Day Watch (Watch, #2)Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loneliness, dejection, the contempt or pity of people around you–these are unpleasant feelings. But they are precisely the things that produce genuine Dark Ones.

As with the previous book in the series, Night Watch, this is comprised of three stories. Unlike the previous book, this is told from the Dark Ones’ point of view and by three different protagonists. Intriguingly, it begins with statements opposite to those which open Night Watch. We are told that this text is not approved because it is deleterious to the cause of Light (signed the Night Watch) and deleterious to the cause of Dark (signed the Day Watch).

The first story is told from a Dark witch’s point of view as she is sent to recover from a difficult assignment. It was definitely dark and almost kept me from continuing. It’s funny because it isn’t as if the story contained anything that I haven’t encountered in other books and it definitely isn’t because it is told from the dark point of view. There was just something about it that made me not want to read it, which is a tribute to the author’s ability to convey atmosphere in his storytelling.

I thoroughly enjoyed the second story which was a mystery within a mystery as a man riding a train realizes he has amnesia … and is an Other. The third story brought the other two together in a climactic trial by The Inquisition.

As in Night Watch, each story examined a facet of Dark or Light. I was especially interested in the third story where most of it is shown from the point of view of Edgar, a Dark Other, or Anton, our familiar Light Other from the first book. Several times each was judging the other for the very same thing while thinking, “Just like a Light/Dark Other…” In this story we also hear about how Inquisitors see things and it was an interesting contrast to the Others.

Day Watch uses these engrossing stories to examine good, evil, love, and sacrifice, continuing the themes found in Night Watch. As such it gave me pause while I thought about the author’s representation of the very thin line that separates good from evil, and true love from a self-serving pretense of love.

It was quite good overall, although it was not quite as good as Night Watch. Definitely recommended. I am eagerly anticipating receiving the next book from the library.

4 Replies to “Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko”

  1. Actually, it was Day Watch that I almost stopped reading. Luckily I enjoyed Night Watch enough that I kept going based on that previous good experience. And because my daughter said she’d had the same reaction but pushing through got to the much more enjoyable second story. 🙂

  2. Julie,

    Many thanks.

    It’s difficult to anticipate all the possible questions.

    It’s interesting that you almost stopped reading the Night Watch but were glad you continued.

    Thanks for sharing your insights.

    God Bless,

    Don

  3. Hi Don! So glad you asked, because I should’ve been more specific. For each book, each of the three stories is novella length. The first two can stand alone, but the third story pulls them all together. The Day Watch stories definitely take place after the Night Watch stories and carry on our understanding of the maneuvering between Light and Dark. You probably could read Day Watch out of order since the first story begins a new arc, but I think it makes more sense if you know the set up from Night Watch.

  4. Julie,

    Are the three-story-collections in Night Watch and in Day Watch interconnected? Could you classify the individual tales as short stories or shorter novels within the collections?

    Thank you,

    Don

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