I read a lot, watch many movies and listen to a lot of different genres of music but I hardly ever write any review of any sort. But since I’m currently in this never ending rut, I thought I might as well use a bit of my time for something marginally better than my usual routine of slacking off. Namely writing more, which I haven’t done in earnest for a long time now.
So there I was, looking through some of my numerous journals and snippets of writings that I’ve done over the past year and I found an old review that I wrote a year ago. A very short one and more of an opinion rather than a full-fledged book review of The Last Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko.
This was what I wrote:
The Last Watch will definitely appeal to the loyal followers of the series, even though the pace of the book is not as well written as the last three books.
In line with the last three books, Lukyanenko explores the theme of black and white, good and evil, though not as evident as the last book. Even more so, he weaved the story of birth and death, the cycle of life and the sacrifices/ misguided deeds of good and evil. The action is less gripping than The Night Watch and The Day Watch, but more time was spent exploring the thoughts of Anton as he chases after yet another mystery. There were less about the conflicts between the Watches as they had to work together (though only mentioned marginally) to stop the Last Watch from reaching their goal for Merlin’s last creation.
I remain still very much a fan, even though this book was not as good as I had expected from the genius of Lukyanenko. Even so, I find it difficult to say good-bye to the series after the attachment to it for the past few years. As Anton says to Nadya at the end, “You didn’t think this was the last watch, did you?” I do hope that he will continue this series though many have written that this is the finale to this brilliant series. Fingers crossed!
I think I do feel the same a year after reading the book in question and remain hopeful that Lukyanenko will write another installment though I have my doubts. Quitting while you’re ahead and all that. There are many a franchise whose quality of work suffered due to overkill after all. *cough*Harry Potter*cough*
I am contemplating on writing something about the Millennium Series by the late Stieg Larsson which proved to be a relaxing distraction after finally finishing the dual biography of Sartre and Beauvoir, Dangerous Liaison by Carole Seymour-Jones, which probably warrants another long, rambling post about open relationships, monogamy and feminism. But that is for another day, possibly when I am feeling particularly morbid and introspective.
Anyway, going back to Larsson’s trilogy. I’m currently in the final stretch of the second instalment and I find myself wondering if I should go out and buy the final book. It’s not that I don’t like his books, I do, but as I am reading the second book, it seems to be getting a bit too easy to predict the plot development. I might be wrong since I have been very good and haven’t skipped to the ending first as I am wont to do. With another hundred pages to go, I guess I’ll know soon enough.
