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By Sergei Lukyanenko. Members of the book club should be looking for it currently.

No stress, take your time. Discussions will hopefully play out while people are still reading, but you don't need to get it now.

Anyhow, enjoy the book and read at leisure.

P.S.Thanks @Sethaniel for making the thread for the other book.

Huh, there's a movie (I think it's in Russian though) on Netflix streaming. Awesome haha.

At least, I think it's related to the book...

Yeah, it's based on the book.  A lot of the character's names are transliterated differently, and the plot has significant differences.  It's subtitled.

huh, there are six novels in this series.

There are actually two movies but I'm not sure if the second one is based on the first book.

The second movie is still the storyline from the first book.

Are you sure there are six?  I only know of five.

There appears to be.

1. Night Watch
2. Day Watch
3. Face of Black Palmyra
4. Twilight Watch
5. Final Watch
6. New Watch

Black Palmyra isn't written by Lukyanenko.  It's by the guy who's credited as a co-author of Day Watch (which is the most un-like all the others in the series.)

Oh right.

Technically Black Palmyra, The Other Amongst Others, and Time of Inversions are considered "approved tie-ins" to the main series.  But none of them have been translated into English, afaik.

There's also a brand new series in the Watch World he just started this year, called School Supervision.  It's about a school for unaffiliated teenage Others.  Also not in English.

No real spoilers here, okay to discuss if you've only read the first chapter:

What do you think about the idea of the treaty between Light and Dark?  The idea that, for every good action the Light does, the Dark get to perform an equivalent evil act?

You mean chapter 5. And it's a little... unsubtle, I guess? But we'll see how it plays out.

The writing is a little awkward at times -- I'm guessing English is not the author's first language. The story is interesting so far, though. ^_^

@Morgan_R The actual book is written in Russian.  There was a lot of debate over what to call "The Twilight." The movie calls it "The Gloom." 

I think part of the "treaty" has to do with needing there to be a reason why Light doesn't just fix everything, or why Dark Others don't just rule the world.

It turns out to be a lot more complicated than it seems in later books.

Up to the second 'story'/part. Interesting book so far. @Drakilian would like it, because vampires.

Anyway, I'm kinda confused by their pact. Because, how do the Day watcha dn the Night Watch know when their opposition does good or bad? Do their seers constantly watch all of the operatives?

Also, I think the magicians can feel when someone in the area is shifting things with magic.

Just found my library card, so I'm ordering the book over the weekend. Hope others aside from Seth and I can get a copy soon enough. 

But once again, ( @jamescoker1226 ) no rush.

I'll try and visit my library sometime soon to see if it's there. If not I'll look it up and purchase it maybe.

I still havn't got to reading it yet, hopefully will tonight.

It's not at either of my local libraries or the closest book store so I'm hoping to hit some of the resale places before I turn to ordering a copy. Is anyone else having a hard time getting their hands on this book?

Got the Kindle edition for 1.99, reading it on my phone. Sorry you're having trouble, though!

Damn! I wasn't blown away by Part One, although I enjoyed it. Part Two came together nicely, though. High expectations for Part Three!

The whole series is full of chessmasters.  If it isn't on the TVTropes pages for Xanatos Gambit and Xanatos Roulette, it should be.

Unfortunately, I'll have to wait till monday to get it. Sorry guys.

Done. I don't have that much to say, I guess, but...

I think the romantic angle could have been handled better. Overall, Anton felt a little flat to me throughout, but particularly in that area. The whole last third of the book seems like it should have been driven by his feelings for Svetlana... and I guess technically it was, but they're just not that clearly articulated or expressed.

If anything, I think you get a better sense of Gesar's feelings for Olga.  I liked Olga more, too, she seemed like a more defined character than Sveta.  Although I do appreciate that there was more than just one token female character.

I never really felt like Sveta had much personality.  Which is weird, because Anton is narrating the whole thing, you'd think out of all the people he mentions, he'd have the most detailed, most emotion-filled descriptions of her persona. 

I really liked that Olga was such a strong and interesting character and not a romantic interest... but yeah, Sveta felt undeveloped in comparison. And although it hadn't occurred to me, I think your point about Anton's viewpoint on her is well-taken. I never would have guessed the author was setting them up from their first meeting. I'm not saying it needed to be love at first sight, but some hint of attraction would have been nice. And from there, yeah, he just doesn't seem to have much of an opinion on her.

I thought her fling with Don Juan (sorry, forgot his name XD) and her anger at Anton's apparent lack of jealousy was a really interesting little sequence, but... nothing came of it! It was never resolved -- in fact, nothing between them was resolved. >_<

If you read Day Watch, the very first story is Alisa's love story.  That's a little better, but it is from Alisa's point of view. 

Anton seems to be more emotionally invested in Gesar and Zabulon than he is in Sveta.  Also, I agree with you, I don't really get the point of the whole Sveta/Ignat thing if Anton just wasn't going to care, and Sveta was a little ticked he didn't care, but she got over it.

I agree, the love angles were rather weak. It also annoyed me that in the first part Olga specifically says she is tired of romantic feelings and doesn't connect to them then is immediately thrown back into her relationship with Gerat. It didn't seem consistent. The ending was a bit of a let-down. I wish it had exceeded a convoluted mess of unnecessary abilities, alliances and romances. I agree with Morganp that it was highly unresolved. What happened to Egar, did they stop the hurricane from killing many, did Olga succeed, were Anton's actions enough to pay back the happiness he took? I suppose those may be covered in the other books, but I was left with the impression that they wouldn't be resolved.

They do talk about some of that stuff in the later books.  There's a huge spoiler later in the series.

Just got the book from the library. Hopefully will start it today, though from 8:00, there will be a big 25ish hours long holiday/day of atonement, and pleasure reading is kinda a no-no.

On another note, I totally appreciate the people who are reading. Thought the book club would crash and burn pretty quick haha.

I don't know when I will be able to get this, sorry guys.

Do you have a nearby library (and a card)? Even my dinky nearby library was able to order it for me. And it's like, a shack compared to the ones in the libraries in other states I've been in.

Yeah, they wouldn't order it for some reason. I might be able to get it tonight though.

*crickets*

...so, you folks still reading, or what? I found a book I really want to recommend and/or just read myself...

Giving it the weekend, vote prolly gonna start Sunday.

Almost done with the book myself, gonna finish it tonight.

Cool. I'll be curious to hear what you think of it. ^_^

Oh yeah! Thanks for reminding me--

Quick vote here before the actual vote if this doesn't pass:

1.) Continue with this series, where we'll read Day Watch.

Or

2.) Revote.

It's probably gonna be #2, but it's good to make sure haha.

Voting for more voting! ^_^

*moar crickets*

I think you, me, and tan may be the only ones left.

The single thing people were most enthusiastic about was recommending their book.  And voting.

Hey, I'm still around. XD 

If you aren't discussing the book, you don't count :p

:,(

Hey, another discussion part:

What did you think about when Anton says (paraphrasing) There's no big moment of choice between Light and Dark; you've been deciding your whole life which side you're on?  And that a lot of people are surprised in both directions to see which way they went.

It got me thinking about morality, and people's self-image.  (Bear with me, I haven't properly formatted this discussion.)

Veering over to Harry Potter, my nephew insisted he was Slytherin.  He's painfully honest, refuses to even lie by omission.  He's incredibly considerate of other people.  (I mean that in the sense of "of all the people I know, he spends by far the most time genuinely considering what other people's thoughts and feelings might be.")  My coworker declared for Slytherin, and the rest of the staff were like "she's one of the nicest people working here!"  "Nobody cares more about not hurting other people's feelings than her!"

Isn't that kinda how life works?  Truly modest people would never think of themselves as modest.  Really generous people don't even consider "oh I'm being generous" it's just natural to them.  Really good people put themselves on the dark side, because they're so good they can't even see how good they are, they only notice their darkness.

So, it would be interesting to write a fantasy story where the "dark side" was made up of the kindest, most altruistic people because they had such high standards of goodness and the "light side" was made of selfish jerks who were too egotistical to even know they weren't good people.

One of the most interesting points in the book, I thought, was how the Light wasn't an infallible good. I mean, it seemed like it was, but it wasn't really.

Not sure about your Slytherin example. Just because you're in Slytherin doesn't make you evil, they're just notorious for having some really bad eggs. I mean, maybe your nephew and coworker just liked snakes? Claiming to be in Slytherin while being a good person doesn't necessarily make you humble. Slytherin could just sound 'cool' to people, regardless.

Having a story based off that would be really cool though, especially of it alternated between a 'good' and 'evil' protagonist, with flipped virtues.

Light vs. Dark really gets interesting in the later books.  

This book had a lot of "what's best for everyone as a whole is often not good at all for one particular person."

Slytherin as they're written in the actual books are just assholes.  No one would really belong there.  Most people who claim to be Slytherin in fandom have reinvented their own version of the houses.  

 "Although Slytherin House is coded as the "evil" house in canon, many fans are sympathetic toward or identify as Slytherins. This may be in part due to the popularity of characters like Severus Snape  and Draco Malfoy. However, many fans identify with Slytherins' character traits in general (ambition, cunning).

J.K. Rowling has stated that fans' preference for Slytherin characters derives from the attractiveness of the actors or from an unhealthy desire for "bad boys" Much meta has been written by frustrated Slytherin fans on the author's perceived failure to understand their interest. "If you identify with House Slytherin, the later books are essentially a series of slaps in the face"

You know something else about Slytherin that bugs me?  How is the amibiton house also pure-blood?  Nobody's more ambitious than the people who weren't born into wealth/power but go after it anyways.

Because Rowling had to make a 'big bad evil house' and the easiest way to do it was modeling them after Germany. 'Pure bloods', "Aryans", etc. She wasn't that creative with Slytherin.

Anyhow, Harry Potter isn't a good example for what you were trying to say, I think. Since as you noted that Rowling said, people just side with it because it's cool. Not because of humility.

One of the things I hear in a lot of Rabbinic lectures is that humility isn't thinking yourself as bad or evil, it's that you know you're 'good', but you realize that a) your skills and abilities to get those skills are ultimately given from God (unrelated to discussion), b) don't show show off with it, and/or c) knowing you could be better. It's not thinking you're bad or something.

Ha ha, finished it! Great book, I'll type uip something I noticed soon. 

Also, never watch the movie. 

The movie doesn't live up to the book then? 

Great book by the way, it was different from what I usually read. lol I enjoyed the Light and Dark changes but I think Tan and Sethaniel already covered most of it.

Oh, the movie was horrible. Tan and I could barely get through the first 3 minutes. 

Then I guess I won't try and find a full version of it on Youtube. 

Do you generally hate subtitled films, or was this one just too weird?

It had a really slow beginning, and it more or less devolved into a drug-trip like experience about some kid in a pool and his blood coming out of his nose and before that there was this old woman and her son(?) and her son's wife was unfaithful so she did a wacky dance and caused a miscarriage from another dude's baby and then a bunch of Russian mobsters (night watch?) started interrogating her.
I've survived subtitled films before, like woochi. That was pretty cool.

Nah, I'm fine with subtitled films. I'd rather them then dubbed films (ugh). This thing was just plain odd and poorly done. 

Anyways, I noticed something interesting regarding the Bosses of Nightwatch and Daywatch. 

Unlike the lower ranking people, who actually gave up on their wishes in order to advance their cause, Boris and Zebulon were playing their watches for their own benifit (Boris' goal in the whole book was to remove the punishment on Olga). I found it odd for Boris, but then again, I suppose "good" can be for everyone or just for one person, it still counts as good. 

Also, I think the book reallt focused on the need for balance. With too much of a focus on Light, you end up with Fascism (We were told Nightwatch helped out Nazi Germany) killing millions for the greater good, while with too much of a focus on 'Evil' you end up working only for yourself. 

In the end, Anton decides he just wants to be a simple White Mage, to become just slightly less human then actual humans, and give up on the power being a Watcher gives, because neither side was right. That's why the treaty was so important. In reality, both sides were bad by themselves, but together, they were 'good' for humans. 

Though, I question why the Darkness accepted the treaty. They could have won easily if there was no treaty. 

Do you really want to know? Are you planning on reading the other books? ?

I think I probably will, ha ha. Is if explained in them?

Yeah.

I'd probably put up another thread up about now, but my laptop was abducted, and my head hurts too much to do it all on my rather buggy ipad. XD

Though, I'd like to note, that I'm liking how the book club is going. It's to be expected that not everyone will be able to get a book, but just having as much as myself, @Morgan_R @Sethaniel @Aman @Fireplay and @bilbo reading it is just great. It's enlarging my reading library, and is just interesting. Additionally, it forces me to read XD

Thanks guys.

I agree, and thanks for putting it all together! Hope you get your laptop back soon, I'm looking forward to the next round. ^_^

Abducted?

By my mother.

Edit: (so she could watch her Israelli news :P)