Review - Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Fantasy fiction with no gay content. This review was previously published on my website, and I'm in the process of moving several reviews such as this one to this blog.

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko. This is the first book in an urban fantasy series translated from Russian and set in modern-day Moscow. It's also a Russian action movie that has achieved phenomenal international success. Here at Obsidianbookshelf.com, I saw the movie first, and then read the book. Ideally you should probably do the opposite though you don't have to.

The paperback book looks like a typical fantasy tome at 455 pages. What a pleasant surprise to find that it's made up of three novellas! This structure gives it the streamlined feel of a mystery series with just enough spy-novel paranoia to make you remember the Cold War.

Here, the opposing superpowers are Light and Dark. Each has a group that polices the activities of the other: the Nightwatch consists of agents from the Light who operate at night to monitor the Dark, and their counterparts the Daywatch keep tabs on them during sunlit hours. Collectively, these supernatural beings call themselves the Others. They start off as humans with supernatural potential who transcend their humanity once they take their first, inevitable step into a dangerous parallel dimension known as the Twilight.

Depending upon an Other's state of mind when he or she first discovers the Twilight, he or she will join either the Light or the Dark. Those of the Dark put their own personal gain first. Those of the Light are cursed with empathy for humanity. Once an Other picks a side, he or she is categorized forever. The Light and the Dark have long maintained a hostile truce that they safeguard with rules and bureaucracies.

Take, for example, vampires. By nature, they belong to the Dark. They've got to eat. So they apply for a hunting license from the Light. The Light assigns them the right to cull a stray human from the population as needed. Ruthless, you might say? It's for the greater good.

Our first-person narrator is Anton Gorodetsky, a computer-programmer and minor sorcerer with the Nightwatch. In the first novella Destiny (175 pages), he gets his first field assignment: to hunt down a rogue vampire. This brings him to the attention of both his enigmatic boss Boris Ignatievich and the Moscow section-chief of the Daywatch, Zabulon.

Along the way, Anton discovers two potential Others. The first is Egor, a 13 year-old boy whom he saves from the rogue vampire. Egor doesn't have much supernatural potential and he's probably going to join the Dark, but he does have importance as a pawn. Sometimes that's all that individuals on either side can hope for: to be used to advance the complex strategy of the higher-ups.

The second is Svetlana, destined to become a Great One for the Nightwatch. But she doesn't yet know what she is. Even worse, she's under a curse so powerful that if it destabilizes, it could tear Moscow apart. Needless to say, the entire Moscow division of the Nightwatch gets involved in trying to solve her curse.

Boris Ignatievich orders Anton's continued involvement and even gives him a partner: Olga, a powerful sorceress transformed into an owl as punishment for a mysterious crime. Olga lends her experience and no-nonsense attitude to shore up Anton's limited powers.

However, he incurs the personal animosity of Zabulon who invokes his right to come along as an observer for the Daywatch. Zabulon has the appearance of a college professor and the heart of a demon.

The first novella Destiny is the strongest, and forms the basis of the movie Night Watch. The next two novellas Among His Own Kind (152 pages) and All For My Own Kind (123 pages) provide elements for the movie sequel Day Watch.

Among His Own Kind gives the Nightwatch a new problem to solve. Someone is sneaking around Moscow, executing minor shape-shifters who belong to the Dark. This person is Maxim, a religious fanatic who thinks he's on a mission from God. His brief and occasional third-person viewpoint gives us an advantage not shared by our first-person narrator Anton: we know what's really going on.

By contrast, the Nightwatch thinks that the killer is someone in the Daywatch murdering unimportant pawns among his own people solely in order to frame someone in the Nightwatch for murder. Specifically, Boris Ignatievich believes that Zabulon might dislike Anton enough to target him with such a plan.

This necessitates a drastic measure to send Anton into hiding: he must switch bodies with Olga! With his personality lodged within Olga's body, he can solve the mystery unobserved. He also gets a chance to move in temporarily with Svetlana, which complicates their mutual attraction. This novella introduces the Inquisition, a mysterious judicial body that sits over both the Nightwatch and the Daywatch.

All For My Own Kind gathers the entire Moscow division of the Nightwatch for a relaxing weekend at the sumptuous country home of one of their best combat magicians, Tiger Cub. It's the weakest story of the three because it spends far too long – almost 60 pages – on the sexual tensions between the Nightwatch members as they hang out and drink and talk on their supposed vacation. Anton has never been more inclined to brood at length about his own destiny as a pawn within the Nightwatch.

Fortunately, circumstances compel Anton to return alone to Moscow. He uncovers a plot involving a mysterious artifact known as the Chalk of Fate. Could this have something to do with the destiny for which Boris Ignatievich has been grooming Svetlana?

Driven by a complex mixture of love, jealousy, and competitiveness, Anton sets out to stop the plan and save Svetlana from her own potential. This will have far-reaching consequences, especially for Egor who plays a small role in each of the Nightwatch stories so far.

I recommend Night Watch, especially to fans of urban fantasy. The translation by Andrew Bromfield puts the story in streamlined, casual, American-flavored English. Yet you get a unique feel for Moscow after the collapse of Communism.

The book gives you countless intriguing details that the movie could not include such as the properties of auras, the specific dangers of each level within the Twilight, and the complete back-story for the vampire neighbors who share an uneasy friendship with Anton.

You get thoroughly steeped in both elements that form the striking contrast at the heart of the Nightwatch series: the spectacular weirdness of the supernaturalism and the comically mundane quality of the Soviet-inspired bureaucracy that holds it in check.

Here at Obsidianbookshelf.com, I found Anton more likable in the movie. Credit for this goes to actor Konstantin Khabensky, but also because Anton is written to be more emotionally involved with the other characters, especially Egor. In the book, Anton sometimes seems like a cynical little pencil-pusher. His insistence on deciding Svetlana's fate all by himself grows a little annoying.
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