Night Watch bookverse
Having finally gotten around to reading the official English translation of Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, I thought I would post my thoughts on how it compares to the movieverse. It's really very different. I feel like the bookverse is much more fleshed out and morally ambiguous, but for reasons of coolness (and, okay, a couple shallow reasons) I think I prefer movieverse. Certainly I'd rather read movieverse fic.
Ah, plot changes. The plot of the Night Watch movie is basically the first third of the book, about Egor (who is neither Anton's son nor a Great Other) and Svetlana (who is not the Virgin, or in fact a virgin at all, but is still a Great Other) and her curse. The other two-thirds of the book were basically smooshed together to make the Day Watch movie, as they're about the serial killer (who is a random guy, not Kostya's father), and the Chalk of Fate -- which only Svetlana can write with. Why, yes, it doesn't end like the DW movie.
The good: Anton doesn't undo the entire book like he did at the end of the movie. Also, no stupid birthday party.
The bad: Olga and Svetlana don't have sex in the shower. Or at all. Pout. In fact, Olga is clearly sleeping with Geser, which, okay, was implied in the movie (there's a line after the bodyswap about Geser's snoring), but not to the extent that it is in the book. So, basically, I like the movieverse better solely because of the Olga/Sveta goodness. I told you I was shallow.
The stupid: Okay, so Anton doesn't want Sveta to become a Great Other, because then he can't date her, because they're not equal. So he's willing to ruin the entire plan of his side, so's he can date her. Um.
Dude, is Ignat supposed to be gay? I thought he was, when he was complaing about his seduction mission, but then he was sleeping with girls. I'm confused.
It's all morally ambiguous, which is, you know, fun. Though it's kind of odd that the Light Others were responsible for the revolution and fascism, and their Big Evil Plan that Anton has to stop involves them using the Chalk to create a new social order. Only in Russian fiction, man.
Also, they're very obsessed with licenses. Anton kills the vampire who's gone after Egor by pulling on his license, which is apparently glowy and manipulatable. Egor later becomes convinced that Light's not as good as all that when Anton grudgingly admits that, yes, it would be okay for vampires to kill him if they'd been properly licensed.
The Gloom/Twilight is much cooler in the book, but, as Lukyanenko has pointed out, bookverse Gloom would end up on film looking pretty much like where Frodo ends up while wearing the One Ring. So it's probably good that it's an ugly sepia place with mosquitos. Also, in general, the use of magic is way spiffier in the book. Like, Anton does magic. Cool magic! Jedi mind tricks! Fire! And everyone does more magic. I wish more of that had been in the movies.
I think my favorite part of the book was where everyone on the Night Watch went to a big old party at Tiger Cub's for most of the Chalk of Fate section. And Anton drank and drank, then Semyon magically sobered him up so they could get drunk. Again. And then in the morning Yulia cured his hangover. And he made rainbows. Aww! It was all happy and fun.
Whee!
There are a bunch of minor inconsistencies throughout. At one point Anton says Others cannot reproduce, then later on, the biographical information reveals one Dark Other who has a child that must have been born to her while she was an Other, so it can't just be that they can have children before their powers are revealed. Also, when Anton reads Egor the treaty, he says it dates from 50 years ago, but when he's looking up Geser's bio, it says he's 150, and makes it sound like the treaty is from that long ago.
Still looking forward to the next book(s). Maybe I should get them in Russian, since they'll probably take forever to translate them. My Russian is pretty crappy lately, though I could totally work through it with a dictionary.
Also I want the soundtrack.
Ah, plot changes. The plot of the Night Watch movie is basically the first third of the book, about Egor (who is neither Anton's son nor a Great Other) and Svetlana (who is not the Virgin, or in fact a virgin at all, but is still a Great Other) and her curse. The other two-thirds of the book were basically smooshed together to make the Day Watch movie, as they're about the serial killer (who is a random guy, not Kostya's father), and the Chalk of Fate -- which only Svetlana can write with. Why, yes, it doesn't end like the DW movie.
The good: Anton doesn't undo the entire book like he did at the end of the movie. Also, no stupid birthday party.
The bad: Olga and Svetlana don't have sex in the shower. Or at all. Pout. In fact, Olga is clearly sleeping with Geser, which, okay, was implied in the movie (there's a line after the bodyswap about Geser's snoring), but not to the extent that it is in the book. So, basically, I like the movieverse better solely because of the Olga/Sveta goodness. I told you I was shallow.
The stupid: Okay, so Anton doesn't want Sveta to become a Great Other, because then he can't date her, because they're not equal. So he's willing to ruin the entire plan of his side, so's he can date her. Um.
Dude, is Ignat supposed to be gay? I thought he was, when he was complaing about his seduction mission, but then he was sleeping with girls. I'm confused.
It's all morally ambiguous, which is, you know, fun. Though it's kind of odd that the Light Others were responsible for the revolution and fascism, and their Big Evil Plan that Anton has to stop involves them using the Chalk to create a new social order. Only in Russian fiction, man.
Also, they're very obsessed with licenses. Anton kills the vampire who's gone after Egor by pulling on his license, which is apparently glowy and manipulatable. Egor later becomes convinced that Light's not as good as all that when Anton grudgingly admits that, yes, it would be okay for vampires to kill him if they'd been properly licensed.
The Gloom/Twilight is much cooler in the book, but, as Lukyanenko has pointed out, bookverse Gloom would end up on film looking pretty much like where Frodo ends up while wearing the One Ring. So it's probably good that it's an ugly sepia place with mosquitos. Also, in general, the use of magic is way spiffier in the book. Like, Anton does magic. Cool magic! Jedi mind tricks! Fire! And everyone does more magic. I wish more of that had been in the movies.
I think my favorite part of the book was where everyone on the Night Watch went to a big old party at Tiger Cub's for most of the Chalk of Fate section. And Anton drank and drank, then Semyon magically sobered him up so they could get drunk. Again. And then in the morning Yulia cured his hangover. And he made rainbows. Aww! It was all happy and fun.
Whee!
There are a bunch of minor inconsistencies throughout. At one point Anton says Others cannot reproduce, then later on, the biographical information reveals one Dark Other who has a child that must have been born to her while she was an Other, so it can't just be that they can have children before their powers are revealed. Also, when Anton reads Egor the treaty, he says it dates from 50 years ago, but when he's looking up Geser's bio, it says he's 150, and makes it sound like the treaty is from that long ago.
Still looking forward to the next book(s). Maybe I should get them in Russian, since they'll probably take forever to translate them. My Russian is pretty crappy lately, though I could totally work through it with a dictionary.
Also I want the soundtrack.