This is the first Russian authored book I've read. Being that I am from America, it's really quite funny how Americans are portrayed the few times mentioned.

Overall I enjoyed reading it! I don't read a lot of books with witches and warlocks and magicians, and I typically find them cheesy (I am still not tempted to pick up Harry Potter), but I really enjoyed this story and characters. The ending was super cheese, and it was a bit of a cop out in my opinion. My friend who only reads books and watches movies that have happy endings would love this book. I didn't learn anything about myself reading this, nor did I really learn anything about the world (maybe perhaps a bit about Russian culture), but it was enjoyable enough; a nice break from the usual stuff that makes me question my existence. ( )

I only made it through the first short story.
It wasn't bad but the further I got the less I enjoyed it.
I usually enjoy a good somber and gloomy mood in a book but here the simplistic fatalism made it all feel so pointless. I just couldn't understand why anyone in this story had enough drive to even get out of the bed in the morning. It all felt to me like everyone should just keel over on the spot, roll into a ball and rock back and forth.
To be frank "why didn't you just kill yourself already" went through my mind repeatedly.
Instead of caring more I kept caring less and less because I had real trouble to connect to anyone in this depressing cast.
The book tries very hard to be wise but never really makes it past the obvious in the context of philosophy and its attempts at hiding that behind mystery shroud™ isn't able to disguise it.
A lot of the interesting parts of the world were pointlessly hidden behind this ominous mystery shroud™.
The first story ends with a blatant sledgehammer foreshadowing which completely killed any vestiges of interest to read on for me.
It could've been a play on the free will vs destiny thingy and not actual prophecy which was a carefully broached topic a few times but even if- that still was very crude either way.
So, all the gloom instead of being mysterious was just depressing and the philosophy instead of being intriguing it was just unrefined and shallow.
Despite all that, I think a good 3/5 star rating for the first story is fair.
This might be a case of its not you, it's me. If you hit me with philosophy I need the full packet. I have a bad time dealing with philosophy-light.

Just a quick reminder that my reviews always sound very negative. I usually only talk about the flaws and how I felt about them. Pay attention to the star rating for how I feel overall about a book. ( )

I loved this whole series, and what limited other works of the author are available in English (skip the trash movie adaptations). Given how prolific the author is, I really wish more of his work was available in English. Also, does anyone have any recommendations for other Russian scifi/fantasy/horror authors that might be worth my time? ( )

The Others walk the streets of Moscow, split into the Night Watch, those of the light who watch over the actions of the dark, and the Night Watch, who do the opposite, in the effort to maintain the balance between good and evil. This follows Anton, who stumbles across Svetlana and Egor, both unaligned humans who have become embroiled in events that threaten the whole city and the truce that exists between the light and the dark.

I ( )

Unknown to regular people, the world if filled with supernatural beings called others. Some of the others follow Light while others follow Dark. Both sides work to maintain a balance between Good and Evil in the world, and are bound by a treaty to do so. When a mid-level agent for the Night Watch (the Light others) discovers a unknown other with extraordinary potential for great power, he finds himself caught up in a power struggle between the forces of both Light and Dark. I really enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series. This book was originally published in Russia, and I can see how the philosophy of the book was influenced by the author's culture. There were times that I found myself struggling a little to understand the book's philosophy, but I enjoyed having my mind stretched. ( )