Eight Kings

The King's Watch, Book 6

By: Mark Hayden

Narrated by: Ciaran Saward

The king is dead. Long live the king.

The Mage-King of Wessex has passed away, and the stage is set for a battle royal: the richest mage in England versus the most powerful coven of witches. And Conrad finds himself in the middle.

The struggle is a civilized one at first - Lord Mowbray and the Daughters of the Goddess meet for a conference in Mowbray’s Mage Palace of Pellacombe, with Conrad, Mina, and Saffron sent to see fair play. Until first tragedy and then murder plunge the staff kingdom of Wessex into a dangerous crisis, and Conrad has to draw on all his team’s powers and his own experience to avoid a bloodbath.

The sixth installment of Mark Hayden’s The King’s Watch is a deep study of power at the sharp end, where families and clans are stretched beyond breaking point in the brutal world of magick.

Grab yourself a copy of Eight Kings, and immerse yourself in the addictive world of the King’s Watch.

©2019 Mark Hayden and Paw Press (P)2021 Mark Hayden and Paw Press

Unique story, really fun plots & love characters.

I really enjoyed this entire series. I'm admittedly a fan of series, i am one who can let myself fall into another world and feel like I'm experiencing it if the tale is written well enough. I couldn't get enough of Mark Hayden's Conrad Clarke and his pals. I keep checking weekly to see if there are more of the series on Audible. Will undoubtedly purchase every last one! And Ciaran Saward's narration is spot on. Absolutely perfect snark and the female characters are not lost in the high pitched version of a man's voice. Just a great experience. CAN. NOT. WAIT. FOR. MORE!!!!!!!

I’m giving up

Conrad’s girlfriend Meena is so annoying! In this book several chapters are written from her point of view and I just can’t stand her. I’m giving up on this series, but I’ll check out what else the author’s written as I do like his stories.

Still great and goes deeper into story

I can’t keep up with the magical politics but it’s a lot more fun than real politics. Good plot and good mystery with inclusion of diversity in great ways.

Enjoyable to a point.

In the first books, I loved the world, The Watch and The Invisible College, The author is very talented, but the books are becoming too cumbersome with endless introduction of side characters. The most interesting and fun character was Mr. Mole who left too early. I really enjoyed the books at first, but I really needed a list to keep the characters and their plotlines all straight. I started to make one and then realized that I didn't want to work that hard for books that weren't holding my interest any longer. If the author would just keep to a core cast it would be easier to follow. When my mind starts to drift away from the story, I know I am bored and need to put it down.

If the author starts a new series, I will definitely give it a try.

Couldn't Finish

This series has gone completely off the rails. I liked the first couple of books enough to keep going but the last two books have been just awful. I hate the main characters so much I wish for them to be killed off horribly. Conrad is a sanctimonious prig who treats everyone as if they are children and is always telling them what they can and can not do. That is except for his narcissistic fiance who has self-titled herself a princess. Come on - she is a criminal and absolutely not a princess. She has no business in the magical world and the way she treats people who actually do have magic is disgusting. The way Conrad worships her and does whatever she says is also disgusting. And now the author is giving her a voice and her own portions of the story to tell. Oh yea, and there are multiple times throughout the book where you are now referred to read other books to get "the story" being mentioned.

Anyway so I'm three quarters of the way through the book and I realize I have no idea what is going on and I absolutely don't care. So that's it. I turned it off.

Claran Saward is an awesome narrator and I would definitely listen to more books that he reads.

Incredibly confusing

As usual, great narration by Saward, but holy cats - this book really fell apart in terms of the writing Way too many new characters who then required way too much exposition. There was a huge amount of talking about what was going on instead of things really going on, which made parts of it both confusing and boring.

And why on earth would Hayden choose to give two of the major side characters names that are so similar? (To the point where the author has to warn us through Conrad that the names are similar! Pick something else!)

I was a little shocked to learn that the characters and their relations (to each other and to the various groups of people) are all laid out in a big chart in the print edition. That's how complicated it's become and yet listeners to the books don't have access to that information. Listening to it all in a block wouldn't be helpful, but that's a really important resource that we don't have access to. The audiobooks need to come with a link to a page we can access and refer to.

While I understand that it was fun for the author to get Conrad into a helicopter, it turned him into a cab driver and put him entirely out of the action in some very important scenes (including, arguably, the *most* important scene).

Saffron is growing on me, but I am having a hard time watching her turn into some kind of combat ninja with so little training.

****SPOILER****

And what is with this dynamic of bringing someone into the King's Watch where during their very first case with Conrad they end up killing someone? They are each understandably traumatized and say so when Conrad checks in with them, but then that's it and they are suddenly somehow ok with it, ("Join the King's Watch! Prepare to take a life! We know you are scholars, but now you're in an elite branch of the military where you should prepare to use your previously defensive - and usually only ceremonial - weapons to kill people! Welcome to PTSD!")

I can't imagine why Hayden would choose to create a great partnership with a great character - Vickie - only to put her in the background (where she stays in the next book).

Other people have mentioned that they don't like the switching of narrator POV - that doesn't bother me structurally, but I couldn't be less interested in Mina's story. I'm starting to find her annoying and hearing more from the Princess just makes it worse. The whole swastika tattoo dynamic requires constant management and has - at least to me - never been "worth" it. It's just too offensive to be relegated to a minor plot point and having to explain it just draws more attention to something that can't ever be resolved and set aside.

I definitely agree with the other listeners (and print readers) who have mentioned how annoying it is to be referred out to short stories that apparently contain some significant information. Short stories should stand outside of the major narrative - add to our understanding of some of the characters. I shouldn't need to go outside of a novel to learn other important things about the novel. I don't think Hayden does it as a way to generate more income really, but it's very sloppy storytelling.

I'm going to carry on with the series because I understand that the next one is better (and having listened to the first few chapters, it does seem like it's off to a better start), but Eight Kings was almost the end for me.

But again: Ciaran Saward is great. Given that he has to handle an incredible (and ever-expanding) number of female characters, it says a lot about his skills. I may feel like I've gotten "pulled out" of the book because of choices made by the author, but I've not felt that because of the narration. (I particularly love Hannah and Vickie.)

If there was a way to skip a book in a series without being hopelessly lost, I'd recommend skipping this one. I'm pretty lost and I read it!

aimless and pointless

I'm 8 hours into and still have no idea what going on or why it's needed. it's all politics no action. and the politics seem completely arbitrary. nothing connected to any of the previous books. completely discounted except for the maim characters