Surprisingly original, deep and humorous - Rated 
Having already read Night Watch (which is a must if you intend to read Day Watch and the next two books in this series), I expected the same high quality from Day Watch. And that's exactly what I got. If anything, the second book is better than the first, and that is saying alot. These books are original, they are deep and philosophical, but not too much, and they are just the right amount of pages. The three stories in Day Watch have their highs and lows, but just as you fear it's about to get boring, something unexpected and interesting happens.
Someone called the book "J.K. Rowling, Russian style." That is entirely wrong. I read the Harry Potter books, I enjoyed them - the Watch series is MUCH better; the language (pity I can't read it in Russian), the story, the plot and the characters are all more genuine and original than in Rowling's books. But be warned, you should be at least 16+ to fully enjoy Day Watch, probably even better if you're 20+.
In short, Day Watch is funny, witty, and contains loads of unexpected turns. Read it, you won't regret it. (If you're going to see the films, do so BEFORE you read the books, or you may not enjoy the films as much.)
Maybe I should have read the Night Watch first - Rated 
Was persuaded to buy this buy a member of staff in a book shop - his enthusiasm seemed real enough but to be honest I won't listen to him again. First story was good but rest of the book very dull.
Brilliant fantasy! - Rated 
I declare myself now as a massive fan of Lukyanenko's writing and these novels, the Night Watch Trilogy, are so much better than the films they inspired. The blurb on my copy quotes "J K Rowling Russian style..." but this is more like Philip Pullman for adults. Lukyanenko creates a dark, gritty world, set mostly in Moscow, in which the forces of Light and Dark are committed to unrelenting, bitter conflict, each side struggling to prevent the other getting the upper hand.
If you have read and enjoyed the first book, the Night Watch, you will definitely want to read this. Like the first book, the Day Watch is split into 3 stories. In the first story the first person narrator is a beautiful Dark witch, Alisa. We see through her eyes, the eyes of a Dark Other. This story is brilliantly told; challenging, intriguing and finally even shocking. In the second story we see through the eyes of a completely mysterious magician; someone who doesn't even know who he is. Again, a brilliant and thrilling story. In the third story Lukyanenko brings everything together for the final denouement. However, I felt that things went off the boil a bit here. The chess similes abound, and suddenly it does feel like you are in one of those ponderous games of chess where you can't figure out what's going on, and you rather suspect that your long-thinking opponent might be in the same position. Could have been tauter, I think, which is why 4, not 5, stars.
Nevertheless, this is an excellent tome and far, far better than other fantasies around. Lukyanenko plays it straight and makes it all very believable. Begin with the Night Watch though because otherwise much of this won't make sense.
Read The Night Watch first - Rated 
It's a pleasure to return to the world of The Night Watch, in which 'light' and 'dark' supernatural beings, Others, are bound by a treaty designed to stop them destroying the world. The members of the Day and Night Watches spend their lives monitoring the activities of their opponents while forever striving to gain the smallest advantage, within the strictures of the treaty.
The structure is the same: the novel is divided into three stories, you could almost say they were distinct novellas. In the first, a dark witch meets and inadvertantly falls in love with a light magician, with tragic consequences; in the second, a dark Other with no memory but increasing power appears in Moscow and gets caught up in the battle for a hugely powerful magic artifact; and the third deals with the Inquisition - the group of Others who enforce the treaty - inquiry into the earlier events.
While always fascinating, The Day Watch is not as satisfying a book as its predecessor. The three stories of The Night Watch led into each other - here they're far more separate, the links only becoming apparent towards the end. It's not as focused: The Night Watch had a single narrator and main protagonist, The Day Watch has several, and the switching from first person to omniscient third person narration and back make it uneven. As the intrigues get more complicated Lukyanenko feels the need to explain everything more and more often - he could try crediting the reader with a little more intelligence - making it increasingly wordy and talky and, as a consequence, slow. And, frustratingly, at the end, little has been resolved.
However, there is a feeling that it's all building up to a spectacular climax in the third book, and if that's the case the groundbuilding work of The Day Watch will have been well worth it.
If you liked The Night Watch I would recommend this as more of the same. If you're intrigued but haven't read The Night Watch, get that first.
The Juggernaut Continues - Rated
Not as captivating as the first but if the trilogy keeps up this rate, the final will be as good as I hope.
An original take on monsters/vampires/witches fables.
BUY IT, AND THE REST
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