Last Watch, Audio Edition

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

As with the previous book, there are three intertwined stories. These stories take place over a relatively short period of time.

Common Cause

Anton is sent to Edinburgh, Scotland to look into the death of a Russian student who died from being exsanguinated.

“Haggis is a brand of diapers,” I said. “They’re good, we used them for our daughter.”

“Haggis is a kind of food, too,” said Semyon, shaking his head. “Although, as far as taste goes, there’s probably not much difference.”

It seems like there are always vampires at the root of anything Anton has to look into.

He looked just perfect to play Dorian Gray in a film version of Oscar Wilde’s novel. Young, graceful, and indecently fresh and handsome, he could easily have worn a badge that said READY FOR DEBAUCHERY!

Except for the fact that his eyes were old. Gray and faded, with the even, pink whites of eyes that belong to a two-hundred-year-old vampire.

Plus, another whimsical look at technology through the Twilight.

There was a little dragon with bristling red scales standing in the stone archway and blocking my way. The dragon came up to my shoulder. He was supporting himself on his back legs and a long tail, twisted into a corkscrew. His webbed wings were flickering nervously behind his back. The glowing, faceted eyes glared at me, the mouth opened and spat out a gobbet of flame.

I like that just as well as the description of the motorbike in the second book.

A Common Enemy opens with Las–just in case you were wondering how he was adjusting to being in the watch. It’s rather he’s making the Night Watch adjust to him.

Involve Tolik from the computer service. And Las from the operations side.”

“But he’s a weak magician.” Olga snorted.

“But he has a nonstandard way of thinking,” said Gesar.

Non-standard way of thinking indeed.

And then Anton is off Samarkand, where he manages to meet even more characters.

To understand and forgive… or at least understand. Forgiving was the hardest thing. Sometimes forgiving was the hardest thing in the whole world.

A Common Destiny

The third story finds Anton trying to resolve the puzzle presented in the first story, as well as the identities of the second and third others involved in the attempts to gain the Crown of All Things.

There are always lots of delightful little calls to other fantasy stories and authors.

A world like that would be far more pleasant than the one we have now— for Others and people. Have you never read any fantasy?”

“What?”

“Haven’t you read any of those books? Lord of the Rings? Conan? A Wizard of Earthsea? Harry Potter?”

“I’ve read a few,” I said.

He also name checks Terry Pratchett. Which is lovely.

I didn’t go on arguing.

What could I oppose to their faith? Nothing. Faith can only be opposed by another faith, not by facts, let alone hypotheses.

I do love this series.

Rating: 8.5/10

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