The Last Watch

The Last Watch (2009) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield

The fourth book in the Night Watch series means I’m now ready to read the fifth book–finally!

“A car’s not the right place for showing off to a girl— the bed’s for that. The consequences of a mistake there are more upsetting, but less tragic… Ah.

This may be one of my favorite quote from the series:

“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.”

“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.

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. So that’s what you look like in the Twilight, Shooter I!

How long are you going to be there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then how much underwear and how many pairs of socks shall I put in?” Svetlana asked reasonably. “I can’t imagine you washing anything while you’re away.”

“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.”

“If it weren’t for my wisdom, the powers of Darkness— may they wither in agony and burn in hell— would long ago have drunk their sweet little brains and chewed up their big stringy livers!”

Nodir and Timur chortled.

“I understand why our livers are stringy,” said Nodir, pouring the cognac. “But why are our brains sweet?”

“Because wisdom is bitter, but foolishness and ignorance are sweet!”

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.

Published by Hachette Books

Rating: 8.5/10

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