Night Watch (novel): Difference between revisions

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''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]].

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'''Novels in the Franchise:'''

* ''Night Watch'' follows the livings and doings of Light magician Anton Gorodetskiy, an Moscow Night Watch operative working under the Great Light magician Geser.

* ''[[Night Watch (Lukyanenko novel)|Night Watch]]'' follows the livings and doings of Light magician Anton Gorodetskiy, an Moscow Night Watch operative working under the Great Light magician Geser.

* ''Day Watch'' follows three different Dark Others, with several ''Night Watch'' characters appearing as recurring antagonists. It was co-written by Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev

* ''[[Day Watch (novel)|Day Watch]]'' follows three different Dark Others, with several ''Night Watch'' characters appearing as recurring antagonists. It was co-written by Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev

* ''Twilight Watch'' follows Anton Gorodetskiy as he tries to protect his daughter, {{spoiler|a potential Light Messiah}}, while looking for a magic book that can turn mundane humans into Others.

* ''[[Twilight Watch]]'' follows Anton Gorodetskiy as he tries to protect his daughter, {{spoiler|a potential Light Messiah}}, while looking for a magic book that can turn mundane humans into Others.

* ''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.

* ''~~The~~ 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|homages~~]] the movie adaptation a few times and wraps up the events in the closest thing the series can have to the [[Grand Finale]].

* ''[[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]].

* ''[New Watch (novel)|New Watch]]''.

* Nevertheless, the fifth book was released in 2012, titled ''The New Watch''.

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

'''Other works in the franchise:'''

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

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

* [[Night Watch (video game)|''Night Watch'' (video game)]]

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.

Not to be confused with [[Night Watch (Discworld)|The ''Discworld'' novel of the same name]].

* [[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.

* [[Alternate Continuity]]: The films, as expressly stated near the beginning of ''The Last Watch''. One of the characters retells as a dream one of the most random and over-the-top scenes in the movies, which he dismisses as an alternate reality -- there's more than a hint of a [[Take That]], too. There is also the PC game adaptation, which basically throws the book and movie continuities into a blender.