Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
William Heinemann (2008), Paperback, 400 pages
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: The fourth novel in the blockbuster series from one of Russia's most popular authors, Last Watch returns us to the hyperimaginative world of Sergei Lukyanenko, where the endless battle between good and evil is about to reach its climax. Anton Gorodetsky is just getting a feel for his new powers, when his boss, Gesar, sends him to assist the Scottish Night Watch in Edinburgh in a murder investigation. A young Russian man has been murdered�??apparently by a vampire. But the mystery is more than it seems and soon Anton is himself in danger. The murderer appears to be someone with intimate knowledge of the Night Watch. Before long, Anton realizes that a plot is being hatched by the forces of both darkness and light that�??unless he can intervene�??may mean nothing less than Armaged… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member lewispike
This book starts with Anton struggling to adjust to his new role as a Higher Other, and Geser struggling to help him adjust because there aren't enough jobs that demand his power level that will stretch him and give him useful experience.
Then a Russian studying in Edinburgh is killed by a vampire,
Anton finds out that there's a link to Merlin, and a link to his old former neighbour Kostya the vampire. There is also a lot more mess and intrigue going around.
In this book Anton is rarely in Moscow - Edinburgh for the first and last part, Samarkand for the middle - but the places are lovingly described and rather than seeing Moscow as a Muscovite, we see Russian culture abroad through Russian eyes which is also nicely done.
This book only gets 4.5 stars because the end is a little weak. Although it's not really a deus ex machina, it has a little of that feeling of having written itself into a corner and then needing that deus to pop out and readjust it. Still a couple of average pages in a few hundred excellent pages isn't too bad.
I have a feeling this will be the last book in this series, which is a shame, because I'd happily read more books set in this universe and with these characters.
Then a Russian studying in Edinburgh is killed by a vampire,
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and Geser asks Anton to go and investigate. Zabulon does too - the plot most definitely thickens!Anton finds out that there's a link to Merlin, and a link to his old former neighbour Kostya the vampire. There is also a lot more mess and intrigue going around.
In this book Anton is rarely in Moscow - Edinburgh for the first and last part, Samarkand for the middle - but the places are lovingly described and rather than seeing Moscow as a Muscovite, we see Russian culture abroad through Russian eyes which is also nicely done.
This book only gets 4.5 stars because the end is a little weak. Although it's not really a deus ex machina, it has a little of that feeling of having written itself into a corner and then needing that deus to pop out and readjust it. Still a couple of average pages in a few hundred excellent pages isn't too bad.
I have a feeling this will be the last book in this series, which is a shame, because I'd happily read more books set in this universe and with these characters.
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LibraryThing member livingtech
This was NOT disappointing. I finished it way faster than expected. Like the previous books in the series, the translation was excellent, and never felt noticeable (to me). One thing that I have really enjoyed reading this series is how the universe keeps changing as our understanding of it grows.
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This book kept up the trend. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheCrow2
In this final (?) book of the Night Watch series Anton pursues the secret, mysterious 'Last Watch' who want to get a powerful artifact of Merlin and with it perhaps end the world... If you liked the previous books you would enjoy this.
LibraryThing member paulafonseca530B
Audience: Grade 10 and Up
In the fourth installment of the Watch series, Anton Gorodetsky, the protagonist, is now a Grand Light Mage, an Other of the highest rank. Like any Other, he is a human being with special powers to draw energy from other people and the Twilight—a parallel dimension to
Sergei Lukyanenko’s Last Watch continues the saga of the Day Watch and the Night Watch, two corporation-like organizations that control the balance of good and evil in the world. The series discusses the nature of good and evil and the boundaries between them. Anton is an accidental hero, a low ranking Other who, by chance, is turned into a Grand Light Mage. After years with the Night Watch, Anton learns that good and evil are more circumstantial than essential. Readers are constantly challenged to rethink the notion of what is good and what is evil, and Sergei Lukyanenko does a great job in avoiding the common traps of good guy versus bad guy with characters that multi-dimensional and excusably flawed. Lukyanenko’s series is a perfect balance of fantasy and mystery with a slight touch of horror.
In the fourth installment of the Watch series, Anton Gorodetsky, the protagonist, is now a Grand Light Mage, an Other of the highest rank. Like any Other, he is a human being with special powers to draw energy from other people and the Twilight—a parallel dimension to
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the human one divided into levels, each level requiring more power and skill from the Others. After a Russian man is killed by what it seems to be a vampire in Edinburgh, Anton is sent to investigate the murder. With the help of his five-year-old daughter, the only Absolute Light Sorceress, Anton uncovers a path that leads to Merlin and a secret that jeopardizes all Others and threatens the very own existence of the world.Sergei Lukyanenko’s Last Watch continues the saga of the Day Watch and the Night Watch, two corporation-like organizations that control the balance of good and evil in the world. The series discusses the nature of good and evil and the boundaries between them. Anton is an accidental hero, a low ranking Other who, by chance, is turned into a Grand Light Mage. After years with the Night Watch, Anton learns that good and evil are more circumstantial than essential. Readers are constantly challenged to rethink the notion of what is good and what is evil, and Sergei Lukyanenko does a great job in avoiding the common traps of good guy versus bad guy with characters that multi-dimensional and excusably flawed. Lukyanenko’s series is a perfect balance of fantasy and mystery with a slight touch of horror.
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LibraryThing member silentq
A sequel to the Night Watch trilogy, still following Anton, this time as he's sent off to Edinburgh to investigate a possible vampire attack in a dungeon attraction. The stakes are raised when he realises that the legacy of the ancient Other Merlin is being sought. The interesting twist is that
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Merlin started off as a Light Other and then turned Dark due to his actions. The structure of the Twilight, the levels below/beside the real world, is expanded upon, and Anton gets to work with both Light and Dark Others to try and save the world from the Last Watch. Show Less
LibraryThing member kalyka
Written by Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko, and translated by Andrew Bromfield, The Last Watch focuses mainly on Anton Gorodetsky, a Light Magician working for the Night Watch.
For those who haven't read the three previous novels by the same author - Night Watch, Day Watch, and Twilight Watch, let
Among us live Others, people able to draw on the magical force flowing within our world. These Others, obviously, have two distinct sides, which are constantly in conflict; the Light Others, which comprise of Light Mages, Healers, Enchantresses, some Shapeshifters and so on, and Dark Others, of which vampires, werewolves, witches, warlocks, etc., are part of.
From this are formed the Night Watch and Day Watch. The Night Watch, for which Light Others work, operates at mostly at night, keeping an eye on Dark Others, and vice versa.
There is also the Inquisition, which is some sort of "justice system" for Others, and there are members of both the Light and the Dark within the Inquisition.
All of them can enter the Twilight, a dimension parallel to our own, which consists of six levels, the last two of which can only be entered by the most powerful of Others.
This is where Anton Gorodetsky comes in. A Light Magician working for the Moscow branch Night Watch, he's sent by Gesar, aka Boris Ignatievich, to assist the Edinburgh branch of the Night Watch in a murder investigation. A young Russian tourist has been brutally killed in a popular tourist attraction, called the Vampire Castle. How fitting.
However, all is not what it seems. He will find out from Thomas Lermont, the head of the Edinburgh Night Watch, that an ancient relic has been stolen, and that three people are behind this; a Light Other, a Dark Other and an Inquisitor. Apparently, these three are in search of a very powerful magical artefact, created by Merlin himself.
Anton's investigation will thus lead him from Edinburgh to Uzbekistan and back to Moscow before he is able to solve that particular mystery and save the day.
The structure of the book is very much the same as in the three previous installments. It comprises of three parts, each containing a prologue followed be six chapters and concluding in an epilogue. Each chapter, including the epilogue, is written in the first person, representing Anton's point of view, as opposed to the prologue, which is narrated in the third person, describing events outside Anton's presence.
While I liked the premise of the story, I felt that this novel was somewhat bland, even though it delves into some of the characters' past lives and gives some insight into what they have become. The characters, while developed in the previous books, could have been increasingly so in this novel. Some characters, unfortunately, were only driven by the loss of a loved one, which leads them either to madness, thoughts of revenge, or both.
Also, I thought the translation from Russian to English was rather poor. Often, sentences were not structured properly, and it may seem petty, but Gesar's name in this installment is spelled 'Geser', which irritated me. I felt that the translator, who is the same person who translated the previous novels, was in a hurry and botched the job. Thus it made the read less enjoyable than it should have been.
For those who haven't read the three previous novels by the same author - Night Watch, Day Watch, and Twilight Watch, let
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me explain some background before I go any further.Among us live Others, people able to draw on the magical force flowing within our world. These Others, obviously, have two distinct sides, which are constantly in conflict; the Light Others, which comprise of Light Mages, Healers, Enchantresses, some Shapeshifters and so on, and Dark Others, of which vampires, werewolves, witches, warlocks, etc., are part of.
From this are formed the Night Watch and Day Watch. The Night Watch, for which Light Others work, operates at mostly at night, keeping an eye on Dark Others, and vice versa.
There is also the Inquisition, which is some sort of "justice system" for Others, and there are members of both the Light and the Dark within the Inquisition.
All of them can enter the Twilight, a dimension parallel to our own, which consists of six levels, the last two of which can only be entered by the most powerful of Others.
This is where Anton Gorodetsky comes in. A Light Magician working for the Moscow branch Night Watch, he's sent by Gesar, aka Boris Ignatievich, to assist the Edinburgh branch of the Night Watch in a murder investigation. A young Russian tourist has been brutally killed in a popular tourist attraction, called the Vampire Castle. How fitting.
However, all is not what it seems. He will find out from Thomas Lermont, the head of the Edinburgh Night Watch, that an ancient relic has been stolen, and that three people are behind this; a Light Other, a Dark Other and an Inquisitor. Apparently, these three are in search of a very powerful magical artefact, created by Merlin himself.
Anton's investigation will thus lead him from Edinburgh to Uzbekistan and back to Moscow before he is able to solve that particular mystery and save the day.
The structure of the book is very much the same as in the three previous installments. It comprises of three parts, each containing a prologue followed be six chapters and concluding in an epilogue. Each chapter, including the epilogue, is written in the first person, representing Anton's point of view, as opposed to the prologue, which is narrated in the third person, describing events outside Anton's presence.
While I liked the premise of the story, I felt that this novel was somewhat bland, even though it delves into some of the characters' past lives and gives some insight into what they have become. The characters, while developed in the previous books, could have been increasingly so in this novel. Some characters, unfortunately, were only driven by the loss of a loved one, which leads them either to madness, thoughts of revenge, or both.
Also, I thought the translation from Russian to English was rather poor. Often, sentences were not structured properly, and it may seem petty, but Gesar's name in this installment is spelled 'Geser', which irritated me. I felt that the translator, who is the same person who translated the previous novels, was in a hurry and botched the job. Thus it made the read less enjoyable than it should have been.
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LibraryThing member .Monkey.
This and the first book in the series were my favorite. The latter for all the philosophical right/wrong thoughts framed so perfectly in the story, and this one because the style was so different from the rest. Not that I didn't enjoy them (I devoured them!), but it was a nice change of pace. It
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took itself less seriously- making a couple references to the movies, included a few legendary figures as characters, and just kind of went "all out"; battles involving human military, exploring more levels of the Twilight with much more depth, an ultimate goal trying to be achieved... It was fun, I enjoyed it a lot. Show Less
LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
Last Watch grapples with ideas that might mean the end of the world, plus a murder mystery or two and the lengths to which a father might go to avenge - or protect - his children. While the final "twist" was not exactly a brand-new concept, the vision of the afterlife was chilling and I feel like
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the series came to an appropriate close. Show Less
LibraryThing member Strider66
Pros: great characters, interesting mystery, some new spells and creatures
Cons:
Three years after the events of The Twilight Watch Anton Gorodetsky is sent to Scotland to help investigate the murder of the human son of a potential Russian other, by what appears to have been a vampire. It’s
This book refers fairly often to the events in the previous books in the series, so if you haven’t read them if a while, a quick skim is in order.
As with the previous books this one is separated into three sections. It was cool seeing Anton work in different locales and dealing with new members of the watches. He’s an interesting character and the supporting cast grows a bit in this book while bringing back several characters from the previous books.
The mystery surrounding the hole in the twilight and Merlin’s spell kept me guessing even as other new spells were explained and used, and some new creatures - specifically different types of golems - show up. The book also had some Others using more technology with their magic, which was cool to see.
I enjoyed the book. This is my favourite urban fantasy series and I’m glad to be reading it again.
Cons:
Three years after the events of The Twilight Watch Anton Gorodetsky is sent to Scotland to help investigate the murder of the human son of a potential Russian other, by what appears to have been a vampire. It’s
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quickly apparent that more’s going on than murder, and that whoever’s behind the murder isn’t afraid to use humans as canon fodder.This book refers fairly often to the events in the previous books in the series, so if you haven’t read them if a while, a quick skim is in order.
As with the previous books this one is separated into three sections. It was cool seeing Anton work in different locales and dealing with new members of the watches. He’s an interesting character and the supporting cast grows a bit in this book while bringing back several characters from the previous books.
The mystery surrounding the hole in the twilight and Merlin’s spell kept me guessing even as other new spells were explained and used, and some new creatures - specifically different types of golems - show up. The book also had some Others using more technology with their magic, which was cool to see.
I enjoyed the book. This is my favourite urban fantasy series and I’m glad to be reading it again.
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LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
I love this world - the atmosphere, the characters, the story. As in the past books, this is a story told in three different parts that all come together at the end.
The first story has Anton traveling to Edinburgh to help the Night Watch of that city find a murderer. The second story has Anton and
As always, the stories ramble a bit, although this stays closer to the topic (Merlin's Greatest Spell), but come together at the end. More knowledge about the Twilight is shown and Anton is conflicted between his duty to the Watch vs the duty of his family.
Even though Anton gets more and more powerful in each book, it doesn't affect the series. The mystery is not dependent on Anton's power, but his ability to solve a mystery. And that is the second thing I like about these books - there isn't a good vs evil, although the story might be framed that way.
The first story has Anton traveling to Edinburgh to help the Night Watch of that city find a murderer. The second story has Anton and
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another agent going to Uzbekistan to find someone who once knew the Great Merlin. The third story is set back in Edinburgh, with Anton being blackmailed to access the great spell of Merlin on the Seventh level of the Twilight.As always, the stories ramble a bit, although this stays closer to the topic (Merlin's Greatest Spell), but come together at the end. More knowledge about the Twilight is shown and Anton is conflicted between his duty to the Watch vs the duty of his family.
Even though Anton gets more and more powerful in each book, it doesn't affect the series. The mystery is not dependent on Anton's power, but his ability to solve a mystery. And that is the second thing I like about these books - there isn't a good vs evil, although the story might be framed that way.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2006
2009-01-27 (English translation)
Physical description
400 p.; 6.18 inches
ISBN
0434017388 / 9780434017386
Local notes
Anton Gorodetsky is just getting a feel for his new powers, when his boss, Gesar, sends him to assist the Scottish Night Watch in Edinburgh in a murder investigation. A young Russian man has been murdered--apparently by a vampire. But the mystery is more than it seems and soon Anton is himself in danger. The murderer appears to be someone with intimate knowledge of the Night Watch. Before long, Anton realizes that a plot is being hatched by the forces of both darkness and light that--unless he can intervene--may mean nothing less than Armageddon.
Other editions
The Last Watch: (Night Watch 4) by Sergei Lukyanenko (Paperback)