The book, rather this English edition of The Night Watch, is actually a compilation of three stories. All the while this goes on human life continues obliviously. And so the 'Night Watch' is run by Light Others to monitor the Dark Others who in turn have their own 'Day Watch'. To ensure the treaty was upheld both sides had a 'Watch' that monitored the other. The way it worked was that members of both sides could live their lives the way they wished but within clear limits determined by treaty. However both sides, Light and Dark, realise that there is little to be gained from waging a war against each other across eternity, and so long ago there was a treaty forged, and tensely maintained, between the two. This is not the Star Wars simplistic light versus dark side of the force which Lucas simply had as a plot device, though a superficial reading could lead to it being construed as such. And in this sense you can see how this may resonate with a post-communist society not that communism hugely benefited its communities unlike mixed economies (in the strict economic sense).
The light and dark are not strictly good and evil but - at least at first - more to do with whether an individual puts themselves first or the community to which they belong. However such 'others', as they are called, soon after they realise that they have these abilities either turn to the light or the dark. People so blessed could also harness - to varying degree according to ability and experience - magical energies. It transpires that since early humans evolved some had the ability to see into, and indeed enter, the twilight: a magical parallel dimension. The book's rendition of good and bad is not simply black and white though, for purposes of plot tension, extreme evil is also there. This exploration, which is almost certainly helped by the author being a qualified psychiatrist, is what gives it its depth. But what really sets it off is that it taps into a fundamental human dilemma as to what it is that separates good from bad in the mundane sense (as opposed to the extreme saintly versus evil sense). That it not only has fantastical creatures (vampires and werewolves) not to mention magicians and parallel dimensions, undeniably makes it a genre work. Its contemporary setting that is clearly in a post Soviet Moscow, whose people have seen considerable change in recent years ensures it is a novel of our time. The Night Watch has all the hallmarks of a modern classic horror. It has been made into a film that also has gone down very well and indeed won a 2004 ESFS Eurocon Award (for the adaptation to film of this novel) as well as in 2003 for 'Best Author'. The Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko, has taken the Russian SF and fantasy scene by storm.
Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch Fiction Reviews
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