Dusk Watch
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Dusk Watch (Russian: Sumerechniy Dozor, Сумеречный Дозор) is a fantasy novel Russian writer Sergey Lukyanenko. It's the sequel to Night Watch and Day watch and the third part of tetralogy that concludes with Final Watch.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Among us live the Others. They are humans who can enter the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists alongside our real world, and gain unnatural powers from it. As long as they are in the Twilight, Others are drained of their life essence and may be consumed if they remain in it for too long. Others are made up of two distinct groups- the Light Others and Dark Others. A long time ago, the Light and Dark others fought a fierce battle in which neither side could win. In the end, both sides signed a Great Treaty- a set of laws which would govern them and the use of powers. Light Others created Night Watch, to ensure that the Dark Others wouldn't break the Treaty while Dark Others created Day Watch, to watch the Light Others as well. Both sides created Inquisition- an organization which ensures that neither of the two sides become too powerful.
In Dusk Watch, Anton Gorodetsky, a light mage and operative of the Night Watch, is assigned by Gesser (aka Boris Ignatjevic) to investigate mysterious warning letters sent to both the two respective Watches and the Inquisition. In the letters, a powerful Great Light Other promises a human that he will make everything for him. Its revealed that the human wants to become Other. However, this is unrealizable request, and as such, the Light Other is in danger because refusal to do this human's request means that he will dematerialize in The Twilight. In order to aide the Light Other, Anton goes to the Assol, a rich district in Moscow, and with Kostya, a great vampire and Antons former friend, now member of the Day Watch, who too was assigned to this case, along with Edgar and Vitezoslav from Inquisition in order to find out that the Light Other who made the promise is Olga, and that the human is her and Gesser's child, now a 60 years old businessman. He was turned to the Other, but no one knows how.
Anton takes his wife Svetlana (who left Night Watch) and their daughter on a vacation in a remote area. However, he is asked to check out an incident where werewolves attacked two children. The children were saved by a mysterious woman living in the forest. When describing her house, the girl mentions that she saw a book titled "Fuaran" on the shelf. Anton can hardly believe it, as Fuaran is a legendary and extremely powerful artifact, believed to be lost ages ago or maybe never to have existed at all. According to stories, the book, written by an ancient witch (named Fuaran) contains a spell able to turn an ordinary human into an Other. Anton finds the witch's cottage and the witch, Arina, herself, but not Fuaran - the witch only shows him a book about the legend of Fuaran. She is a co-author of it. Higher powers begin to take interest in the witch. Anton finds out that Arina was exiled after a joint Watch experiment to create a perfect socialist state in the 20s, in which she was given a pivotal role. Instead, all subjects died, supposedly due to the Arina's intentional sabotage of the experiment. Arina manages to escape and cover her tracks. Four agents are sent to the witch's hut to investigate: Anton, Kostya, Edgar, and Vitezoslav. They find no trace of "Fuaran". Several days later, they arrive to the hut to find Vitezoslav's ashes in a hidden room and no indication of who could have killed him, except that it would have to be someone powerful, as Vitezoslav was a Great Vampire. At first, they suspect Arina. However, it soon turns out that the Other who killed Vitezoslav and took the book is Kostya, who himself became a Great Vampire after drinking a blood cocktail he invented (a mix of blood from 12 donors). Apparently, both vampires found the book in the hidden room. Vitezoslav tried it on Kostya increasing his powers exponentially, after which Kostya challenged Vitezoslav to a vampire duel. The loser of such a duel is ashed. His ultimate goal is to travel to the International Space Station and read the book while looking at the Earth from orbit (the spell of Fuaran works on everyone in the caster's range of sight), turning all humans into Others, so at last he will not be different from the rest. All but Kostya realize that this will be a disaster - "you step on someone's foot in a tram, he curses at you; now he can incinerate you." Also, what most Others do not realize is that it is, in fact, humans who emit magical energy. The Others absorb it more than they emit, allowing them to use it. The mage level of an Other depends on the absorb/emit ratio. There were several "zero" Others in history: Jesus (Yehoshua), Merlin (he managed to turn from Light to Dark), and Anton and Svetlana's daughter. Their power is nearly unlimited as all they do is absorb magic. If Kostya manages to turn all humans into Others, the amount of magic energy available will drastically decrease.
Kostya makes it to the Baikonur Cosmodrome and mind-controls the humans there to suit him up for the rocket launch. Anton catches up and confronts him, with Geser, Zavulon, and Edgar all linked to his mind. Each is telling him to use a different destructive spell on the vampire. They realize that Kostya is not planning to steal a rocket, as not even the Great Vampire is capable of launching a rocket into orbit by himself. He is instead planning to open a portal to the space station. As a precaution, he is still putting on a spacesuit. To demonstrate the effectiveness of "Fuaran" to Anton, he uses it on a human, turning him into a low-level Other. What neither Kostya nor Anton realized at the moment was that Anton affected too - as he was standing right in front of Kostya - turning him into a mage without classification (Geser's level). However, when Kostya was about to open the portal, Anton took all the energy he got from Geser, Zavulon, and Edgar ... and spent it to create a shield around himself. Kostya expressed his surprise at such an act of cowardice and opened the portal. Only when the vampire stepped through it did Anton relax - the threat was over. It takes thousands of calculations to put a rocket into orbit. He knew that Kostya could not possibly calculate the exact position of the station. The portal deposited Kostya into orbit, missing the ISS. Since the few humans on the station could not provide him enough energy to cast a spell (the reason why Others do not go into space), Kostya floated in his spacesuit until he burned up in the atmosphere along with the book.
[edit] Characters:
[edit] Light Others
- Anton Gorodetsky (Light Mage) - a reluctant member of Night Watch, in the beginning of the first book, preferred mundane, technical jobs to actual field work. The events of the series forced him to step up and become a full-fledged operative. They also made him considerably more cynical about the cause of Light Others. His favorite past-time is listening to randomly arranged custom mini-discs. Currently married to Svetlana and has a daughter who is destined to be the new Messiah.
- Boris Ignatyevich/Geser (Grand Light Mage) - an ancient mage of Tibertian descent who taught a number of heroes and philosophers during his lifetime. He moved to Europe during the early 15th century. Although he has had many opportunities to advance to high-level posts within Night Watch, he chose to remain a regional director of the Moscow division. Geser is a battle-hardened tactician who's been known to turn devastating defeats into small victories. He cares a great deal about his subordinates, though he doesn't hesitate to put them in harm's way for the sake of greater good. During the course of the novel, it was revealed that he and Olga had a son, who turned out to be mortal.
- Svetlana (Grand Light Sorceress) - a young doctor who became a Grand Light Sorceress. Her powers were severaly drained by the Mirror. They were later restored by the Inquisition. She is currently married to Anton and has a daughter who was destined to be the new Messiah.
- Nadya Gorodetskaya (Grand Light Sorceress, unitiated) - a young daughter of Anton and Svetlana. Even at her young age, she's capable of feats few Light Others can match. In spite of the knowledge that comes with such power, she retains child-like innocence, which occasionally results in her using her powers to help people without thinking of the consequences (i.e. preserving the Pact). She is considered a Zero-level Other - she does not emit magic, only absorb. In all the novels, only two more Others had such a level: Jesus and Merlin. Both were Light Others until Merlin turned Dark (the only one known to have accomplished this). Nadya was intended to be the Light Messiah, with help of Geser's manipulations with fate. However, due to Zavulon's intrigue, the only Light Other apparently able to be a teacher and mentor to a Messiah, voluntarily defleshed himself. Nadya is still going to become an incredibly powerful Light Sorceress, but it is not certain whether she will actually become Light Messiah,
- Olga (Grand Light Sorceress) - an old friend and an occasional lover of Geser. She served as a mentor to Svetlana.
- Semyon (Light Mage) - a crusty, experienced mage with a wryly cynical outlook on the world. Unlike many of his fellow mages, he is a capable fighter even without his magic.
- Bear (Shifter-Mage) - a reclusive, quiet mage known for his calculated, brutal tactics. It has been continuously speculated that he was originally a Dark Other, despite the well-known fact that once the choice is made, the Others can't change sides. His animal form is a large polar bear. He was frequently partnered with Tiger Cub until her death in Day Watch.
- Ignat (Light Incubus/Succubus) - a self-absorbed mage with "[the] face of a Hollywood actor and [the] body of a Greek god". He prides himself on being able to bed any woman (or man, he doesn't care). As a result, he takes failure very hard.
- Garik (Light Mage) - a shy mage infamous for his bad luck with women.
[edit] Dark Others
- Zavulon (Grand Dark Mage) - an ancient schemer about the same age as Geser. His true form has taken on demonic characteristics because he had spent a great deal of time in the Gloom.
- Kostya Saushkin (High Vampire) - a young, idealistic vampire whom Anton befriended shortly after becoming the Other. However, Anton's actions during the first part Night Watch drove a wedge between them. He was bitten by his father after he was born, and has resented being a vampire ever since. His goal is to study biology and find a cure for vampirism. Normally, a vampire must drink blood (completely) of about 50 humans to become a High Vampire. Kostya has managed to become one by drinking the "Saushkin Cocktail" - a special mix from blood of 12 donors.
- Arina Rodionovna (Grand Dark Witch) - an extremely powerful witch. She was involved in an experiment intended to create a perfect society, organised by both Watches together with the Inquisition, but she sabotaged it, together with an unknown Light Mage. Then she put herself to sleep for several decades, to wait out the hunt. Arina does most of her magic using plants and herbs. She chose darkness out of selfishness rather than any particular malice. As a matter a fact, she does not like to hurt people.
[edit] Unaffiliated
- Edgar (Dark Mage, Inquisitor) - a strong dark mage (1-2 level) that had been recruited to the Day Watch from Estonia. After getting tired of Zavulon's schemes, he joins the Inquisition. Interestingly, while Maxim divorced his wife when he joined the Inquisition, Edgar got married (to a witch).
- Vitezislav (High Vampire, Inquisitor) - an old vampire who got tired of Zavulon and Day Watch and joined the Inquisition. He and Geser share a long-standing animosity for each other. According to Geser, when Vitezislav became a vampire, he killed his own mother.
| Sergey Lukyanenko |
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| Bibliography |
| Island Russia: Today, Mom ! · Island Russia · Tsar, Tsarevich, King, Prince |
| A Lord from Planet Earth: A Princess Is Worth Death · The Planet which Doesn't Exist · Glass Sea |
| Line of Delirium: Line of Delirium · Emperors of Illusions · Shadows of Dreams |
| Labyrinth of Reflections: Labyrinth of Reflections · False Mirrors · Transparent Stained-Glass Windows |
| The Stars Are Cold Toys: The Stars Are Cold Toys · Star Shadow |
| World of Watches: Night Watch · Day Watch · Twilight Watch · Final Watch |
| Genome: Genome · Dances on the Snow |
| Seekers of the Sky: Cold Shores · Morning Nears |
| Other fiction:: Knights of Forty Islands · Nuclear Dream · The Boy and the Darkness · Autumn Visits · Not the Time for Dragons · Spectrum · Rough Draft |
| Short Story Collections:: H is for Human · Nuclear Dream · Gadget |
