The Eleventh Hour: 3 (The King's Watch)

Product Information

Not that Conrad has any clue about this. As far as he is concerned, getting to the church at all is going to be enough of a challenge, what with three gods insisting on wedding invitations and the mother and father of Hen and Stag parties to go first… In essence this is a short story that keeps us on the journey to find out who created (fathered) Raven mixed in with a whole series of character updates that are sprinkled around the wedding, a recap from the last installment, a stag party, and a few other items tied to Conrad's reinstatement into The King's Watch. Adrian has had a varied career working for a brewery, teaching English and being the Town Clerk in Carnforth. He is now a part-time writer and part-time assistant in Anne's craft projects.

Endless discussions, babble, and talk; in which pretty much nothing happens. Conrad, in this work, just floats along, flying, riding, and practicing his swordsmanship. No plans, no direction, just an extended holiday in which he is seen in all-too-many locations. I'm disappointed in the novel, and the fact that I couldn't, in good conscience, rate this higher than 3 stars.The narrative also continues to struggle with character development, notably Conrad Clarke's portrayal. This deficiency in character connection hinders the overall engagement and investment in the storyline. Conrad Clarke is about to get married. Could life get any better for the Lord Guardian of the North? The Codex Defanatus is sealed away, peace has been cemented in the Lakeland Particular and as far as he knows, no one is out to get him. Time to relax... The only reason I have that part of the book at 2 stars instead of 1 star is that some of it was interesting, given we're now invested in (some) of these characters - but there are large portions of it that just did not need to be in the book. On their own they may have some value, but not when that's all there is for so much of the book! And there are just too many characters to fit in a book like this. Some of them are great, others not quite so much - but even if you love all of them (AND you can remember all of them), having them all in the book just bogs the story down so, so much. It’s been a long wait since Conrad’s last adventure – catch up with all the news from Mark Hayden’s best-selling King’s Watch universe and meet old friends again.

But, as Clarke and Co. soon find out, the politics of family are much more dynamic and cutthroat than any simple election to invest a new Staff King of the 7 Kingdoms. To make matters worse, when "Conrad" referred to Mina's story, not wanting to share her take on what was currently happening, and stressing "her right to tell it in her own words" through the shameless pandering of these novellas that have now started coming out, I felt not only cheated, but bullied into being forced to read these new "sub-series" of books, whether I wanted to or not. I'm not a fan of novellas to begin with.If you felt it was important enough to publish a short story about it, than it must have been important enough to be included in the book to begin with. Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide.

This is my first Tamsin Kennard audiobook and I like her voice. Her narration works well with Ciaran Saward's in this book. Kudos to the audiobook director and the narrators!Mixed in is a story about a cook and caregiver at a posh treatment center for addicts and eventually this becomes the mystery/crime that Conrad has to solve. It's probably less than 1/4 of the overall book though. Once we get to the actual crime the book has all the great redeeming qualities of the other installments of The King's Watch. Only thing that got the book from the second star to the third. I don't like clerical errors and I think this book has more than the rest of the other books in this series thus far.