by Sergei Lukyanenko
William Heinemann,
2007, £11.99, 440pp
ISBN 978-0-434-01444-6
| The
Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko William Heinemann,
2007, £11.99, 440pp |
|
| See also my review of The Night Watch and The Day Watch | This review first appeared on Sci-Fi London |
| It’s very
much more of the same from Sergei Lukyanenko in The Twilight Watch
– which is by no means a bad thing. The third part of the
trilogy that began with The
Night Watch and The
Day Watch continues to follow Agent of the Night Watch
Anton Gorodetsky, doing what Night Watch Agents do. What’s
most interesting here though is not the usual array of wizards,
witches, vampires, werewolves, etc. - we’ve seen plenty of those before
– but, as the title coyly hints, the subtle interplay between “good”
and “evil” that Lukyanenko’s trilogy has come to dwell upon more and
more. To recap: the world is full of Others, beings with magical powers. There are various types of Others, with various abilities, and two basic Other alignments – Light and Dark. These correspond roughly to what we might call Good and Evil, and the two groups have been at war pretty much since they first discovered each other. The eponymous Watches are an attempt to contain this war by legislating it to death (imagine, if you will, a vampire having to fill in form B27/6 before they can drink any blood). Thus, if any member of the Light undertakes a ‘Good’ action then the Dark is entitled to an equivalent ‘Evil’ deed. The Night Watch is composed of members of the Light who work at night to police those affiliated to the Dark; similarly, the Day Watch is composed of members of the Dark who keep an eye on those of the Light. The treaty, as it is known, has held successfully for almost a hundred years; neither side is especially happy with it, but both, for the most part, recognise its utility. Except that Gorodetsky is increasingly coming to question the basis of the treaty – whom it benefits, and why... It’s kind of hard to do The Twilight Watch justice in a review without basically ruining the story for new readers. If you haven’t read either The Night Watch or The Day Watch then you may want to stop reading this review and do so; or at least go and read my earlier review of both those books. Because The Twilight Watch continues to build upon the philosophical sophistication of both those books: looking back on actions taken and conclusions reached previously, any of which seemed straightforward and patently justifiable at the time, but that now come under harsher scrutiny. The starting point for all this trouble, seen, as always, through Gorodetsky’s eyes, is a mysterious letter sent simultaneously to both Watches promising the secret of something assumed to be impossible: how to turn an ordinary human being into an Other. One central fact of Other existence is the supposed unpredictability of its manifestation – basically, Other parents don’t necessarily give birth to Other children, and perfectly ordinary human parents can give birth to Other children. The ability to ‘make’ Others would completely disrupt the terms and conditions of the treaty, which was drawn up assuming only a steady, but randomly occurring, population of Others. So in the first story both Watches are falling over themselves to discover the truth behind the mysterious letter and its sender, but working together to do so, something that staunch defender of the Light Gorodetsky is most unhappy about. The second story sees Gorodetsky on holiday with his family, but - always on duty – having to follow up some local stories about a pack of werewolves and a powerful witch living in the forest; it’s a charming use of elements from traditional fairy-tales. Gorodetsky is also having trouble coming to terms with the actions and motivations of his boss, the extremely powerful sorcerer Gesar, during the first story (distractingly, as an Englishman, I can’t help but read ‘Gesar’ as ‘Geezer’ whenever I see it!) The third story, which is a continuation of the second, sees events step up in magnitude towards a nail-biting climax to the series, whilst at the same time slowly, seemingly quite casually casually, revealing some of the strange depths of the Others’ world whilst never fully explaining it (in fact, leaving more than enough questions hanging in the air to support further books in this series!) Remarkably, Lukyanenko is able to maintain the tension and pace whilst at the same time pondering some fairly intractable philosophical dilemmas pertaining to the Others, to the treaty and to the raison d’etre of the Watches themselves. Forget the cover quote from a Daily Telegraph review - ‘JK Rowling, Russian style,’ - all three books of the Watch have more intelligence and thought in just their prologues than all of Ms Rowling’s children’s books put together. The Twilight Watch is the resounding culmination of a carefully planned, well thought out and beautifully executed story. |
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