viktoriya's review against another edition
I probably could have finished this book if I skimmed and skipped most of it.
cj_jones's review
4.0
These books have been on my 'to read' shelf since the Night Watch film came out. I confess that I am charmed by what I assume to be the Russian-ness of the writing: the fantastical world, instead of being a brightly coloured dashing Renaissance styled jostling between various Lords and Ladies with vibrant passions for right and wrong, is a Soviet-era solid grey bureaucracy where that passion is still present, but the sides less clearly drawn, where each side carefully tallies minuscule gains and losses through a set of laborious rules and regulations, sort of like the Harry Palmer spy movies I've also recently been watching. I like the varying levels of intimacy in the naming conventions, I like the world and the magic, although for some reason when they started having named spells in the second book, I thought that was cheap and cheesy. The second book is, as often happens, the weak link, where much of the story is laced with the viewpoint character waxing rhapsodic about how Dark Others simply want freedom, like a sort of Muscovian John Galt. But that only knocked it down to a three star rating. I'm looking to buy the other three books now, to see where it goes.
pheonixangel84's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
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