Well, if he keeps this up, Sergei Lukyanenko will soon become one of my favorite speculative fiction authors! I found The Night Watch (Canada, USA, Europe) impressive when I read it last year, and The Day Watch lived up to the high expectations generated by its predecessor. Indeed, urban fantasy doesn't get much better than this!Once more set in the former USSR, The Day Watch showcases yet another episode in the eternal struggle between the two factions of the Others. Agents of the Light -- the Night Watch -- and agents of the Dark -- the Day Watch -- continue to oppose one another, yet they must maintain a precarious balance between Good and Evil due to the Treaty which is enforced by the Inquisition.
Alisa, a powerful Dark Other, is seriously wounded and drained of her powers during a violent clash with members of the Night Watch. Sent away to recuperate in a camp on the Black Sea, she will unwittingly fall in love with a Light Mage, setting in motion portentious events at the turn of the millennium. Meanwhile, the Twilight seems to be manipulating events to restore the balance between Light and Dark.
As the title implies, this novel focuses on the Day Watch. Though many familiar faces from The Night Watch return in this sequel, the author demonstrates that there are many layers and complexities to the "bad guys," and that very little is as it seems. For forcing two would-be rapists to suck each other's cocks as punishment, Alisa made quite an impression on me!;-)
Once again, the book is comprised of three distinct novella-length portions. Although each part is composed of its own storylines, they nonetheless form threads in a larger, more convoluted tale.
In the first volume, I found Sergei Lukyanenko's writing style to be very concise, with no flowery prose, nothing overwritten. The author's prose has improved in The Day Watch, without losing its edge. Lukyanenko's has a very distinctive voice. The more you read, the more addictive it becomes.
I can't quite believe that we don't hear more about this talented international bestselling author. The Night Watch series is sure to please most SFF fans out there. Lukyanenko is definitely an author worth discovering, so do yourself a favor and check him out!
Hard to put down!
The final verdict: 8/10
9 commentaires:
I was very tempted to look for the books once I'd seen the films. If you haven't seen them yet, I very very heavily recommend them if only for the way they handle the subtitles.
definitely check out the films, some of the best special effects i've ever seen. thanks for the review, these books are now in my "pile o'books to read"
I really liked those books and found Twilight Watch to be just as good and you get more of a peek into the working of the inquisitors.
I have watched both the films released so far. Technically brilliant with decent plotting and acting. Hot russians actresses are always a plus. Are the books much better?
I saw the movies and liked them a lot. I'm looking for this books and hope that I will read them soon.
The books are much better than the films. The first film is only the first half of Night Watch.
There's also a strange anti-abortion message worked into the first film that just isn't there in the book.
By far the books are much, much, much better than the films. Not that the films are bad, I love them. Especially Zavulon/Zabulon using his spine as a sword. That was just plain awesome.
Nevertheless, you just simply have to read the books. The stories were actually changed quite a bit when adapted to the films, so you'll be reading fresh materials. The last story of the 3rd novel is impossible to put down.
The books have been quite high-profile. There's the movies, which seem to have done quite well, particularly on DVD, and the books are stacked up pretty high in the SF&F sections (sometimes down the front of stores as well) of a lot of bookshops I've seen.
The books are definitely better than the films . . . and don't forget you are reading a translation from Russian; with the vagaries of international publishing we are just lucky to have got a translator who obviously loves the original books, and was able to bring that to the translation.
There has been some awful translations out there; some Solzhenitsyn and the Divine Comedy spring to mind
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