Night Watch (novel): Difference between revisions

{{work|wppage=Night Watch (Lukyanenko novel)}}

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{{quote|''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Light.''|''Night Watch''}}

 

{{quote|''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Dark.''|''Day Watch''}}

 

 

''Night Watch'' is set in Moscow in [[Present Day|1998-2007 (book timeline) / circa 2004 (movie timeline)]]. The world is pretty much the gritty ex-Communist concrete-a-thon we know and love, with a major difference. There are Others. Others are non-humans, born by humans and have special abilities. Vampires, shapeshifters, wizards, prophets, warlocks... and [[Incredibly Lame Pun|all others]]. What distinguishes Others from humans is their innate ability to manipulate "The Twilight", a "mirror-world" of magical energy. Others come in two flavors, Light and Dark, and the Light and Dark have been conflicting since the beginning of time. In the 12th century or so, the Others from both sides realized that conflicts between them, due to their vast power and influence over humans, could destroy the world. So they wrote and signed the Treaty, which basically states that each side is allowed to form a Watch to monitor the activities of the other side from becoming overly excessive, in turn monitored by a joint Inquisition. The Treaty has held up well, and all fighting between Light and Dark has moved [[The Chessmaster|into the shadows]].

* ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' follows the livings and doings of members of the Kievan Day Watch visiting St. Petersburg. The book was written by Vladimir Vasilyev with Sergey Lukyanenko's blessings. ''Twilight Watch'' and ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' take place in the same time period, and events of one book refer to those in the other (and vice versa) - though the plots never truly connect.

* ''[[Last Watch]]'' written by Sergey Lukyanenko because he wanted to prove that the fame hasn't gone to his head and he could write a book within a year without distractions getting in the way. Wraps up some loose trends from the previous books, [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] and [[homage]]s the movie adaptation a few times and wraps up the events in the closest thing the series can have to the [[Grand Finale]].

* ''[[Sixth Watch (novel)|Sixth Watch]]''

 

* [[Night Watch (2004 film)|''Night Watch'' (2004 film)]]

* [[Day Watch (film)|''Day Watch'' (film)]]

Aside from the movie adaptations, the book inspired a surprisingly interesting (if badly animated, buggy and poorly acted) PC game, a MMORG and a board game, not to mention the usual merchandising crap.

 

 

{{franchisetropes}}

* [[Affably Evil]]: Zabulon may be the head of the Moscow Day Watch (making him incredibly powerful, several centuries old, and probably the most ruthless and dangerous Dark Other in the former Soviet Union) and the sworn enemy of the Night Watch in general and Geser in particular, but he is generally polite and friendly to everyone, seems to have a certain fondness for Anton, generally acts as though he is enjoying himself immensely, and regards Geser as a beloved rival (it is even implied in ''Twilight Watch'' that part of the reason that neither Geser or Zabulon have advanced beyond the rivalries of the Watches is because they enjoy playing out their rivalry). It's mentioned somewhere that Zabulon is nearly a millennium old. And he remarks to Gesar that he had dreamed that they would one day work together, during the climax of ''Twilight Watch''. While giggling in a slightly less-than-sane way.

* [[And I Must Scream]]

** The spell that the Inquisitors suggest that Anton use {{spoiler|to defeat the ultimate vampire Kostya}}, is called the Sarcophagus of Ages. It locks the victim and the caster in said sarcophagus together until the end of the universe.)

* [[Evil Redhead]]: Alisa Donnikova

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Both the Light and Dark have contempt for vampires and werewolves, with the Dark seeing them mostly as useful pawns and the Light tending to assume they are [[Exclusively Evil]], since the Others who become them tend to be the type who would go for eating innocents. Interestingly enough, both groups provide examples of rare [[Dark Is Not Evil]] Dark Others. Not exactly [[Exclusively Evil]] but rather too animalistic to be considered proper humans. In the case of vampires, they may also turn people into new vampires who, without proper initiation and guidance may turn into real monsters (as shown in the first part of ''[[Day Watch]]''). The same thing can happen with werewolves. Vampires and werewolves are the only Others who can turn humans into their kind ({{spoiler|until ''Twilight Watch'', that is}}).

* [[For the Evulz]]: Light Others are generally prone to seeing Dark Others like that. Dark Others tend to be more [[Pragmatic Villainy|pragmatic]] though. At some point, the Night Watch determines that a group of Dark Others are trying to resurrect an ancient and powerful Dark Other and confront the Day Watch over it. The Dark Others balk at the suggestion, wondering why ''anyone'' would resurrect a certifiably insane Dark Other who would be of no use in politics and would probably [[Scaled Up|turn himself into a dragon]] and [[Chaotic Stupid|burn down a few cities]] before [[Magic Versus Science|getting shot down by human jets]].

* [[Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt]]: In ''Day Watch'', [[Amnesiac God|Vitaly]] discovers that his bag is full of dollars and immediately thinks he's up to something illegal.

 

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* [[Alternate Universe]]: The PC game was basically a combination of book and movie continuities. The character designs harken back to the movie, as does the usage of mundane items to do magic, but the characters can also use spells from the books and Twilight is closer to the way it was depicted in the books.

[[Category:Turn Based Tactics]]

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]