Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter - Omnibus, Volume One

Quincy Harker #1-3

by John G. Hartness, James Anderson Foster (Narrator)

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:

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
Running with the Devil

Genres: Audiobook, Classics, Urban Fantasy

40 pages, Audible Audio

First published November 16, 2019

About the author

John G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love.

He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles (Bell Bridge Books), the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects.

In 2016, John teamed up with a pair of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fictions “misfit toys.”
In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering.

For free short stories and to follow his activities and appearances on his newsletter, follow this link - http://eepurl.com/fV4In

Reviews

[C.T. Phipps]

QUINCY HARKER, DEMON HUNTER OMNIBUS ONE is a collection of the first three Quincy Harker collections, which already sounds like an oxymoron or at least redundant. In fact, the series is based around a series of novellas that were collected into novels that have since been collected into this huge 1369 page omnibus. If that sounds like a lot of bang for your buck then you are correct.

I actually feel guilty for getting it in Kindle Unlimited form because its such a fantastic amount of urban fantasy goodness. The full purchase price is about 10 dollars and compared to the much-much smaller books available from traditional publishers for more (I bought Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs recently for 12 dollars), it's an excellent value. I don't normally bring up the issue of price but I feel like it needs to be underscored in these penny saving pandemic times.

The premise is that Quincy Harker, son of Mina and Jonathan, is now an exorcist and demon hunter in the Modern Era. Traveling around Charlotte, South Carolina, he deals with possessed teenagers, Reinfelds, evil angels, and demonic bar keeps. He's assisted by his "Uncle Luc" who is actually the still-surviving Vlad the Impaler a.k.a Dracula and an angel named Glory.

The books are incredibly funny and entertaining, feeling a bit like the Dresden Files but with an even more frantic and entertaining pace. Quincy is a deadpan snarker who takes absolutely nothing seriously but he has the benefit of being genuinely funny, unlike many similarly sarcastic irreverent protagonists. I also like his relationship with Detective Flynn, a woman somewhat similar to Karen Murphy but having a much faster paced relationship.

The mythology of the world is simple but efficient with demons being eccentric but menacing while angels are distant but ultimately good (unless they aren't). We also get a bunch of Victorian novel descendants and folk mythology characters. This starts with the characters of Dracula being real is only the beginning as we soon meet descendants of John Watson and John Henry too. I'm especially fond of Gabby Van Helsing, who is a psychotic Buffy the Vampire-slayer analog that I wanted to see more of.

The Quincy Harker series benefits from being primarily novella based. Oddly, I'm going to make a comparison to the Witcher. As much as I love the novels, I think it's a commonly held belief that the short story collections are the best of Sapkowski's series. Similarly, these stories are at their best when they're short entertaining works of our sarcastic hero versus his demonic foes. Like a somewhat goofier Hellblazer.

Generally, I prefer the more grounded Quincy Harker adventures with him versus smaller scale threats than his attempts to prevent the apocalypse or a peculiar quest to find missing archangels. I call this the "Supernatural Paradox" which is based around the premise that the best episodes of the series were season 1-5 with everything afterward being best when they're doing standalone mission against vampires or monsters of the week. The mythology grew too much and loses some of its power when events are too global.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend getting the Omnibus that contains the first three "years" of writing about Quincy's adventures. They're well-worth the price and while I don't much care for the larger metaplot at the end, I absolutely love the characters as well as their interactions. There are a lot worse ways of spending your afternoon than dealing with a guy who figures the best way to defeat a warlock he can't beat is to summon an even bigger demon than the one his foe has.

[Erin Penn]

Hartness' method of publication can get a little confusing. He publishes short stories and novellas as he completes them for his Bubba the Monster Hunter and Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter series. Once he has enough in a pack, he republishes them in "Year" collections.

Quincy Harker has been completed through Year Four, plus one novella for Year Five at this point (December 2019).

This Omnibus gathers Years One through Three - or, Stories One through Ten plus two related Shadow Archive volumes. As eBook pricing go, this is a steal. The hardback is nice if you want to tradeout your eBooks for something you can read when a battery dies.

I found the Quincy Harker gets better and better with each Year. Initially (Year One) the story was a standard Urban Fantasy, but now the characters are well-rounded, the mythos complicated, and the plots tangled.

[Trish R.]

What an awesome series. I thought I was buying the Kindle and audible version of the first 3 books but boy was I surprised to get the first 12 books. Well, not books, rather novellas. Still I was surprised when I checked and there was over 1000 pages. And I enjoyed every word I read.

I couldn't help but adore Quincy Harker and all the strange and wonderful characters who fought to clear the world of demons, from Quincy's "uncle" Dracula to the Archangels to Quincy's Guardian Angel, Glory, to all the famous relatives from throughout history. To Lucifer himself.

No romance and the F-bomb was used 834 times.

As for the narration: Just phenomenal! James Anderson Foster gave everyone their own voice and his emotions were simply incredible.

[Rhys Causon]

I’m not surprised it took me almost a month to finish these stories because some of the images painted in my mind by the prose are often nightmare inducing.

That being said, I loved it. I always enjoy supernatural hunter stories like this whether they be the Monster Hunter International series or Bubba The Monster Hunter (written by the same author and I know has crossed over with this series, it’s what lead me here in the first place). Just the sort of stories I love and right from the start of book one I knew I was going to enjoy this characters point of view. Or at least find it interesting.

[Jennifer Butcher]

If I could have given this a 3 1/2 rating I would have but I was feeling by the end that I would be willing to read more about Q so I went with 4 vs 3. This story can be a bit predictable and the authors choices for side female characters (and there are a lot of them) is VERY predictable (all incredibly hot humans who can still manage to stand toe to toe with supernatural beings). It is still an entertaining story and the profanity can swing from being hilarious or feels like it’s from a teenager.

[Shannon]

I started this today. This is freaking hilarious! Lots of profanity perfectly placed! I laughed out loud, at work! I couldn't help it, just comedic writing. This is a straight up kill-or-be-killed, action packed, no warm fuzzies, laugh out loud kind of read! I am absolutely loving it. The deaths are quick and skimmed over, but I am still enjoying the read/ listen!

[John McDonnell]

Thoroughly entertaining. Though I would have thought that the narrated version would have given Harker a more European/English accent. Still aside from that minor quibble the book is entertaining, the death of side characters annoying, but acceptable I guess. I have enjoyed the listen/read.

[Alisia Soles]

Great read

Full of sarcastic profanity and rude comments, these books deliver exactly what you want: tons of action with a cast full of great takes on old monsters.

[Dom Graham]

This is a great series! Though, I feel like I need to read something a little lighter before I continue! LOL!

[Dorothy Bujewski]

Good read

This was a suggestion from Amazon. It was a very entertaining series. Comparable to the books Shayne Silvers or Orlando Sanchez or Jim Butcher

[Mark Wilcox]

Hartness is an amazing writer and he found a great narrator.

[Kimberly]

Ha!

[Hanna66]

Fast & Furious

These are great books, in spite of the poor proofreading. The characters are fun. I’m looking forward to finishing the series!

[N.L.]

Excellent stories, characters, and adventures! I'll be reading more from this author for sure! Narrator for this is perfect too.

[Anne]

Loved all these stories, but mostly the ones featuring Harker as the main character. He is a great character! I laughed so many times. The other stories were good but didn't have the humor.

[Nic]

Great collection of stories! humor, story lines, characters on point! Narration is great! Loved seeing all the different classic characters involved in the story.

[Tish Lott]

Keep trying to read all of it, the whole series

Why can't I get all the books ? I've paid stupidly over lapping books trying to get to the last one

[LaDonna]

I learned of this character from a crossover with Joe Ledger by Jonathon Mayberry. I liked that story, written by John G. Hartness and figured this would be a good book. I wasn't let down. I liked the story line and wasn't left disappointed at the end. Listen to it if you can, the Narrator gave a wonderful performance!