Product Description

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy parallel world existing in parallel to our own, each Other owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light. The "Night Watch", first book in the "Night Watch" trilogy, follows Anton, a young Other owing allegiance to the Light. As a Night Watch agent he must patrol the streets and metro of the city, protecting ordinary people from the vampires and magicians of the Dark. When he comes across Svetlana, a young woman under a powerful curse, and saves an unfledged Other, Egor, from vampires, he becomes involved in events that threaten the uneasy truce, and the whole city...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3974 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 531 pages

From the Publisher
All that stands between darkness and light is The Night Watch...
The phenomenal Russian bestseller (over a million copies sold in hardcover), a gloriously readable grunge fantasy/vampire novel set in a richly realised post-Soviet Moscow. First of a tril

From the Inside Flap
All that stands between the darkness and the light is The Night Watch…

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are The Other. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to The Dark or The Light. The two factions, having long before realise that an open struggle can only create chaos and disaster, coexist in an uneasy truce, each side aware of, and keeping a close eye on, the other's activities around the city. Despite their leanings towards good and evil, their aim is not mutual destruction, but rather the maintenance of the precarious balance between the two.

Anton, an young Other, who owes allegiance to the Light, is a Night Watch agent, patrolling the streets and Metro of the city, as he protects ordinary people from the vampires and magicians of the Dark. On his rounds, Anton comes across a young woman, Svetlana, who he realises is under a powerful curse that threatens the entire city, and a boy, Egor, a young Other, too young to have committed to either The Dark or The Light and as yet unaware of his own enormous power, whom Anton narrowly saves from vampires.

Anton is assigned a partner, Olga, a powerful female Other who is in the form of an owl in punishment for a past error of judgement. Together with their colleagues in the Night Watch, they struggle to remove Svetlana’s curse and to protect Egor from the vampires that pursue him.
Set in a vividly realised post-Soviet Russia, where vampires operate under license and Good and Evil exist in a Cold War-like balance of power, The Night Watch is a page-turning fantasy thriller, an international bestseller that represents the most original writing in its genre since Anne Rice’s An Interview With A Vampire…

From the Back Cover
‘JK Rowling, Russian style…arguably Russia’s richest and most famous literary talent of the moment… [a] cracking read, owing more to Rowling or Philip Pullman than it does to the horror genre…surprisingly readable and addictive…it relies on suspense and psychological drama and a good dose of humour – rather than blood and guts’ Daily Telegraph

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are The Others. The Others are magicians, possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the shadowy parallel world of the Twilight. Each Other owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light, two factions coexisting in an uneasy truce, each keeping a close eye on the other's activities around the city. Their aim is not mutual destruction, but rather the maintenance of the precarious balance between good and evil.

The Night Watch, first book in the Night Watch Trilogy, follows Anton, a young Other owing allegiance to the Light. As a Night Watch agent he must patrol the streets and metro of the city, protecting ordinary people from the vampires and magicians of the Dark. When he comes accross Svetlana, a young woman under a powerful curse, and saves an unfledged Other, Egor, from vampires, he becomes involved in events that threaten the truce and the whole city...

‘When a particular kind of story, heavily based in one culture, gets transferred into a culture distinctly different, something magical happens… Something modern, new and distinctly creepy…continues to work because the magic is rooted in the realities of modern Russia… Inventive, sardonic, and imbued with a surprising the sense that, for this author and his audience, much of this stuff is new-minted.’ Independent

‘This modern day mythical fantasy is Anne Rice on an epic scale, a hugely imagined world… a chiller thriller from cold of Russia, this one’s been selling like hot cakes around the world.’ Lads Mag

‘So good that the film feels like a trailer for it’ Time Out

Customer Reviews

Beautifully written Cold War fantasy thriller
This is a gothic romantic thriller set in present day Moscow. The author uses the vehicle of a "Cold War" standoff between two opposing forces of supernaturally endowed beings (The Daywatch and The Nightwatch) to explore themes of the nature of good and evil. As the novel develops he introduces the idea of personal destiny and the conflict between predestination and choice. This is all played out on a dramatic foreground of vampire hunts, shapeshifters, and magical battles. It has great power because the supernatural stuff is contrasted with gritty descriptions of urban decay in Russia. The characters are very well described using economic prose which suits the overall feel. It really comes alive in the imagination and is far far far better realised as a romantic concept than the film which is much darker and less humane by comparison. There are some very nice ideas in this book which is divided into three separate parts with related storylines and in my view a great ending.

Great book to read anywhere
If your into reading books on the train, bus and other forms of public transport as well as in your own company, then this one is no exception to that! Though it may make you miss your stop because you can't pull yourself away from it, there is no reason why you couldn't read this book anywhere!

It's really well written, the level of detail is supremely good and the character/plot development is so detailed. You can really get into the characters and the plot is believable, and it will make you wish this reality existed!

It is devided into three sections with individual story lines. The first one covers Svetlana, a Russian woman with a curse vortex that is about to destroy the world. It ends in a lovely little fight between the Dark and the Light on the roof of a flat. The second is about a mysterious Light Magician killing Dark Ones illegally and how Anton needs to find out the killer. This results into the mention of Inqisition. The third part is about the job the Svetlana has to do and with re-writing destiny. Only fmale Light Magicians can do this.

Sergei Lukyanenko has visualised this reality very well and nothing seems to have been lost in translation. Reading about the Russian life style is also pretty interesting, and I love the mentions to the fact that the Others 'experimented' with Communism and World War II. It's a very good read and I can't wait to get the Day Watch.

Genre-crossing gem
On the streets of post-Soviet Moscow, an uneasy truce presides. The forces of Light and Dark, locked for centuries in eternal combat, watch over each other as they maintain the precarious status quo. During the day, the Light Ones are kept in check by the Day Watch, but at night, the Night Watch reigns. Part one of a trilogy, `The Night Watch' explores the complex dynamic of a Cold-War style standoff between Good and its ubiquitous opposite, Evil, through the actions and adventures of debutant field operative Anton. As he is directed, marionette-like, around the streets and undergrounds of Moscow, he debates the merits of goodness when preserving the peace means licensing the killing of innocent people, and the sacrificing of pawns to gain only a fleeting advantage in a power struggle that neither side can afford to lose.

Up front, this is a stylish fantasy / horror novel, written with wit and graceful economy. With a strong cast of "Others", Light or Dark beings with magical energies, it should appeal to fans of the Buffy series and the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books. However, it has all the twists of a Robert Ludlum thriller, with typical Cold-War subterfuge and misdirection and battling intelligence agencies, and all the philosophy (and more) of the Matrix movies without the wilfully patronizing tone in which they indulge. With a million copies sold in its original Russian, and not one but two movie adaptations already produced, its appeal straddles genre divides with impunity.