...
The Moscow of Night Watch may look gritty and grim, but within its murky new freedom anything might happen. "The potential of Europe and North America has already been exhausted," Lukyanenko writes. "Everything that was possible has already been tried there. . . . All those countries are already half asleep. A healthy retiree in shorts with a digital camera -- that's the prosperous countries of the West. We need to experiment with the young ones."
But for Muggles who live outside that land of grand potential, say, in one of those exhausted, prosperous countries of the West, this fantasy novel's appeal will have to rest on its characters, its suspense and its themes. At the risk of being cursed by a Dark Magician, I have to say that's a long shot. Night Watch suffers from the pretentiousness and humorlessness that frequently weigh down stories that capitalize the words Good and Evil, as in "Evil has no need to bother with eliminating Good. It's far simpler to let Good fight against itself." I must remember this the next time my wife claims the car is making a funny noise.
...
Large sections of the novel sound like Henry Kissinger channeling Obi-Wan Kenobi on the importance of maintaining this balance of power, even if innocent individuals must be sacrificed along the way.
...
Use the Force, Luk.
Гм. Мне всегда казалось, что пафос первой книги - именно и только в том, что Антон пытается исхитриться и остаться человеком в достаточно бесчеловечной системе Дозоров. И как раз делает все, чтобы пробиться через пассажи а-ля Киссинджер.
