Day Watch

by Sergei Lukyanenko

Book Overview

The second installment of the phenomenal Russian quartet The Night Watch vampire novels set in a richly realized post-Soviet Moscow. The second book in the internationally bestselling fantasy series,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401360203
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Miramax
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

loved it!

Another collection of 3 stories that tie together in the end. Told this time from the Day watch's Point of view, we get a better idea of why or how the Dark works. They are not evil as insinuated in the Night Watch, they are more committed to allowing people freedom of choice even if it means someone gets murdered in the process. This book gives us more sympathy for the Daywatch and we get to see the people behind the two sides we saw in the first book. Well Written and a delight to read. 10/10

Amazing and thought-provoking

In this, the 2nd book of the Others' series, we are again treated to three separate, yet intertwining stories: first, the young Dark witch Alisa loses her powers in a struggle over an illegally practicing Dark witch and is sent to Artek (the most elite of the camps for the Young Pioneers during the Soviet era) to regain her strength. There she falls in love with another of the camp leaders ... *edit* and I've been told I left in a spoiler here - sorry! *end edit* In the second story, a Finnish group of the Dark Ones called the Brothers of Regin steal the mystical Talon of Fafnir and attempt to bring it to Moscow. Vitaly Rogoza, an Other who seems to have lost his memory and is gradually gaining it back, along with stronger and stronger powers, gets in the line of several murders, causing the Light Others to attack him. There is not much more I can tell about this story without completely ruining it - you will simply have to read it for yourself. In the third story, we are treated to a gathering of the Inquisition to determine the guilt or lack thereof regarding these events. This story is told more from the point of view of the Dark Ones, which is very interesting in that it seems to show that most of the scheming and problems are caused by the Light Ones, because of their misunderstanding of the ultimate goals of the Dark Ones, and their refusal to even try to understand. The Dark Ones are shown to only wish to live their own lives in freedom and do as they wish as long as they don't infringe on others' freedoms - which is very similar to the witches' creed "An it harm none, do as thy will." The Light Ones, however, believe that everything the Dark Ones do is a direct attempt to "start something" and/or as lies. It is truly a tragic situation. The addition of many references to Russian pop culture means that there will be little bits and pieces here and there that people who aren't familiar with Russian modern culture might find a bit abstruse; however, this does not lessen the enjoyment of this very well-done book. I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking works, epic stories about the struggle of Light vs. Dark, paranormal alternate history stories, or just a good book.

Engrossing

I was a pretty big fan of Night Watch so I was very excited about the Day Watch translation coming out. And I definitely was not dissapointed. I truly believe this book is much better than Night Watch. I think the translator really improved and the writing is at times beautiful. The story is mostly first person, with 2 different narrarrators for the first two stories. The 3rd story is mostly third person, and throughout there is some third person mixed in to show both sides of the plot. I could not put this book down and finished it in record time. Now I can't wait for Twilight Watch (or Dusk Watch, whatever they're deciding to call it). I highly recomend this.

Successful Sequal to Night Watch

I just finished reading Day Watch the sequel to Night Watch, with another installment on the way in English. Night Watch: A Novel For the unitiated: The Watch Series focuses on the agencies of light and darkness (good and evil if you will, though the tags are not entirely appropriate for this series). The Night Watch are agents of light watching over the practitioners of the dark during their preferred hours. The Day Watch are agents of darkness watching over the practitioners of the light during their period of the day. Their goal is to make sure that neither side tips the scales of light and darkness in their own favor in their over-reaching struggle for the fate of the world. The over-reaching fantasy mechanism is the existence of "The Twilight" is the magical realm parallel to our own which the "Others" have access to. Emotions and the spiritual essence of the world fuel the Twilight as light, or dark energies (happiness or grief respectively). An "Other's" ability to manipulate this emotional energy in the Twilight defines his or her ability as a light or dark magician. Various creatures of myth appear (werewolves and vampires) mostly as denizens of the darkness, but one can imagine there are an equal number of light creatures waiting in the wings that just don't get any page-time. Overall Lukyanenko writes with a calm sensibility for the horror genre, these novels don't reek of the leather jacket cool of Shadow-Punk pop-culture much similar modern-day horror is riddled with. These novels have qualities similar to William Gibson's work in his seminal Sprawl series. Both share a touch of Raymond Chandler's gritty and personal story-telling mixed with a fully realized fantasy world of their own genres without a touch of sentimentality. Lukyanenko also brings a post-communism Russian feel to the stories that remind me slightly of the Salman Rushdie novels, in which the fantasy is a window into a culture re-inventing itself after political upheaval. Lukyanenko mostly avoids destroying the magical illusion with overly scientific explanations of how it all works, thus keeping much of the magic alive (Writers note: The trick isn't fun when you know how it works. This is what ultimately bogged down the vampire series by Anne Rice. JK Rowling in the Potter series does this best in the contemporary set, just letting the magic be magic following in the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis). Lukyanenko paints in shades of gray over the motivations and actions for both the light and darkness as they wage their battles over the fate of Moscow and ostensibly the rest of the world. The light represents order and obligation and darkness representing freedom and individuality. Where these qualities taken to extremes, allegiance to good and evil fades away into the background and the stories illustrate those distinctions as being more similar than different. Day Watch: Day Watch picks up after the events of Night Watch focusing more on the point

A great follow-up to Night Watch but with a twist

This was a very solid continuation of the story laid down in Night Watch. However, the angle is usually from the agents of Day Watch - the agency that the Dark Others serve in to police the Light Others. Though it is divided into three parts like Night Watch, it does not follow a single character throughout. The first story follows Alisa Donnikova as she falls in love with a Light Other. The second story is told from the perspective of a mysterious Dark Other and involves the theft of the Fafnir Talon. The third story though lacks first person narrative and is split between Edgar, an agent of the Day Watch, and Anton from the Night Watch. Though told from the 'opposite' perspective, the stories do have plenty of intertwining with the Night Watch which will reward those who read the first book. I had mistakenly thought that this was set chronologically behind Night Watch and also thought mistakenly that it would be a boring complicated love story. I was happily surprised with plenty of action and the twists and in-depth plotting characteristic of the first book. I found this an engaging and enjoyable book, though it lacks the character developement of Night Watch by switching and even eliminating narrators. Perhaps my biggest regret is having to wait till June for the third installment (and a much more agonizing wait for the fourth one).