Day Watch

Day Watch (2006) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield

The sequel to Night Watch, Day Watch contains another trio of stories about the Day and Night Watches in Moscow.

The first story, Unauthorized Personnel Permitted is the story of Alisa Donnikova, a witch, and Other member of the Day watch we first came across in Night Watch. Although no longer the favorite of Zabulon, she remains proud of her work in the Day Watch. She’s also pretty unlikable, which made this a difficult story to start the book. In the first several chapters, I found Alisa so unlikable I had a hard time continuing the book. However, I also really wanted to know why the events in the story had taken place, so I kept reading. And it was interesting to learn how the members of the Day Watch see life.

However, the best part was the story-telling. Despite the fact that I didn’t like Alysa at the start of the story, I still ended up very interested in what happened to her.

The second story, A Stranger Among Others was even more interesting, because I didn’t find Vitaly Rogoza unlikable. He was a Dark Other, but he was also fascinating, and he actions and justifications for his actions made more sense to me than Alisa’s actions in the first story. We also return in at least small part to the story of Anton Gorodetsky, who was the main character or Night Watch. But the heart of the story was Vitaly Rogoza, and his discovery of who he was and what he was supposed to be doing. An excellent story.

The third story in the trilogy is Another Power. The events of “A Stranger Among Others” and Unauthorized Personnel Permitted,” must be resolved by the Inquisition. Anton and Edgar are sent by the Night Watch and the Day Watch (respectively) to represent their Watches before the Inquisition. In the course of their preparations, both attempt to discover what Zabulon and Gesar have been up to, with their scheming and plotting and planning.

I think what I enjoyed most about these stories is that every time I thought I had a handle on what was happening, the story took a twist in an unexpected direction. There are so many different plans within schemes within plans, almost anything becomes possible. The stories aren’t quite mysteries, although there are deaths as well as misunderstandings about the true causes of those deaths.

And as an added bonus, the story arc is completed within the three stories, and each story is complete within itself, although there are threads tying all three stories together, as well as to the first book.

Although both Night Watch and Day Watch seem to be at least loosely classified as horror, they don’t fall into my classification of horror, which means that I may have a messed up understanding of the horror genre, because I didn’t fund them at all horrifying. (However, Joyce Carol Oates’ book Blonde gave me chills, so go figure.)

If you read Night Watch then you will definitely want to read Day Watch. If you haven’t read Night Watch, but enjoy stories of the supernatural world that is supposed to exist parallel to ours, then you will definitely want to read Night Watch, and then Day Watch. And then you can wait impatiently with me for the third book, Dusk Watch, to come out.

Published by Miramax

Rating: 9/10

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