The Steady Running of the Hour

A Novel

By: Justin Go

Narrated by: Steve West

Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

A quest novel and a historical tour de force, The Steady Running of the Hour unravels a tale of passion, legacy, and courage reaching across the 20th century.

In 1924, the English mountaineer Ashley Walsingham dies attempting to summit Mount Everest, leaving his fortune to his former lover, Imogen Soames-Andersson - whom he has not seen in seven years. Ashley's solicitors search in vain for Imogen, but the estate remains unclaimed.

Nearly 80 years later, new information leads the same law firm to Tristan Campbell, a young American who could be the estate's rightful heir. If Tristan can prove he is Imogen's descendant, the inheritance will be his. But with only weeks before Ashley's trust expires, Tristan must hurry to find the evidence he needs.

From London archives to Somme battlefields to the Eastfjords of Iceland, Tristan races to piece together the story behind the unclaimed riches: A reckless love affair pursued only days before Ashley's deployment to the Western Front; a desperate trench battle fought by soldiers whose hope is survival rather than victory; an expedition to the uncharted heights of the world's tallest mountain. Following a trail of evidence that stretches to the far edge of Europe, Tristan becomes consumed by Ashley and Imogen's story. But as he draws close to the truth, Tristan realizes he may be seeking something more than an unclaimed fortune.

The Steady Running of the Hour announces the arrival of a stunningly talented author. Justin Go's novel is heartrending, transporting, and utterly compelling.

©2014 Justin Go (P)2014 Simon & Schuster

strong start - but I want all those hours back!!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The author wove a compelling story - or rather two compelling and extremely detailed story lines. Sometimes it seemed a bit long but it all seemed worthwhile as I was anxious to learn what happened to all the characters. Well, the author doesn't tell you. He does not resolve either plot line - and leaves huge holes in the stories at the very end. After listening for hours and hours and hours... I have no idea what happened. So if Audible still lets you return books that are profoundly unsatisfying I will return this one. That said, the author is clearly a talented writer. If his next effort actually includes a conclusion worthy of the story I will read it.

steady wasting of my time

Had to speed up narration as the reading is painfully slow. i kept loosing interest. once i got into the story I wanted to know how it ended. Now I'm finished and I still don't know but not "don't know" in a good way. i won't read anything else by this author as I feel he cheated me.

Tedious

Overly long and found characters immature.
Speeding it up helped.
Interesting weaving of time frames

Pretty Disappointing

After living with these people for so many hours and finding the whole thing pretty interesting when I got to the end I thought my iPhone had skipped something. To end with an "oh well, it didn't work out . . ." is, I believe, pretty inconsiderate of the author. I can imagine all sorts of possible reasons why this might be so, but that's not my job. With all of this laborious sleuthing and traveling and unbelievably serendipitous meetings that Tristan went through I don't think it's asking too much for a little more explication at the end. Or am I being too prosaic and unsophisticated? I wasn't that crazy about that French Chick to begin with and she just came off as a petulant whiner. Their story was not developed sufficiently for me to care very much whether or not they ended up together.

Steve West was terrific and made the hours go by luxuriously.

Disappointing

Disappointing

Too many loose ends
Very poor characters. Wouldn't recommend as it rambled on too long. Wish I had moved on.

Terrible ending

Interesting story but no closure. I’m not one of those readers that want to make up my own ending!

Promising writer, uneven debut novel

What made the experience of listening to The Steady Running of the Hour the most enjoyable?

The prose is beautiful and the subject matter -- World War I, the early days of Everest expeditions, a mystery inheritance spanning generations -- is interesting.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I don't think all the lose ends were tied up. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it did leave me with questions that I wanted answered. Of course, this probably was the author's intent.

Which scene was your favorite?

The meal scene at base camp in Everest. Something about the camaraderie of the men touched me. Especially since they were engaging in something far less destructive than war.

Any additional comments?

I felt there were one too many coincidences and the motivation of Imogen bordered on the irrational. Since the separation of Imogen and Ashley is one of the most significant events in the novel, the fact that it didn't seem realistic took away from my listening pleasure.

All this said, the author writes well and I look forward to seeing what he does next.

Worth the listen

A great story with plenty of interesting parts in it. The reader did a fantastic job.

Sigh

I really wanted to like this book. I should have liked this book. But I simply couldn't. The characters lacked any depth. The end was incredibly unsatisfying. Who ARE these people and why do I care about them?

A build up to nothing!!!

I get the ending, but let's hear it first hand! What exactly happened to the money? I need real closure, not just insinuated.