New Watch () is a fantasy novel by the Russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko.
The novel is the fifth in a series that includes Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch, Last Watch and Sixth Watch. The series revolves around two opposing supernatural groups (known as "Others"): the Night Watch, an organization dedicated to policing the actions of the Dark Others — and the Day Watch, which polices the actions of the Light Others.
New Watch was published in summer 2012 in Russia. New Watch was published in English on May 2, 2013 ( Publisher: William Heinemann, 2013), in the UK. Scheduled release for the US is April 2014.
Structure and style New Watch has the typical structure of the Watch novels, excluding Day Watch. New Watch is divided into three stories - "Vague objectives", "Troublous times" and "Vague deeds". Each story begins with a prologue followed by eight numbered chapters and, changing the usual structure, without an epilogue. Except for the prologues, the events of each story are written in a first person narrative using the voice of the Higher Magician character Anton Gorodetsky, a member of the Night Watch. Events in each of the prologues are written in a third person narrative. The entire novel is written in the past tense.
Plot summary
Vague objectives Anton Gorodetsky, while seeing a foreign colleague off at the airport, encounters an overweight 10-year-old boy named Kesha, who tries to prevent his mother from boarding a plane, claiming that the plane will crash. Anton scans the boy and determines that Kesha is an uninitiated high-level Other, possibly a prophet. Anton influences Kesha's mother not to board the plane.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Pastukhov of the Moscow police, who gained an ability to see Others (he calls Light Others "dogs" and Dark Others "wolves") in the first novel, sees an extremely powerful entity whom he labels a Tiger. The Tiger can remove a human's aura, which leaves the person completely indifferent to anything. The Night Watch sends Semyon to initiate the boy, although Geser is very disturbed by the events at the airport, as the plane does not crash as prophesied (unlike predictions, prophecies cannot be changed). Geser calls a meeting of all Light Great Others (including Anton's wife Svetlana and daughter Nadya). They then travel by car (through Twilight) to Kesha's apartment in order to protect him from this strange new creature.
The Tiger intercepts them and proves to be more than a match for four Great Mages. It only leaves when Zabulon joins the battle. Anton realizes that the Tiger is a creature of the Twilight whose purpose is to hunt prophets before they utter their first complete prophecy. If this prophecy is heard by a human, then it becomes inevitable. If an Other hears it, then he or she becomes the Tiger's next target. While the Night Watch is attempting to hold off the Tiger, Kesha utters the prophecy in an empty room (a prophet does not hear his or her own key prophecy), causing the Tiger to leave. However, Anton has previously asked Kesha to press the record button on a toy phone. Anton then copies the phone's recording onto a flash drive.
Troublous times Geser summons Anton and sends him on a business trip to London to meet Erasmus Darwin, a Dark Other who is a prophet and the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Erasmus was able to trick the Tiger. Erasmus meets Anton and explains how, while his teacher (Zabulon himself) was desperately fighting the Tiger, the young Erasmus shouted the prophecy into an oak. Erasmus then gives Anton a goblet he made from that oak and claims that his prophecy can be revealed, although he refuses to tell Anton how.
At a local pub, Anton meets the former witch Arina, who tells Anton that, a hundred years ago, she prevented a prophecy that would destroy Russia from happening (although it resulted in the Russian Revolution). She convinces Anton to go with her to Taiwan to meet Fang Wan-Yang, whose friend was a prophet. Fang reveals that the Tiger can leave the Others alone if they can prove beyond doubt that they will never reveal the prophecy (Fang had to kill his friend and honors his memory by keeping the secret). Arina, who has figured out that Anton has a recording of Kesha's prophecy, steals the flash drive and flees using an untraceable artifact.
Vague deeds Arina once again appears to Anton and explains that the boy's prophecy concerns his daughter and urges Anton to listen to it. Anton gets a call from Erasmus, who reveals that he has made a second goblet and listened to it. Anton hears as the Tiger kills Erasmus. Anton, who has backed up the recording of Kesha's prophecy on his old mini-disc player, listens to it and hears that Nadya, an Absolute Other, is capable of destroying the Tiger and, with it, the Twilight itself.
Anton decides to destroy Erasmus's oak goblet. At that moment, Nadya, Kesha, and Arina enter the apartment. Instead of destroying the goblet, fire reveals Erasmus's prophecy to the four. The prophecy claims that Nadya will destroy the Tiger and the Twilight. Seeing the Tiger, who is determined to kill them all to prevent the prophecy from coming true, Anton uses Arina's teleportation artifact to flee to her cabin. Arina, who has decided that magic is evil and must be destroyed, tries to provoke Nadya to kill the Tiger.
Anton walks outside and talks to the Tiger. The Tiger explains that a prophecy is merely the manifestation of the will of humanity, but not all of them must happen. If the Tiger dies, then the Others will lose their magic. Anton returns and makes Kesha and Nadya promise never to reveal the prophecy. He then traps himself and Arina in a Sarcophagus of Time for all eternity. However, the Tiger pulls Anton out, fearing that Nadya might kill it to try to get her father back. Arina remains in the Sarcophagus with the depleted teleportation artifact (which Anton believes can be recharged in 5 years). Satisfied, the Tiger leaves.
Characters Light Others Anton Gorodetsky - Protagonist of the book, Grand Light Mage. Married to Svetlana Gorodetskaya (née Nazarova), with whom he has a daughter, Nadezhda, the only currently living absolute (zero-leveled) Other in the world. A programmer for the Moscow Night Watch in his beginning days as an Other, Anton's rise in rank among the Others was significantly noticeable, to the point where he rose as a Grand Other thanks to the ritual of Fuaran, performed by his former friend and High Vampire Kostya Saushkin. Due to his observance of young Innokentiy Tolkov, a potential High-level Prophet, at the Sheremetyevo International Airport, he's sent to London by Gesar to investigate the origin and powers of the Tiger with Erasmus Darwin, a retired Dark Other Prophet who, rumour has it, has survived an encounter with the Tiger. Anton sees the Tiger as a nice, simple man. Boris Ignatyevich/Gesar - Grand Light Mage. Head of the Moscow Night Watch who, if one trusts the words of the Dark Witch/Light Healer Arina, "sets his roots" wherever there are interesting events regarding the Night and Day Watches (according to his own words, he's lived in Tibet, China, India, Belgium, the Netherlands, and, to present-day, Russia). He's in a relationship with Olga, a grand light Sorceress who's been together with him for many centuries. Known as an intrigant and cunning person, he set in motion a series of events, along with consultations with Zavulon, head of the Moscow Day Watch, and the Inquisition (the consultation part was discovered during the novel New Watch) which resulted in the birth of absolute sorceress Nadezhda Gorodetskaya. He also has a son with Olga, Timur, with whom he had no contact until the events of the novel Twilight Watch, when he managed to turn him into a low-level Light Other with the ritual of Fuaran. Gesar sees the Tiger as a wise man well in his ages. Svetlana "Sveta" Gorodetskaya (née Nazarova) - Grand Light Healer and wife of Anton Gorodetsky, with whom she has a daughter, Nadezhda, the only currently living absolute Other in the world. Before she was initiated into the Night Watch, she was a doctor who Gorodetsky accidentally ran into during his field assignment with a vortex clinging above her head, which could only be cast by a very powerful Dark Mage (later on, in the other series of the books, it was discovered that the entire "accidental encounter" was planned by Gesar). Because of the large difference of power between her and Anton during the events of Night Watch, which threatened to crush their relationship, she withdrew from the Night Watch, although in several times she performed a role that only a Night Watch member would be allowed to perform (e.g. representing the Night Watch during the murder of Witezislav). Olga - Grand Light Sorceress and love interest of Gesar. Olga was assigned as a partner to the new field agent of the Moscow Night Watch, Anton Gorodetsky, while she was still in the body of what seemed to be a stuffed owl in Gesar's cabinet. Later it was discovered that she was assigned to help Anton because Gesar wanted to lower the punishment she received for, as she said, "making a compromise with the Dark Others during a conflict". Over the course of the books, it is seen that she shows great interest in Anton's psychological state, and carefully tracks his movements during certain major events, giving him advice on how to react in such situations. During the events of Twilight Watch, she manages to find her and Gesar's long lost son, Timur, and while under the mask of old Russian actor Oleg Strizhenov, she promises her son anything and swears it on the primordial force of the light. Timur cunningly asks to be turned into an Other himself, but not through the source of vampires/shifter-mages. Gesar then starts a number of events that allowed him to turn his and Olga's son into a Light Other. Olga sees the Tiger as an agile and cunning woman. Nadezhda "Nadya" Gorodetskaya - Absolute Light Sorceress and daughter of Grand Light Mage Anton Gorodetsky and Grand Light Healer Svetlana Gorodetskaya. Given her absolute state, she is the only currently living Other in the world who does not emit, but only absorb the magic from everything living around her. Aged ten during the events of New Watch, Nadezhda still keeps her childlike innocence, despite the incredible power she can use anytime she pleases. She meets the potential Zero-level Prophet Innokentiy "Kesha" Tolkov, during the Tiger's siege of the Night Watch headquarters, where she persuades him in speaking his first prophecy by, as she said, "punching him in the nose and threatening to tell everyone he got beat up by a girl unless he says that stupid prophecy". During the event Troublous Times, they became classmates as students of the Night Watch. When Anton, Nadya, Kesha and Arina hear Erasmus' prophecy, they find out that Nadya has the power to destroy the Tiger, thus to destroy the Twilight itself. Nadezhda sees the Tiger as a big, strong, flaming-eyed tiger.