Twilight Watch is the third book in Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series. It is being released today in the US by HarperCollins and they've given us an excerpt to share with Daily Dead readers:
"Night Watch and Day Watch revealed the "Others," an ancient race of supernatural beings—magicians, shape-shifters, vampires, and healers—who live among us and swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. For a millennium, these opponents have coexisted in an uneasy truce, guarding each other and tottering on the brink of war.
In Twilight Watch, the Others face their greatest threat yet. An ancient book of spells with the power to turn ordinary humans into Others has fallen into the wrong hands, threatening to destroy the precarious balance between the forces of Darkness and Light. Now the Night Watch and the Day Watch must cooperate to stop the culprit. Anton, the hero from Night Watch, is back, but when the renegade Other turns out to be closer to home than he expected, the race to prevent global war becomes more urgent than ever. And as Anton gets closer to discovering the true nature of the Others, he begins to question how much of a difference there truly is between the Dark and the Light."
In late April, HarperCollins will release New Watch for the first time ever in the US, so check back soon for more details on that book. To learn more about Twilight Watch, visit:
Twilight Watch Excerpt
Story Three
Nobody’s Powers
PROLOGUE
He didn’t often dream.
And right now he wasn’t even asleep. But even so, it was almost a dream, almost like one of those sweet visions in the instant before waking . . .
A light, pure vision, almost like a child’s.
Scavenging engines . . . broaching . . . key to start position.
The silvery column of the rocket shrouded in light mist.
The flames dancing under the nozzles.
Every Russian child dreams of being a cosmonaut—until he hears that question for the tenth time: “What do you want to be, a cosmonaut?”
Some stop dreaming about outer space when they become Others.
The Twilight is more interesting than other planets. The newly discovered Power has a stronger gravitational pull than the fame of a cosmonaut.
But now he was dreaming of a rocket—an absurd, old-fashioned rocket rising up into the sky.
The earth floating beneath his feet or above his head.
The thick quartz glass of the porthole.
Strange dreams for an Other, surely?
The earth . . . a veil of clouds . . . the lights of the cities . . .people.
Millions of them. Billions.
And him—watching them from orbit.
An Other in space . . . what could be more ludicrous? Except maybe for Other versus Alien. He had watched a science fiction film once—and suddenly found himself thinking that now was just the right moment for brave Ripley to slip into the Twilight—and then strike out and smash those unwieldy, helpless monsters.
The thought had immediately made him laugh.
There weren’t any Others up there.
But space was up there. Only he hadn’t realized what it was for until now.
Now he understood.
He stood there with his eyes closed, dreaming about the small earth rotating slowly under his feet.
Every child dreams of being a giant—until he starts to wonder what the point is.
Now he knew everything.
The parts of the jigsaw all fit together.
His own destiny as an Other.
And his absurd dream about space travel.
And the thin volume bound in human skin, its pages covered with neat cursive handwriting.
He picked up the book that was lying there on the floorboards.
Opened it to the first page.
The letters had not faded. They were protected by a light but effective
magic spell.
This language had not been heard on earth for a long time. It would have reminded an Indologist of Sanskrit, only not many people would have realized it was Paishachi.
But Others can read any dead language.
May the Elephant-faced One preserve you, swaying his head first up,
then down, like unto Shiva, swaying up and down on the Mind!
May Ganapati fill me with the sweet moisture of wisdom!
My name is Fuaran, I am a woman of the glorious city of Kanak-
apuri.
The Fulfiller of Desires, husband of Parvati, rewarded me generously
in the days of my youth, granting me the ability to walk in the
world of phantoms. While in our world a petal swirls in the air as
it falls from a blossoming tree, in that world a whole day passes—
such is its nature. And a great power lies concealed in that world.
He closed the Fuaran.
His heart was pounding in his chest.
A great power!
A power that had fallen from a witch’s hands and disappeared
almost two thousand years ago.
Owned by no one, concealed even from the Others.
Nobody’s Power.
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