Night Watch Sergei Lukyanenko, translated by Andrew Bromfield

Stumbling across the fourth book in the series gave me the excuse I was looking to reread the Night Watch series.

Anton Gorodetsky is a Light Other who works for the Moscow Night Watch. Although they usually have human parents, Others consider themselves a separate species. Their ability to enter the Twilight gives them magical powers, as well as the ability to live a life far longer than that of normal humans. However, the Light Others are in constant opposition to the Dark Others (and vice versa) so the job of the Night Watch and the Day Watch to enforce the treaty, and make sure that neither the Light Others or the Dark Others gain an advantage and change the course of the world.

This balance is kept by the Inquisition, a group comprised of both Light and Dark Others who believe that a balance between Light and Dark must be kept, or the world will be destroyed.

Although there are Watches throughout the world, and in later books Anton travels to some of those Watches, the books are primarily set in Moscow. They follow Anton Gorodetsky as he becomes a stronger magician, and matures in the process. He initially works as a computer programmer for the Night Watch, but Gesar, the head of the Night Watch, pushes him out into the field, an area where Anton feels incompetent, but where Gesar wants to see him never the less.

The more time Anton spends in the Night Watch, the more he learns that the Night Watch and the Day Watch scheme for power, and because they can see future probabilities, will use the Others under their command to achieve their ends. Yes, of course the Day Watch has nastier schemes and cares less about who gets hurt in the interim, but the Night Watch is not above scheming, and it leads you to wonder where Gesar (the head of the Moscow Night Watch) and and Zabulon (the head of the Moscow Day Watch) are heading with their schemes.

In addition to these mysteries, we also get a look at post Soviet Russia, and can actually see how it changes over the course of the series.

To be honest, I thought the series was even better the second time through. The first time I read the first three books I wanted to know what happened, so I read quickly. The second time I caught details that seemed insignificant at first, but had importance later on. It also made the second book easier to read, since I understood where the series was going.

Excluding Day Watch, the second book in the series, the books are told from the point of view of Anton. Because the second book is about the Day Watch, if follows the lives of several Dark Others, which was initially off-putting when I first read the series, because I wanted to read about Anton, not these Dark Others. But the Day Watch is even more complex than the Night Watch, and the plans of Zabulon even more convoluted, and seeing how Zabulon’s plan unfolded throughout the course of the book was fascinating.

Each book is divided into three complete but related stories. Night Watch tells of Anton’s move though the Night Watch. Day Watch looks at the Dark Others from their own point of view. The last two books continue Anton’s story and complete the threads started in the other two books.

I love this series. I love the characters and the complexity of the story, and the setting that is so unfamiliar to me. If you are at all interested in urban fantasy, then I highly recommend Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch series.

Night Watch (2006), Day Watch (2006), Twilight Watch (2007), Last Watch (2009)