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The Night Watch (Watch, Book 1)
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List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $11.16
Your Save: $ 2.79 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Miramax
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781401359799
ISBN: 1401359795
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2006-07-26
Publisher: Miramax
Release Date: 2006-07-26
Studio: Miramax
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Night Watch series has caused a sensation never before seen in Russia -- its popularity is frenzied and unprecedented, and driven by a truly great, epic story. In 2005 Fox Searchlight announced it had acquired the Russian film adaptation for an American release. Interest in the books here is now set to reach a fever pitch. Set in modern day Moscow, Night Watch is a world as elaborate and imaginative as Tolkien or the best Asimov. Living among us are the "Others," an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. A thousand-year treaty has maintained the balance of power, and the two sides coexist in an uneasy truce. But an ancient prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will rise up and tip the balance, plunging the world into a catastrophic war between the Dark and the Light. When a young boy with extraordinary powers emerges, fulfilling the first half of the prophecy, will the forces of the Light be able to keep the Dark from corrupting the boy and destroying the world? An extraordinary translation from the Russian by noted translator Andrew Bromfield, this first English language edition of Night Watch is a chilling, engrossing read certain to reward those waiting in anticipation of its arrival.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent spin on the old Light vs. Dark theme
Comment: There is a twilight world that exists beside the one we know, populated with magicians, sorcerers, enchantresses, werewolves, and vampires. This is the world of human beings who have discovered they have magical abilities that set them apart as "Others." Upon discovery of their powers, these Others must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. Agents of the Night Watch (Light others who oversee the nocturnal activities of the Dark Others) and Day Watch (Dark Others who keep watch over the day) work to uphold a treaty, which precariously maintains equilibrium between the Dark and the Light. But now, after a thousand years, the time has come that has been spoken of in an ancient prophecy, that a supreme Other will emerge and threaten the balance of power. When mediocre magician and Night Watch member Anton meets a cursed young woman who is an uninitiated Other, he finds himself at the very center of the struggle, with the fate of the world in his hands.
The characters are well-written and engaging, the story fast-paced and intelligent. And yes, as noted by one reviewer, the concepts (ie, the dichotomy between the Dark and the Light) in this book have been covered before. Of course they have--it is part of the definition of high fantasy. What is particularly compelling is the arbitrariness by which an initiate chooses between the Dark and the Light--the choice can be based on something as trivial as one's mood at the time of initiation. It also makes one question just where the line between "good" and "evil" actually lies. Beyond that, the possibility of a world existing right beside our own is always intriguing--it's one of the things that makes stories like Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia so appealing--the possibility of stepping outside the mundane into an exciting adventure. Which is exactly what the Night Watch is.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A different approach
Comment: This is an original fantasy novel. The war between light and darkness finds a very different approach in this book. I highly recommend it for those who are bored of the same type of vampire stories and are looking for something new.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dresden files meets harry potter.
Comment: Dresden files meets harry potter, sums up the style of this book. A book about wizard & vampires.
The writing and the story are very good. However I didn't like the characters much. And being unsympathetic to the lead characters made the book a disappointment, as everything else about it is very good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastically Russian
Comment: Night Watch is a good read, at a good pace, with a really excellent lead character. I read the book after seeing the movie, but before learning that the American version of the movie was heavily butchered due to movies execs worrying about how the movie would translate. After reading this novel, I'm anxious to find the "real" version of the movie and watch it properly, and I've got the next two books at the top of my reading stack.
The biggest part of the novel for me wasn't the action or the plot specifics or even the secondary characters, but Russia itself and the classic Russian lead of Anton. Other reviewers say the book is a bit plodding- I felt this was an excellent portrayal of the general malaise of a post- Cold War Russia. Some say that Anton is a weak hero- He drinks himself nearly to oblivion and rants about the terrible misfortune of his life, what could be more Russian? I wound up wanting to share some vodka with the guy because I could picture myself in the same shoes, under this bizarre set of circumstances.
It's that sense of mood, and of Russia as a wonderful backdrop, that this story becomes possible. The book is actually divided into 3 novellas, each comprising a separate story rather like a set of serials. Even then, this book as a whole leaves most questions unanswered, and this is a good thing. You only ever get to know just as much as Anton knows, and throughout the book you're only experiencing things from his perspective. The book is in three novellas because that's how Anton lives his life- one story after another, and he tries his best to wash his hands of the last event before he winds up in another one. You join almost in medias res because Anton rarely bothers explaining or planning, he just tries to make do with the situation he's handed.
All in all, I can't recommend this book enough. Sure, I've barely mentioned the fireballs and the werewolves and the amulets and the computer databases. Everything combines to make a wonderfully now, fantastically Russian, yet somehow completely mystic setting where there's this whole world we can't see right in the middle of our own, and in some ways it's not much different from our own. But all of that is really secondary to the setting, and the wonderful ride as we follow Anton around in his work.
Definitely pick this one up. Just understand that you're getting less of an epic adventure (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings), and more of a socio-political drama (War and Peace comes to mind for some reason). The book still has a lot of interesting combat and magic and suspense, but it doesn't meet the usual definition of a page-turner because of Anton's more melancholy take on things.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Psychological fantasy
Comment: THE NIGHT WATCH by Sergei Lukyanenko is the first book of the Night Watch Trilogy set in modern-day Moscow. The fantasy tale carries the voice of a young man named Anton Gorodetsky who belongs to a magical force called the "Night Watch" that protects humanity from the "Day Watch" consisting of vampires, werewolves, witches, and the list goes on. At the beginning, Anton is a low-level but apparently an important member of the Watch (he just doesn't know it yet) and is about to be sent to the field for a mission although he is not a field operative.
Anton is one of the extraordinary humans called the "Others" who live and work alongside humans. As an Other, Anton can enter in and out of another dimension known as the Twilight. When an Other comes of age, he or she must choose to join the Light or the Dark side. This is the case for Egor, a young boy who got himself into trouble when a vampire 'calls' him (he's about to become 'food'). Egor is a young unfledged Other (he doesn't know it) and his time hasn't come for him to choose sides. At the same time of the Egor incident, Anton is to find a woman who is under a Dark Magician's curse. She's a beautiful and innocent doctor named Svetlana, also an uninitiated Other who potentially possesses great magical powers.
Another thing to watch for in the story is that each side--the Light and the Dark--honours a treaty to ensure that the opposite side is not violating the terms by interfering illegally with the direction of human history. The story gets a little bit philosophical and in my humble opinion, makes a tedious read as it keeps emphasizing most of the time, on the importance of maintaining this balance of power.
The book has three parts. I was excited upon finishing part one of the story but as part two and three unfolds, I got a little tired. Still, it makes an interesting read because of the modus operandi of the Watches, the other-worldly Twilight that will happily make any of the Others a permanent resident should they ever commit something wrong, the emotional conflicts and struggles between good and evil, and a host of other supernatural stuff.
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