Day Watch () is a fantasy novel by Russian authors Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev. The second book in the saga of Watches, it is preceded by Night Watch and followed by Twilight Watch, Last Watch, New Watch, and Sixth Watch. Day Watch also stands out of the saga as the only novel in the series not narrated mainly from Anton Gorodetsky's point of view.
While the 2006 film Day Watch bears the same name, it is actually a loose adaptation of the second half of the first book in the series, Night Watch, and not an adaptation of this novel.
The English translation by Andrew Bromfield was released in January 2007 both in the US and the UK.
Plot summary
Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are The Others. These beings possess supernatural powers and can enter the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own. Each Other owes allegiance to either the Dark or the Light forces. Each side has a patrol to ensure the opposing side follows the rules of an agreement put in place millennia ago. The Light's patrol is called Night Watch and the Dark's patrol is called Day Watch, in accordance with the times when each is active.
Unauthorised Personnel Permitted
(this story is told from the point of view of Alisa Donnikova)
In the prologue, a woman named Natasha visits a witch and requests that she cast a spell to make the woman's estranged husband fall in love with her again. After Natasha strikes a deal with the witch, members of the Night Watch suddenly arrive and arrest the witch, to Natasha's great surprise and confusion.
The story shifts to Alisa Donnikova, a young yet powerful Dark Other, who leaves her house to attend a meeting with her comrades on the Day Watch. The team is on a mission to apprehend and recruit an uninitiated Other, the practicing Dark witch from the prologue who has so far eluded the bureaus responsible for finding and initiating unlicensed practitioners of magic. It seems a routine operation, but when they arrive, the Night Watch team has already made the arrest. A fierce battle ensues, during which Alisa almost dies. Drained of her powers, she is sent to recuperate at a youth camp near the Black Sea. There she meets Igor. The chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, and Alisa finds herself falling in love. But then comes a shattering revelation: Igor is a Light Magician. Alisa suddenly realizes that he was one of those involved in the battle that left her crippled. Had they known what they were, they would have not entered their relationship. But now that they know, Igor (who reacts with rage, feeling he was tricked) challenges Alisa (who reacts with a more depressed note of sadness) to a duel. Alisa allows Igor to choose the site of the battle: off-shore, in the sea. Alisa chooses not to fight back, allowing Igor to magically push her under the water and drown her. She calls Zabulon for help but is shocked to find out Zabulon has planned her death all along. While this is going on, Makar, a boy that had become infatuated with Alisa, swims out to rescue her and also drowns.
Note: The first scene of this story forms the basis for the opening of the film Night Watch. In the movie, it is Anton (not Natasha) who goes to the witch. Rather than asking that his spouse fall back in love, he asks her to cast a spell that would kill his wife's love child with her adulterous lover (he later learns that the child was actually his own). Both scenes play out in much the same way from there, but the arrival of the Day Watch and subsequent battle do not take place in the movie.
A Stranger Among Others
(this story is told from the point of view of Vitaly Rogoza)
A man named Vitaly Rogoza awakens while walking through a park late at night with no memory of his past and no knowledge of his identity. Acting on an internal instinct whose source he cannot understand, he is able to protect himself from a werewolf and board a train to Moscow. Once in Moscow and still acting on instinct, he registers his presence as a Dark Other with the Day Watch and proceeds to stumble into a series of seemingly accidental encounters with the Night Watch, often resulting in a Night Watch member dying. He kills Tiger Cub in self-defense as she seeks revenge for him setting a trap that (legally) kills a Night Watch investigator trespassing in his hotel room.