I didn't read this until after watching the Russian movie - which I found to be awesome it was so much fun - so while I somewhat surprised at just how different the storyline was from the movie I was at the same time thrilled to read the authors true intentions.

The Washington Post started their review saying the 'brace yourself for Harry Potter in Gorky Park'. Huh? Not even close.

This beginning to a four book fantasy series is set in modern day Moscow. The story involves a race called the "Others," who live and work alongside us, feeding off the negative or positive mental energy that ordinary human beings produce. They fade in and out of a gray fourth dimension known as the Twilight that overlays our natural world. These Others are born to regular human parents, but when each Other comes of age, he or she must choose to join the Light or the Dark side: "If you always put yourself and your own interests first, then your path leads through the Darkness. If you think about others, it leads toward the Light." Pretty simple really.

The forces of Light and Dark are locked in a thousand-year-old Cold War, bound by an ancient truce that keeps the world from being destroyed. Each side maintains a Watch to ensure that the opposite side is not violating the terms of the peace treaty by interfering illegally with the direction of human history.

Enter Anton - he is a somewhat low member of the Night Watch. Pretty ordinary. He falls in love with Svetlana - who is a powerful Other. Anton is told constantly that as Svet's powers increase she will outgrow Anton and move on. Just the way things are in their world.

I enjoyed Anton immensely - and shared his disbelief and frustration to find that in each of the three parts of the novel that all the crap he went thru in the end, his boss cleverly orchestrated everything and it was all pre-ordained to come out exactly as he wanted it to as he had some sort of behind the scenes action going on. Poor Anton I am sure felt pretty used by the end of the novel.

I will continue with the series. I more than enjoy Lukyanenko's style. ( )

http://lampbane.livejournal.com/531944.html

"I enjoyed this book very much, especially in how it was divided into three distinct stories which were loosely interconnected. What's great is that by formatting it into three smaller novels, the stories themselves remain tight with little filler. I'm not sure if it was this, or the writing style, but I was impressed at how well I could remember everything. If they mentioned something that happened earlier, I usually remembered it with perfect clarity and could find the appropriate page in seconds. That's the kind of impact the novel made on me."

Highly enjoyable read. A bit slow to start but once I got into it I couldn't wait to pick it up again, highly imaginative and full of suspense and thrills. I can't wait to read the other books in the series. ( )

I really enjoyed this Russian fantasy novel and its original and thought-provoking take on the "battle between Good and Evil". It’s hard to review this without what some might consider spoilers, because it was the gradual revelations about the way in which this world worked that made the biggest impression on me as I read this. ( )

Mixed feelings on this one. It’s often referred to as being “J.K. Rowling… Russian Style…” (There’s even a blurb on the front cover to that effect). I think that this is a completely unfair comparison to Rowling’s world just as it is to Lukyanenko’s. Yes both are, darkly epic tales, set in richly detailed, imaginative, worlds with a war waging between good and evil (and the duality of the grey areas in between), but where Rowling’s tale inspires a page turning frenzy, Lukyanenko’s is more one to settle into and wrap around you.

Partly because of the JK Rowling comparsion, It took a little while for me for me to adjust my pre-conceptions and truely settle into the book, and partly because I don’t think this was helped by some clunky phrasings in the writing, I don’t know if this is down to the original Russian or the translation, but there were times when I had to skip back a paragarph or two, just to truely get a fix on what was being said or done.I suspect that if I could read fluent Russian then the original version would score a 4.5 at least. And I can easily see why the books are as big a success as they have are.

As it is, I was just not as caught up in the, fantastic setting, plot and characters as I could have been. Still, now that I am settled into the world, I have high hopes for the next in the series: The Day Watch (Watch, Book 2).

Read and comment on my full review at:
http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/2009/... ( )