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Review title: What Were They Smoking?
Product review: What were those folks smoking who gave this book and it's companion piece, "Day Watch" great reviews? Based on those responses I bought both books and was sorely disappointed. Be warned, this IS a translation, and not infrequently the translational errors are so bad as to be funny.Translations are not the best form to critique a book from, but not knowing Russian... ANYWAY, the books' premise will not surprise anyone who has read the Anita Blake books or the like; good versus evil, a bit of metaphysics, brought together in a modern urban environment. So far so good, but the writing, plotting, characterization and so on seemed, well, simple-minded, pretentious, or just,(sorry), juvenile. The books are not truly novels either, but rather a collection of novellas, the sort of surprise I dislike. I could not believe that books reviewed so highly could be so bad. Save your money and buy Anita Blake or Charlie Huston, or learn Russian.
