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A review by ravenousbibliophile
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
4.0
I've wanted to sample Russian authors for a long time, but I did not want to take the tried and tested route of so many other Bibliophiles before me and engorge on the works of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky and the usual suspects of Russian literary greats. Thus, my search for something different led me to Night Watch.
The story (or collection of stories) follows the life of Anton Gorodetsky, a young magician in the employ of The Night Watch, a paranormal organization which polices and monitors the activities of both the 'goodies' and the 'baddies'. I stoop to using such childish generalization because in the book, the concepts of Good and Evil are anything BUT general . The USP of this book (for me) is the level of complexity that is brought into the inherently opposing views of Good & Bad, Light & Dark, Night Watch & Day Watch.
It is ultimately the story of a group of people who although supernatural in their abilities, are stuck in pretty much the same ideological and philosophical rut as the rest of humanity. My only criticism is that the plot-points do tend to get away from you at certain moments, and you're left with a sense that something's happened, but you don't quite know what or how. However, this could also be a quirk of the translation or perhaps the inability of someone who's unfamiliar with Russian works to fully grasp the plots and characters, so it is a minor criticism.
Looking forward to continuing with the rest of the series.
The story (or collection of stories) follows the life of Anton Gorodetsky, a young magician in the employ of The Night Watch, a paranormal organization which polices and monitors the activities of both the 'goodies' and the 'baddies'. I stoop to using such childish generalization because in the book, the concepts of Good and Evil are anything BUT general . The USP of this book (for me) is the level of complexity that is brought into the inherently opposing views of Good & Bad, Light & Dark, Night Watch & Day Watch.
It is ultimately the story of a group of people who although supernatural in their abilities, are stuck in pretty much the same ideological and philosophical rut as the rest of humanity. My only criticism is that the plot-points do tend to get away from you at certain moments, and you're left with a sense that something's happened, but you don't quite know what or how. However, this could also be a quirk of the translation or perhaps the inability of someone who's unfamiliar with Russian works to fully grasp the plots and characters, so it is a minor criticism.
Looking forward to continuing with the rest of the series.