| Already Dead | Contributor: Amfo | Posted: 16/02/07 | 11:21 |
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page 3 of 3 Seriously though, while the novel is incredibly grungy and set largely in back alleys and toilets where people's heads get mashed into their own vomit, this all works really well for a vampire novel. It's always been a source of some confusion why vampire books have traditionally been so coy. I mean, here's a guy who creeps into your house where you lie, virginal, atop the bedspread, the icy winds doing all kinds of interesting things to your body, and he sucks your blood. And that's it. Vampirism has always been a metaphor for unbridled lust, and now Charlie Huston is just literalising that metaphor. The Vampyres of Huston's New York (which seems curiously empty of human authorities, perhaps that's realistic) are split into Clans. Most of them are basically stereotypes: the evil drug-running, porn-king clan, the lapsed-hippes clan, the bikie clan. One group that's a bit more interesting is the Enclave. These Vampyres deliberately starve themselves of blood to achieve a heightened sense of existence - as the Vyrus becomes more desperate for a meal it further increases its host's physical abilities until they almost literally explode. Our hero Joe, as a staunch loner, is continually courted by the various clans, and this forms the overriding structure of the novel. He's out exploring some aspect of the central mystery (which we'll avoid discussing here in interests of not making the book pointless to read), but then gets shanghaied by one or other of the Clans, lectured-to, escapes, and then gets shanghaied by the next Clan. And so it goes. Joe loses his stash of blood, gets kicked around, has to endure the anger of the Vyrus, gets kicked around some more, and after a while you realise this novel is less about the unraveling of a not-especially-complex mystery, and more about this guy Joe Pitt getting his head punched in. When it comes to "immortal" characters, this is definitely the more interesting way to deal with them. Rather than being miraculously immune to bullets, punches, dropkicks and being thrown downstairs, Joe gets horribly injured every time, but the Vyrus just heals him. Joe's immortality and sketchy undead status means he's able to endure far more suffering than a regular character, and that makes for a compelling read. Really though it's just the original way the vampire myth is looked at in this novel that makes it worth your time. Huston promises us more Joe Pitt books, and this is a great first taste. The various Clans still have some secrets up their sleeves, and the central mystery of the book isn't where some rich bastard's daughter has disappeared to, or who is creating zombies among New York's homeless, it's the questions posed by the leader of the Enclave, the enigmatic Daniel: is the Vyrus just another blood-borne pathogen, or is there something more to it? Is Joe Pitt just a guy with a disease, or is he something more. (Of course, Daniel doesn't ask these questions in so many words, because he's enigmatic). Yes, the novel is a bit cute with all the swearing and the child pornography and the ex-strippers and the precocious dialogue format - as if it were an avant-garde feast for the mind that wants to be on the same menu as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Italo Calvino, instead of being a bloody and delicious midnight snack. But the fact is deep inside all of us we WANT to read vampire novels. And it's rare to find one that's actually worth the effort. This is such a book. We look forward to the sequel No Dominion which should hit shelves in July. four out of five
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