Night Watch: Watch, Book 1

I wanted to give it 3.5 stars but struck out with 4 stars instead. It was fun to read something different from my typical genres. I saw the movie of night watch somewhere. Then I found we have a book about it so I thought why not read it.As I was unaware it was three portions in the one storyline book. That’s fine by me but I’m more struggling with the whole spy-labyrinth idea. I had to refresh my memory on every situation that follow up to the endings. That was a bump for me and I hate when the main character calls his boss by his full name…lit a bit annoying for me. I think it would be cool if each portion have its own full book story instead of just pieces. Imagine if the author could expand this universe with more juicy and worthwhile detours with side characters…this isn’t it.

Night Watch is the first book in a five book series which details the endeavors of the 'Good' guys (The Night Watch) to maintain the balance between themselves and the 'Bad' guys (The Day Watch – get that? Night Watchers watch the dark & Day Watchers watch the light...). Steeped in modern day bureaucracy you see, in this work, the protagonists walk the fine line between what is mitigation and interference in the human worlds day to day affairs. While doing this the Watches are party to treaties long established, other party inspections, permits to conduct themselves as their party declares, concessions, deals and the litany of red tape which you'd find in any modern day business or political dance.First published in 1998 and with a movie by the same title adapted to it which focuses on the first story in the work 'Destiny', Lukyanenko has built three stories ('Destiny', 'Among His Own Kind', 'All For My Own Kind') upon each other, each chronicling the raising and decline of the primary characters, their antagonists and those characters whom have not yet aligned with any particular faction, and all the influences and efforts contrived to have them join either party.If you enjoy fantasy / sci-fi material, more so the prior, and like a world full of bizarre rules, where the dance is played by both sides and each tries to out juggle the other, out maneuver the other, then this is probably your cup of tea. I'll grant it 3-stars in that it is, indeed, interesting. Full of strange creatures and a depressive sense of realism, call it hope, interesting heroes and villains, some woody dialogue (translation issues, maybe?) and a very decent build up to something that has a bunch of potential to be quite grand.SPOILER ALERTS:Story 1, 'Destiny': Night Watcher, Anton Gorodetsky encounters a young woman we later learn is called Svetlana. She strikes him because of the massive dark aura about and above her, a curse cast upon her by a 'dark-magician'.A short while later Anton encounters a pair of vampires engaged in an unsanctioned (w/o the proper permits) feeding. A male and female have lured a young man – Egor – to an alley where the male is intending to feed and turn his female compatriot. Anton intervenes and makes a deal w. the dark ones. He, here, espouses his knowledge base of Night and Day Watches and all their special powers (like entering the Twilight, slowing time, increasing sensations, etc.) to Egor, predominantly because he can't yet tell with what side Egor will align himself.Towards the end of the story, Anton is responsible for removing the massive black vortex which has formed above Svetlana. His mission is one in which all other previous efforts to remove a curse entirely pale. Nobody has ever attempted something of this magnitude. Ultimately Sveltana is claimed by the Light (Night Watch); she is to be a very powerful sorceress, and Egor, because he feels lied to and betrayed by Anton has been swayed to the Dark (Day Watch).Story 2, 'Among His Own Kind': A vigilante is killing Dark Ones in Moscow. Boris Ignatievich (or Gesar) the lead overseer of Night Watch, has suggested that Anton body swap with his, recently freed from an owl's body, girlfriend (in a manner of speaking), Olga. More Dark Ones are killed across Moscow and the suspense continues – is it Anton doing this as a rogue? Or is Zabulon (the overseer of the activity of Day Watch) making an effort to frame Anton for his recent slights?We soon meet Maxim, an individual who doesn't know the party lines, but 'feels' the presence of darkness, and has taken it upon himself to put an end to their presence. He is encountered by Anton during his efforts to kill Egor, because Maxim knows Egor will be a powerful Dark Magician if allowed to grow up. Gesar makes efforts to draw Maxim to the Light side and prevails.Story 3, 'All For My Own Kind': A particularly hot stretch of days, everyone is wound up, we learn some things as it concerns Russian philosophy and drunkenness. The primary aim of this segment is Anton's disclosure of his concern for the path which the Night Watch has planned for Svetlana; and his love for her. Anton realizes that his way is not the way of all in the Light. He also soon has an encounter w. Zabulon who fills him in on some of the finer points where it regards the experimental histories of human kind, and states that this is the third largest experiment in Russian history (the Russian Revolution, WWI and now this – Svetlana becoming a major sorceress, a Chosen One). In this particular story there is much ruminating upon what it means to be human and what the central philosophies to being humane are and what they, ideally, should be. 'The Book of Destiny' comes into the work, and it is in the process of being edited by Svetlana (re-write or erase), all the while Anton wants to pull her away from the whole endeavor, but can't find the right way to do 'right'. We are left w. the notion that Svetlana will change destiny, particular Egor's destiny, for the betterment of the world... but the feeling is, as it persists to be throughout the work, depressive, akin to hopeless hope for a better day.

I don't read very much science fiction anymore, largely because it has become so either repetitive to earlier sci-fi, or has pretensions to literary excellence as if it was ashamed to be group was sci-fi. Night Watch, the entire series, transcends the areas of sci-fi and urban fantasy to create a world that is full, well filled out in every way, and very much realistic without having to stretch the bounds of every day life very far.Lukyanenko's writing has a particular fascination for me I must admit. As a grizzled and somewhat nostalgic refugee from the Cold War era, the Night Watch series evokes a really rich picture of post-communist Russia. The brilliance of the author's writing really comes out in this area as it has very little actually said about the Cold War, about contemporary politics, and about the West – – especially the United States. The characters in this book boast of their sincere patriotism to Russia, even though they have little to no contact with human beings not gifted with their superhuman abilities. More interesting, the characters who have lived for centuries if not millennia, recognizing their serial attachments to nations, kingdoms, or simply geographical regions claim, rather falsely, of their post-national self perceptions. they are Russian through and through.Instead, their self-perceptions are intensely nationalistic which raises the era of the Czars, the CP (Communist Party) and gangster ridden post-Communist Russia's laughable pretensions to "democracy"as if there was really no difference in the eras. The Others as those with superhuman powers refer to themselves see Russian history as a continuous string of time in which events like the Revolution are simply part of the nation and the people that they accurately see as embattled by the rejection of every other country in the world, but which survives because of the intense patriotism of the Russian people. At the same time their references to the US are amusingly contemptuous, pitying, but they ultimately see as a nation which is easily dismissed for its childish petulance (meaning it's lack of significant history) and its population's meaningless and mindless pursuit of wealth and status. Yet the Others, no less than the Russian people, are as hopelessly addicted to Hollywood as anyone else in the world, describing their adventures in a cynical but no less sincerely longing context of American action films. Having returned briefly to Moscow several years ago, the Others well reflect the attitudes of Russians in the capital.As a review, the above is probably utterly useless to those interested in the book for which I apologize. The Night Watch series is excellent to the point of being addictive. I read Night Watch Book 1 and immediately went after the others. Just today I finished the last of the series so far (Book 5). I have read nothing else between book 1 in book 5. I think there can be no greater or more expensive endorsement that. It's a good idea to read them in order, but this is not an absolute necessity. The author takes the somewhat unique approach of structuring the books as a series of three interrelated novelettes. Subsequent volumes do not necessarily follow their predecessors. The gap between each book may be a few years, and there are references to earlier adventures, but to understand later volumes is in no way dependent on having read the earlier books.All five volumes are excellent. To me, book four was more tightly woven and intense, but each volume is excellent in and of itself. I would strongly recommend this series to anyone interested in fiction that cannot easily be identified with any particular genre. Try it, you'll like it.

Reviewing this book requires me to exercise an uncomfortable degree of intellectual honestly. Halfway through reading it, I became aware of the author's reprehensible anti-Ukrainian views and his outspoken endorsement of Russia's presently ongoing invasion of a sovereign nation. As tempting as it is to punish the author with a negative review, literary integrity guides me (as always) to judge the art and the artist separately, which would be a great deal easier if I hadn't enjoyed the book as much as I've come to loathe the author.All that said, the truth is that Night Watch is a fantastic book. The premise is original (at least insomuch as I've never come across anything similar), the story is rich and compelling, and the prose is frequently beautiful and lofty without becoming inaccessible. The whole thing does have a distinctly pragmatically philosophical feel which seems to be a theme among any translated Russian works I've read. Indeed, the thoughts and dialogue in Night Watch border on morally nihilistic, which might not be very satisfying for all readers but which I personally found extremely interesting.The protagonist, Anton, is neither a likeable nor an unlikeably character, but rather he is fascinatingly realistic given the supernatural world he navigates. The book masterfully frames the mundane and beaurocratic in a world of destiny and power, and the juxtaposition is always very clever and entertaining.The novel is broken into three "stories" which are self contained episodes, but have threads that tie them together and the events of each one build on events in the previous. It's all put together very well indeed, and I gobbled it up in a short period of time.Were it not for the author's views, I would likely grab the next book, Day Watch, but I think that is where my moral compass will have to take a stand and deny myself the pleasure in the interest of not sending more money his way.

This book was okay. The premise of a balance between Light and Dark and how it's managed was interesting, but the touble is that a truce between the two factions means that not much can actually happen. There was a lot about rules and regulations.I liked the way the story was told in three seperated "stories". So the author could focus on the events rather than getting between the events.I found Anton to be a bit bumbling...he just seemed to find himself in the middle of events and then usually someone else had to get him out of it. I guess it's mixing things up a bit to not have a fantasy novel from the POV of the super powerful young guy, but I found Anton slightly boring to be honest. Plus his catchphrase seemed to be "I'm not a field agent!", while he worked in the field. Olga seemed very interesting but she doesn't get as much page time as I was expecting.I liked the twist on the normal vampire/wizard type books, but this book wasn't for me.

Having seen the films (I've lost count how many times I've watched them!) and read the book in Russian, I wanted to check my comprehension by reading it in English. The English translation follows the original very closely. However, I was surprised that the translator/editor missed whole sentences out at times; these tended to be Anton's musings on female nature/behaviour, which were certainly not offensive or controversial in any way, I thought (such as observing female conversation style, or noticing that Ignat had left a trace of Svetlana's lipstick (from his own lips) on a drinking straw from Anton's drink; adding to Anton's suffering knowing that Svetlana, his love-interest, was slipping from his life). Overall, I enjoyed the English translation as much as the original.

This story is set in a slightly shifted version of our world but set in Moscow. Anton is part of the Night Watch which consists of the magicians and supernatural creatures which are committed to doing good. Opposing them, is the Day Watch which consists of those people and creatures wishing to do evil, or at least not to have to consider doing good. There is a balance which is the result of a treaty which means that if good is done then evil is entitled to perform a comparable but opposite act and vice versa.The novel consists of three interlinked short stories all with Anton as the main character and revolving around the machinations of both sides in their attempt to get ahead and to tip the balance without breaking the treaty. This often involves influencing innocents or people who are just coming into their powers. The structure works fine and the setting is interesting too. I haven’t read too many books set in modern Russia and the descriptions of ordinary life and references to the Soviet era definitely enhanced the reading experience for me.I did, however, find the book a bit long on philosophy and a bit short on action. Anton’s slowly awakening understanding that the clear difference between good and evil that he thought he understood was mistaken and that each side may act in ways that are unexpected to reach their goals was a bit too laboured to me. I would have liked to see more magic. I’m not sure that I will bother seeking out the rest in the series.

Frankly, I thought it was over blown, self indulgent crap trying too hard to be cerebral. Only read first of trilogy and that was plenty. Didn't care for any of the characters. It was all stuff & nonsense ending in a big fat zero.I'm going back to Terry Pratchett, he's funny, smart and multi layered, any of his works (incuding children's books) beat this hands down.