Book Title: The Watcher of Dead Time (The Relic Guild Book 3)
Genre: Science Fiction/Dark Fantasy
Pages: 400
Audio Run Time: 15 Hrs 57 Mins
Audio Run Time: 15 Hrs 57 Mins
Author: Edward Cox
Date Published: 18 August 2016 (E-book & Audiobook)
Synopsis:Labrys Town, home to a million humans cut off from the rest of the universe, has been invaded. Those who protected it have been deposed.
The Relic Guild are scattered across the worlds of the Aelfir. Many of them are dead or dying. The Genii control everything. The war is almost over.
Clara, a young woman barely able to control her werewolf side, has seen her friends and mentors killed in front of her. She is the last hope for Labrys Town.
But someone else is watching...
The dramatic conclusion to the award-nominated fantasy trilogy which began with THE RELIC GUILD.
Review:
The Watcher of Dead Time by Edward CoxMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the third and concluding book in the Relic Guild series. I absolutely LOVED it!
The story is again narrated by Imogen Church. She did another fantastic job in bringing the characters to life. Her ability to voice the different accents used for the various characters impressed me. I loved her speaking voice, and her reading pace was perfect.
Clara is a young woman of eighteen, who has been working as a prostitute in a brothel since the age of fourteen in the Labyrinth city called Labrys Town. I really liked her. She is stubborn and determined. She has magic in her veins, is known as a magica and is a wolf shifter.
The story continues from the shocking events at the end of the second book, The Cathedral of Known Things. The Nightshade is under the control of the Genii and the members of the Relic Guild are scattered. Their only hope is to locate Goldur Bellow, a Nephilim, who first met Vam Bam and Angel during the Genii War forty years previously. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ennis, a policeman of Labrys Town, has been tasked to investigate and locate the members of the Relic Guild. However, during his investigation he finds out that things are not as they seem.
As this story progressed, loose ends from the previous books were tied up, but new secrets were revealed. I found myself on another emotional rollercoaster ride as the story reached its zenith, then climaxed in an all out battle. Eblisha Spiral, the first lord of the Thaumaturgists and now leader of the Genii, is a megalomaniac in my opinion. I think that Fabian Moor and Mo Asherzad came to the same conclusion in the end, though a little too late to avoid their fate.
This is a unique story; the world building and character development is extraordinary. I loved the descriptions of the scenes and characters. The story has a post apocalyptic feel to it, with a hint of steampunk, which is further enhanced by the split timelines, which are forty years apart. The characters in both the past and the present are quite interesting. This split timeline shows the reader the events in the past that led to the isolation of Labrys Town from the houses of the Aelfir, and also reveals secrets hidden by a few of the characters. This story has several twists and turns that kept me hooked. There is a bit more action (as in explosions and weapon fire) compared to the other two books but, it's the storytelling that instantly pulls you in. The author has a fantastic way of describing the scenes so that you can picture them easily within the mind's eye. My only complaint is that it ended!!
Edward Cox has written a fantastic trilogy. I loved his fast paced writing style. The flow of the story seemed a little more seamless than the first book, and I was sad to reach the end. This is an author who is unafraid to kill off his characters. Although this is one of the things I find annoying about authors (they usually leave me an emotional wreck and I end up with a book hangover because of it), I will be keeping an eye out for more of this author's work in the future as he has found a firm fan in me.
Due to scenes of violence and gore, I do not recommend this book for younger readers under the age of 15. However, I highly recommend this book if you love science fiction and dark fantasy genres. - Lynn Worton
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Author of THE RELIC GUILD, THE CATHEDRAL OF KNOWN THINGS and THE WATCHER OF DEAD TIME (2016) published by Gollancz. Represented by John Berlyne of Zeno Agency: http://zenoagency.com/
Edward Cox began writing stories at school as a way to pass time in boring lessons. It was a hobby he dabbled with until the late 80′s when he discovered the works of David Gemmell, which not only cemented his love of fantasy but also encouraged a hobby to become something much more serious.
With his first short story published in 2000, Edward spent much of the next decade earning a BA 1st class with honours in creative writing, and a Master degree in the same subject. He then went on to teach creative writing at the University of Bedfordshire. During the 2000′s he published a host of short stories with the smaller presses of America, where he also worked as a reviewer.
Alongside David Gemmell, Edward's influences continue to range from past masters to current authors. Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, George Orwell and Richard Matheson, Angela Carter, Kafka, Tad Williams, Michael Moorcock, Susanna Clarke and Chuck Palahniuk - these are the kinds of authors with something to teach on the craft of storytelling, and they inspire Edward in a continual pursuit to get better at what he does.
Currently living in Essex with his wife and daughter, Edward is mostly surrounded by fine greenery and spiders the size of his hand. The Relic Guild is his first completed novel, and it is the result of more than ten years of obsessive writing.
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