Book Review: 1 Treasure Box
Fourth Book in the Night Watch Series
Publisher: Anchor Canada (June 12, 2009), Format: Kindle Edition, File Size: 519 KB, Print Length: 400 pages, Language: English, ASIN: B0031TZB56

This is a highly entertaining modern fantasy novel that is written in an unique manner.  The main protagonist is Anton Gorodetsky, a light magician, who is a member of the Night Watch and as such it is his job to solve problems that occur in the supernatural community.  In this book, an innocent young man was murdered in Scotland and it appears that he was killed by a vampire.  But as Anton investigates this murder he finds out that something else much more dire is occurring.

This is the fourth book written in the Night Watch Series or Watch Series.  Sergei Lukyanenko has written numerous short stories, book series and novels. All his books were originally written in Russian and several including this series have been translated to English as well as several other languages. This book is in the contemporary fantasy genre since it takes place in modern times but still involves supernatural beings known as Others.  These “Others” include Witches, Magicians, Enchantress/Sorceress, Vampires, Werewolves, etc.   The book is told in three different stories each one seemingly stand alone, yet tied to each other and in combination completing a larger story.  These stories are told using the third person narrative, mostly from Anton’s point of view but also from the view of other characters in the book.

The stories all comprise the missing, hidden artifact of the great and famous Merlin, known as the Crown of All Things.  Someone is searching for this artifact and will do almost anything to find it including murder. It is up to Anton, using his magical skills as well as his detective reasoning to discover what the artifact is, who is looking for it and why they want it.  We also learn more about the world that Anton lives in, including all the levels of the Twilight and how they are accessed. By the end of the third story all is revealed, however I was still unclear as to exactly what happened. Perhaps it was too subtle for me,  or perhaps something was lost in the translation.

If you have read the other books in the series, then you will probably want to read this book since it is the next installment and a continuation of Anton’s antics. However, I did not enjoy this book as much as the other books in the series. I enjoyed the first two stories in the book, but I found the third story to be a bit unclear.  I would be interested to hear what you thought of the third story.