Charlie Huston - Already Dead

Hello, Occasional Reader. It's been a while. Partly that's because I'm lazy but mostly it's because I haven't gotten terribly excited about any books, movies or albums lately. Plus I've gotten into the habit of instantly blabbing about anything good to my friends, who happen to be the only people who read this site. Which makes typing it up on the interweb seem fairly meaningless. But I'm back, and I might even do a short post later this week with some mini-reviews of other recent purchases.

Anyway.

I just finished Already Dead, by Charlie Huston. I started it yesterday and probably would have finished it last night if my attention span was longer, but I can't stay focused on one thing for too long; I waited for BioShock with bated breath for years and could still only manage to play it for 2-3 hours a night.

God, this is turning into a personal blog. Sorry about that.

Anyway (again).

Already Dead is set in modern day New York City. A New York City where vampires (or, as the book calls them, "Vampyres") exist. As do zombies. Stay with me, though; this isn't some schlocky pulp horror novel. It's equal parts noir detective story, Gibson-esque alternate culture and flat-out page-turning mystery. The story follows Joe Pitt, a lone wolf Vampyre, on his search for answers in an underworld populated by mysterious figures and complex alliances. We get to know Joe early on, and Huston's version of a Vampyre's life is a fresh take on the traditional Dracula version of things.

Employing a sparse first-person present tense style, Huston gets the story moving from page one. It's not quite as spartan as Cormac McCarthy's prose, but it's close. Given the general noir/hard-boiled feel, the terse verbiage is an asset to the book. In the best Gibson/Stephenson fashion, Already Dead is wild and zany when it comes to its characters. Here we've got everything from a peace-loving hippie generation bloodsucker to a former drug dealer-turned-internet porn producer who's almost as wide as he is tall.

But while the characters are entertaining in their extremes, the realities of the setting are quite practical. The day to day routine (or should that be the night to night routine?) of a Vampyre is described in simple terms that make it seem as normal as could be. Huston also dispels some of the myth surrounding the creatures, which are infected with a virus (actually, of course, "the Vyrus") and not some supernatural power. In the first few pages the protagonist, Joe Pitt, orders pizza at his local slice shop and opts for broccoli pizza, not the tomato & garlic:

I could eat the tomato and garlic if I wanted to. It's not like the garlic would hurt me or anything. I just don't like the shit.

The politics, alliances and underground movements of Huston's version of New York City are well-realized and described in detail, including a map of the different Clans' territory, but my only major gripe with the book stems from that fact. At first it seems as if Huston has simply envisioned a rich fictional universe, but as the plot moves forward it becomes apparent that every character, faction or bit of history ties back to the mystery in an integral way. None of it is there simply for flavor or to enrich the world.

When reading about an alternate version of familiar settings, I prefer some things to be hinted at and then left to the imagination. I'm re-reading the Dark Tower books, for example, and they're full of one-off references to pieces of the world that are never mentioned again. It can be a bit frustrating at times, but it also helps make it feel like the characters are part of a much larger universe. The inclusion of every bit of world fiction in the events of Already Dead makes the elements feel more transparently like puzzle pieces concocted by a writer for a detective story.

But that gripe aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was unable to put it down (at least in terms relative to my mild media-related ADD). I was engaged and curious every step of the way, and halfway through it I had already ordered a handful of Huston's other books online. If you're looking for an entertaining, fast read, I wholeheartedly recommend Already Dead.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Buy It!