Customer Reviews

The Day Watch

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just finished reading Day Watch the sequel to Night Watch, with another installment on the way in English.

Night Watch: A Novel

For the unitiated:
The Watch Series focuses on the agencies of light and darkness (good and evil if you will, though the tags are not entirely appropriate for this series). The Night Watch are agents of light watching over the practitioners of the dark during their preferred hours. The Day Watch are agents of darkness watching over the practitioners of the light during their period of the day. Their goal is to make sure that neither side tips the scales of light and darkness in their own favor in their over-reaching struggle for the fate of the world.

The over-reaching fantasy mechanism is the existence of "The Twilight" is the magical realm parallel to our own which the "Others" have access to. Emotions and the spiritual essence of the world fuel the Twilight as light, or dark energies (happiness or grief respectively). An "Other's" ability to manipulate this emotional energy in the Twilight defines his or her ability as a light or dark magician. Various creatures of myth appear (werewolves and vampires) mostly as denizens of the darkness, but one can imagine there are an equal number of light creatures waiting in the wings that just don't get any page-time.

Overall Lukyanenko writes with a calm sensibility for the horror genre, these novels don't reek of the leather jacket cool of Shadow-Punk pop-culture much similar modern-day horror is riddled with. These novels have qualities similar to William Gibson's work in his seminal Sprawl series. Both share a touch of Raymond Chandler's gritty and personal story-telling mixed with a fully realized fantasy world of their own genres without a touch of sentimentality. Lukyanenko also brings a post-communism Russian feel to the stories that remind me slightly of the Salman Rushdie novels, in which the fantasy is a window into a culture re-inventing itself after political upheaval. Lukyanenko mostly avoids destroying the magical illusion with overly scientific explanations of how it all works, thus keeping much of the magic alive (Writers note: The trick isn't fun when you know how it works. This is what ultimately bogged down the vampire series by Anne Rice. JK Rowling in the Potter series does this best in the contemporary set, just letting the magic be magic following in the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis).

Lukyanenko paints in shades of gray over the motivations and actions for both the light and darkness as they wage their battles over the fate of Moscow and ostensibly the rest of the world. The light represents order and obligation and darkness representing freedom and individuality. Where these qualities taken to extremes, allegiance to good and evil fades away into the background and the stories illustrate those distinctions as being more similar than different.

Day Watch:
Day Watch picks up after the events of Night Watch focusing more on the point of view of the Day Watch agents. The names and events from the first novel are heavily referenced in the second, which makes the novel very enjoyable as a sequel but possibly impenetrable to a reader whom has picked the second novel up without reading the first. As with Night Watch, Day Watch is separated into three novellas within the novel. Each novella works from one to another sequentially in time as pieces of intrigue leading up to the finale. The prose flows fairly easily enough, but there are times when the exposition goes on a bit too long detailing the characters motivations like a re-iterating villain from the Speed Racer cartoon.

The settings are beautifully described and really come alive (similar to the Harry Potter Series). The first story takes place at a youth camp Artek (I assume this is a famous camp from communist years), where a young dark witch has been sent to recover from a particularly pitched battle against the light. The witch recalls her own youth (though she is barely an adult herself) against that which she sees in the camp, through the alien eyes of a mere human (as she has lost her magical powers). This is a very personal story where she has to evaluate the value of her life dedicated to the forces of darkness (freedom and individuality), and whether that has compromised her freedom as an individual. The author clearly loves the places that he writes about and knows them well.

The second story takes place after the first, and is placed firmly in Moscow as a mysterious dark magician shows up with tremendous power and no memory. The story flips from the magicians point of view, to that of various agents of light and dark while the dark magician struggles for his purpose, and his entanglement in the politics of light and darkness. The gritty mystery unfolds while battles rage all around this stranger to Moscow who had attempted to mind his own business. A beloved character is lost to the light which will certainly disappoint fans of the series.

The final story ties all the threads together (same story telling mechanism as used in Night Watch) where all the pieces fall into place for both the light and darkness. The Chess metaphors are a over-used and heavy handed (we got it, people are being manipulated like chess pieces as part of a political intrigue.) but the story is still quite readable. This last story is told more from the point of view of the Night Watch agent Anton (the leading man of Night Watch), and the Day Watch really only gets 40% of the page time in this last piece. Day Watch and Night Watch agents are sent to the Tribunal's offices in Prague to argue respective cases regarding possible upsets to the balance between light and darkness. Not much else can be said without spoiling the endings of the previous stories so that's that.

In the end Lukyanenko really puts a lot of effort into rationalizing the actions of both sides as being neither good nor evil. Though he is clearly rooting for the side of the light. I kept coming back to find out what the next twist in the plot would be. This book is good reading of a refreshing author in the contemporary gothic horror genre. I would recommend any horror fan pick up both Night Watch followed by Day Watch. I didn't think that Day Watch stood on it's own without the support of its predecessor but is a very good read.

This was a very solid continuation of the story laid down in Night Watch. However, the angle is usually from the agents of Day Watch - the agency that the Dark Others serve in to police the Light Others.

Though it is divided into three parts like Night Watch, it does not follow a single character throughout. The first story follows Alisa Donnikova as she falls in love with a Light Other. The second story is told from the perspective of a mysterious Dark Other and involves the theft of the Fafnir Talon. The third story though lacks first person narrative and is split between Edgar, an agent of the Day Watch, and Anton from the Night Watch.

Though told from the 'opposite' perspective, the stories do have plenty of intertwining with the Night Watch which will reward those who read the first book. I had mistakenly thought that this was set chronologically behind Night Watch and also thought mistakenly that it would be a boring complicated love story. I was happily surprised with plenty of action and the twists and in-depth plotting characteristic of the first book.

I found this an engaging and enjoyable book, though it lacks the character developement of Night Watch by switching and even eliminating narrators. Perhaps my biggest regret is having to wait till June for the third installment (and a much more agonizing wait for the fourth one).

I definitely recommend this series, but I would NOT call it a horror, nor should you expect to be scared while reading it. The Night Watch series is clearly dark fantasy. Really enjoyed Day Watch - very happy to see Anton up front and center again. BUT, I'm still a bit unclear on WHY Anton? I feel like the author is holding back and big things are expected from him. He's incredibly intuitive, but I'd love to see him realize what I think is his full potential. I loved learning more about Edgar from the "other side". Curious to see the path he takes that was laid out for him at the end of the story. Gesar and Zabulon - ooh, the games those two play! And Igor and Alisa - loved it. I felt like I was back at sleepaway camp falling in love for the first time all over again. The author hit that nail directly on the head!! Highly recommend this book, and book 1!! It'll be sad to read book 3 and see it all end...

Lukyanenko wrote a book called Night Watch. It was made into Russia's most succesfull film. Because of this success Night Watch was translated into English. Day Watch is the follow up.

The world portrayed in both books is one in which magic exists. It is a world in which there are vampires, werewolves and magicians. In this world there is a ongoing struggle between " the light" and " the dark". At a point in the past this conflict could have potentially destroyed the world. As a result a treaty was drawn up to restrict the use of magic and to licence the activities of vampires, werewolves and the like. Two organisations have been set up to monitor the working of the treaty. The Night Watch which is staffed by Light Magicians and the Day Watch which is staffed by Dark Magicians.

Night Watch was a book which was really a series of interlinked short stories. It was told from the perspective of " Anton" a White Magician. The novel Day Watch starts with a witch from the Day Watch visiting a resort to rest after a battle has destroyed her powers. It explains her perspective.

If the book had been American it would have been a conflict between good and evil with evil defined as a desire to impose malicous damage. This book is different. The Night Watch are social democrats. They believe in using their power to intervene posatively with humanity to achieve good outcomes. Prevent natural disasters, stop airplane crashes and the like.

The Day Watch are libertarians. They do not particularly desire to harm others but they are indiferent if their actions hurt others. They are committed to the idea of freedom and the freedom to do what they like. Their freedom can be something detremental to humanity as a whole.

The book is obviously reflective of the problems faced by Russia since the collapse of communism in the 90s and the responses to the predicement of that country.

It is quite a readable book and even things like science fiction and fantasy are interesting as they say a good deal about the country that produces them.

In this, the 2nd book of the Others' series, we are again treated to three separate, yet intertwining stories: first, the young Dark witch Alisa loses her powers in a struggle over an illegally practicing Dark witch and is sent to Artek (the most elite of the camps for the Young Pioneers during the Soviet era) to regain her strength. There she falls in love with another of the camp leaders ... *edit* and I've been told I left in a spoiler here - sorry! *end edit* In the second story, a Finnish group of the Dark Ones called the Brothers of Regin steal the mystical Talon of Fafnir and attempt to bring it to Moscow. Vitaly Rogoza, an Other who seems to have lost his memory and is gradually gaining it back, along with stronger and stronger powers, gets in the line of several murders, causing the Light Others to attack him. There is not much more I can tell about this story without completely ruining it - you will simply have to read it for yourself. In the third story, we are treated to a gathering of the Inquisition to determine the guilt or lack thereof regarding these events.

This story is told more from the point of view of the Dark Ones, which is very interesting in that it seems to show that most of the scheming and problems are caused by the Light Ones, because of their misunderstanding of the ultimate goals of the Dark Ones, and their refusal to even try to understand. The Dark Ones are shown to only wish to live their own lives in freedom and do as they wish as long as they don't infringe on others' freedoms - which is very similar to the witches' creed "An it harm none, do as thy will." The Light Ones, however, believe that everything the Dark Ones do is a direct attempt to "start something" and/or as lies. It is truly a tragic situation.

The addition of many references to Russian pop culture means that there will be little bits and pieces here and there that people who aren't familiar with Russian modern culture might find a bit abstruse; however, this does not lessen the enjoyment of this very well-done book. I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking works, epic stories about the struggle of Light vs. Dark, paranormal alternate history stories, or just a good book.

This is a fantastic book. I really enjoyed the first novel and eagerly anticipated the second. I wasn't disappointed, though it jumped around a bit. Not quite as good as the first, but just fine. Very good read.

Another collection of 3 stories that tie together in the end. Told this time from the Day watch's Point of view, we get a better idea of why or how the Dark works. They are not evil as insinuated in the Night Watch, they are more committed to allowing people freedom of choice even if it means someone gets murdered in the process.
This book gives us more sympathy for the Daywatch and we get to see the people behind the two sides we saw in the first book. Well Written and a delight to read.
10/10

I was a pretty big fan of Night Watch so I was very excited about the Day Watch translation coming out. And I definitely was not dissapointed.
I truly believe this book is much better than Night Watch. I think the translator really improved and the writing is at times beautiful.
The story is mostly first person, with 2 different narrarrators for the first two stories. The 3rd story is mostly third person, and throughout there is some third person mixed in to show both sides of the plot.
I could not put this book down and finished it in record time. Now I can't wait for Twilight Watch (or Dusk Watch, whatever they're deciding to call it). I highly recomend this.

The previous book left us with an unbalanced Moscow. The forces of Light gained a powerful ally in the form of Svetlana Nazarova, a potential Great Sorceress. Even before she knew she was an Other - one of that mysterious class of beings who can work magic, who can curse, bless and change their shapes - she was able to create a curse that very nearly destroyed Moscow. She, and the city, were saved through the bravery of Anton Gorodetsky and the Night Watch, who guard against the excesses of the forces of Darkness. In the end, the Light prevailed.

But this battle between Light and Dark is far from over....

As with The Night Watch, this volume contains three books. In the first, a young witch named Alisa Donnikova has overreached herself. In a fight with the Night Watch, Alisa poured every last drop of her magical energy into supporting her fellow Day Watch members, an act of selflessness that nearly cost her her life. Burned out, she's directed to take a break at a children's summer camp in the Crimea. Posing as a camp counselor, she would be in a prime position to feed off the nightmares of impressionable young girls.

A word about Others and their powers. The foundation of an Other's power comes from humans. While any Other has her own reserves to call on, she may... feed on the normal people around her. The Light Others take happiness and joy - literally. Have you ever been feeling really good, and then somehow the feeling just drains away? That's what the Light Others do, and it powers them to no end. Much like a flowering shrub, pruning someone's happiness doesn't make it go away forever, and it may even come back greater, but still - in order to become stronger, the Light Others have to weaken people.

Those on the side of the Dark, on the other hand, feed off of fear and anger, but when they do, that fear and anger remain. It's like warming yourself by the fire - as long as you keep feeding it, it'll keep you warm. A Dark Other at the height of his power could probably super-charge himself just by going to a snowed-in airport for a day. Believe me. This stew of rage and frustration is a little too much for Alisa, however - she must subsist on the "thin broth" that is children's nightmares.

While she's there, however, her plan hits a snag in the form of a handsome, solid, beautiful man named Igor. Despite herself, she falls in love with him, and she falls hard.

The fact that he's a Light Other doesn't come up until it's much too late.

The second story brings a mysterious figure to Moscow. Vitaly Rogoza has no memory of who he is or where he came from. All he knows is that he has to go to Moscow, and that he has power - the power of a Dark Other. Despite his personal amnesia, he has no trouble ingratiating himself with the Moscow Day Watch, and soon discovers that his power appears to have no upper limits. Why this should be, no one knows. Is he some Dark magician, beyond classification? Or is he something else entirely - something new and terrible? Whatever he is, what is his goal, and what is his link to the theft of Fafnir's Talon, a Dark artefact of unspeakable power?

The third story brings it all together - the sad fate of Alisa Dinnokova, the theft of the Talon, and thhe rise and fall of the Great Sorceress Svetlana Nazarova. What's more, the greater plans of the Light and the Dark are laid bare - and changed forever.

As before this book is heavily laden with tthe philosophy of Good versus Evil, Light and Dark. More importantly, it addresses the issues of freedom, a central tenet to the forces of Darkness. How free, they ask, can we really be?

The Light wants to make humanity better. They believe that, given the right influences and incentives, humanity can be great. But they need to be guided. Molded. Shaped. Consequently, the Light occasionally embarks on grand, world-changing plans, few of which actually work out the way they intend.

The Dark, on the other hand, worships freedom. Every person, they say, should be free to choose his or her own path. If that path means doing good, then so be it. If it means doing evil, well, that's cool too. The point is that every person is capable of deciding how their lives should be led, and no one - human or Other - should be able to take that freedom away from them.

It's one of the oldest questions there is - how much freedom do we really deserve? And it's a question that can never be definitively answered. But in these books, it's fun to watch it play out.

As with Twilight Watch, this is an excellent book to own and read. My Wife, ReynaVoop recommended this as well as Twilight watch, and she's never been wrong about the quality of the books.