Lukyanenko Watch

I recently read the trilogy of books by Sergei Lukyanenko: Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch. I’m surprised they aren’t better known–my local science fiction bookstore doesn’t carry them at all. On the surface they seem rather derivative: they involve a struggle between the forces of light (the Night Watch) and the force of darkness (the Day Watch), and include vampires, werewolves, and magicians. In execution, though, they are quite interesting.

Lukyanenko shows the light and dark forces as parallel, but unlike most such efforts he does it 1) convincingly given the background; 2) in a way which makes the forces of light seem like the good guys while also showing why the forces of darkness oppose them. The books primarily trace byzantine plot maneuvers run by the head magicians which the ordinary characters do not fully understand.

Also the books are originally in Russian and set in Moscow, giving them a different perspective than most books I read. The translation is not very idiomatic English–it’s hard to tell how much of that is the original Russian and how much is the translator. There are a few side comments on the Americans which are interesting.

I understand that there is a movie of Night Watch which was very popular in Russia, but I haven’t seen it. Anyhow, I think these books are definitely a cut above the standard fantasy fare.