If you have seen the movie of this book, you have missed out on a much deeper tale with a high level of intrigue. In fact the movie made assumptions on things that often made it confusing to understand. It also excluded much that is in the book. Do not worry about being confused by the book. Night Watch the novel is a many layered, complex story of the Others. Others have access to the Twlight, a dimension/world that underlays our own. Others can do what normal people would consider 'magic'. This is not the kind you encounter in normal fantasy novels. . This is a combination of tools and magical skills that you are born with, thus some are innately more powerful than others. The power to do magic actually feeds off the emotions of normal people. The more emotional, the more powerful. Encounter someone in the first bloom of love, and you an Other can siphon off that emotion for the feeding of their own magic energy. Take a little and that love might be less intense, take a lot and that love could turn into despondence or indifference. Further complicating this plot is that there are three groups of Others. Light Others, who try to protect humanity from harm, and not use their abilities for personal gain, Dark Others, who use their powers to satisfy their own inner compass (you cannot say it's evil, as they make individual choices on what they want to do), and non-affiliated Others, who choose to not join either group, though some bend toward the light, some toward the dark. The Light and Dark Others each have their own versions of a police force. The Light has the NightWatch, the Dark has the DayWatch. Each make sure the other stay within the 'rules' of a truce signed long ago. This truce allows certain appeal processes, punishments, etc for acts committed by either side. Magic done without regard to the rules has to be balanced. Thus, if a Light one kills a Dark one outside the rules of engagement, than a Light Other must die to compensate. It's all wonderfully complex and engaging. The novel takes place in Moscow, which is carefully painted in all it's dreary glory of post communist dissolution. Do not expect it to be easy to determine who is good and who is evil, those are qualities that are not truly addressed within the differences of Light and Dark. Many Dark Others live normal lives, with non-Other wives and children. The same is true for Light Others. Within the Watch things get more political, with each group not afraid to sacrifice their own people to position some long range goal. Encounters are not always what they seem to be, and you will not always see what is going to happen as you do in so many fantasty novels. There are many twists and turns in this story, making it the type of read that you stay up turning page after page.This is an adult fantasy, well written, and a classic. This is the first book in the set, which is followed by The DayWatch (Book Two), and two more.