The Joe Pitt Series is as the antidote to the twilight series. this is vampires done right. yes, it is a little bit of a rip-off because "Vampire- The Masquerade" had a lot of the same ideas as the setting of a pen&paper role playing game but this doesn`t matter because houston is able to create convincing characters and really good settings (a vampire barbershop, you have to love it.) a plot twisting its way through new yorks vampire infested neighbourhoods and some of the funniest dialougue I´ve ever read. Highly recommended for everybody who wants their vampires grim, gritty and streetwise.

Fantastic!

When you listen to audio books, you may begin to familiarize yourself with narrators. If you go through a series and the same person reads for you, it may be a comfort, unless of course you can't stand the reader. Gildart Jackson read the Alex Verus series and I felt that it enhanced the story, as if I wasn't being read to at all but just lost in a good tale. Ultimately I think this is what a great narrator does.

Scott Brick was probably my least favorite narrator before I began reading this series. In fact I put off starting it because I saw that he was reading. From past experience he just seemed to use unnecessary inflection and melodrama to the point where it was distracting and almost amusing.

There is none of that here. Scott Brick does a phenomenal job capturing the different voices ( both male and female ) of all of the various underworld characters in the Joe Pitt series. As far as anti-heros go, Joe Pitt may be at the top of my list and Scott Brick reads him just right.

Extremely dark and violent crime noir fiction with supernatural elements.

Got Blood?

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.

gonna be honest i don’t know what’s going on

Liked this one more than the first one (feels more "established"), but would rank it more at 3.5 stars. However, going with 4 stars because despite not necessarily loving it (i feel it could be more fleshed out, maybe a bit longer, these are extremely quick and easy reads, I almost feel as if certain history/plot developments are being kept out of these novels so they can be included in later books, I feel after two (2) books we should know a lot more considering everything that Pitt has gone through. That said, I'm going to continuing reading these so the author is doing something right!) because I will continue to read every book in this series (unless something drastically changes). I also like that this book doesn't pander to those who haven't read the first one (i.e. includes unnecessary background information that is included for those who did not read the first book), while at the same time providing enough "background" to keep make sure you remember what had happened before. Also like that the plot is moving along re: character's relationships are changing, etc. not just Pitt doing jobs for certain people. SPOILER ALERT Already Dead seemed to be more about Pitt-Coalition, whereas this book was Pitt-Society. Will the third book explore another coalition more? On to the next book...

#2 Joe Pitt Casebooks (Vampire - UF) (Books Free.com rental)

Joe Pitt, sometimes PI and vampire, is attacked in a bar by a fellow vampire who is high on drugs. What is this new drug that achieves the impossible -- breaking through the vampire virus and allowing the user to not only get high, but to go temporarily crazy and out of control?

Joe is low on money and his blood supply has dwindled, so he reluctantly agrees to investigate. Joe must travel through Manhattan's various vampire clan and coalition territories -- a highly dangerous proposition to get to The Hood, DJ Digga's domain.

This is a violent and harrowing "noir" UF. By the end of the book Joe must face impossible choices as he tries to remain a loner, not associated with any one vampire clan or society. Great set up for book 3.

Charlie Huston has a voice all his own. He’s clearly a noir writer, and clearly has an ear for dialogue. I’m a fan of Ed Gorman for the same reasons, but Charlie Huston makes Ed Gorman look like Dr. Seuss, because Charlie Huston writes about some bad-ass sons-of-bitches. Joe Pitt, a Vampyre in New York City, is one of those SOBs.

Huston introduced us to Joe Pitt in Already Dead, and he sort of introduced us to him in the Hank Thompson trilogy, since the main characters in both series are very much alike: tough, street-wise, and loyal to his loved ones. Being a tough, street-wise Vampyre, it’s hard to imagine him having loved ones, but his girlfriend has no idea that Pitt is a Vampyre, and never questions why he doesn’t go out during the day, and why he has a refrigerator with a padlock on it (though she often wonders). That she’s HIV-positive means that they never have sex, and besides, if it ever came to where Pitt has to make a choice, the Vampyre virus will take care of her illness, anyway.

Structurally, and plot-wise, No Dominion is similar to the second book in the Hank Thompson trilogy, Caught Stealing. The similarities may have more to do with the structure of trilogies than anything that Huston may have borrowed from one series to another, but to be honest, I don’t really care. I love reading Huston’s stories, because they’re gritty, realistic, and still manage to keep me engaged. Similar or not, the book is still a great read.

Be forewarned, though: The books are brutal and violent, and explicit in every detail. If that sort of thing makes you queasy, then you should probably avoid Huston’s books. If Pulp Fiction, though, seemed a little tame to you, then Hank Thompson and Joe Pitt could probably be good friends of yours. Find them, read them, and appreciate them.

No Dominion is the second book in Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Vampyre (that's how he spells it) series. And just like the novel that proceded this, Almost Dead , it is abrasive, sharp, fast and just plain messed up.

For anyone not familiar with the Joe Pitt world, here's a little refresher. Joe Pitt is a vampyre. Infected with the vyrus many years ago, he's a thug and a rouge living in NY's Alphabet City. He doesn't belong to any vampyre clan, although they all try to get a piece of him. But don't think this is just any olde urban-fantasy novel. It's not. Joe Pitt's world is messed up. There's race wars, drugs, beat-downs, random killings, and smoking. My God does he smoke. You can smell the tobacco on him and pine like he does when his smokes run out.

I've always been a fan of Joe Pitt. He's not a good man- doing things his own way, and only looking out for himself and his love. He has no qualms with killing people or watching people die. He doesn't care for societies Vampyre struggles or the politics of the surrounding clans. All he cares about is money to pay the rent, some blood to hold him over, looking out for his HIV infected girlfriend, and staying out of the sun. He's your regular guy in an unforgiving world. A world where getting you throat slit would be a blessing. A world where Vampyre's use each other as cattle and shoot up one another's blood to get high. This isn't a happy go-lucky world where the protagonist and their friends worst fear is getting beat up badly. This is a world where the protagonist will kills his buddies if it helps him out. It's the kind of world that's damn fun and entertaining to read about. Joe Pitt is not someone you would want to meet or root for, but he's so damn good at what he does that you can't help but find yourself cheering him on.

This is recommended for anyone who likes their meat cooked rare- anyone willing to enter a world that would rather kick you in the stomach than look at you. Highly entertaining.

J'aime décidément beaucoup cette série de romans signés de la main de Charlie Huston. Nous sommes toujours entre polar et littérature fantastique avec les aventures new-yorkaises de Joe Pitt, vampire et plus ou moins détective privé.

Ce deuxième roman de la série est plus politique que le premier, dans le sens où il nous plonge plus directement dans les manigances des clans vampiriques qui se partagent Manhattan. C'est très bien fait, et malgré un début qui m'a semblé moins prenant que le premier roman, la suite embraye parfaitement et donne un résultat très divertissant. Largement suffisant pour me donner envie d'enchainer directement avec le troisième volume !

I think I'm liking the punchlines at the end of the stories. I may not like the journey that takes me there (wading through Digga's dialogue was a trial in itself, though oddly as a character, I admit I liked him) but sometimes I find I'm sitting there thinking about how predictable the storyline is when at the eleventh hour the author dangles the carrot in front of my nose with a little nugget of "wait, wait, what's this? Follow me into the next book to find out".

Basically Daniel of the Enclave has my curiosity by its kitty-whiskers. I realize this makes no sense but I am tired. Guess I'll keep reading, though I'm not too invested in the characters as a whole. I'm more intrigued by the set up and the society, the clans and its rivalries.

I love Huston's writing style, especially the dialogue. I'm never confused by who's talking, and it simply fits the genre so well. However, for a series? A bit formulaic still. Either way, I enjoy the way there's so many twists and turns, like a mystery but you don't know until it's already solved and being explained to you, right there along with Joe Pitt. I also love these full-circle plots, of the ending connecting with the beginning issue. So many novels don't have these bookends (ha!) in the writing that I truly think rounds it out. The world building also continued in this book, which I find is somewhat unique in terms of a book series. I would definitely recommend it, and it is a quick read nonetheless.

Right after the noir goodness of Already Dead I dive back into the hard knock life of Joe Pitt - who has a girlfriend that he loves who is eventually going to die of aids, has made an enemy out of one of the most powerful vampyres in New York, and now finds himself in the middle of a turf war, driven by an exciting new drug that has made its way onto the Vampyre scene.

I liked the beginning of this book more than the end. The idea of a powerful vampyre drug that is making them act crazy is neat, but the execution really suffered especially towards the ending. Huston tried to put too many twists and turns and ultimately the ending came up much more convoluted than really it had to be. Sometimes simple is best, people.