After years of looking, I finally found a copy of Day Watch and Twilight Watch that match the paperback edition of Night Watch that I got accidentally years and years ago.
In brief: Night Watch, Day Watch, and Twilight Watch are the first three of a currently-five-part series by Sergei Lukyanenko. He’s—more or less—the greatest currently living Russian fantasy novelist. It’s urban fantasy; I’ve been describing it as a much better version of Beautiful Creatures set in modern-day Moscow.
It follows the standard “Masquerade” style supernatural plot line: there are Others that live alongside humans, but never reveal themselves. Light Others tend to protect humans; Dark Others tend to manipulate them for their own purposes. To prevent all-out war, the two sides signed a treaty establishing the Night Watch (composed of Light Others who police the Dark) and the Day Watch (which does the opposite). The delicate nature of the balance inspires lots of political plotting and backstabbing of an order not seen in contemporary fantasy—I’d say it’s even better than A Song of Ice and Fire as far as political intrigue goes.
The series follows Anton, a middle-ranking magician of the Night Watch with some reservations about the group’s motivations. Day Watch takes place in the aftermath of the climax of Night Watch and develops his romance with the great enchantress Svetlana, who is much more powerful than Anton. This causes a great deal of drama. Day Watch also introduces the mysterious Inquisition, who serve as the executive and judicial branches of the treaty.
Twlight Watch then follows Anton and Svetlana as they try to fulfill the destiny revealed at the end of Night Watch. It quickly spirals into a chase after a long-lost witch and her long-forgotten artifact that can potentially destroy the balance altogether.
Lukyanenko’s style revolves around a densely written main plot—he’s not as big a fan of B-plots as most fantasy authors. He’s written Anton as a character that likes to listen to music, and so many lyrics are lifted from Russian pop and rock, but because Anton is listening to them in the context of being in the Night Watch, he interprets them in non-standard ways. The books are also quintessentially Russian: characters use diminutive names frequently; vodka and kvass are both on the menu; and Anton has staunch opinions about Russian politics....
I’d regard Night Watch by itself as a 9⁄10 book, no question. Day Watch was even better, but not perfect. Twilight Watch was, in comparison, disappointing, but still somewhere above a 7⁄10. The first two books were turned into films (first Russian-made, but I think another version of Night Watch was made in the US), but I’m told that they diverge substantially from the plot and end up being pale imitators, in the way so many book-to-movie adaptations go.
After years of looking, I finally found a copy of Day Watch and Twilight Watch that match the paperback edition of Night Watch that I got accidentally years and years ago.
In brief: Night Watch, Day Watch, and Twilight Watch are the first three of a currently-five-part series by Sergei Lukyanenko. He’s—more or less—the greatest currently living Russian fantasy novelist. It’s urban fantasy; I’ve been describing it as a much better version of Beautiful Creatures set in modern-day Moscow.
It follows the standard “Masquerade” style supernatural plot line: there are Others that live alongside humans, but never reveal themselves. Light Others tend to protect humans; Dark Others tend to manipulate them for their own purposes. To prevent all-out war, the two sides signed a treaty establishing the Night Watch (composed of Light Others who police the Dark) and the Day Watch (which does the opposite). The delicate nature of the balance inspires lots of political plotting and backstabbing of an order not seen in contemporary fantasy—I’d say it’s even better than A Song of Ice and Fire as far as political intrigue goes.
The series follows Anton, a middle-ranking magician of the Night Watch with some reservations about the group’s motivations. Day Watch takes place in the aftermath of the climax of Night Watch and develops his romance with the great enchantress Svetlana, who is much more powerful than Anton. This causes a great deal of drama. Day Watch also introduces the mysterious Inquisition, who serve as the executive and judicial branches of the treaty.
Twlight Watch then follows Anton and Svetlana as they try to fulfill the destiny revealed at the end of Night Watch. It quickly spirals into a chase after a long-lost witch and her long-forgotten artifact that can potentially destroy the balance altogether.
Lukyanenko’s style revolves around a densely written main plot—he’s not as big a fan of B-plots as most fantasy authors. He’s written Anton as a character that likes to listen to music, and so many lyrics are lifted from Russian pop and rock, but because Anton is listening to them in the context of being in the Night Watch, he interprets them in non-standard ways. The books are also quintessentially Russian: characters use diminutive names frequently; vodka and kvass are both on the menu; and Anton has staunch opinions about Russian politics....
I’d regard Night Watch by itself as a 9⁄10 book, no question. Day Watch was even better, but not perfect. Twilight Watch was, in comparison, disappointing, but still somewhere above a 7⁄10. The first two books were turned into films (first Russian-made, but I think another version of Night Watch was made in the US), but I’m told that they diverge substantially from the plot and end up being pale imitators, in the way so many book-to-movie adaptations go.