Target: Sergei Lukyanenko’s Twilight Watch. Translated by Andrew Bromfield (The Watches pentalogy #3)
Profile: Modern Fantasy, Suspense, Horror
Sergei Lukyanenko’s Watches books have utterly captivated me. The moody atmosphere and strong characterization drive an uncompromising examination of good and evil. Oh, and the story isn’t bad either. Where Day Watch acted as the natural extension of Night Watch, exploring some of the same material from the perspective of Darkness, Twilight Watch almost starts from scratch with a new, overriding storyline that runs through all three sections of the book. While the vignettes that compose all of the Watches books have never felt truly disconnected, there is a more immediate sense of continuity at work inTwilight Watch that lends urgency to the unfolding events.
Twilight Watch rejoins Night Watchman Anton years after the events in Prague at the end ofDay Watch. He’s settled down with Svetlana and had a daughter, Nadya, who is already starting to show her strong potential as an Other. Anton is recalled early from one of his rare vacations at the behest of Gesar to investigate a troubling letter. The anonymous author claims that someone has offered a human the opportunity to become an Other, and not just a low level vampire or werewolf, but a full-fledged magician. Both the Night and Day Watches believe this to be impossible, but are concerned that someone has revealed the existence of the supernatural to a human. Anton goes undercover to identify the human in question and attempt to catch the unknown Other in the act, but as always, things are more complicated than they appear. What starts to unfold is a shadowy power play that reaches back all the way to the Russian Revolution. The stakes are high for both Watches and the Inquisition, as they clash over the awakening of a powerful witch, the terrible secret of magical power and the ultimate fate of the Others.
