A descendant of both African slaves and Celtic Warriors, Quincey Morris was marked at birth as belonging to both the world of men and the realm of spirits. Raised on the brutal Texas frontier and trained in the ancient ways of magic by his Apache shaman godmother, he is the heir of many bloodlines. Now he travels the world with a Colt "Peacemaker" on his hip and a fated Bowie knife on his belt, destined to hunt the nameless evils that dwell in the dark.
When Quincey’s path takes him to Victorian London, he is asked to join a desperate hunt for the greatest evil he has ever known: Count Dracula. Though his aristocratic companions may view his mixed heritage as a weakness, only Quincey possesses the spiritual sight to see the vampire for what he truly is—not just a beast, but a formidable conqueror who has survived for centuries.
Amidst doubt and danger, Quincey finds an unexpected soulmate in Mina Harker, a woman of fierce intelligence and a spirit that refuses to be tamed. Though she is married, they are soon bound by a love that defies the rules of Victorian society. When Dracula attacks Mina, Quincey must lead the vampire hunters through Europe in a race against time to save the love of his life from eternal night.
For the most part, this was a solid enough if troubled story. What works incredibly well here is the immensely effective and engaging central setup where it tries to take a classic story and integrate some special elements into it that take on a life of their own. The dual-pronged story, with the original parts in the first half involving an introduction to the life of the title character and his original background, is a fantastic turn, making him come off as a warm and intriguing character with his own code and ethics that come about with his type of upbringing, tying everything together. It creates a series of skills that will come into play later on when it changes gears to introduce him, and a gang of vampire hunters get involved in a take of the classic story, featuring his interactions with the same characters in the story as a great alternate perspective version of what's going on.
The second half, which is the infusion of the character into the world of the classic vampire story, is where this stumbles slightly. The action and involvement of the characters together are handled well enough, making him fit the role of the nominal hero quite well as he handles the fight against the vampire from carrying out his plan to turn the woman into his vampire bride. The stakes are intriguing, and everything is handled well enough as they try to set this plan in motion to stop him, but far too often, this section relies on outright changes that don't always work. The colloquialisms that are employed are hardly ever period-accurate, far too much of the personality and characterizations done to the personalities here is changed, which might be personal quirks rather than anything else, and there's little context for who most of these people are, as it relies on being familiar with them instead of a genuine issue, but these do impact it somewhat.
4/5
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