Customer Reviews

No Dominion (Joe Pitt)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Joe Pitt is the classic pulp fiction tough guy. Part private investigator, part leg breaker, all renegade. Joe Pitt is also a "vampyre".

Welcome to Charlie Huston's contemporary New York, a city where by night the undead walk among us, holed up in darkened Manhattan apartments by day. But But Houston's Dracula is about as similar to Bram Stoker and Transylvanian and bats as blood is similar to Kool Aid. Huston's blood-lusting wraiths of Manhattan are victims of an AIDS-like "Vyrus", aligned in cults operating in uneven detente in a twisted JR Tolkien nightmare society. Pitt, while living in the Greenwich Village turf of the politically correct and activist "Society" clan, remains independent, a rogue agent allowed to exist on the fringes of vampire-dom thanks to his rep for ridding the neighborhood of undesirables.

So following last year's "Already Dead", the tight-lipped Pitt returns, short of cash and more than a few "pints" low. It seems there is a new vampyre high loose on the streets of New York, wrecking some havoc within the clans. Pitt, desperate for work and in need of a new stash of hemo for the fridge, takes a contract from the Society clan's boss to track down the source of the strange and dangerous new drug. This leads Pitt to "the Count", a spoiled rich kid from Columbia playing vampire, complete with a trio of usually stoned vamp brides. Pitt's search for the stuff takes him north to Harlem and "the Hood" clan, home of the feared DJ Grave Digga and his Ecco Rhin-clad homeboys. With this backdrop, Huston spins a vicious - if somewhat convoluted tale - of inter-clan politics, setups, treachery and, true to the author's own rep, nonstop action. While "No Dominion" is not a sequel per se, it would be best to read "Already Dead" first, filling in some of the holes that Huston chooses not to repeat (at the risk of slowing down this episode).

Like his offbeat subject matter and anti-hero, Charlie Huston's lean prose, uncluttered by ordinary convention like chapters and quotation marks, follows no rules and, at least in terms of style, has no equal. Hip, irreverent, brutal, sometimes even thought provoking, Huston is not for everyone. But "No Dominion" is further proof that Huston, while unorthodox, is in a class of his own, and a very short list of today's top crime writers.

In No Dominion, Joe Pitt has settled down a bit since Already Dead. The jobs have been few and far between but he's been doing okay -- except his stash is down to 3 pints, his girlfriend's HIV is getting worse, and she's wants to know what Joe does for a living. But that's just background as Joe's face is getting pushed through safety glass by a vamp hyped up on drugs. This is no small thing since the vyrus doesn't let vampyres get more than a light and fleeting buzz from drugs. So what's the drug that can get a vamp high? Who's making it? And where the heck are all these new vamps coming from?

No Dominion is noir squared. Joe Pitt is a vampire Sam Spade. Joe's a cynic but he can't help trying to do the right thing even when it means it might cost him everything he is. Vampyres are all about politics and territory. To learn what the new drug is and who is making it, Joe must travel out of his territory, and to do that he has to have the help of Terry, who wants to control him, and Daniel, who believes Joe should take his place when he dies. Joe is a holdout not beholden to any clan but picking up jobs and living free by Terry's whim in Terry's territory.

Pitt might not be a mover and a shaker in vampyre politics but he knows when he's being used and, even knowing, he allows it to get the job done. But in the end it just might cost him more than he's willing to pay. Huston continues to develop the character and the story unfolds allowing us to see how it works -- there are no winners here. There are those who are used and those who don't realize they are being used and those who make a choice for a better chance for others.

While you could probably pick this book up without having read Already Dead; there's a lot of backstory given in the first chapters to help out with the set up. However, the first book is excellent, so give yourself a treat.

There's no happy ending, just a visit to a place that's got to be worse than wherever you are now and that's got to make this world and this reality look better just by comparison -- and a nifty mystery to boot.

I've read the Henry Thompson series by Charlie Huston as well as Already Dead. They're all really solid novels. What makes them stand out is the narrative tone that the author takes with his leads. You really get a feel for what is going on inside of their head which puts you into the action.

That being said, I wouldn't bother reading this novel without having read Already Dead. It's a vampire novel but a toned down, gritty New York almost crime noir novel. And its good. I'd say that this novel had a few rough spots but overall, you're not going to be able to put it down. It's the continuing saga of Joe Pitt. It's got a fairly well fleshed out Vampire world in New York which is fun. I'd imagine that the author is going to continue to flesh it out in future novels which I will definitely have to read.

I hate the whole idea of vampires from Ann Rice to those creepy teenage celibate movies that are out right now. But Huston is different. Huston has created a noir world full of strife and hard knocks. A world of back stabbing and double crosses. That the characters here are vampires, well thats almost a secondary issue.

No Dominion is the second of what I would say is a pretty solid series. It revolves around Joe Pitt. Pitt is straight out of the toughest tough-guy noir stories. He leads a mean existence but at his core he has a moral fortitude that stands him above his peers.

The story takes place on Manhattan. The island is divided into a few sections. The Coalition, the Hood, the Society... to exist you have to be a member of one of these groups. The group that controls the area you live in. Except Pitt doesn't belong to any group, he's rouge.

Pitt used to be a member of the Society. In order to get along, he takes a job with them again. He's tracking down a new drug that vampires use. All in all its a fairly simple story. What makes it interesting, and a little tedious, was the insanely detailed plot/sub-plots that these vampires hatch against each other.

My number one beef with this story. People would notice if (a), lots of people start turning up dead in an area drained of blood. (b), that thousands and thousands of vampires can exist in Manhattan and no one notices. But there is no way around this while at the same time holding this story together.

So Im taking away a star for long-windedness, & that vampires are a silly subject to base a story on (too many loose ends). I would suggest this series so far to anyone who enjoys hard core noir or vampire stories more than I do.

Charlie Huston's novel, No Dominion, gives fans of crime fiction something new and exciting to sink their teeth into. To get a sense of Huston's persistent main character, Joe Pitt, imagine Mike Hammer after being infected by Count Dracula. But unlike Hammer, Pitt is thrown into a fetid environment of rival vampire gangs that dominate different nether regions of New York City. The vampires live in concert with the normal Wall Street folk, feeding indirectly on bags of blood as opposed to committing mass murder and attracting too much attention.

The mystery is laid out in a straightforward fashion. Vampires are going crazy and dying from bad blood. Pitt risks his neck by venturing into warring gangland territories to find the source. Nobody seems to want Pitt in their territory as he's alienated all the bosses.

The book is written in the first person. So the reader sees the dark world through the eyes of Pitt. Readers can feel the internal struggle Pitt has with his non-vampire girlfriend. You experience the need to feed and the exclusivity of the gang mentality. The gang characters are intriguing and in some cases highly entertaining, especially the uptown African American bloodsuckers, which reminded me of larger-than-life rap stars.

The book has a couple of soft spots. The dialog is segregated with a preceding double-dash as opposed to quotes, and sometimes the dialog is confused with description when characters are speaking multiple sentences. Also the tension between the gangs, based on dichotomous political motives, seemed somewhat artificial. But these are minor issues.

Overall No Dominion is a solid book from start to finish.

Armchair Interviews says: Fans of Charlie Huston will drink up this book.

I had never really delved into the noir/detective genre of fiction until i began reading Charlie Huston. Admittedly, I've yet to begin digging around for much other good stuff, but Huston has blown me up and away.

This is the second book in the Joe Pitt series, so start from book one: Already Dead.

He's an average guy, really. Just a down and out fellow in the middle of New York. And he's a vampire. In the city there are a few clans that run their own area, and if you're a vampire you're expected to be in one of them and never be caught outside of your territory. Joe, however, is a stubborn rogue. He refuses to bow down to the politics and BS and instead settles for doing odd, morally-questionable jobs for any one of the clans willing to get him some dough or blood. He's in an unusually good spot because the clans are able to use him to fulfill some of their dirty work that would normally put them at odds with one of the others.

Now there's a new drug exclusively for vampires that's killing them by the dozens or making them insane with murderous rage. It also makes them very visible to the ignorant masses. So now it's up to Joe to cross over hostile turfs patrolled by sharp-toothed thugs and find out who's supplying the substance.

Huston writes some of the grittiest stuff I've ever read. I can taste the New York smog and smell the odors wafting from alleys and manholes. It's also extremely brutal and bloody.

One thing Huston does is avoid the cliche idyllic hero. Joe Pitt will kill you in inventive ways if you pose a threat to him. He will put a bullet in you if you make him angry enough and he won't feel too bad about it. There were even a few times where I thought "Ah, man, he didn't have to do that. . ." He's vindictive and temperamental. I think in some way it adds to the appeal of Joe, who you root for all the way. He's not perfect.

So if you need a break from the stuffy, laced lingerie world of vampire fiction, you needn't stray too far. Huston's got something for you.

The Vyrus causes those exchanging bodily fluids to become Vampyre and for the most part they are divided into two groups: the Coalition and the Society. The Coalition wants to remain underground while the society wants come out in the hopes that human scientists can find a cure for the Vyrus. Joe Pitt belongs to neither group and is considered a Rogue, one who needs blood and money for the rent and to help his HIV girlfriend get the drugs she needs to stay alive because he won't turn her.

At a bar, Joe sees a new Vampyres flip out and he ends up taking him out. Terry the leader of the society says that is happening more and more to newbies. He hires Joe to find the person supplying the drug and during Joe's investigation he learns someone has found a way to keep the virus alive in the blood outside a host for a short period of time. The newbies shoot up and get a tremendous high. The answers lie in the Coalition land not controlled by the Hood but they will do Joe no good unless he can stop the mastermind from carrying out a diabolical plan that is nothing more than a power play in vampire politics.

Charlie Huston take on the vampire mythos is fascinating, original and believable because in his universe it is a blood disease. Joe Pitt loves Evie and he takes a job that almost kills him not only for his own needs but because he wants to get the medicines she needs so she can live. He hates being a Vampyre and wants nothing more than for someone to find a cure but he believes the Vampyre groups have their own interests that come before the needs of the individual. Joe Pitt is Phillip Marlow with a blood addiction.

Harriet Klausner

Not going to rehash the plot - that's been done. It's a good follow-up to Already Dead. Joe is stumbling along and still managing to hold on to that bit of imperfect humanity left to him at the end of Already Dead. He is taking as good care of Evie as he can. Keeping a low profile.

Vampyre shenanigans make Byzantine court intrigue look like puppies gamboling, and Joe is unknowingly pulled into the center of it, to handle matters in his usual, bloody fashion.

The title of the book is interesting, too. The author quotes Dylan Thomas' poem to say death has no dominion over Joe. But I read it more to mean that none of the other clans/groups had dominion over Joe - he was a Rogue, on his own. But by the end of it, we learn that that independence has just been an illusion.

Definitely waiting for the next installment. Charlie Huston is talented and has a great imagination. The action moves along without stopping for breath. However, the story gets bogged down by a lot of exposition toward the end as the athor tries to fill the reader in on everything that happened behind the scenes and to which Joe was not privy. A hazard of writing in the first person, I guess. Hence the loss of 1 star. Still a good read. But be warned, the story is very bloody, typical Charlie Huston fare and not for the squeamish.

Charlie Huston has done it again. At first I thought I wouldn't be interested in this series. I only picked up "Already Dead" because his other trilogy starring Hank Thompson is so excellent. Vampire books don't hold a strong pull for me, but Huston's writing and dialogue is riveting to say the least. I have become a huge fan - have checked out his online site, have a memorial to Bud the cat in my room (o.k. not really on that last part!!) Anyway, I highly recommend reading Huston's works and can't wait for the next installment!

This is a very well written, gritty vampire story. I really like the characters and the "world" that Huston has created in the Joe Pitt books. This book fits into the noir or pulp genre the Huston really knows how to write. I guess the best way to describe this book is to say it's a pulp style crime novel where the character just happen to be vampires. Good read.