BooksScifi

The Last Watch (book 4) by Sergei Lukyanyenko (book review).

After the dramatic events of the Nightwatch trilogy, Anton has settled down into cosy domesticity with his wife, a powerful witch and his daughter who will be the most powerful enchantress ever, when she’s not playing with dolls.

TheLastWatch

We are in the world of the Others. They are super-humans who will live far longer than the humans that they protect. There are light and dark Others, hence the Daywatch and the Nightwatch who balance out the darkness and light. They use the twilight levels of which there are several, layered under our won reality, to move about and Anton, a light Other, also has acquired a level of power he’s not entirely comfortable with and he’s a little uncertain of where he fits into the Nightwatch hierarchy. His boss is long-lived and his boss’ assistant, Olga, suffered imprisonment in a stuffed owl. Life in Moscow with the Watch is never dull but now there is the prospect of international travel.

When a case arises in Edinburgh, Anton is sent across to deal with it. A young Russian tourist has been murdered in the Dungeons of Edinburgh. Despite the tacky nature of the attraction, it seems that a real vampire is on the loose. Anton must unravel what all this means and finds there is more than simple feeding going on. He must also deal with the leader of the Daywatch or, if you like, the Others ‘other’ side. Their leader, Zabulon, has a little history with Anton, too. None of this is straightforward and it helps to know the characters from the previous three books before you read this one.

‘The Last Watch’ is a good story, a little bit spoiled by the overuse of the exclamation mark, which is a familiar character by the end of the book. At one point, I found myself counting them which is not normal behaviour. I like the world of Nightwatch as it seems like it has plenty of possibilities for a continued series. Anton is an affable character although, like many in this kind of book, he doesn’t get a lot of development. He is more driven by the events than the driver. The descriptions of the twilight regions where the Others are able to travel to are intriguing and they, rather than the normal human world, play a significant part in the action of this novel.

The story continues in ‘The New Watch’.

Sue Davies

(pub: Arrow Books. 400 page paperback. Price: £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-09951-015-4)
check out website: www.randomhouse.co.uk

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