Book: Nightwatch, by Sergei Lukyanenko

[Hayt]

Title: Nightwatch
Author: Sergei Lukyanenko

This is the first book in a series of four. I first learned of this series this past Christmas as I was spending time with Tanja in Germany. She was listening to them as audio books while I had some “me” time for a little computer gaming. After hearing her rave about them, I decided to give the first one a try upon my return home. I finally ordered this book from Amazon.com, read it, and now I’d like to share my thoughts.

Nightwatch is broken down into three stories which all take place in Moscow. It is written mostly in a first-person narrative and the events revolve around the main character, Anton Gorodetsky. Anton is an Other. Others are those who have special abilities to become more than just humans and act as moderators for either the powers of Light (the Nightwatch) or the Dark (the Daywatch) and work to balance the power of the other side and their influence on the human race.

The story does have mention of things such as magicians, shape-shifters, and vampires along the way; however, these are (for the most part) just miniscule parts of a much greater and more complex puzzle for the reader. The author does an excellent job in his ability to have the reader follow, understand, and sympathize with the narrator, Anton.

Each of the three stories in this book are technically separate but they build upon one another extremely well (you have to follow the order for background information used in the following ones). The plot in each is complex and although a resolution is reached at the end of each, it is often not the expected or desired outcome. Although there are forces of Light and Dark (Good and Evil), the author takes these perceptions and does an excellent job of bringing out the overlap of these and pointing out the levels of grayscale in between.

Yes, I would recommend it.