Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter - Omnibus Volume One

Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter, Books 1-3

By: John G. Hartness

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

Length: 39 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

He's the ass-kicking, wise-cracking, hard-drinking demon hunter you never knew you needed. He's Quincy Harker, and he's here to save your ass whether you want it or not. The immortal magic-wielding son of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray from the classic novel Dracula, Harker now lives in North Carolina hunting down demons and sending them back to Hell.

This Omnibus Edition collects the first 12 novellas in the Quincy Harker series. Included here are:

Year One
Raising Hell
Straight to Hell
Hell on Heels
Hell Freezes Over

The Cambion Cycle
Heaven Sent
Heaven's Door
Heaven Help Us
Heaven Can Wait

Damnation
Calling All Angels
Devil Inside
Angel Dance

©2019 John G. Hartness (P)2019 Falstaff Books

Books 1-12, Years 1-3 What the ever loving F

It was a great deal to get four novellas in each Quincy Harker book, with each book covering a year. This omnibus doesn’t just double down. This omnibus triple downs, combining the first three books for a total of twelve novellas. Nearly 40 hours for one credit. Worth it! The slight oddity is that the series arc runs through a fourth book/year containing four more novellas (the Goldy arc) Given that book four is available, why not provide the complete collection?

If you like Joss Whedon, and especially the Buffy vibe, then you’ll love this series... if the hero were Spike instead of Buffy, and Spike was more Deadpool than Angel.

The author’s weakness is subtlety and development, resulting in some “where the heck did that plot point come from” moments that hit like I was ambushed by a two by four. I also didn’t realize some characters were black (I got so much more out of Jo and momma Cass’ interaction once I figured them out) or even that Quincy looked like late 20s, early 30s until hours into each character’s introduction. That’s where spending time on the settings, character development, or maybe some interludes off the main path would have added to the story. But, I didn’t get this for my deep development, I got it because it’s a pulpy, irreverent, bonkers twist on the vampire, Frankenstein, good vs evil monster-mash genre. The writing style ensures nonstop action, machine gunning from scene to scene, and wisecrack to wisecrack.

The narrator’s performance of Quincy is fantastic (even if the voice sounds like it belongs to a middle aged man, not a 120 year old in a 27 year old body). His female voices tend to blend together, but that is easily forgiven with his other strengths.

📍Listener Tip: Audible’s organization for this series, and the author’s thing for calling 4 hour novellas “books” makes it hard to tell the proper series order … or to avoid buying duplicates. My tip is to avoid the four hour “books”/novellas numbered 1-16, and avoid the “year one, two and three” books that feature novella/books “1-4, 5-8, and 9-12.”

The series order that gets you all books without duplicates is:
☠️ Quincy Harker- Demon Hunter Omnibus (this book) (containing books Years One, Two, and Three… which contain book/novellas 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12)
☠️ Salvation (contains Year Four … which contains book/novellas 13-16, also known as the Glory arc)
☠️ Carl Perkin’s Cadillac, which is the second book labeled “book 5” instead of calling it Year Five or book 17 or any other more clear label.
☠️Inflection Point
☠️Conspiracy Theory
☠️ From here, look for the books that are at least eight hours to distinguish them from the novella/books.

Annoying? Yes! Worth it to sort thru? Hell yes!

Great Story and funny

This not a book for young adults. The swearing in this book will make your eyes water, but it does give depth to the character of Johnathan Harker. This a series that is laugh out loud funny and very dark. The Narration was simply perfect!!! James Anderson Foster narration was flawless.

Delightful performance, engaging plotlines,

pretty much listened to it every waking moment once I started it, admittedly there were moments where it felt a little repetitive but, well rounded, enjoyable characters, face paced evolving narrative and the fact that this was 12 books combined, quickly dismissed the any negative effect the notion of derivative dialogue or deja Vu I encountered. I enjoyed the witty, crude, and often times ridiculous Bangor and scenarios involving a constantine-esque, dark-gritty undertones, all while remaining firmly entrenched in its own unique and compelling roller coaster of re-imagined and well crafted revelations. A definite value for the price of a single credit, as someone who listens to audiobooks daily, I rarely, if ever can bring myself to use a credit for audiobooks with a runtime >15-20 hours. Had the omnibus in it's glorious 39+ hours not caught my eye, the antics and adventures of quincy harker would have likely remained in the great expanse of the unknown for me, and that would have been an unfortunate affair. that said, I will likely be spending a few future credits on the remaining books left out of this collection, and seeking other works from the author.

Fun to the end

I definitely did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I was sad it ended and now I have to listen to the rest!!

My new favorite author!!

this was an incredible book full of action, humor, demons and the deep South. what more could you want?!

For fans of Nightwise

This series is immensely entertaining, the writing is very creative with its images and different takes on classic stories of darkness and demons.
NOTE: THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR KIDS!! THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR KIDS!! THIS BOOK OS NOT FOR KIDS!!
I want to stress that, and that is why I like it so much! No lovey teen vampire garbage, nor is there any dramatic focus on odd pansexual love interests that have no purpose in moving the plot forward (I’m talking to you Laurel K Hamilton).
So far I find this series refreshing in that it does not fall into all the stereotypical tropes dark fantasy books usually do with explicit sex scenes or teen angst. The characters in this book almost try to make you feel uncomfortable or to not like them, or rather don’t care if you like them or not which again I find refreshing. I prefer my hero’s in this category of fiction to be ultimately much more anti-hero (think Deadpool but with demons and magic instead of mutant technologies)
For any fans of R. S. Belcher’s nightwise series or brotherhood of the wheel books, this will remind you quite a bit of that. I am not far enough I to the series to say which I prefer better Quincy Harker or The nightwise series but so far I am very happy with my decision to purchase. Anyone who had enjoyed these books and wants something similar with the dark humor and sardonic wit then I can wholeheartedly recommend RS Belcher’s two series Nightwise, and Brotherhood of the wheel. The same goes in reverse since I only discovered this series while looking for more audiobooks that were similar to the nightwise series.
Get this omnibus of all the books in one purchase you will not regret it!

first bubba now Quincy.

can't wait to check out the rest of John's books. especially when bubba meets harker.

New slant on the genre... half vampire, wizard

Half vampire wizard nephew to Dracula himself! Shines a new light on supposed monsters throughout history.

Several lapses on the author's part....remembers Lucifer is an archangel, surprised he is an archangel, then being surprised again...slap your editor. Great plot lines and situations.

WOW, SPECTACULAR!!!

Best listen so far. It totally pulled me into another world . Rich characters & funny gritty main character. Many layers and I couldn't believe how long it was, beyond with the money. It's like 5 books in one.
Action,battles, magic, scarey characters, & more.
Loved it!!!!!

An amazing deal on a very entertaining series

This collection contains the bulk of the Quincy Harker books, if you enjoy them it's a great deal! When I first began listening to the Quincy Harker books I thought it seemed a little over the top and the sarcastic tone of the narrator almost put me off. Sarcasm is a defining trait for Q though, as is his sense of humor. Q seems a bit old-fashioned (which makes sense), once I understood the character after a couple of books I really grew to love the character. The dialogue in the books is to the point while occasionally being witty or a bit funny. The stories are very creative and I especially liked how the author includes parts of the actual world into his fictional version. The narrator really sells these stories and does a great job. I would recommend these although I'd advise that you don't take them too seriously :)

Good overall but not finishing the series

First of all if you are interested in this genre there are better and there are worse but this is in the middle.
Worth on credit but barely.
Since the "book" is split into seasons I'll just say that the 2'dn one almost made me quit.
The book starts out interesting, It got me hooked. I liked the tone, funny and dark.
The basic idea is good, characters are interesting and distinct, at least in the beginning.

Then the second "series" started and it all went down the drain. It felt like the first part of the Avengers Endgame mixed with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Mummy (the 2017 marvel...).
They tried so hard to expand the universe into a franchise almost that I was thinking of giving up. Too much, too fast and in some cases almost nonsensical.
Another thing that is like many TV serials is the lack of internal consistency. In one part then tell a story then later they just change it. There were not a lot of moments like that but enough to be noticeable and also unpleasant. Like they could not be bothered to keep track of what they had already told.

Also speaking of trying too hard in some places they try to link the "universe" to another book series that i did enjoy a lot but that never mentioned anything related to this (Bubba the Monster Hunter)

Bottom line is that it's ok but barely and not something that I'll finish. I am interested in the rest but at the end it gets to be a little too much.

Check out The Dresden Files and Bubba the Monster Hunter.

Great, great, great!

Highly recommend. Great narration, story and humour. What more can I say... Oh Omnibus was good value.

Good Value for a Credit

This Ombinibus contains 12 books from the Quincy Harker - Demon Hunter series. These have previously been released separately, and also in "Year" Collections.

Year 1 (Books 1-4)
Year One is a collection of byte sized novellas, that combine into a great episodic series. Treat Year One as a novelized TV show, and you'll have a good handle on what to expect here. Characters are slightly on the tropey side, but work well when evaluating the whole book. Take some sort of Vampire Hybrid Wizard (connected to Dracula) and throw him into a modern day setting fighting the paranormal. Add in a little X-Files, some Warehouse 13 with perhaps a sprinkling of Buffy/Angel, and that's Quincy Harker. Not the most fleshed our character in the world, but it just works. Each story is different, and the characters grow and progress throughout. My only criticism would be some endings are a little weak, but the main story elements make up for this.

Will be interested to try out more of the series.

Narration - spot on. James Foster has a slight Cam Clarke vibe to him, and really brings the story to life. Fully Recommend

Year 2 (Books 5-8)
Is the Cambion Cycle a worthy successor to Quincy Harker Year One? Most certainly
Does it go out of it comfort zone? Not a chance. If you enjoyed the TV series esk reference filled bonanza that Hartness has been presented so far, then you are in for more of the same, but it won't win over any new fans.

This collection is composed of 4 books - but unlike Years Ones more episodic forma, these one join together and tell a full narrative. The overriding story arc is appreciated, and helps pull things together a lot more effectively. My only criticism would be the first story, which is a prequel. It feels a little shoe horned in, and is only really there to set up the plot of the other books in this collection

Overall - a decent read/listen

Year 3 (Books 9-12)
An enjoyable continuation of the story, Damnation carries on nicely from The Cambion Cycle: Quincy Harker Year Two. This time around Hartness has decided to mix things up a bit, and instead of the novels being mostly based around Quincy Harker, this time we get some stories from the perspectives of other characters. Its nice to see the narration shift, with both Calling All Angels, and Angel Dance having a familiar, but different feeling to them (told from the perspectives of Jo Henry and Adam respectively).

It's actually one of the Quincy Harker stories that lets the collection down. Devil Inside is a bit dull, especially when compared to the last few books that precede it.

Overall, good to see something a little different

A great listen

I received a free copy of this book and I'm leaving an honest and voluntary review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it's got great characters, a good amount of humour. Each story is very well written. the detailing and depth is superb for each.
the narration is really good.
I would most definitely recommend this to anyone.
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very entertaining

This is no great classic but it is hugely entertaining and Mr Foster is fantastic to listen to, I thoroughly recommend this, for one credit it's great value entertainment and has a few good chuckles to keep you cheerful.

This book is, however, erroneously shown as being books 1-3 when it is in fact, books 1 through 12 ! Quite a difference, and immediately obvious when you notice the run time, but Audible should change this. I will edit this review if, and when, the title is updated.

Hellishly Funny!

Superb amusing and dramatic rendering of our favourite horror characters combined with biblical themes. Worth every penny!