Dune, Books 2 & 3

The third book of Dune (and only the third) having a hefty appendix, including a map and a glossary, makes the novel being in three covers truly seem questionable. Maybe if you buy them as a boxed set it would be fine, but as a library book, they definitely should be a single volume. The local libraries do have a single volume English version but by the looks of it it also tends to have a few reservations lined up. Waiting for it to become available could've taken a while.

Control

There are not many game developer studios making big PC/console titles in Finland. Remedy Entertainment is one of the few, known in the past for their Max Payne and Alan Wake games. In 2016 they released Quantum Break which has basically TV show episodes mixed in. I don't like that. Games are an interactive medium; passive entertainment should be kept separate. That's why I haven't been interested to try it. Neither have I played Remedy's other games, simply due to lack of interest.

Risen 3 - Titan Lords

In an unexpected turn of events, you don't continue playing as the same nameless hero in Risen 3 - Titan Lords. Instead your previous character has been demoted to a cameo role while the spotlight is taken by Captain Steelbeard's son -- who suddenly exists, I guess. He's also left nameless, which I think is dumb. It doesn't add to immersion in any way. The most jarring thing is his (English) voice however: he kind of looks like Chris Pratt and I definitely wasn't expecting to hear a voice that tries immensely hard to sound like the baddest motherfucker there is. I never grew to like it and started truly missing the previous protagonist.

Prelude to Foundation & Forward the Foundation

Now, after having read the Foundation prequels as well, I would say that one might be better off just going through the original trilogy and leaving it there. You won't get a conclusion to Seldon plan (though how much do you get even with the sequels?) but you will keep the series separated from the 0th Law of Robotics. The trilogy will stay as a centuries spanning galactic struggle just among humans. These two prequels do at least bring back the Encyclopedia Galactica epigraphs I missed in the sequels.

Risen 2 - Dark Waters

Risen 2 - Dark Waters takes the series into a pirate themed direction. The still-nameless hero, currently a soldier of the Inquisition, goes undercover to put an end to another Titan threat. Shields, plate armor, and arcane magic are gone and instead you get cutlasses, muskets, and rum. There is also voodoo magic if you decide to side with native tribes.

The Dark Forest

The Dark Forest (黑暗森林 / Hēi'àn sēnlín) is the second novel in Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The Three-Body Problem was a good read but I think this one had even more deliberation put into it, making it feel like an important work of science fiction, mainly because of it coining cosmic sociology. The sole thing I didn't like in the novel was the viewpoint of a Chinese navy officer Zhang Beihai whom I thought boring and the little payoff at the end not worth it for the time spent on following him.

The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings begins Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, The Stormlight Archive, which is currently at four published novels out of ten planned. The series has garnered a lot of praise but I personally went in with low expectations, kind of anticipating typical Sanderson cast of characters, same old traits shuffled around a bit.

Foundation and Earth

Foundation and Earth picks up where Foundation's Edge left off: Councilman Golan Trevize with his uncanny ability to always make the right choice decided that Gaia -- a superorganism planet where all things are part of a group consciousness on some level -- should be the eventual future of the galaxy instead of the First or Second Foundation. Gaia removed the memories of the planet's existence from the Foundation people involved in the stand-off at the end of the novel and everyone went back to their lives except for Golan and his historian friend Janov Pelorat.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Some say The Elder Scrolls series gets simpler with every iteration. That may be true particularly when it comes to spells, but at least when going from Oblivion to Skyrim, I would say nothing of value was lost when something was streamlined -- even in regards to spells. I think in general Skyrim is a better game, a more polished version of Oblivion in almost every way.

The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem (三体 / sān tǐ) is a science fiction novel by Liu Cixin. It was recommended to me on Reddit when I mentioned Blindsight by Peter Watts. The redditor in question said Blindsight had been the most significant scifi book they had read until The Three-Body Problem trilogy -- or Remembrance of Earth's Past as it's officially called. That was enough of a recommendation for me to check it out.