"Shock News"

In the run up to Christmas I was getting a bit frustrated with work and life.  When I’d get home, I’d be bored, just sitting around doing nothing whiling away hour after hour reading RSS feed articles and playing meaningless games.  Work wasn’t much better.

It was then in the midst of my depression that I met her*.  From the moment I laid eyes on her, I had that strange sense of familiarity and intrigue that practically fated our relationship that blossomed over the next few months.  We took the first few weeks slowly, perhaps a bit too slowly and we practically stopped seeing each other over Christmas, but once I was back in Oxford we were very much inseparable.

Cutting a long story short, I have an important announcement to make:

I bought and read a fiction book

There, I’ve said it.

In actual fact, the story isn’t that long.  I was thinking about things I should be doing in the time I have after work, and having a Waterstone’s card my aunt and uncle gave me for Christmas in my first year of university I purchased The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and read it.

For those of you who don’t know me, I should underline just what an achievement this is.  The last new fiction book I read was Eldest by Christopher Paolini, the 2nd of the Eragon series and that was shortly after it was published in 2005.

I’m not much of a book reviewer, but I did most definately enjoy this book.  I was first drawn to it from having seen the movie based on the book at the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Society a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately the film is only in Russian, and as it turns out doesn’t follow the book very closely at all, but it is nonetheless a good film.

The book is based in a world with a sub-layer called the Twilight that people called ‘Others’ are able to use.  Light Others (who use the magical powers from the Twilight to better other’s lives) and Dark Others (who use their powers from the Twilight for their own ends) live in accordance with a Treaty that mandates that each watch over the other group; the Light Ones form The Night Watch and the Dark Ones form The Day Watch.  The book follows a Light Other, Anton, and his struggle with the impact of the Treaty and the acts The Night Watch commits in the name of The Light.

I’m not one for extensive descriptions; I prefer my stories to get a move on with some gripping action and intrigue and this book certainly does not disappoint.  The necessary half truths and workings that each of the watches must say and do certainly kept me guessing until the end.  It was in all a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something with a bit of modern day fantasy to it.

I did go back to Waterstone’s a few weeks ago and noticed that they happened to have a 3 for 2 offer on some of the books there and I happened to have some money left on said gift card, so I’ve also purchased The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell, The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel.  From appearances, I expect I’ll enjoy The Lost Fleet, I may quite like The Final Empire and worst case, The Clan of the Cave Bear can be my free book.

* I know it’s a bit strange referring to books as her, but replacing ‘her’ with ‘it’ wouldn’t have made that paragraph sound the same.