The Night Watch (Watch, Book 1)

A different approach   December 2, 2008
This is an original fantasy novel. The war between light and darkness finds a very different approach in this book. I highly recommend it for those who are bored of the same type of vampire stories and are looking for something new.

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Dresden files meets harry potter.   November 23, 2008
Dresden files meets harry potter, sums up the style of this book. A book about wizard & vampires.
The writing and the story are very good. However I didn't like the characters much. And being unsympathetic to the lead characters made the book a disappointment, as everything else about it is very good.

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Fantastically Russian   October 2, 2008
Night Watch is a good read, at a good pace, with a really excellent lead character. I read the book after seeing the movie, but before learning that the American version of the movie was heavily butchered due to movies execs worrying about how the movie would translate. After reading this novel, I'm anxious to find the "real" version of the movie and watch it properly, and I've got the next two books at the top of my reading stack.

The biggest part of the novel for me wasn't the action or the plot specifics or even the secondary characters, but Russia itself and the classic Russian lead of Anton. Other reviewers say the book is a bit plodding- I felt this was an excellent portrayal of the general malaise of a post- Cold War Russia. Some say that Anton is a weak hero- He drinks himself nearly to oblivion and rants about the terrible misfortune of his life, what could be more Russian? I wound up wanting to share some vodka with the guy because I could picture myself in the same shoes, under this bizarre set of circumstances.

It's that sense of mood, and of Russia as a wonderful backdrop, that this story becomes possible. The book is actually divided into 3 novellas, each comprising a separate story rather like a set of serials. Even then, this book as a whole leaves most questions unanswered, and this is a good thing. You only ever get to know just as much as Anton knows, and throughout the book you're only experiencing things from his perspective. The book is in three novellas because that's how Anton lives his life- one story after another, and he tries his best to wash his hands of the last event before he winds up in another one. You join almost in medias res because Anton rarely bothers explaining or planning, he just tries to make do with the situation he's handed.

All in all, I can't recommend this book enough. Sure, I've barely mentioned the fireballs and the werewolves and the amulets and the computer databases. Everything combines to make a wonderfully now, fantastically Russian, yet somehow completely mystic setting where there's this whole world we can't see right in the middle of our own, and in some ways it's not much different from our own. But all of that is really secondary to the setting, and the wonderful ride as we follow Anton around in his work.

Definitely pick this one up. Just understand that you're getting less of an epic adventure (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings), and more of a socio-political drama (War and Peace comes to mind for some reason). The book still has a lot of interesting combat and magic and suspense, but it doesn't meet the usual definition of a page-turner because of Anton's more melancholy take on things.

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Psychological fantasy   September 30, 2008
THE NIGHT WATCH by Sergei Lukyanenko is the first book of the Night Watch Trilogy set in modern-day Moscow. The fantasy tale carries the voice of a young man named Anton Gorodetsky who belongs to a magical force called the "Night Watch" that protects humanity from the "Day Watch" consisting of vampires, werewolves, witches, and the list goes on. At the beginning, Anton is a low-level but apparently an important member of the Watch (he just doesn't know it yet) and is about to be sent to the field for a mission although he is not a field operative.

Anton is one of the extraordinary humans called the "Others" who live and work alongside humans. As an Other, Anton can enter in and out of another dimension known as the Twilight. When an Other comes of age, he or she must choose to join the Light or the Dark side. This is the case for Egor, a young boy who got himself into trouble when a vampire 'calls' him (he's about to become 'food'). Egor is a young unfledged Other (he doesn't know it) and his time hasn't come for him to choose sides. At the same time of the Egor incident, Anton is to find a woman who is under a Dark Magician's curse. She's a beautiful and innocent doctor named Svetlana, also an uninitiated Other who potentially possesses great magical powers.

Another thing to watch for in the story is that each side--the Light and the Dark--honours a treaty to ensure that the opposite side is not violating the terms by interfering illegally with the direction of human history. The story gets a little bit philosophical and in my humble opinion, makes a tedious read as it keeps emphasizing most of the time, on the importance of maintaining this balance of power.

The book has three parts. I was excited upon finishing part one of the story but as part two and three unfolds, I got a little tired. Still, it makes an interesting read because of the modus operandi of the Watches, the other-worldly Twilight that will happily make any of the Others a permanent resident should they ever commit something wrong, the emotional conflicts and struggles between good and evil, and a host of other supernatural stuff.

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Loved it more than the movie   September 4, 2008
The book is really a compalation of 3 different stories rapped into one. It does follow Anton's life mostly but the other characters are more prevalent too. You learn a lot more about the others and the reasons for the fuding than what the movie gives you; that is from the Night Watch (Light Others) perspective. i just liked the character development and the characters themselves so much more. actually the movie took the different stories and then just plopt Anton into the major character role. highly recommend, it starts off slow but that's most first books in a series.
*Semi Spoiler Alert* For instance it wasn't he that went to the witch to kill his ex's unborn child and said child doesn't end up being his either.

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