Alice is a young Other, aligned with Dark. When she, and a number of her Dark comrades, are sent to apprehend a freelance Other who has been practising Dark magic without a licence they have no reason to suspect that this mission is any different to any other. However, as they arrive at the home of the Dark witch they discover that the Night Watch have already arrested the young woman. A fierce battle erupts during which Alice is seriously injured and drained of all of her powers. Her condition is so serious she cannot be healed by magical means and must recuperate slowly.

To help her heal she is sent to a camp near the Black Sea to work as a counsellor. There she meets another counsellor, Igor, to whom she feels an immediate powerful attraction. So when she discovers that he is a Light Mage and he realises that she is aligned with Dark there is no alternative – the couple are forced into a magical duel. But, needless to say, there is definitely more to this situation than meets the eye.

The Day Watch is the second book in the Night Watch trilogy and continues the same story although from the point of view of the agents of the Dark rather than Light. This gives the story an interesting timbre as usually you only read novels from the point of view of the Good Guys. In this world, although the Others are split between Light and Dark these sides are not clearly aligned Good and Evil. In fact, many of the aspects of the two sides are very similar. The main difference being that the Dark look after themselves whereas the Light consider the greater good.

Once again this was a wonderful story. The world created by Lukyanenko is original and totally convincing and the reader is often left to consider who is truly good and who is really evil.

Apparently, the first book in the series has now been made into a film. I think this is definitely one to look out for!

Synopsis
Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are The Other. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to The Dark or The Light.

In The Day Watch, second book of the Night Watch trilogy, Alice, a young but powerful Dark Other, attends a planning meeting with her comrades in the Day Watch. The team is on a mission to apprehend an uninitiated Other, a practicing Dark witch who has so far eluded the bureaux 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 Alice 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.

But then comes a shattering realisation: Igor is a Light Mage. Suddenly Alice remembers him as one of those involved in the battle that left her crippled. Now that they know, there is no alternative to a magical duel, a battle that neither of them wants to win...