pretty skeezy arrangement. I don't know, bought him, raised him, waited until what I assume was the day after his age of consent birthday.

I guess I'm getting personal here, so just let me come out and say it. Dear Mysterious Stranger Who Bought And Raised Me: I'm turning you down cold. Sorry.

Anyway. So there's a mystery. Some lady got murdered. There's lots of suspects. Mysteriousness everywhere. Oh, and some world building stuff. Necessary and not out of place. And sex.

Around this point I start to realize I don't give a damn. But I soldier on, as is my way.

Vampire solves mystery.

Then we move onto the next bit, where apparently the main character is someone else and he's a side character. Kay.

She likes to sleep with her boss and seems pretty capable. I like her so far.

Another mystery. Time took to solve it: When I find out the maid's name. BAM. Not too hard. Lady starts sleeping with Vampire. Stuff happens.

Look, I'll level with you. The book just couldn't engage me and that's why this whole review is so vague. I can barely remember what happened or even what parts I liked. I didn't care about any of the characters and what emotions they did evoke in me was usually along the lines of 'ew'.

I would not recommend this book.

For good steampunk, I will recommend Larklight. For good bisexual detective antics, I'm afraid I haven't found that yet. Sorry.

(Post a new comment)

white_serpent
2009-03-10 06:51 am UTC (link)

I've been interested in the various perspectives on her books that I've seen cropping up as a result of this. I read her first three, and didn't like the plot/pacing or characterization (I also kind of felt I was being preached to, but I decided that was maybe a weird emotional response on my part, while the others seemed more technically justifiable as flaws in the writing). I've not read the others.

So, thanks for sharing your commentary.

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	sepiamagpie 2009-03-10 07:00 am UTC (link)
	This review was written, gosh, I think back in november maybe. So well before I knew about her other failings. Preached to about what? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

white_serpent
2009-03-10 07:27 am UTC (link)

The first three were Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired. I read them back in late December 2005/early January 2006.

There's a heavy environmental message in them.

I believe in human-caused climate change, the importance of a global reduction in carbon emissions, supporting environmental causes, and so on. Yet I felt kind of like I was being bashed over the head with Save The Environment. I don't know-- it does set my teeth on edge when people lecture me about things I already know, and I couldn't decide whether that was truly a flaw in the book's construction or my own issue.

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white_serpent
2009-03-10 07:59 am UTC (link)

In the interest of full disclosure: she found and linked to my review at the time, and some of her friendslist thought I was too stupid to understand the books.

The book The Stratford Man-- mentioned in my commentary-- was split into two books: Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water. The first of the two was the book Avalon's Willow couldn't finish.

At the beginning of the current conflict, I was laughing-- because of which book it was, and because the friendslist thinking the reviewer was dumb was familiar.

It's the other part of the reason I've not participated too much in this discussion: I'm not really interested in contributing to derailing it. (Which, given some of the excuses I've seen for not listening to criticism, doesn't strike me as an unreasonable concern.)

Of course, my initial response was that EB was doing a better job responding to reviews than she had in the past. I even said that in a few places. Unfortunately, that didn't stay true as the conflict continued.

I actually had kept her

elizabethbear journal friended until the current conflict (I defriended the

matociquala journal a long time ago because it was too high volume for me). I defriended the EB journal and banned both of her journals about the time of the "taking one for the team" post. It didn't really do anything, but it made me feel a little better.

I've felt sick about the way this has been going for months.

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meril
2009-03-10 07:04 pm UTC (link)

I also remember that (did I comment on that post? I can't LJ from here) and that's really why none of this, except for the excuses for racism, surprises me a bit.

When fandom is a bit calmer, I may make another tangential post about When Friends Lists Attack--this case is like the Heidipatrol, but worse. If ever I do something that stupid, I would hope my flist would NOT stick up for me. I can fight my own battles, thanx.

(I really wish that people had realized a bit sooner that they were dealing with a 3/10 Wall of Pure Ego to begin with--almost everyone on the non-Bear side had a lot of valid points to make, but they were just going to bounce off the Wall.)

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white_serpent
2009-03-10 08:19 pm UTC (link)

I also remember that (did I comment on that post? I can't LJ from here)

Yeah, you did.

Actually, I think she was more offended by my comment to you than by the review itself (regarding wanting to read the book she was enthusiastic about instead of the one she was less enthused about). Anyway.

I remember you did say you'd liked her short stories. I'm curious about that (given I see she won a Hugo for one last year), but I don't generally read short fiction, so.

I noticed earlier in this saga that someone else was posting about her experience giving negative reviews to Elizabeth Bear; the results were similar.

I had no clue about Will Shetterly, though. I left r.a.sf.w before the Scribblies showed up there, or I might have seen him in action.

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	emiweebee 2009-03-10 11:23 pm UTC (link)
	In the interest of full disclosure: she found and linked to my review at the time, and some of her friendslist thought I was too stupid to understand the books. That seems to happen a lot with her, doesn't it? It must be hard, being so talented everything you do goes right over the heads of plebes. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mina_de_malfois 2009-03-10 01:10 pm UTC (link)
	Because all bisexuals need two ccs of cock and a good dose of vagina before they can get a good night's sleep. I know I do. No, seriously: this trope drives me NUTS. Am pleased to have an additional reason to avoid EBear's books now. (Reply to this)

panthea
2009-03-10 11:59 pm UTC (link)

If you're actually looking for a good bisexual detective? It's been a while since I've read them, but Dan Kavanagh's Duffy books might fit the bill. (Straight-up mystery, no supernatural aspects.) There's a strong implication toward the end of the series that he's really gay and in denial, rather than bi, but it's never outright stated, and throughout he's in a monogamous relationship with a woman-- a highly dysfunctional one, but still monogamous, as far as I recall.

What I really like about these books is the protagonist's sexuality is almost entirely incidental. It comes up on occasion, but not like the problem I usually have with most queer lit, where the point of the story is that they're GAY GAY AND ALSO GAY and by the way there might be a plot there somewhere. It's just some dude who happens to be bi (or gay, depending) and solves mysteries.

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	rotten_fish 2009-03-11 02:22 am UTC (link)
	Hahaha, I love this review. Because all bisexuals need two ccs of cock and a good dose of vagina before they can get a good night's sleep. Win! (Reply to this)