To Russia with Love

The Last Watch
Sergei Lukyanenko
Doubleday Canada

In preparation for my trip to St. Petersburg, I thought that I should get in the mood by reading some Russian literature.  The options are pretty impressive -- Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov -- you can't go wrong reading anything from that group. Once I got about a hundred pages or so into Anna Karenina, I decided that I might be better served if I were to read it when I am overseas.   I'm going to have a lot of airport time and AK will be just the ticket.

Of course, that left me scrambling for another Russian to read.  A quick trip to the bookstore and I was happy to learn that Sergei Lukyanenko actually published a follow up to the Night Watch series.  In this episode, Anton is sent to Edinburgh to investigate the murder of a young Russian tourist.  Normally, this kind of assignment would be beneath the notice  of a Higher Other such as Anton.  The tourist, however, was drained of all his blood and the Watches realize that they have a rogue Vampire on their hands.

Structured a little bit differently from the other novels in the series, The Last Watch again explores the relative notions of Good versus Evil.  Anton is a cynic, a skeptic, a believer, and an optimist.  If you're asking yourself how he can be all four at the same time, then you've just hit on one of the major themes of the novel.  Three thinking wizards out of five.