The sun goes down the stars come out...

So, I discussed book 1 of Sergei Lukyanenko's Watch trilogy a while back.

Today, as I waited to clock in, I finished Day Watch, which is obviously Book 2.Obviously.

Much like the first one, the book is really 3 novellas wrapped around the machinations of the Night Watch and the Day Watch, groupings of "Others" who either fight for the light or for the dark. This volume is focused on the Day Watch, the Dark Others like vampires and witches, and their perspective on things.

For the most part, the Dark ones are very survival of the fittest. Make your own destiny. Serve no one.

They're kind of like the Shadows to the Light ones' Vorlons. Because, really, the Light ones aren't much better. (Seriously, by the end of the book, when all is revealed, I was annoyed with both Watches.)

The first story deals with the witch Alisa, who spent most of the last book screwing with the protagonist Anton. In this, Alisa manages to drain her powers during a group working to save a fellow witch from the Night Watch. As such, Zabulon, head of the Moscow Day Watch, sends her for some R&R at a summer camp. (I am not all that familiar with all things Russian, but it sounds like the camp started off as a camp for young Communists.) She falls in love with Igor, they rut like rabbits, then as she regains her powers, she realizes he's also feeding off the campers because he's a Light one in similar straits to her.

The second part deals with an Ukrainian Day Watch member coming to Moscow with no real memory of who he is, and what he's doing in Moscow. His story revolves around a stolen artifact that was being held by the very neutral Inquisition (the Inquisition is made up of both Dark and Light ones. Their job is to enforce the treaty and keep the balance.) Said artifact, Fafnir's Talon, is a pretty powerful Dark artifact that Vitaly, the Ukrainian, winds up in custody of after it lands in Moscow. His actions end up having some serious repercussions for the Night Watch.

In the third story, we focus in on the Estonian, Edgar, as he is sent to Prague for the Inquisition trial of both the thieves of the Talon in the second part and of Igor for his crimes in the first part. Anton (protagonist from the first book) is also in Prague for the same trial. The two wind up finding common cause over Czech beers (in the process making fun of American Budweiser and American airmen on leave from Kosovo. This book is set in 1999, and the third part takes place near Christmas.)  As the trial approaches, we finally figure out what Gesar (head of the Night Watch) and Zabulon have been plotting over the past two books.

Which annoyed me, since the author more or less builds up how tricky the two magicians are, then has the characters figure out it was exactly what they were discussing, rather than any number  of twists I was coming up with reading the discussions.

And really, the plot revealed, which is caught in Millennial fever, kind of annoyed me. Then again, the final resolution is from a framework well outside of where I am. I won't go into detail here, merely state that Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHay would be proud. Sort of.

I'm also guessing that since I am not a Muskovite, nor am I part of Russian culture, there is probably quite a bit of allegory to post USSR life that I'm missing in the narrative. Much like Y Tu Mama Tambien, where I missed several commentary notes on Mwxican culture because I'm not part of it.

It's still a fun read. I'll eventually have to get the final book when my TBR pile shrinks a bit.

From Russia with WTH?

When I first opened Nightwatch by Sergi Lukyanenko (translated from Russian by Andrew Bromfield), I was reminded a bit of Vicki Pettersson's Signs of the Zodiac series. (Which I should finish reading at some point. Even if I was annoyed at the odd treatment of my own sign in the novels.)

This was mainly due to the approval by both the Daywatch and the Nightwatch on the first page. Much like Pettersson's Zodiac, warring factions of supernatural beings work to save/enslave humanity. Unlike Pettersson, these warring factions of Light and Dark have a very strong treaty in place that (while there are workarounds) pretty much keeps both sides in check.

The Nightwatch is the side of light. As such, most of the three inter-related stories contained within are narrated by Anton, a former paper pusher in the Nightwatch who's been thrown in to field work. (I say most of, because there are bits and pieces in 3rd person that have to do with the real focus of the particular vignette.

The first part deals with an undecided Other (folks who join the watches are Others...wizards, vampires, etc.) and a woman with a very large curse hanging over her. (As a note here, Others become fully formed others when they enter Twilight, kind of a an Astral Plane, or the Umbra for those of you who play White Wolf games. How you react to the Twilight pretty much influences whether you go Light or Dark and what kind of Other you become.) The second follows a servant of the Light who keeps killing off servants of the Dark. And the third concerns Anton's girlfriends and the things she's going through on her way to becoming a Great Sorceress.

Really though, the central conflicts in the novel seem to lie in the theme of "How much done in the name of Good is really Evil?" To a lesser extent, we're also getting an echo of Babylon 5's Vorlon/Shadow war, in Authoritarian policy versus Darwinian politicking. (The girl who recommended this book to me [she read the trilogy in Russian, bless her Hungarian heart] tells me that the next book is told from the Daywatch perspective, and explores more what the side of Dark is like. So while this one is really Angels with Filthy Wings, the next book will probably be Demons with White Washed Tails.