Last Watch, Audio Edition

Last Watch, Audible Edition (2009/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield narrated by Paul Michael

The fourth book in the Watch series is another one I really enjoy.

A Russian college student is murdered in Edinburgh Scotland, and because the young man’s father had links to the Watches, and they young man appears to have been killed by a vampire, Anton is sent to investigate.

I really enjoy reading about the world from a Russian perspective–OK, I enjoy reading stories written from all different kinds of perspectives, but I especially enjoy this series, because it’s the world where my unknown distant cousins (the offspring of my great-grandparent’s siblings) grew up.

“Don’t kill me, I didn’t do anything!” the young guy babbled. His skin was whiter than his makeup now. “Comrade! Sputnik, vodka, perestroika! Gorbachev!”

“That last word could certainly get you killed in Russia,” I muttered.

“Give me as much as you think you can spare. I can see you’re a good man, so why haggle? A good man is ashamed not to pay a poor taxi driver enough. He pays more than my conscience will allow me to ask.”

“You’re a good psychologist,” I laughed.

“Good? Yes… probably. I did a PhD in Moscow. A long time ago…” He paused and then said, “But no one needs psychologists nowadays. I earn more as a taxi driver.”

The other thing I really enjoy is that we get glimpses of what Las’s life is like in the watch.

“Well, now, what have we got here?” the newcomer asked.

“One item left in the accounts office, one in the toilet, one in the fire safety board on the second floor,” the duty pointsman replied eagerly. “Everything’s in order, Boris Ignatievich.”

The inspector turned pale.

“Las, we haven’t got a fire safety board on the second floor,” Boris Ignatievich observed.

“I created an illusion,” Las replied boastfully. “It was very realistic.”

Another strong point to the story is trying to figure out who the vampire is.

And a quick note about the audio version. I really enjoy the reader, and he does a good job with the character and accents EXCEPT that occasionally when Anton has a lot of quick dialog with Foma, the Russian and Scottish accents get muddied and are a bit off. It’s not a huge deal, because it doesn’t happen often, but I did notice it.

Publisher: Audible Studios

Rating: 9/10

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