[Andy_T]

Has anybody here read Sergeij Lukyanenko's "Night Watch" quadrilogy?

I read that some time ago and would highly advise it. It is about Anton Gorodetskij, a young wizard from Moscow who is a member of the "Night Watch", an executive body of "white" wizards who make sure that during the nighttime no black magic users overstep the boundaries of the accord between light and dark. Simultaneously, during the day, the "Day Watch", their dark counterparts, make sure that the fragile equilibrium is not disturbed.

Of course, there is a lot of scheming and breaking of rules that makes the books interesting.

As a young - and not very powerful - wizard, Anton is unfortunately (fortunately for the plot, however) quite often out of his league when battling werewolves, vampires and centuries-old warlocks, also both the enemy and his own bosses sometimes use him as an unwitting pawn. So not boring, and not as "smug" as Jim Butchers writing, where you always know that Harry has at least one more hidden ace up his sleeve.

I really must read those books again (old, dusty, boring dead tree books) and check if I still like them as much as I did when I read them first. I promise, however, that there is not much "chick-lit" in those :-)

Also, it is refreshing to read a book set in Moscow, and written by a Russian, for a change. Lukyanenko is actually a "heavyweight" of the Russian Fantasy and Science Fiction literary landscape with more than 40 books to his name. Unfortunately, only few of these have been translated to English, a few more to German. Night watch was also made into a movie.

Best regards,
Andy