The Day Watch

I wonder why Sergei Lukyanenko co-wrote the second Watch book with Vladimir Vasilyev. I think it's pretty odd to bring another author in all of a sudden. Like why was Vasilyev needed? The novel seemed similar to the first. Also, the English cover of the novel doesn't seem to mention Vasilyev, which is curious. In fact this picture of the Finnish cover I found doesn't include him either even though the print I read with otherwise identical cover has both authors' names on it.

The Day Watch (Дневной Дозор (Dnevnoy Dozor)) follows -- or at least starts with -- a Day Watch, a Dark Other viewpoint as is to be expected from the title. It doesn't stick to one character as much as The Night Watch did though, switching to others in the three parts the novel is divided into again -- each with their own prologue.

The first part I found to be the weakest, almost boring. Alisa Donnikova, a witch introduced in the first novel, loses her powers in an operation and then spends the rest of the story trying to regain them on a sort of a holiday trip.

The second part is more interesting, as is the third one. I found the conclusion disappointing though. The first novel was the same: a huge overarching buildup for a climax that then fizzled out. The constant song lyric quotes -- real life songs, I believe -- are also something I started skipping. They don't have the intended effect if you don't how the songs go. I feel it's kind of pointless to include them, and I doubt any real effort had been spent on translating them.

I have the third novel ready to go but I'm not yet sure if I'm going to read it.

Updated 2020-10-08: Added point about song lyrics.