The Day Watch

I wonder why Sergei Lukyanenko co-wrote the second Watch book with Vladimir Vasilyev. I think it's pretty odd to bring another author in all of a sudden. Like why was Vasilyev needed? The novel seemed similar to the first. Also, the English cover of the novel doesn't seem to mention Vasilyev, which is curious. In fact this picture of the Finnish cover I found doesn't include him either even though the print I read with otherwise identical cover has both authors' names on it.

Far Cry 4

I had been wanting to play some sort of action game and Far Cry 4 happened to be on sale. It was less than 5€ when combined with the 100 Uplay points discount (gotta spend those on something since they now expire after 2 years) but I still feel like I should have saved the money instead. My graphics card also got bricked while playing the game but I doubt it was specifically Far Cry 4's fault.

Dark Lover

My local library's fantasy/scifi section has an awful many books from someone going by the name of J.R. Ward. I was curious since I had never heard of the author before. A quick google search revealed it to be one of Jessica Bird Blakemore's pen names. Under her maiden name, Jessica Bird, she writes contemporary romance novels and as J.R. Ward too -- just with a paranormal twist. And more specifically: vampires.

Altered Carbon

Richard Morgan's cyberpunk novel, Altered Carbon, turned out to be about as great as its Netflix adaptation. Or at least the first season of the show was much to my liking: I have not seen the second yet. In my opinion the show is one of the better ones Netflix has produced. I do wonder though how the second season is: the novel and its sequels are somewhat challenging to adapt for television because the characters tend to switch bodies. Claiming two people are the same person is difficult to believe when you don't have access to their thoughts like you do in a book. How well does the continuity work when the main character is played by a completely different actor.

The Lost Fleet

The Lost Fleet is a military science fiction novel series written by John G. Hemry under the pen name Jack Campbell. This one is bit of an unusual book post on the blog as I read the whole series, all six volumes of it, before having a chance to write anything about it. The novels were quick and easy reads: they're your standard 300-page books (in English; slightly more in Finnish) and there's only one viewpoint, that of Captain John "Black Jack" Geary's.

The Night Watch

The back cover of The Night Watch (Ночной Дозор) claimed the book, and the series it's a part of, are more popular in Russia than The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. That might very well be the case -- hell if I know. The Harry Potter series is a good comparison though. Similarly to it, The Night Watch is low/urban fantasy (not to be mistaken with low and high magic) and the relationship characters have with magic and supernatural is the same way sort of relaxed: fear is not the first reaction to magic and even seemingly grievous injuries can be healed and undone.

The Book Was Better -- Or Was It?

Reading a novel before watching its TV/film adaption(s) is the correct order of doing things. Going the other way around I always find it challenging to picture my own visuals of a book's world and characters: seeing first someone else's vision of it and then replacing it is difficult. It's like most of the author's work had already been done and experiencing the story again via reading feels otiose. Comparing my own, already existing mental images to an adaption is more worthwhile.

The Surge 2

As far as video game sequels go, The Surge 2 is a fairly good one. It has the familiar gameplay of the previous title but also introduces new features and improvements. I even liked the game enough to immediately replay it. New game plus mostly offered just bigger numbers though: I had been so thorough on my first playthrough that an alternative final boss armor set was pretty much the only thing I was missing.

Warbreaker

Since Mistborn's world was so bleak and gray, Brandon Sanderson wanted to write something more colorful after it and thus Warbreaker came to be. He also released the novel for free on his website much to his publisher's dismay. The novel's still there though now it's available as multiple webpages rather than a PDF file. Good thing I grabbed the latter when I first heard about it: I think it felt more proper to read something that looked like an actual, printed-on-paper book.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a peculiar spin-off for the Wolfenstein franchise because it establishes that Germany was pushed out of the United States off-screen before it had a chance to happen in the mainline titles. Then towards the end, the game gets uncertain if things will go that way in Wolfenstein III after all.