The third in the Watch trilogy, The Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko moves beyond the morals between Light and Dark and into the morals of individual characters.
I've read both The Night Watch and The Day Watch so when I discovered that there was a third I was anxious to read it. Unfortunately I don't feel that it really stood as well the other two. Mostly, what we learn is that everything just works out well for Anton. In the first book he was able to save the world without sacrificing himself, in the second he's able to keep the woman he loves because she gets reduced in power and here in the third he gets an increase in power so that they're matched. It feels a little forced. Even the way he manages to come out on top in this one feels contrived.
Still, I enjoy seeing the glimpse at the way Russians see themselves and their country. I'm disappointed with the deus ex machina but I'm still giving this one a 3.
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Day Watch
The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko is the sequel to The Night Watch that I read earlier this year. Like the other, it's three stories in one book and is the story of the struggle between the Light and the Dark in Moscow. This time the focus is on the Dark Others.
That's sort of the problem with this book. It's hard to have empathy for characters that you know are evil. This is most evident in the first story. The witch Alisa appeared in the The Night Watch as a villian. Telling the story from her perspective and trying to be drawn into her story was a little more difficult because she just wasn't a nice person. I didn't want her to have what she wanted because I didn't like the way she went about getting it. I got the feeling that Lukyaneko was going for a kind of Romeo and Juliet tale with the first story. A Dark Other falls hopelessly in love with a Light Other and it ends badly for all involved. Except it didn't quite make it there.
There was more success in the next two stories. The characters were more empathetic as they weren't really EVIL, but they were selfish. The characters were drawn such that I could see their motivations for what they chose to do, or to not do.
I'm looking forward to the third in the series as this one had movement to a final chapter. There's definately some kind of climax building that will change this world. Even the title of the final book, The Twilight Watch, signals something different because that's something that hasn't been introduced before. I'm going to give this one a 4. It was better than OK and it did make me want to keep reading.
That's sort of the problem with this book. It's hard to have empathy for characters that you know are evil. This is most evident in the first story. The witch Alisa appeared in the The Night Watch as a villian. Telling the story from her perspective and trying to be drawn into her story was a little more difficult because she just wasn't a nice person. I didn't want her to have what she wanted because I didn't like the way she went about getting it. I got the feeling that Lukyaneko was going for a kind of Romeo and Juliet tale with the first story. A Dark Other falls hopelessly in love with a Light Other and it ends badly for all involved. Except it didn't quite make it there.
There was more success in the next two stories. The characters were more empathetic as they weren't really EVIL, but they were selfish. The characters were drawn such that I could see their motivations for what they chose to do, or to not do.
I'm looking forward to the third in the series as this one had movement to a final chapter. There's definately some kind of climax building that will change this world. Even the title of the final book, The Twilight Watch, signals something different because that's something that hasn't been introduced before. I'm going to give this one a 4. It was better than OK and it did make me want to keep reading.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
The Night Watch
I picked up The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko because we'd seen the movie. To be honest, I didn't enjoy the movie. I had a hard time putting my finger on what I didn't like about it. Sometimes with a dubbed movie (it's in Russian) I find the words distract me from the images and I lose the connection. There was alot to look at in the movie and I guess I just felt like it was missing something. I knew that it had been based on a book and felt that it had probably made a much better book than it had a movie. I was right.
The first thing I discovered was that the book was actually three books. The first is the basic plot of the movie (the movie changes the action in quite a few ways) and the second two books continue the story of the protagonist, Anton, as he gets both deeper and further from his role as a Night Watchman. Since it's told in first person perspective I felt the reader got more insight into the motivation of the character. Being able to see through his eyes and hear his thoughts both introduced the world, and his place in it, as well as letting the reader understand why he was doing things the way he was.
The world is probably the most interesting thing about the novel. There are two factions, the Light and the Dark, that are locked in a war in which neither side can really win. They've long since realised this and have signed a Treaty that strives to maintain a balance between Good and Evil. Those of the Light, like Anton, patrol the night and make sure that the Dark maintain the Treaty. During the day the Day Watch, made up of Dark Others, make sure that the Light follows the Treaty. I found it interesting that the Light, the Good, would have to be monitored by the Dark.
There's magic in the world but most of it is not the over the top fantasy magic as the Others have to share the same world as the humans do. The Others are born that way, no one can learn to be a magician and they have different levels of power. Sometimes their power never manifests. At the moment they become an Other, by entering the Twilight, they then make the choice to be Light or Dark. It's they way they feel at the time that determines if they will be good and try to help humanity, or be evil and simply look after themselves.
Set in contemporary Russia the book is well written, engaging and not entirely formulaic. Of course, it is Good vs Evil but Good doesn't always win in the way one might expect it to. I'm glad that I purchased the sequel The Day Watch at the same time. It was a bit of a gamble because I wasn't sure I was going to like the first one. Now I'm pretty sure I'm going to kep an eye out for the final book in the trilogy The Twilight Watch. I'm going to give this one a 4 out of 5.
The first thing I discovered was that the book was actually three books. The first is the basic plot of the movie (the movie changes the action in quite a few ways) and the second two books continue the story of the protagonist, Anton, as he gets both deeper and further from his role as a Night Watchman. Since it's told in first person perspective I felt the reader got more insight into the motivation of the character. Being able to see through his eyes and hear his thoughts both introduced the world, and his place in it, as well as letting the reader understand why he was doing things the way he was.
The world is probably the most interesting thing about the novel. There are two factions, the Light and the Dark, that are locked in a war in which neither side can really win. They've long since realised this and have signed a Treaty that strives to maintain a balance between Good and Evil. Those of the Light, like Anton, patrol the night and make sure that the Dark maintain the Treaty. During the day the Day Watch, made up of Dark Others, make sure that the Light follows the Treaty. I found it interesting that the Light, the Good, would have to be monitored by the Dark.
There's magic in the world but most of it is not the over the top fantasy magic as the Others have to share the same world as the humans do. The Others are born that way, no one can learn to be a magician and they have different levels of power. Sometimes their power never manifests. At the moment they become an Other, by entering the Twilight, they then make the choice to be Light or Dark. It's they way they feel at the time that determines if they will be good and try to help humanity, or be evil and simply look after themselves.
Set in contemporary Russia the book is well written, engaging and not entirely formulaic. Of course, it is Good vs Evil but Good doesn't always win in the way one might expect it to. I'm glad that I purchased the sequel The Day Watch at the same time. It was a bit of a gamble because I wasn't sure I was going to like the first one. Now I'm pretty sure I'm going to kep an eye out for the final book in the trilogy The Twilight Watch. I'm going to give this one a 4 out of 5.
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