a sunset without color.
Oh my fucking god what a complete waste of my god damn time. I swear the fucking images hollywood put on their trailer of Nightwatch were astounding, the struggle seemed titanic, so epic, the book simply *had* to be good.
#$%@$% I feel like I've just read the last 1/4 of twilight all over again. That part where Stephenie Meyer reveals that while she knows the yearning of teenage love and is a deft hand at regurgitating it onto paper, but hasn't the *slightest* idea of how to develop a remotely interesting plot that can captivate or titillate a reader that's done more than manage to worm their way through go dog go or fucking Dr Seuss' 'oh the places you'll go' (such a worn out ditty, relentlessly brought out each spring cessation for high school graduations. Even the butter battle book had more meaning).
Dear fucking god, flipping this piece of shit over? Sergi Lukyanenko, born in Kazakhstan and educated as a psychiatrist. NO FUCKING WONDER. The first part, a weakly developed magic system dragging the terms 'witch', 'vampire, 'magician', 'warlock' and 'light vs dark' without so much as a decent spin on them, depending on the reader's already understanding of such concepts from contemporary pop culture. Surprises? Ha! None here, nor with the races/characters and basic protagonistc/antagonistic setup.
Then you move on to the world. I know, it's contemporary fiction, it's haaaard to create your own world or draw a reader into it even if you bother, so why not? It's your get out of creativity free card! It's just fucking Moscow! Want to know what it looks like? You'll have to close the covers and go look at a fucking post card, we can't even be bothered with such banalities, nope, nope, nope! No real description of rooms, cars, no details that stick in your head, it's all so unmemorable you barely realize you're in Moscow. There's only this 'twilight' that you enter through your 'shadow'. What's it look like? Grey! Blue moss that reacts to emotion (promising, but Sergi didn't rouse to do more than trifle with the passing thought)! The deeper levels? *darker* grey! omg wheeeee! For fuck's sake I went through this useless wasteland bullshit with Tanith Lee in Delirium's Mistress. She, at least, had the grace to toss in a vague sentence or two about demons destroying the realm or the city destroyed in ages long past. Nothing Sergei? Just GREY? You don't have to be a resident of the pacific north west to know grey's boring and monotonous as shit. Kerist.
Then there's the plots. The first, a powerful soul who hates herself and will kill everyone with her self loathing by accident who can only be helped by herself and someone who has no interest in her (but somehow comes to love her throughout the book. How is never clear. It's like Sun-ya Blade falling for Jonny Cage in the Mortal Kombat Movies. That speed of REEEEEEAAAAALLLY poorly done). Her story I've seen so many times i can't even REMEMBER A SPECIFIC INSTANCE where a psycho is trying to work out their issues, but snaps and kills everyone before holding the gun to their head and going out in a moment of perfect self-loathing. Only she's not psycho, so it's just a poorly dressed up, watered down parody of one of the author's psychiatric patients.
Then there's a half baked post modern Alice In Wonderland variant, who distrusts his saviors (one of the other few vaguely original things throughout the book) and may make the choice for the 'dark' side of magic. It's a really poorly disguised regurgitation of mistrust of the western idea of freedom and it's possible downfalls that was never really thought out clearly enough to translate more than a passing glimmer of interest to the reader. Sergei covers up his lack of concept development by making the character a child. right, whatever.
The dark magic who's leader is a demon? You're really going to drag out that cliche? FUCK ME.
The last plot is even more pitifully weak but the author has, by this point, failed to even raise my interest to a high enough level that I'm even inspired to *burn* the book. In effigy. It's a last resort. But only for really HATED letdowns of authorship. No this last plot is the whole 'am i doing the right thing' and 'inaction is the best action' and 'I have all this massive power, but NOW I CHOOSE TO WASTE THEM ALL AWAY DOING NOTHING, BECAUSE NOTHING IS A POWERFULL STATEMENT (yes can be, but we sure has hell haven't cleared up exactly why the author thinks this) and I HAVE THE CHANCE TO SAVE THE WORLD OR DAMN IT, BUT IT'S NOT MY RIGHT. waaah waaaaah waaaaaaaaaah. Oh, but the leader of the good won't do good, he'll just move heaven and earth to make his love shine through. Fuck good and bad. He's weak for the arms of a fucking lover that he's barely shown interest in. you gather they're fuck buddies or slightly more at one point. It's really pathetic.
So fucking *worthless* I could have re-read The Coelura, Heir of Sea and Fire, something David Brin, dusted off an old Salvator novel, or picked up one of the Palahnuk's lying around or finished the China Meiville lying on my desk ANYTHING. and I HAVE 3 FUCKING PIECES OF THIS *offal* STINKING UP MY DESK
The first three novels of this series sold 2 million volumes? Fuck you Sergei.
#$%@$% I feel like I've just read the last 1/4 of twilight all over again. That part where Stephenie Meyer reveals that while she knows the yearning of teenage love and is a deft hand at regurgitating it onto paper, but hasn't the *slightest* idea of how to develop a remotely interesting plot that can captivate or titillate a reader that's done more than manage to worm their way through go dog go or fucking Dr Seuss' 'oh the places you'll go' (such a worn out ditty, relentlessly brought out each spring cessation for high school graduations. Even the butter battle book had more meaning).
Dear fucking god, flipping this piece of shit over? Sergi Lukyanenko, born in Kazakhstan and educated as a psychiatrist. NO FUCKING WONDER. The first part, a weakly developed magic system dragging the terms 'witch', 'vampire, 'magician', 'warlock' and 'light vs dark' without so much as a decent spin on them, depending on the reader's already understanding of such concepts from contemporary pop culture. Surprises? Ha! None here, nor with the races/characters and basic protagonistc/antagonistic setup.
Then you move on to the world. I know, it's contemporary fiction, it's haaaard to create your own world or draw a reader into it even if you bother, so why not? It's your get out of creativity free card! It's just fucking Moscow! Want to know what it looks like? You'll have to close the covers and go look at a fucking post card, we can't even be bothered with such banalities, nope, nope, nope! No real description of rooms, cars, no details that stick in your head, it's all so unmemorable you barely realize you're in Moscow. There's only this 'twilight' that you enter through your 'shadow'. What's it look like? Grey! Blue moss that reacts to emotion (promising, but Sergi didn't rouse to do more than trifle with the passing thought)! The deeper levels? *darker* grey! omg wheeeee! For fuck's sake I went through this useless wasteland bullshit with Tanith Lee in Delirium's Mistress. She, at least, had the grace to toss in a vague sentence or two about demons destroying the realm or the city destroyed in ages long past. Nothing Sergei? Just GREY? You don't have to be a resident of the pacific north west to know grey's boring and monotonous as shit. Kerist.
Then there's the plots. The first, a powerful soul who hates herself and will kill everyone with her self loathing by accident who can only be helped by herself and someone who has no interest in her (but somehow comes to love her throughout the book. How is never clear. It's like Sun-ya Blade falling for Jonny Cage in the Mortal Kombat Movies. That speed of REEEEEEAAAAALLLY poorly done). Her story I've seen so many times i can't even REMEMBER A SPECIFIC INSTANCE where a psycho is trying to work out their issues, but snaps and kills everyone before holding the gun to their head and going out in a moment of perfect self-loathing. Only she's not psycho, so it's just a poorly dressed up, watered down parody of one of the author's psychiatric patients.
Then there's a half baked post modern Alice In Wonderland variant, who distrusts his saviors (one of the other few vaguely original things throughout the book) and may make the choice for the 'dark' side of magic. It's a really poorly disguised regurgitation of mistrust of the western idea of freedom and it's possible downfalls that was never really thought out clearly enough to translate more than a passing glimmer of interest to the reader. Sergei covers up his lack of concept development by making the character a child. right, whatever.
The dark magic who's leader is a demon? You're really going to drag out that cliche? FUCK ME.
The last plot is even more pitifully weak but the author has, by this point, failed to even raise my interest to a high enough level that I'm even inspired to *burn* the book. In effigy. It's a last resort. But only for really HATED letdowns of authorship. No this last plot is the whole 'am i doing the right thing' and 'inaction is the best action' and 'I have all this massive power, but NOW I CHOOSE TO WASTE THEM ALL AWAY DOING NOTHING, BECAUSE NOTHING IS A POWERFULL STATEMENT (yes can be, but we sure has hell haven't cleared up exactly why the author thinks this) and I HAVE THE CHANCE TO SAVE THE WORLD OR DAMN IT, BUT IT'S NOT MY RIGHT. waaah waaaaah waaaaaaaaaah. Oh, but the leader of the good won't do good, he'll just move heaven and earth to make his love shine through. Fuck good and bad. He's weak for the arms of a fucking lover that he's barely shown interest in. you gather they're fuck buddies or slightly more at one point. It's really pathetic.
So fucking *worthless* I could have re-read The Coelura, Heir of Sea and Fire, something David Brin, dusted off an old Salvator novel, or picked up one of the Palahnuk's lying around or finished the China Meiville lying on my desk ANYTHING. and I HAVE 3 FUCKING PIECES OF THIS *offal* STINKING UP MY DESK
The first three novels of this series sold 2 million volumes? Fuck you Sergei.