Review: THE DAY WATCH

The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Book 2 of The Night Watch series
Read by Paul Michael
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About The Day Watch:

The second book in the internationally bestselling fantasy series, Day Watch begins where Night Watch left off, set in a modern-day Moscow where the 1,000-year-old treaty between Light and Dark maintains its uneasy balance through careful vigilance from the Others. The forces of darkness keep an eye during the day, the Day Watch, while the agents of Light monitor the nighttime. Very senior Others called the Inquisitors are the impartial judges insisting on the essential compact. When a very potent artifact is stolen from them, the consequences are dire and drastic for all sides. Day Watch introduces the perspective of the Dark Ones, as it is told in part by a young witch who bolsters her evil power by leeching fear from children's nightmares as a counselor at a girls summer camp. When she falls in love with a handsome young Light One, the balance is threatened and a death must be avenged.Day Watch is replete with the thrilling action and intricate plotting of the first tale, fuelled by cunning, cruelty, violence, and magic. It is a fast paced, darkly humorous, haunting world that will take root in the shadows of your mind and live there forever.

Source: Info in the About The Day Watch was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104160.Day_Watch on 28/05/2013.

Review:

Like Book 1, this book is a slow start too. Unfortunately, so is a few characters' tendencies to be too stupid to live (TSTL)! That, I did not appreciate! However the world building remains beautiful as ever! Similarly to Book 1, this book did not pick up until the very end. I don't know whether the goodness of Sergei Lukyanenko's story telling quality did not translate well into English thus it got lost in translation. Or I simply do not appreciate his story telling abilities in this particular book. Either way, I find the book dragging at times. But the beautiful world of Anton Gorodetsky and my incurable curiosity as to what happens next made me continue reading until the end.

If I break down this book into it's constituent parts, it garners a score of less than three. However if I look at it as a whole, it feels like a 4. So I will give it a four in contradiction to my Empirical Evaluation. It seems like that the adage:

"the whole is more than the sum of its parts"

fits this book well.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 3
Story itself = 1.5
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 2
Pace = paperback: 1 (audiobook: 14 hrs and 25 mins listening time)
Plot = 1.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The The Night Watch series:


Thank you to Arrow for the review copy received.

FTC Disclosure:
The paperback book was received for free from Arrow. The audiobook copy was purchased with private funds. No money received for this review.

Review: THE NIGHT WATCH

The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Book 1 of The Night Watch series
Read by Paul Michael
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About The Night Watch:

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy parallel world existing in parallel to our own, each Other owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light. The "Night Watch," first book in the "Night Watch" trilogy, follows Anton, a young Other owing allegiance to the Light. As a Night Watch agent he must patrol the streets and metro of the city, protecting ordinary people from the vampires and magicians of the Dark. When he comes across Svetlana, a young woman under a powerful curse, and saves an unfledged Other, Egor, from vampires, he becomes involved in events that threaten the uneasy truce, and the whole city...

Source: Info in the About The Night Watch was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1029770.The_Night_Watch on 18/04/2013.

Review:

I like the world building and the premise. After all I am an urban fantasy girl, so vampires, magicians, and shapeshifters are totally sold on me. I also like the way Sergei Lukyanenko presented good and evil in the book. That one is pure poetic brilliance! What I didn't like was the plot depending on the hero to behave stupidly to create a dilemma in the story. Rather pathetic plot building skills there. So the boss clearly and carefully instructed Anton not to be alone. Not even for a single second. Even told him the reason why so that he would cooperate more fully. So what does our hero does the first chance he gets? He walks off alone so that the bad guys can frame him for murder. Yep, too stupid to live (TSTL)! Walked right into the trap whistling a tune (so to speak). To be fair though the story narrative did emphasize that Anton is a lousy field operative. First Garik made him that something is wrong. Then Svetlana, despite Anton being supposedly better than that because he is supposed to be an experienced field operative with years of training. Yes, our main protagonist is a non-hero. One thing you can say about it though is that there is character development consistency! Even though, I still find the TSTL royally annoying! Then the story telling quality drags at times. For the first three quarters into the book I had to stretch my perseverance because I found myself wanting breaks from it. Such that even with the convenience of the audiobook it still took me two weeks or so to finish the book. I didn't appreciate the story until the very end. Now am looking forward to reading Book 2.

When I take the book apart in the Empirical Evaluation the book ought to score only a 3 out of 5 but when I look at the book as a whole, it feels like a 4. So am giving it a 4 in contradiction to my empirical evaluation. This don't usually happen, but sometimes the whole is more than the sum of it's parts.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3
Character development = 3
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 3
Pace = paperback: 1.5 (audiobook: 14 hrs and 44 mins listening time)
Plot = 2
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The The Night Watch series: