Night Watch

The unusual Moscow setting of Night Watch is echoed by its magic system. Lukyanenko’s contemporary world is inhabited by both humans and ‘Others’, supernatural beings who can attune to Dark or Light. These beings keep watch, one group during the day, the other at night, using their powers to maintain the balance. They exist in a magical realm known as the Twilight and began long ago as shamans and wisemen. Their attuenment depends on their emotional state when they entered it, and this also determines which powers they can access. Thus, Lukyanenko creates a world filled with sorcerers and vampires, healers and magicians. Each side recharges its powers through human emotion; dark through the negative ones, and light through the positive. Feeding on bad emotions heightens them, while positive emotions are dulled, creating a system where light is forever overshadowed by darkness. Lukyanenko’s strength is in the detail he renders each power, but he also uses it as a tool. His magic system exists not just for excitement, but to explore concepts of good and evil, and that makes it one of the best around.

Books in Watch Series (5)

Booklists having this book

Best Non-English Fantasy Books

English literature has many great works of fantasy -- Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones, The Chronicles of Narnia. But there's an entire body of literature -- and... Read more

Best Fantasy Magic Systems Books

Welcome to the comprehensive list of the Best Fantasy Magic Systems Books  Read more

Best Dark Fantasy Books

Dark fantasy books are those that contain elements of the horror genre. Terrifying monsters, horrible people and awful violence are all a must. In dark fantasy worlds, the shadows hold... Read more

Best Grimdark Fantasy Books

One of the more popular subgenres of Fantasy now (there’s debate as to whether it’s a legit subgenre or just an artistic category) but one can hardly argue its prevalence... Read more

Top 25 Best Fantasy Books

This is a list of books that are the crème de la crème of the fantasy genre. I've carefully chosen the top 25 fantasy books from hundreds of series and... Read more

Best Fantasy Series

Do you love those fantasy novels with many kingdoms, protagonists, politics, and cultures? Do you like the epic struggles between small bands of heroes against impossible evil? Do you eagerly... Read more

Other books by Lukyanenko, Sergei

Night Watch

The unusual Moscow setting of Night Watch is echoed by its magic system. Lukyanenko’s contemporary world is inhabited by both humans and ‘Others’, supernatural beings who can attune to Dark... Read more

Daywatch

 Read more

Twilight Watch

 Read more

The Last Watch

 Read more

New Watch

 Read more

Night Watch

The origin story of one of fantasy's move loved characters, Sam Vimes and arguably the best Pratchett book out of the entire Discworld canon.  There is always an underlying rage... Read more

The Night Watch

 Read more

News