PROTAGONIST: Joe Pitt, vampire
SETTING: New York City
SERIES: #2 of 2
RATING: 3.75

How do you like your vampires? Do you want them swishing around in long black capes with bad hairdos? Do you want the fangs to be long and menacing, or do you prefer a more discreet dentation? George Hamilton or Tom Cruise? If any of these are your preference, then you are going to be out of luck when you read NO DOMINION by Charlie Huston. His vampires act and look very much like normal people. There's no one going around salivating at a juicy looking neck. The only thing that makes them different from me (and maybe you) is that they cannot tolerate sunlight, and they have a need for a pint of blood every few days.

Joe Pitt is down to a few pints, and so he desperately needs a job to replenish his supply of both blood and money. New York City is inhabited by a group of vampire clans. Joe is considered to be a "rogue" with no defined affiliation. The one clan with which he does not associate is the "Coalition". And the job that he gets brings him deep into their territory. Someone is circulating a blood product that is killing off new vampire members. After an intense high, they go bonkers and die. Joe uncovers the source of the supply, a blood product called "anathema" which is created by deliberately infecting a target and immediately withdrawing their blood while the infection is fresh.

Despite the fact that Joe is a violent man who doesn't hesitate to do what needs to be done, he also has several admirable characteristics, including love and loyalty to his non-vampire girlfriend, Edie, who has problems of her own. She is suffering a decline in health due to the HIV virus. When she asks Joe to find out if he has her blood type, he is very conflicted about how to support her. Obviously, he cannot donate his blood—he is infected with the Vyrus and cannot admit to her what he truly is.

I was very surprised to find how much I enjoyed the premise of NO DOMINION, as I am not a fan of anything supernatural at all. I would never have thought that I would like a vampire book. But Huston presents these individuals as human beings, not stereotypes. He completely avoids the clichés of the vampire genre, and adds in dollops of humor with some of the best dialogue I've read in a while. My issue with the book had to do with the level of violence against animals and humans. As the book progressed, that violence became more and more prevalent and more and more graphic. The end result was that my sympathy for Joe and his plight was negated.

Huston, very much like Eric Garcia of the dinosaur detective series, has taken a chance in writing books featuring such unusual characters. Leaving the violence out of it, I felt that he succeeded. He has taken the romantic sensibility of the vampire mythology and transformed it into a contemporary urban noir tale. I'm a big fan of his Hank Thompson trilogy. NO DOMINION, along with his first vampire book, ALREADY DEAD, just go to show that you can't beat Huston for originality.

Another fun book that gets deeper into Joe Pitt. I’m on to the next one.

The second in Charlie Huston's, Joe Pitt series about the rogue gumshoe detective , who also happens to be a vampire who plies his trade on the streets of Manhattan, in a world mostly hidden from 'Joe public'.
In this novel Joe is short on cash and fresh blood, so goes looking for work that can hopefully reward him with both. When he is employed by Terry his old friend and leader of one of the Vampire Clans, The Society, to investigate a new 'drug' that's making vampires high, it seems fairly straightforward until the investigation leads Joe north to the 'Hood and into dangerous territory.
If you love noir detective novels, you'll love the Joe Pitt series and the fact that he's a vampire and delves into matters surrounding the underground vampire network in Manhattan just adds to the fun.

I was wondering after the surprise I had reading the first Joe Pitt whether Huston would be able to repeat the gritty intrigue and clever story telling - colour me impressed! Although a very different tale to the first, he actually expands Joe's character and his relationships with his human girlfriend Evie and his tentative companionship with the head of the alternative vampire Society, Terry. There's some clichés but this isn't Buffy or Twilight, this is 90% NYC gangster/detective noir with a clever twist. The vampire world, though requiring a healthy suspension of disbelief, is kept small and quiet and doesn't want the new drug on the block messing everything up so rogue vamp Joe finds himself trekking up to The Hood (militant black vampires who don't take kindly to trespassers) via the Coalition (the people he pissed off in the last book). Along the way Joe starts to realise a lot more about the Vyrus he's infected with and that he has a part to play in what is unfolding, a man of importance to all the clans, including the creepy Enclave.
A great second novel, fast paced, gritty and fun from start to finish.

You gotta feel sorry for Joe Pitt. He can’t seem to help finding himself in serious trouble. Out of blood and out of cash and being behind on the rent Pitt needs a job. Though being a Vampyre and a Rogue it can’t be a 9-5 gig. Unfortunately he’s in the wrong place and the wrong time and a job finds him and it involves a trip Uptown.

Carrying on from the sucked dry Already Dead Charlie Huston delves deeper into the Vampyre Clans on Manhattan. Huston keeps it simple. We see it all from inside Joe’s head as follows the trail set out in front of him. But Huston isn’t a simple storyteller not by a long shot. He’s created a deep, dangerous and moral man in Pitt and throws that up against the different Clans who are more establishment than Pitt likes getting close to. And Huston plays on this tension, as well as tensions from the hunger for blood and from his girlfriend who needs him a lot right now.

Huston is a master of set-up and pay-off even if the payoff isn’t what it first appears and in most cases isn’t a pay-off at all but another set-up. Something is about to go down.

I can’t wait to get my teeth into Half the Blood of Brooklyn, which happens to be out now from Orbit.

Who’s playing?

Delightfully complex plot structure involving three different power groups utilizing our hero, Joe Pit, to achieve their ends. The double dealing subtleties catch you by surprise. It is as ruthless a game as I’ve seen depicted anywhere.

Me ha gustado incluso más que el primero. Se nota mucho más que este señor ha jugado muchísimo más a Vampire: The Masquerade Revised y eso es bueno. En esta ocasión es una verdadera intriga política disfrazada de un mero asunto de drogas, y las maquinaciones no dejan de sucederse, sorprendiendo una y otra vez.

Hay algunas cosas que no entiendo, como por ejemplo, la necesidad de Pitt de sacarse la chorra todo el rato, especialmente cuando está en territorio de Harlem, sabiendo que le van a matar por nada. De verdad que estaba leyendo esa parte y pensando todo el rato "¿de qué va este tío?" ¿Para qué lo hace? No lo entiendo. Pero el ritmo de la novela no te deja parar mucho, así que lo logra superar al final. Y los momentos de humanidad, especialmente al final, valen muchísimo la pena.

Muy recomendable, con ganas del tercero.

This series, man. It’s dark and gritty, gruesome and utterly awful. I’d never, ever recommend it to anyone. Like, ever.

But oh, man do I love it.


Reading this series has been like hiding in a closet with a bag full of Taco Bell and Chinese takeout: I’m going to regret it, I’m going to love every moment, and I’m not going to talk about it in the morning.

In a strange way, this second volume in the Joe Pitt series reminds us what life might be like without science. Joe and his fellow undead live a fairly normal life in New York City, but without truly understanding the nature of their affliction or its implications for their actions. So when a lot of young "fish" start turning up high on a heavy-duty drug -- the only one that seems to intoxicate vampyres at all -- the powers that be in the vampyre world want a quiet, deniable investigation that takes Joe from one end of Manhattan to the other.

Nobody does characterization and dialogue like Charlie Huston. This is the second book in the Joe Pitt series and I'll recommend that you read the first book in the series before reading this one (that's a given, isn't it?) I enjoyed this much more than the first book, [i]Already Dead[/i]. Though, looking back, I'm guessing that first book spent a lot of time setting up the background and major factions that will be present for the entirety of the series. Anyway, back to Joe Pitt. He's a bad ass. Every scene, every page and especially every encounter between characters propels the plot forward. Like vampires? Like Charlie Huston or perhaps never read anything by him? Pick up this series!

I really like Huston's writing style. I read his Hank Thompson series first and still LOVE it and then I read the first Joe Pitt book. It took me a while to get around to this one not because the first wasn't great but because I've got so much on my TBR list.

This book did not disappoint. I really like Huston's version of vampires. I like how he delves into the vampire society and politics. It's rough, gritty and not in the least bit glamorous and he makes it work really well. I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it to people. It is not your fluffy, romantic, fun book. Huston's writing is much grittier and 'guy' style without being ridiculous.

If you can get past the absolutely cringe inducing attempts at African American Vernacular, it's an enjoyable read.