Night Watch--A review
I just finished Night Watch, the bestselling supernatural thriller by Sergei Lukyanenko.
It's pretty good. It's told from the perspective of Anton Gorodetsky, a Light Magician of moderate talent, who reluctantly becomes a field operative in the Night Watch.
"Others" live among ordinary humans and are specifically "not human". Among the Evil Others are vampires, Dark Magicians, shape-shifters, and kinds of supernatural beings. Among the Good Others are Light Magicians, good shape-shifters, and a few other fairies and such.
So the way the Novel is set up is that there was an eternal struggle between Good and Evil. At some point a few hundred years ago, a Truce was called between the two forces, and a bureaucracy was set up to administer the Truce. Night Watch is the police force that enforces the Treaty for Good and keeps an eye on the Evil Others, and Day Watch is the Evil counterpart to Night Watch. Above them are the Inquisitors, a small group of impartial Others that keep tabs on both sides.
One of the things I liked about the book was that there was plenty of moral ambiguity to go around. That is one of the main themes of the book. How does one know that one is doing good? How can you tell? Suppose you save the life of a man and he turns out to be a murderer?
In this book, neither side is allowed, by the Treaty, to influence humans toward good or evil. If an agent of one side does so, the other side gets a equal opportunity to influence humanity. So that a balance is maintained. The premise is that people must choose for themselves, without influence, what the right path is.
Which is all very well and good. But it is very very stressful on Anton, our protagonist, and all newly initiated Others to learn this, and not put a stop to the suffering they see around them.
I found the tone of this book to be rather dark. Anton goes through the novel increasingly disliking the actions the Night Watch takes in the name of Good morality. He tells us about the zero-sum game--how helping someone out with magic can lead to great evil later. All the victories in the book have an evil shadow, and all the defeats have a good shadow.
We get to learn from Anton about the loneliness of being in the Night Watch, and the painful trials these Others go through. The plot twists are very tight, with surprises all around. Nothing is really as it seems. Anton is always 2 steps behind his superiors, and trying in vain to catch up. He often succeeds just by being ordinary, a lesson I found pleasant. He is stubborn and acts out of love, even if he believes he or a relationship he is in is doomed.
the first part of this book of 3 full novellas was made into a very successful movie in 2004. I saw it, and although I didn't understand what was going on, I enjoyed it. : )
I think my worst criticism is that sometimes the book is confusing; sometimes the dialog is confusing or you miss a small detail that becomes important to the plot later on, and you're like, "where did that come from?"
Another criticism is that sometimes I felt like there was too much destiny in the book. As if the characters were all destined to act just as they did, and that there wasn't any point in thinking. Which kind of spoils the excitement of seeing how a story unfolds.
Anyway, it's a fun book.
It's pretty good. It's told from the perspective of Anton Gorodetsky, a Light Magician of moderate talent, who reluctantly becomes a field operative in the Night Watch.
"Others" live among ordinary humans and are specifically "not human". Among the Evil Others are vampires, Dark Magicians, shape-shifters, and kinds of supernatural beings. Among the Good Others are Light Magicians, good shape-shifters, and a few other fairies and such.
So the way the Novel is set up is that there was an eternal struggle between Good and Evil. At some point a few hundred years ago, a Truce was called between the two forces, and a bureaucracy was set up to administer the Truce. Night Watch is the police force that enforces the Treaty for Good and keeps an eye on the Evil Others, and Day Watch is the Evil counterpart to Night Watch. Above them are the Inquisitors, a small group of impartial Others that keep tabs on both sides.
One of the things I liked about the book was that there was plenty of moral ambiguity to go around. That is one of the main themes of the book. How does one know that one is doing good? How can you tell? Suppose you save the life of a man and he turns out to be a murderer?
In this book, neither side is allowed, by the Treaty, to influence humans toward good or evil. If an agent of one side does so, the other side gets a equal opportunity to influence humanity. So that a balance is maintained. The premise is that people must choose for themselves, without influence, what the right path is.
Which is all very well and good. But it is very very stressful on Anton, our protagonist, and all newly initiated Others to learn this, and not put a stop to the suffering they see around them.
I found the tone of this book to be rather dark. Anton goes through the novel increasingly disliking the actions the Night Watch takes in the name of Good morality. He tells us about the zero-sum game--how helping someone out with magic can lead to great evil later. All the victories in the book have an evil shadow, and all the defeats have a good shadow.
We get to learn from Anton about the loneliness of being in the Night Watch, and the painful trials these Others go through. The plot twists are very tight, with surprises all around. Nothing is really as it seems. Anton is always 2 steps behind his superiors, and trying in vain to catch up. He often succeeds just by being ordinary, a lesson I found pleasant. He is stubborn and acts out of love, even if he believes he or a relationship he is in is doomed.
the first part of this book of 3 full novellas was made into a very successful movie in 2004. I saw it, and although I didn't understand what was going on, I enjoyed it. : )
I think my worst criticism is that sometimes the book is confusing; sometimes the dialog is confusing or you miss a small detail that becomes important to the plot later on, and you're like, "where did that come from?"
Another criticism is that sometimes I felt like there was too much destiny in the book. As if the characters were all destined to act just as they did, and that there wasn't any point in thinking. Which kind of spoils the excitement of seeing how a story unfolds.
Anyway, it's a fun book.