Night Watch

Watch, Book 1

By: Sergei Lukyanenko

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Set in modern day Moscow, Night Watch is a world as elaborate and imaginative as Tolkien or the best Asimov. Living among us are the "Others", an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. A thousand-year treaty has maintained the balance of power, and the two sides coexist in an uneasy truce. But an ancient prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will rise up and tip the balance, plunging the world into a catastrophic war between the Dark and the Light.

When a young boy with extraordinary powers emerges, fulfilling the first half of the prophecy, will the forces of the Light be able to keep the Dark from corrupting the boy and destroying the world?

©2006 Sergei Lukyanenko (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Brace yourself for Harry Potter in Gorky Park.... The novel contains some captivating scenes and all kinds of marvelous, inventive detail: The vampires’ seduction of a teenage boy is bone-chilling; every time Lukyanenko described the Other-worldly Twilight, I felt lured into it; and the fantastical powers exercised by Anton and his colleagues range from delightful to awesome." ( The Washington Post Book World)

"[As] potent as a shot of vodka.... [A] compelling urban fantasy." ( Publishers Weekly)

" Night Watch is an epic of extraordinary power." (Quentin Tarantino)

You must know Russians to expect mindless killing

It is not a Vampire action story about blood, and guts, and gorgeous "undead". It is not even about the victory of good over evil. If you ever acquainted yourself with Russian literature, you will set your expectations just right.

It is a though-provoking book consisting of novellas, each with a separate storyline involving the same group of characters and revolving around the same theme. It is about searching in the "grey", which is, of course, a blend of black and white.

What is good? What is evil? Do we know for sure? Should we question rules and perceptions set thousands of years ago or is it always a matter of personal choice set here and now?

You will find more questions than answers in this book. That is what Russians are all about. Always searching and not settling for ordinary and comfortable.

I loved it and will continue with the series.

PS: The narrator, Paul Michael, crosses genders and characters so seamlessly that you forget it is the same person speaking.

Interestingly Russian, but some frustrations

I'm not a huge fan of paranormal fantasy, but this novel was popular in Russia and I was curious about the Russian spin on a novel about an ongoing battle between light and dark paranormal beings, called "Others".

Set in Moscow circa 2000, the story follows an Other named Anton, who is somewhat new to the whole business, at least compared to his centuries-old peers, but veteran enough to have become a bit jaded about it. He belongs to an organization called the Night Watch, a special militia of "light" magicians dedicated to keeping an eye on their "dark" counterparts. Opposed to them is the Day Watch, which does the same in the other direction.

In a Western novel, Light would undoubtedly be trying to root out and defeat Darkness, but, here, the two sides aren't capable of defeating other directly, so they've arrived at a sort of Cold War balance of power. Since each faction's use of magic entitles the other to something comparable, both keep themselves in check, trying to win by influencing humanity instead. Also, the vampiric Dark Ones are permitted to feed on a certain number of humans each year, and, as long as they obey the rules, the Light Ones look the other way. As setups go, it's interestingly bleak and ambiguous, and the line between dark and light sometimes gets blurry.

Night Watch is really three stories in one. In the first, Anton stops two vampires from an unlicensed killing, which is to have later consequences, and discovers a young woman with a powerful dark vortex hovering over her, a woman who has potential to be a great sorceress -- if recruited to the right side. In the second story, he tracks a renegade Other of the Light persuasion, who has been killing dark magicians and unknowingly threatening the balance. In the third story, an object with great potential consequences arrives in Moscow.

The world-building is engaging, and Lukyanenko clearly put a lot of thought into the rules by which magic operates and the moral quandaries it creates. Unfortunately, the storytelling is often frustrating. Characters and their relationships are sketchy, things aren’t always explained, and I often felt a little confused about what new developments were supposed to signify. There are some plot twists, but I had to strain my memory of prior exposition to make sense of them. As often happens with novice fantasy or sci-fi writers, there's a lot of telling where I could have used a more showing.

Still, it's hard to fault Lukyanenko's imagination. I enjoyed a sequence where the somewhat sexist Anton is forced to switch bodies for several weeks with a female sorcerer, and another where magicians argue over who has the best collection of weather (samples of a place and time's atmosphere can be captured, but are lost after replay). If I didn't find the action scenes very gripping, I did like the philosophical conversations the characters have. The sense of Russian angst and fatalism is palpable. At one point, we learn that fascism and communism were originally creations of the Light side -- wow.

All the ingredients are definitely there for a great story, but if it's in this series, it doesn't really unfold in this book, which feels more like a road map for a saga to come.

6 Stars is not enough!

I'm not often given to grandiosity in my reviews of books. However, I have to depart from that stolid tradition to unequivocally recommend this book with the strongest tone.

I've lived in Russia and the United States and feel the need to convey to American readers how truly reflective this is of Russian culture. The greyness, ambiguousness of right and wrong, currency of violence, sexuality, perceptions of gender, the recognition of hopelessness and the desire to persevere despite likely failure, mysticism, and an underlying untarnished hope are pathognomic features of the Russian psyche. I recommend this book solely on the window into it. Unlike Dostoevsky or Tolstoi, you don't have to be steeped in a second-order interpretation, understanding of the Orthodox Church, or tsarist bureaucracy. It has all the idiosyncratic love and craft of a babushka's 3L jar of raspberry jam.

Stunningly, even the form of the narrative is amazing and fresh to a person who feels like they have exhausted fantastical works It is a captivating multifaceted three-part evolution with strong parallelism in setting and plot crescendo. I feel like I read a grand trilogy in one installation, without any of the fat of the middling novel. The magic system and need for a restrained balance is innovative and surpasses the genre. Lastly, it's modern time frame in the highly malleable New Russian age after the fall of communism and before the intellectually compromised recasting of Putin's Russian Federation is a sumptuous unruly setting.

The protagonist, in direct opposition to an American protagonist, is a wounded, flawed, but thoughtful person who enshrines nobility as an underdog. The things he does are not so much grand but necessary and incremental. It's the will to continue and its associated personal sacrifice thorough self-inflicted destruction, if necessary, that bond the internal motivations. Although there is fantasy, the the implausible gloss, endless pool of witticisms, and impossibly beautiful faces and souls of Hollywood are wonderfully absent from this novel.

Its closure is an opus and strongly resonant of nearly all the preceding storylines and thoughts sprinkled in the development. The unique Russian character of its philosophical exposition is foundational and could not be more accurate to the Russian dusha (soul). It's realistic characters, none superfluous, champion these philosophies and are depicted with shifting monotontality despite the premise of moral polarity.

Much like the Three-body Problem recast science fiction in a distinctly Chinese cultural frame of reference and reinvented new thoughts and avoided burned out tropes you will be delighted and surprised, dearest readers.

modern vampire and magic

what a great story of Modern Magic and vampires... Great setting to the book. love the characters of the way the story is told. can't wait to finish the second book.

This need to be adapted into a TV series now

Hollywood is lazy,make this now so many projects
sitting on the shelf it's 😭😭😭 sad

butterfly effect

narrator was great.
a cool magic system

very complex philosophy. It was interesting and confusing. eventually i just decided to wait and see what happened because it usually wasn't what I thought.
It spends a lot of time inside the protagonist's head. it would have been nice to learn a little more about the other characters. but overall a good book

Read it twice, listened just now

I've read this twice over the years. Decided I wanted to revisit it and listen while at work. I love the Narrator using accents only during dialogue. plan to finish the set. I remember enjoying all the books.

Wonderful performance of a darkly fantastic world

The story draws you in so easily that you find yourself seeing the real world in a different light.

Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys Dresden Files, the World of Darkness, or the Iron Druid series.

INFINITE GAME OF CHESS

IN THE TWILIGHT
This book consists of three stories, with Anton as the main character in each. If all I had listened to would have been the first story Destiny, I would have given this five stars. Destiny is so good I almost gave the whole book five stars. To me this was the most intelligent fantasy I have ever listened to or read. This was one of the few times in my life, that I got it! This is an infinite chess game between good and evil and both sides are right and both sides are wrong. There is some action, but this is mostly a head game. You could compare this to Simon R. Green's, In The Night Side or China Mieville's The City, The City and maybe even Butcher's, Dresden's books, only this is better, more stimulating to the brain. Some have compared SL to King. Both use scary or fantastical elements to get a message across. King message is usually political, where as SL is more psychological. SL shows how doing good can lead to evil and vise versa. That good and evil is not a black and white issue. The second story, Among HIs Own Kind, is good, but not as good as Destiny. I would give the second story four stars.

AN EXPERIENCED KAMIKAZE
The third story, All for our Kind, is bad. Anton becomes a big whiney baby. Even the characters in the story complain about his whining. The plot does not develop until half way through the story and then it is not enough to save the story.

I would suggest buying the book, but only for the first two thirds. The first story is worth your credit. If you are not enjoying the third story, quit the book. Don't be one of those who have to finish every book they start. I used to be that way, until I realized that I was only punishing myself, which was stupid.

MY FRIEND AND ENEMY
I think I will try the next book in the series, even though it goes against my rules. If I don't give the first book five stars, I don't go on to the next. If he can repeat the genius of Destiny, it will be worth it.

Paul Michael is a very good narrator and if you listen closely, he sounds an awful lot like Rod Serling. Even if you don't agree, you have to agree his talent makes this book a better listen then a read.

Brilliantly executed moral ambiguity

Shelve this one with The Incrementalists and the Count of Monte Cristo. Characters are decent, stories are well self-contained, but it's the situations that really gleam here.