The Twilight Watch [Paperback]

"Twilight Watch" (same as "Dusk Watch") is the 3rd book in the Night Watch trilogy-now-tetralogy. It opens with a mystery: the Night Watch, the Day Watch, and the neutral-overseer Inquisition all receive anonymous notes that a way has been found to turn normal humans into Others. Yet this wasn't supposed to be possible! The danger represented by the information would turn the world upside down.

In the 2nd half, Anton, while vacationing in the country, come across a strange, powerful witch living in the woods, hiding from something...

In this book, Lukyanenko keeps up the excellence of his writing, characterization, and excitement, and the moral quandry is as present as ever. The line between the Light and the Dark gets finer still. There is more exploration of the "science" behind magic and a look into the past that I really enjoyed.

This book is definitely faster-paced than "Day Watch," with many exciting and shocking twists and turns, and a stunning conclusion.

This follow-up to the (also amazing) Russian magical reality books Night Watch and Day Watch returns us to Anton's mind and to Anton's relationships with those around him. Focusing on interactions with the mysterious Inquisitors, this book takes Anton further along in his path to understanding that there really is very little difference between Light and Dark and that the shades of Grey they all walk in are probably more suited to all Others than being separated like this.

In the first of the three "books" that are traditionally found in each of these novels, Anton has to go "undercover" into a community of humans to try to discover who, if anyone, has been told about the Others. Not only is it dangerous for the Others to be revealed, but whomever revealed the Others to this human has also promised to turn this human into an Other him or herself, which is - according to all but the most forbidden of legends - impossible.

In the second "book," Anton runs across an unregistered and VERY powerful witch as well as several werewolves who were apparently hunting humans while on vacation in his dacha (country house) and has to try to take care of these problems with the help of Svetlana.

In the third "book," a powerful vampire and member of the Inquisition has been murdered and a book thought to be the stuff of legends, that will allow Others to turn humans into Others themselves, has been stolen from the house of the witch Arina. Anton, with the help of the vampire Kostya and the Inquisitor Edgar, has to try to find the culprit and the book.

Lukyanenko has created a vivid world in modern-day Russia. He shows us the despair with which many modern Russians live while they try to adapt to a capitalistic society, a method of life that is completely foreign to everything they've ever known before. Through this is shown the plotting of the Watches and Inquisition and the Others, using the humans often as pawns and foils in their games for glory. It is an often bleak outlook (to me). My husband, on the other hand, found the book to have a lot of humor in it - he says there are a lot of instances of outright slapstick. So I guess it is all in how you look at it - there is a situation where Anton has an old out-of-work drunk work on a BMW. He brings in several friends and they completely take apart the car. They get so involved in it that they even forget to get drunk. Me, I found that sad. My husband thought it was hysterical.

At any rate, do NOT miss this amazing series of books. You will not be sorry for reading them.

You could start the series with this book, but I strongly recommend this wonderful trilogy in order. While the story is not as rigorously linear in plot, as for example, The Lord of the Rings, your understanding and appreciation of the series will be enhanced by reading them in order.

CAUTION: If you order the trilogy together, you may be at extreme risk of sleep deprivation.

The book really rips along, and the author uses the action to disclose new information about the basic laws and types of creatures of magic, so that we continue to be drawn in.

He draws an admirable balance between keeping you off-balance--guessing about what will happen next and pacing his revelation of critical details. It's very suspensful, and it resulted in another sleep deprevation experience.