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Alan Wake
Welcome to Bright Falls-a seemingly idyllic small town in the Pacific Northwest.
The perfect place for Alan Wake, a bestselling crime novelist, and his wife, Alice, to relax for a few weeks. Maybe a second honeymoon and the fresh air will cure Wake of his writer's block.
But when Alice goes missing under mysterious circumstances, Wake's desperate search for her leads him into a hell only he could imagine.
In the depths of nearby Cauldron Lake, a dark and malevolent presence has awakened from a long slumber. It's reaching out now, turning the townsfolk into mindless killers. Sheathed in shadows, vulnerable only to light, they are Taken.
Wake's journey will lead him to the very edge of madness, and deep within the dark woods, he will come face-to-face with a story he has no recollection of ever writing.
The perfect place for Alan Wake, a bestselling crime novelist, and his wife, Alice, to relax for a few weeks. Maybe a second honeymoon and the fresh air will cure Wake of his writer's block.
But when Alice goes missing under mysterious circumstances, Wake's desperate search for her leads him into a hell only he could imagine.
In the depths of nearby Cauldron Lake, a dark and malevolent presence has awakened from a long slumber. It's reaching out now, turning the townsfolk into mindless killers. Sheathed in shadows, vulnerable only to light, they are Taken.
Wake's journey will lead him to the very edge of madness, and deep within the dark woods, he will come face-to-face with a story he has no recollection of ever writing.
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 19, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
June 24, 2012
Video game book adaptations have something of a troubled background, which is why I was a bit skeptical when a friend tried to convince me that "Alan Wake" is an exception. Since the narrative of the game itself showcased such an appreciation for the art of storytelling, I decided to give it a shot with hope that author Rick Burroughs might display a similar acknowledgment.
"Alan Wake" follows the titular character through a horrific situation wherein a horror story that he does not remember writing begins to come true. After struggling with a crippling case of writer's block for several years, Wake and his wife travel to the rural town of Bright Falls for vacation. A series of strange events lead to Wake waking up behind the wheel of his crashed vehicle, alone, and coming across pages for a manuscript he doesn't remember writing. What's more is that the events described on each page have either happened or occur soon after, and it is because of this that the writer finds himself pursued by possessed townspeople as he frantically searches for his wife.
For his first published novel, Rick Burroughs pulls it together here. It is a safe assumption that a lot of this is because the story was fabricated first in a video game, but that is irrelevant to the quality of the writing. Burroughs understands his craft. The book is very intense, with a lot of sporadic action sequences and a very contrived plot that the author presents in a way that is arguably more streamlined and easy to understand than the source.
The character of Alan Wake is a very interesting one in that he seems to have been interpreted differently here than how I might have understood. Though in the game Wake was moody and somewhat irrational, he came off as a generally nice guy, but Burroughs writes Wake as a very angry individual with a lot of self-loathing. It makes a lot of sense considering the character's circumstances and his general disdain for society at large. Burroughs makes Alan Wake seem like a more relatable parallel to Hemingway, which is a light in which I hadn't considered him, and it is thanks to this that the book remained so fresh despite my having already consumed the narrative through another medium.
Alice, Wake's wife, is not present in the majority of the novel, but she is a strong focus of it. Events early on lead to her disappearance and it is Wake's focus to get her back. She is strong, but displays an irrational fear of the dark, a theme that plays heavily throughout the book. Barry Wheeler, Wake's agent, plays the disbelieving best friend and comic relief. He doesn't really add a lot to any particular page, but he does break the tension in what would otherwise be a massive heart attack conveyed through text.
"Alan Wake" is a quick and thrilling read, though I can't say I honestly recommend consuming the novel over the game; there is just a lot of atmosphere and a lot of extra stuff that the book cannot convey that you would be missing out on. But, it does provide a great companion piece to the original experience, and I think fans will find something great in these pages.
"Alan Wake" follows the titular character through a horrific situation wherein a horror story that he does not remember writing begins to come true. After struggling with a crippling case of writer's block for several years, Wake and his wife travel to the rural town of Bright Falls for vacation. A series of strange events lead to Wake waking up behind the wheel of his crashed vehicle, alone, and coming across pages for a manuscript he doesn't remember writing. What's more is that the events described on each page have either happened or occur soon after, and it is because of this that the writer finds himself pursued by possessed townspeople as he frantically searches for his wife.
For his first published novel, Rick Burroughs pulls it together here. It is a safe assumption that a lot of this is because the story was fabricated first in a video game, but that is irrelevant to the quality of the writing. Burroughs understands his craft. The book is very intense, with a lot of sporadic action sequences and a very contrived plot that the author presents in a way that is arguably more streamlined and easy to understand than the source.
The character of Alan Wake is a very interesting one in that he seems to have been interpreted differently here than how I might have understood. Though in the game Wake was moody and somewhat irrational, he came off as a generally nice guy, but Burroughs writes Wake as a very angry individual with a lot of self-loathing. It makes a lot of sense considering the character's circumstances and his general disdain for society at large. Burroughs makes Alan Wake seem like a more relatable parallel to Hemingway, which is a light in which I hadn't considered him, and it is thanks to this that the book remained so fresh despite my having already consumed the narrative through another medium.
Alice, Wake's wife, is not present in the majority of the novel, but she is a strong focus of it. Events early on lead to her disappearance and it is Wake's focus to get her back. She is strong, but displays an irrational fear of the dark, a theme that plays heavily throughout the book. Barry Wheeler, Wake's agent, plays the disbelieving best friend and comic relief. He doesn't really add a lot to any particular page, but he does break the tension in what would otherwise be a massive heart attack conveyed through text.
"Alan Wake" is a quick and thrilling read, though I can't say I honestly recommend consuming the novel over the game; there is just a lot of atmosphere and a lot of extra stuff that the book cannot convey that you would be missing out on. But, it does provide a great companion piece to the original experience, and I think fans will find something great in these pages.
March 7, 2012
This book is a novelization of a recent videogame that I really enjoyed playing. Unfortunately for Mr. Burroughs, it is a really, really, really bad novelization of a game that I really enjoyed playing. Chock full of awful clichés, terrible imagery (when it exists), boring action sequences, confounding summary of the game itself hidden in the guise of a narrative, I approached it thinking that as a supplement to the game I would be satisfied.with deeper info on the town, events, and characters. Instead, I was treated to an extensive summary of a story I already experienced... Stupid. I think my favorite part was the 'about the author' at the end - which I read first - I agree with the other goodreads member who said it made the book and author sound interesting, but I want to add a couple of qualifiers: 1. "this is his first book" - it stinks that such a good story ended up in the hands of this author... as an audience member, this quote is clearly obvious and confusing as to how he got the job, and 2. for a guy that lives in a house he built himself, in the woods, "off the grid," how did he summarize the game so directly and also manage to appear to he a good candidate for the commission of this book? A clever attempt at a bio for a ghostwriter? Hardly clever...
July 2, 2018
به برایت فالز، شهری کوچک در شمال غرب اقیانوس آرام خوش آمدید.
بهترین مکان برای آلن ویک، رمان نویس پرطرفدار سبک جنایی و همسرش برای لمس چند هفته آرامش. شاید تکرار ماه عسل و هوای آزاد بتواند ویک را از بنبست نویسندگی اش خارج کند.
اما آلیس در شرایطی مرموز مفقود میشود و جستجوی ناچارانه ویک، او را گرفتار جهنمی که فقط خودش توانایی خلق آن را دارد می کند.
از اعماق دریاچه کالدرون، محضر تاریکی خبیثی از خواب طولانی مدت بیدار میشود. قدرت می گیرد و مردم شهر را به قاتلانی بی فکر تبدیل میکند. آن تسخیر شدگان با تاریکی پوشیده شده اند و تنها از نور آسیب پذیر هستند. سرنوشت ویک او را به نهایت دیوانگی و در اعماق جنگل تاریک میبرد و با داستانی رو به رو میکند که او هیچ خاطره ای از نوشتن آن ندارد.
بهترین مکان برای آلن ویک، رمان نویس پرطرفدار سبک جنایی و همسرش برای لمس چند هفته آرامش. شاید تکرار ماه عسل و هوای آزاد بتواند ویک را از بنبست نویسندگی اش خارج کند.
اما آلیس در شرایطی مرموز مفقود میشود و جستجوی ناچارانه ویک، او را گرفتار جهنمی که فقط خودش توانایی خلق آن را دارد می کند.
از اعماق دریاچه کالدرون، محضر تاریکی خبیثی از خواب طولانی مدت بیدار میشود. قدرت می گیرد و مردم شهر را به قاتلانی بی فکر تبدیل میکند. آن تسخیر شدگان با تاریکی پوشیده شده اند و تنها از نور آسیب پذیر هستند. سرنوشت ویک او را به نهایت دیوانگی و در اعماق جنگل تاریک میبرد و با داستانی رو به رو میکند که او هیچ خاطره ای از نوشتن آن ندارد.
June 9, 2012
This book is like watching the movie Inception. It's confusing at first, then you reach a point when everything just clicks. For those of you who like the game, this book is a must. The storyline goes into great depth. Psycological thriller fans will find this to be a great read. It will give you a reason to be afraid of the dark and carry a flashlight when you're out at night. For it's amazing plot, I give this book 5 stars.
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January 31, 2024“Lovable” is the word I’d use to describe this novel. Video game novelizations get a bad rap, perhaps reasonably so, but after reading the novel based on Metal Gear Solid 1 about two years ago, I felt that the transformation from story-heavy game, with all its gameplay, to fiction is deeply interesting. And since the video game Alan Wake (2010) is my third favorite game of all time, it’s no surprise I really enjoyed the book version. And it’s actually quite well-written—especially the dialogue.
I’ve gathered that author Rick Burroughs is probably a nom de plume, with rumors speculating it’s a pen name for Sam Lake himself (and perhaps the other two Alan Wake script writers?). Considering how the author is presented in the book and that there are no photos of or other works by him on Google, I desperately want to believe that to be true. The fact that the choice of words and cultural references in the novel feels “native speaker-y” could be an indication it’s not the words of Lake—but considering that the prose in the game itself feels like it could have been written by a native speaker, maybe it actually is Lake. I’m not an English native speaker myself (I’m Swedish), so I cannot make a sound judgment. But I’d be so freaking awesome if Sam Lake actually had written this novel under a pseudonym. Please let it be true!
But I digress. To get to the point, this novel is modern pulp fiction at its finest. Unsurprisingly, the author have chosen to basically just describe what happens in the game’s main story, sans many of the gameplay sequences (even though some of them have actually been reworked into literary action scenes here)—but the descriptions are generally very creative, with a good eye for interesting details and prose that fittingly feels “hard-boiled” and noir-y. I was really surprised at how interesting most of the sentences felt, since I was worried this was just going to be a cold scene-for-scene description of the game’s story events.
Moreover, the dialogue is really good and funny in that action-film-kinda way—the many one-liners uttered by both Wake himself and his trusty New Yorker sidekick Barry Wheeler are priceless through and through. Very well-written, humorous and just great.
What’s interesting with the game, though, is that it features scattered manuscript pages (presumably) written by Alan Wake. This novel’s prose adequately sticks to Wake’s writing style, which is very good, but I feel that the author maybe could have done a little more with the non-linear and foreshadowing elements these pages give the game’s story. In this novel, a selection of the manuscript pages are presented in the end of each chapter (at least in the e-book version I read) as a compliment to the main narrative, but I would have loved to see them more integrated in the novel since you have more room to play with story structure in novels as opposed to games (at least that’s how I view it). A missed opportunity, in my honest opinion, although I’m glad some of the most important pages are featured.
This minor complaint aside, Alan Wake is a great example of a video game novelization, much thanks to the game’s story already being so surrealistically and wonderfully thought-out by Lake and friends. Even if the prose were more stale and uninteresting, the plot, mystery and meta aspects themselves would have made a pretty satisfying read, and the creatively forged sentences elevates the book considerably. Reading this novel immediately after playing the game made me understand the multi-layered narrative better, with some added bells and whistles. And the expanded ending managed to make me emotional again.
If you’re in love with the Alan Wake series, like me, this is a must-read. But even if you just like the game, or even if you haven’t played it, this is worth reading to experience what in my opinion is a very successful book adaptation of a video game cult classic.
I’ve gathered that author Rick Burroughs is probably a nom de plume, with rumors speculating it’s a pen name for Sam Lake himself (and perhaps the other two Alan Wake script writers?). Considering how the author is presented in the book and that there are no photos of or other works by him on Google, I desperately want to believe that to be true. The fact that the choice of words and cultural references in the novel feels “native speaker-y” could be an indication it’s not the words of Lake—but considering that the prose in the game itself feels like it could have been written by a native speaker, maybe it actually is Lake. I’m not an English native speaker myself (I’m Swedish), so I cannot make a sound judgment. But I’d be so freaking awesome if Sam Lake actually had written this novel under a pseudonym. Please let it be true!
But I digress. To get to the point, this novel is modern pulp fiction at its finest. Unsurprisingly, the author have chosen to basically just describe what happens in the game’s main story, sans many of the gameplay sequences (even though some of them have actually been reworked into literary action scenes here)—but the descriptions are generally very creative, with a good eye for interesting details and prose that fittingly feels “hard-boiled” and noir-y. I was really surprised at how interesting most of the sentences felt, since I was worried this was just going to be a cold scene-for-scene description of the game’s story events.
Moreover, the dialogue is really good and funny in that action-film-kinda way—the many one-liners uttered by both Wake himself and his trusty New Yorker sidekick Barry Wheeler are priceless through and through. Very well-written, humorous and just great.
What’s interesting with the game, though, is that it features scattered manuscript pages (presumably) written by Alan Wake. This novel’s prose adequately sticks to Wake’s writing style, which is very good, but I feel that the author maybe could have done a little more with the non-linear and foreshadowing elements these pages give the game’s story. In this novel, a selection of the manuscript pages are presented in the end of each chapter (at least in the e-book version I read) as a compliment to the main narrative, but I would have loved to see them more integrated in the novel since you have more room to play with story structure in novels as opposed to games (at least that’s how I view it). A missed opportunity, in my honest opinion, although I’m glad some of the most important pages are featured.
This minor complaint aside, Alan Wake is a great example of a video game novelization, much thanks to the game’s story already being so surrealistically and wonderfully thought-out by Lake and friends. Even if the prose were more stale and uninteresting, the plot, mystery and meta aspects themselves would have made a pretty satisfying read, and the creatively forged sentences elevates the book considerably. Reading this novel immediately after playing the game made me understand the multi-layered narrative better, with some added bells and whistles. And the expanded ending managed to make me emotional again.
If you’re in love with the Alan Wake series, like me, this is a must-read. But even if you just like the game, or even if you haven’t played it, this is worth reading to experience what in my opinion is a very successful book adaptation of a video game cult classic.
March 8, 2025
☆ 3.5 ☆
I’m definitely biased with my opinions about this book because I love the game. I got it because I just finished watching my fiancé play through Alan Wake 1 and 2 but still didn’t understand all the lore. Luckily, this book did help me get a better grasp on key elements and characters, and it was fairly entertaining. But I think I’m part of a very niche audience of people who got something substantial out of it.
If you’ve played Alan Wake and already understand the lore of the games, this book isn’t really necessary because it’s essentially just a play-by-play retelling of the first game. I think the author added some extra depth to Alan’s character that couldn’t be portrayed through a visual format, but you wouldn’t be missing anything big by skipping this book. On the other hand, if you’re not familiar with the Alan Wake franchise at all, I wouldn’t recommend this book because it kind of relies on the reader having already played the first game to know basic things about the characters and major events.
I don’t think there’s much else to say about it. I have to acknowledge that the writing isn’t the best and it definitely could have used another round of editing. But again, I'm biased because I’m a big fan of the franchise and I like having this little trophy of sorts on my shelf. So do with this information what you will.
read: Sept 14, 2024
I’m definitely biased with my opinions about this book because I love the game. I got it because I just finished watching my fiancé play through Alan Wake 1 and 2 but still didn’t understand all the lore. Luckily, this book did help me get a better grasp on key elements and characters, and it was fairly entertaining. But I think I’m part of a very niche audience of people who got something substantial out of it.
If you’ve played Alan Wake and already understand the lore of the games, this book isn’t really necessary because it’s essentially just a play-by-play retelling of the first game. I think the author added some extra depth to Alan’s character that couldn’t be portrayed through a visual format, but you wouldn’t be missing anything big by skipping this book. On the other hand, if you’re not familiar with the Alan Wake franchise at all, I wouldn’t recommend this book because it kind of relies on the reader having already played the first game to know basic things about the characters and major events.
I don’t think there’s much else to say about it. I have to acknowledge that the writing isn’t the best and it definitely could have used another round of editing. But again, I'm biased because I’m a big fan of the franchise and I like having this little trophy of sorts on my shelf. So do with this information what you will.
read: Sept 14, 2024
December 10, 2024
• "Find the lady of the light, gone mad with the night. That's how you reshape destiny."
• "Madness reigns at the Anderson farm. Contrary to all logic, the headiest ingredient in their moonshine is water from Cauldron Lake. The Andersons feel like gods. Odin can't stop laughing. He contemplates cutting his eye out."
• "Probably right there in the First Aid section of the Boy Scout manual: when experiencing a traumatic hear injury, take comfort if it keeps oozing blood, because that means you're not losing your mind after misplacing your wife."
I picked up this book purely because I love Poets of the Fall (aka Old Gods of Asgard, imagine my happy heart when they actually made an appearance in this book) and I think the story itself is marvelous! I imagine that the video game is a great work of fiction.
However, I was not surprised to learn that this is Burroughs' first book. The writing leaves a lot to be desired and is often unclear or made me cringe. There were also a bunch of spelling/grammar mistakes that could easily have been avoided with another round of proofreading🤷🏼♀️
4 stars for the story itself and the Poets!
• "Madness reigns at the Anderson farm. Contrary to all logic, the headiest ingredient in their moonshine is water from Cauldron Lake. The Andersons feel like gods. Odin can't stop laughing. He contemplates cutting his eye out."
• "Probably right there in the First Aid section of the Boy Scout manual: when experiencing a traumatic hear injury, take comfort if it keeps oozing blood, because that means you're not losing your mind after misplacing your wife."
I picked up this book purely because I love Poets of the Fall (aka Old Gods of Asgard, imagine my happy heart when they actually made an appearance in this book) and I think the story itself is marvelous! I imagine that the video game is a great work of fiction.
However, I was not surprised to learn that this is Burroughs' first book. The writing leaves a lot to be desired and is often unclear or made me cringe. There were also a bunch of spelling/grammar mistakes that could easily have been avoided with another round of proofreading🤷🏼♀️
4 stars for the story itself and the Poets!
July 28, 2015
I approached this book with skepticism. Having played the game and loving it every step of the way I decided to read the novel as well. I knew upfront that it was based in the Video Game. My hopes where high however don't expect to read anything new or that adds to the story you already know. In essence it was like I was retracing my play-through once more.
This was Rick Burroughs first novel, and I really wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. However as I turned to chapter 3 I noticed that he was trying too hard. Besides some minor glitches that probably passed unnoticed in the book revision process, the abuse of similes and often misplaced metaphors didn't work very well throughout the novel. It was like Rick was grasping most of the time, trying to transmit a melancholic atmosphere and ending up abusing and ruining it altogether.
In a nutshell it was a fast paced action novel, with loads of fun moments and overall entertaining. Unfortunately it wasn't much more than that.
This was Rick Burroughs first novel, and I really wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. However as I turned to chapter 3 I noticed that he was trying too hard. Besides some minor glitches that probably passed unnoticed in the book revision process, the abuse of similes and often misplaced metaphors didn't work very well throughout the novel. It was like Rick was grasping most of the time, trying to transmit a melancholic atmosphere and ending up abusing and ruining it altogether.
In a nutshell it was a fast paced action novel, with loads of fun moments and overall entertaining. Unfortunately it wasn't much more than that.
February 11, 2024
I am conflicted with how I feel about this book tbh Well, not that conflicted. I didn’t like it. I wanted to love it since I love the game so much. While it's a decent read it also isn't. It’s not incompetent so much as it feels like the author did not play the game or something which sounds strange, but he had access to the game’s script (he thanks Remedy for access to it in the book, reason for my theory).
To explain, this book only works if you actually played the game and even then it falls short in many ways due to the strange changes made and crucial scenes it skips that results in break of immersion. The core elements needed to make the story work are missing in the book which ultimately results in certain scenes lose their initial impact and stunts the development/fleshing out the characters.
To add context: I had looked forward to expanded lore and deeper explanations to game events but instead it just alters some of them and cuts down the initial story/character development. This book was like 260 pages on kindle or whatever but it probably needed double that for the girth of the original story.
I’ve read reviews of people claiming things like “it explains the things that were vague in the game” or "a needed experience to understand the mysteries" but this book doesn't do any of that. Please do not walk into this book believing this, you’ll be as sorely disappointed as I was. It oversimplified what the game already tells its audience and tacks on superficial stuff to make it seem like it was expanding lore. Knowing Nightingale’s partner’s name was Finn who experienced the darkness prior to his death did not explain a myriad of questions surrounding Nightingale as a character at all. It did not explain Mr. Scratch any further than the game did, if anything, it lessened somewhat. It did not explain the end with Rose with Nightingale bound in the darkness behind her. No further exploration concerning Thomas Zane or his past, etc.
Speaking of, there were a lot of strange changes that regressed some content and altered others in a way I don't see it benefiting the general story or characters. I do understand writing for different mediums will reap different results and one style of writing will not translate the same in another. This is not me hating the book for doing things differently or anything. It just didn't work imo
Heads up, this is not me saying being different from the game is bad. Just want to add this somewhere. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad but there are just some things that are different that does more harm than good.
The author changes and removed stuff without understanding its purpose (or so I assume) so everything is clunky af. I wish this was not the author’s first book. He was not ready for writing an adaptation but not many people are even with experience. This book feels the bare minimum or a first draft and even then still lacking in many ways. I must state again that I did not like it. I say this as someone who went into the book not expecting a 1:1 retelling and was still disappointed.
I honestly have no clue who this book is for. I see people say “if you're a fan then read it” or “it’ll get you into the game” but honestly? I say just skip the book altogether and play the game if you can or watch a playthrough on youtube. Many of them out there and the game is cheap af on all consoles and when on sale it’s pennies and it supports Remedy. Plus there's a remaster too if you want a visually updated version on the game with extra commentary from Sam Lake (the writer of the game) that is far more valuable than this book. The book offers little to nothing to game not only does better but is cohesive and works where the book does not.
My biggest gripes: (stuff I just wanted to categorize and add/SPOILERS)
Manuscript Pages/writing format: Okay, for those who don't know in the original game you find manuscript pages from Alan's book Departure; a book he doesn't remember writing that is altering reality due to the power of the dark presence in Cauldron Lake. They are important af and he seeks them out throughout the game as he does in the book. However, the book does not explain when it's showing you a page. Nor does the book share them all, they are randomly chosen it feels like from each chapter?—and a few are given through dialogue when Alan speaks to Barry about them. There's like 106 pages in the game and not even a fraction of those are in the book. Which is an insane choice considering how important they are to the structure and flow of the story.
Some pages are conveniently left out when the book contradicts them too. These pages are crucial for the audience to understand what’s happening and is needed to be paced perfectly to avoid knowing too much too soon but also not left in the dark or staggering against the progression of the plot. Half the mystery are from these pages and the book did not care to convey that. At all.
The book also does this annoying thing where a manuscript page is just a random paragraph at the end of the chapter (unless this is only a failure of the kindle version? Idk). No format change or separation, text change, nothing to indicate they are special from the chapter text. I wish they made them on a separate page to help people realize it's not just a random paragraph at the end of each chapter. Maybe just print them all and put them at the back of the book and put like an asterisk when Wake finds one so readers can decide if they want to read them? Idk. I only knew this because my experience with the game and I remember most pages. The very first page the book shares I forgot it from my playthrough and didn’t know what the paragraph was at the end of the chapter. At first it seemed like a random perspective change with a character I did not know (regardless of my experience with the game) so I was confused af. This was a big afterthought.
I also wish they took advantage of making the Alan Wake book be written like Departure. Like, the version we get as rl readers is Departure or something. That would've been a fun way to utilize the medium to tell this story but that is just a nit pick on my part. Not holding this against the book tbh but would've been cool.
Characterization/lack of: It's off in some places more than others but it’s noticeable all the same imo. The book has this strange way of trying to make Alan nicer than he is in the game and. . .I have no clue why. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad character (I like his character a lot in the game) but he’s kind of a dick in the first game due to his issues/art block skewing his personality for the worst. It's purposeful he's like that but the author missed the memo. The book also removed any evidence of Alan’s habits of drinking and drug use that got out of control when his writer's block hit? His famous paparazzi punch that landed him in hot water? How Alice was mad at his antics/the verge of their divorce? This is all crucial to why his marriage was failing and his career was tanking after the Casey books.
Also, Alan's unspoken thing for Sheriff Breaker was weird af and one of the worst changes imo I didn’t understand it. I guess the author wanted a love interest while trying to save the love interest? There's a lot of hints of this unspoken 'attraction' like Barry saying Breaker is like Alice and hinting if Alice just died or never existed, they’d be a thing. Or for Alan insistence that Breaker calls him 'Alan' because his friends do even though he doesn't make friends that easily/getting close to him is difficult. What did she do to garter this closeness? I'd say she saves his life but what's weird about that is in the book the author changed how Alan and Breaker meet. She isn't the one to take him to the lake when he insists that's where he and Alice stayed nor rescued him in the middle of the night (Alan survives until daybreak then he's picked up sometime after). That would've been a great bonding experience for this weird change but okay then. Even weirder, Barry is interested in Breaker in the game instead and they even talk after Alan is gone but sure just erase that.
I also did not understand the drastic change to the ending, felt like tonal whiplash. The changes took away the bittersweet, haunting feeling the original ending had (my personal feel about it anyway). This book also seems to dislike Barry a lot too. The author made him worse than he is in the game and it makes sure to remind you he’s fat every scene he's in at least once. Even a nice moment between him and Alan in the Well-lit Room was ruined. Barry genuinely showing he cared (they've known each other sense childhood) was ruined by having him cry because he needs his commission instead of concerned for Alan's safety. Barry is money hungry little smart mouth and all but his best intentions are for Alan, even Alice despite their clash of personalities. Also seemed like a lot of points Alan was supposed to be rude in the game was transferred to Barry. Why. . . ?
Like when they meet Rose before going to the cabin rentals before the Lover’s Peak part. Alan calls Rose an airhead when she leaves and Barry defends her in the game. In the book, Barry comments about her living in a trailer park in a condescending way a little further into the book (omitting the airhead comment from Alan prior) and Alan is telling him to chill. This makes no sense and contradicts a manuscript page (absent from the book mind you it explains how Barry liked Rose but because he and Alan do not see eye to eye when it came to women it implies Barry and Alice’s friction as well as Alan’s dislike for Rose).
The author also makes Barry kind of a creep to Rose when in game his personality to her was benign at best? He respects her as a fan/for Alan's sake and just liked her but the book made sure to say he was ogling her ass when she walked away.
The author really wanted to phone in Alan being this decent guy all around too, nothing wrong just wrong place wrong time when he's an asshole changing with the horror story and that's the point. He doesn't really like Rose either in this game from her gushing at the diner to her revealing his stay. She left a bad impression even if that’s not completely her fault. This also makes Alan's change about her mute in the book, it happening in game after she spikes his and Barry's coffee under the dark presence influence Alan admits he couldn't even hate her for it knowing why she did it. This is a a small progress in his personality change.
The book also removes the idea of Alan being a skeptic, Barry telling him all the crazy stuff he was telling him was insane when he first arrives after picking Alan up from the sheriff's office. That Alan would make fun of people who believe in the supernatural and it's a humbling moment lost because in game Alan admits to Barry "joke's on me" because its real because he saw it with his own eyes. So many little character growth moments are lost in this book because Alan can't be a bad guy ever.
Even the ending, Alan grows into a a guy willing to give whatever he can to fix his wrongs but the book phoned it in hard like he's a sacrificial lamb for the sake of the world. Like his main objective wasn't to save Alice. Sure, he wanted to fix the stuff he messed up but saving Alice was his priority, always his top priority. Only reason he did what he did. It really feels like the author wanted to scrub Alan clean of any bad traits which is a shame because it stunts Alan’s growth.
I thought it was weird they make Alan so emotional about Rusty too. More invested in his death than the others. It's explained because he had a couple of interactions with Rusty when he never knew Stucky so it felt different which I get in some ways but that's a choice I didn't see coming. And Alan is affected by the taken he kills in the game too but not to this degree. He reflects more about killing people in general, not who they were and the book does not do the leg work to make this reaction believable. weirder Even weirder when he's thinking about Rusty and Rose’s possible love life snuffed out by the horror story and I just don’t get it.
The book also tried to give more personality from Alan's head/thoughts at the start but it fizzles out fast, losing any semblance of inner perspective. After Stucky it borderline disappears. The game also does this with monologues which are absent from the book. Not saying every monologue should be in the book, many are just for guiding players or stuff you could see but sometimes it couldn't hurt for story related things. The book lacks description too so some of those monologues would've come in handy imo. Alan as a whole feels like a downgrade in the book imo Most of the characters do save for Alice since she has more scenes but this didn’t make her better just included her more.
Changes for the Worst: Some scenes (and manuscript pages) were altered. I noticed a lot of unnecessary changes and some that seem minor but they kind of change the trajectory of why they were in the game. It may seem nitpicky but even the smallest changes can change the meaning and purpose of a scene. (So ironic since in the game Alan says this in one of the TVs in the writer's cabin).
One in particular is the clicker scene. Very significant but it flowed differently in the book but not in a good way. In the game it works as a good memory and setting up for later, showcasing Alan and Alice's relationship before his writer's block. It's a sweet scene too and helps establish they have a lot of love for each other, in contrast to the start of the game where you can see the tension and the rockiness of their marriage. In the book, this scene is used as a means to vocalize Alan's guilt and honestly, it doesn’t work because that’s not what it’s for. It’s to establish a personal memory of his to the player for the big reveal at the end and a stable foundation of his character and their relationship. I know the book establishes their love in the beginning (sort of) but in doing so you don’t get a feel that their marriage is strained and the vacation is needed.
Same could be said about that ending (I had to bring it up again) when Alice comes fresh from the lake and she doesn’t even get to process it because Sheriff Breaker finds her immediately after. The ending of the game we see her processing her freedom then she’s calling out to Alan hoping he responds, and it doesn’t happen. The camera pans out to eventually seeing Alan still writing, still typing until he says "It's not a lake, it's an ocean" like a man processed.
In the book the author just tacked on this weird chemistry Alan and Sheriff Breaker had TO THE WIFE HE SPENT THE ENTIRE STORY TRYING TO SAVE (why he added this weird dynamic is unknown to me). This was so unnecessary and tacky af imo It’s also strange when Alice says she doesn’t think Alan is coming back because in the DLC this is not something neither her or Barry had come to terms with since his disappearance. I am sure this book was written/released before the DLC to explain that discrepancy but still. They also removed the park with Rose and Nightingale confined at the end. THAT is something I wanted to learn about but this book does not explore anything.
And speaking of another weird change, when Alan, Barry and Sarah (Sheriff Breaker) are in the Well-lit Room in the book and game Sarah volunteers to leave with Alan to the lake for a final time and he insists he has to go alone. In the game he has to literally pull his gun on her (and get Barry to disarm her) to get her to stay behind but in the book they have this shared look and she just understands. I guess you can't pull a gun on that romantic tension lol. This seems like nitpicking (maybe it is) but this moment shows the mentality of the characters. In the game Sarah does not have romantic tension with Alan to drive her she's just a good person trying to help him and the people of Bright Falls. Alan having to resort to such tactics shows he could not convince her otherwise, she's as stubborn as he is. I just think details like this really make scenes and character moments.
Not to mention there's a page, of course missing from the book, where Sarah mentions Alan reminds her of her father and it was the reason she didn't think Alan would hurt his wife. Then she recalled the hair-trigger rage she saw when he punches Dr. Hartman at the sheriff station. She mentions her father a lot in the book, hmm, wonder why the author left this page out of the book? (we know why, the romance part).
Lack of Descriptions: They are nonexistent in a lot of ways. The book really depends on fans from the games instead of writing it as a standalone experience for first time readers unfamiliar with the game. It's inconsistent, sometimes it paints a picture and sometimes not. Also, dialogue is kind thrown out there but no description. I kind of hated that someone would say something and Alan replied “What’s so funny?” but there was zero text to indicate a laugh/chuckle/giggle/whatever. I know that’s nitpicky but it annoyed me. Barely see text dedicated to physical response to anything like frowning, laughing, etc.
I saw people complain about the combat and I’m like half and half with it. I won't pretend the combat in the game can inspire a grand battle encounter every time so it kind of works but also doesn't. Those boss battles are difficult and the book doesn't convey that. No mention of the unnatural speed of the bosses, their heavy hits or the shit they gargle at you (they play it with Stucky well enough but probably because they followed the game to a T in that part). It’s just “Wake shined a light, three head shots and dead” for a lot of encounters. This IS the combat from the game sometimes but when you play it feels way more intense than that and there’s nothing mixing it up to make encounters feel different and desperate. Like maybe Alan missing sometimes, fumbling bullets while he reloads, parrying, slipping, dodging, cursing, etc. Alan only has experience with a gun from a fire range in a controlled environment, so this was a great opportunity to show that he's out of his element in so many ways. The most you get that is interesting is the encounter at the Anderson farm, that’s as good as combat gets in the book.
I think this is where liberties could've been used since it's a gripe with people who criticize the book, me included. They do mention Alan getting hurt too but he gets more jacked up by random taken than the bosses and idk why. And his injuries are forgotten after a chapter, hell, after the encounter. He never mentions this or it affects other encounters so it feels off. Like most of the book.
To explain, this book only works if you actually played the game and even then it falls short in many ways due to the strange changes made and crucial scenes it skips that results in break of immersion. The core elements needed to make the story work are missing in the book which ultimately results in certain scenes lose their initial impact and stunts the development/fleshing out the characters.
To add context: I had looked forward to expanded lore and deeper explanations to game events but instead it just alters some of them and cuts down the initial story/character development. This book was like 260 pages on kindle or whatever but it probably needed double that for the girth of the original story.
I’ve read reviews of people claiming things like “it explains the things that were vague in the game” or "a needed experience to understand the mysteries" but this book doesn't do any of that. Please do not walk into this book believing this, you’ll be as sorely disappointed as I was. It oversimplified what the game already tells its audience and tacks on superficial stuff to make it seem like it was expanding lore. Knowing Nightingale’s partner’s name was Finn who experienced the darkness prior to his death did not explain a myriad of questions surrounding Nightingale as a character at all. It did not explain Mr. Scratch any further than the game did, if anything, it lessened somewhat. It did not explain the end with Rose with Nightingale bound in the darkness behind her. No further exploration concerning Thomas Zane or his past, etc.
Speaking of, there were a lot of strange changes that regressed some content and altered others in a way I don't see it benefiting the general story or characters. I do understand writing for different mediums will reap different results and one style of writing will not translate the same in another. This is not me hating the book for doing things differently or anything. It just didn't work imo
Heads up, this is not me saying being different from the game is bad. Just want to add this somewhere. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad but there are just some things that are different that does more harm than good.
The author changes and removed stuff without understanding its purpose (or so I assume) so everything is clunky af. I wish this was not the author’s first book. He was not ready for writing an adaptation but not many people are even with experience. This book feels the bare minimum or a first draft and even then still lacking in many ways. I must state again that I did not like it. I say this as someone who went into the book not expecting a 1:1 retelling and was still disappointed.
I honestly have no clue who this book is for. I see people say “if you're a fan then read it” or “it’ll get you into the game” but honestly? I say just skip the book altogether and play the game if you can or watch a playthrough on youtube. Many of them out there and the game is cheap af on all consoles and when on sale it’s pennies and it supports Remedy. Plus there's a remaster too if you want a visually updated version on the game with extra commentary from Sam Lake (the writer of the game) that is far more valuable than this book. The book offers little to nothing to game not only does better but is cohesive and works where the book does not.
My biggest gripes: (stuff I just wanted to categorize and add/SPOILERS)
Manuscript Pages/writing format: Okay, for those who don't know in the original game you find manuscript pages from Alan's book Departure; a book he doesn't remember writing that is altering reality due to the power of the dark presence in Cauldron Lake. They are important af and he seeks them out throughout the game as he does in the book. However, the book does not explain when it's showing you a page. Nor does the book share them all, they are randomly chosen it feels like from each chapter?—and a few are given through dialogue when Alan speaks to Barry about them. There's like 106 pages in the game and not even a fraction of those are in the book. Which is an insane choice considering how important they are to the structure and flow of the story.
Some pages are conveniently left out when the book contradicts them too. These pages are crucial for the audience to understand what’s happening and is needed to be paced perfectly to avoid knowing too much too soon but also not left in the dark or staggering against the progression of the plot. Half the mystery are from these pages and the book did not care to convey that. At all.
The book also does this annoying thing where a manuscript page is just a random paragraph at the end of the chapter (unless this is only a failure of the kindle version? Idk). No format change or separation, text change, nothing to indicate they are special from the chapter text. I wish they made them on a separate page to help people realize it's not just a random paragraph at the end of each chapter. Maybe just print them all and put them at the back of the book and put like an asterisk when Wake finds one so readers can decide if they want to read them? Idk. I only knew this because my experience with the game and I remember most pages. The very first page the book shares I forgot it from my playthrough and didn’t know what the paragraph was at the end of the chapter. At first it seemed like a random perspective change with a character I did not know (regardless of my experience with the game) so I was confused af. This was a big afterthought.
I also wish they took advantage of making the Alan Wake book be written like Departure. Like, the version we get as rl readers is Departure or something. That would've been a fun way to utilize the medium to tell this story but that is just a nit pick on my part. Not holding this against the book tbh but would've been cool.
Characterization/lack of: It's off in some places more than others but it’s noticeable all the same imo. The book has this strange way of trying to make Alan nicer than he is in the game and. . .I have no clue why. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad character (I like his character a lot in the game) but he’s kind of a dick in the first game due to his issues/art block skewing his personality for the worst. It's purposeful he's like that but the author missed the memo. The book also removed any evidence of Alan’s habits of drinking and drug use that got out of control when his writer's block hit? His famous paparazzi punch that landed him in hot water? How Alice was mad at his antics/the verge of their divorce? This is all crucial to why his marriage was failing and his career was tanking after the Casey books.
Also, Alan's unspoken thing for Sheriff Breaker was weird af and one of the worst changes imo I didn’t understand it. I guess the author wanted a love interest while trying to save the love interest? There's a lot of hints of this unspoken 'attraction' like Barry saying Breaker is like Alice and hinting if Alice just died or never existed, they’d be a thing. Or for Alan insistence that Breaker calls him 'Alan' because his friends do even though he doesn't make friends that easily/getting close to him is difficult. What did she do to garter this closeness? I'd say she saves his life but what's weird about that is in the book the author changed how Alan and Breaker meet. She isn't the one to take him to the lake when he insists that's where he and Alice stayed nor rescued him in the middle of the night (Alan survives until daybreak then he's picked up sometime after). That would've been a great bonding experience for this weird change but okay then. Even weirder, Barry is interested in Breaker in the game instead and they even talk after Alan is gone but sure just erase that.
I also did not understand the drastic change to the ending, felt like tonal whiplash. The changes took away the bittersweet, haunting feeling the original ending had (my personal feel about it anyway). This book also seems to dislike Barry a lot too. The author made him worse than he is in the game and it makes sure to remind you he’s fat every scene he's in at least once. Even a nice moment between him and Alan in the Well-lit Room was ruined. Barry genuinely showing he cared (they've known each other sense childhood) was ruined by having him cry because he needs his commission instead of concerned for Alan's safety. Barry is money hungry little smart mouth and all but his best intentions are for Alan, even Alice despite their clash of personalities. Also seemed like a lot of points Alan was supposed to be rude in the game was transferred to Barry. Why. . . ?
Like when they meet Rose before going to the cabin rentals before the Lover’s Peak part. Alan calls Rose an airhead when she leaves and Barry defends her in the game. In the book, Barry comments about her living in a trailer park in a condescending way a little further into the book (omitting the airhead comment from Alan prior) and Alan is telling him to chill. This makes no sense and contradicts a manuscript page (absent from the book mind you it explains how Barry liked Rose but because he and Alan do not see eye to eye when it came to women it implies Barry and Alice’s friction as well as Alan’s dislike for Rose).
The author also makes Barry kind of a creep to Rose when in game his personality to her was benign at best? He respects her as a fan/for Alan's sake and just liked her but the book made sure to say he was ogling her ass when she walked away.
The author really wanted to phone in Alan being this decent guy all around too, nothing wrong just wrong place wrong time when he's an asshole changing with the horror story and that's the point. He doesn't really like Rose either in this game from her gushing at the diner to her revealing his stay. She left a bad impression even if that’s not completely her fault. This also makes Alan's change about her mute in the book, it happening in game after she spikes his and Barry's coffee under the dark presence influence Alan admits he couldn't even hate her for it knowing why she did it. This is a a small progress in his personality change.
The book also removes the idea of Alan being a skeptic, Barry telling him all the crazy stuff he was telling him was insane when he first arrives after picking Alan up from the sheriff's office. That Alan would make fun of people who believe in the supernatural and it's a humbling moment lost because in game Alan admits to Barry "joke's on me" because its real because he saw it with his own eyes. So many little character growth moments are lost in this book because Alan can't be a bad guy ever.
Even the ending, Alan grows into a a guy willing to give whatever he can to fix his wrongs but the book phoned it in hard like he's a sacrificial lamb for the sake of the world. Like his main objective wasn't to save Alice. Sure, he wanted to fix the stuff he messed up but saving Alice was his priority, always his top priority. Only reason he did what he did. It really feels like the author wanted to scrub Alan clean of any bad traits which is a shame because it stunts Alan’s growth.
I thought it was weird they make Alan so emotional about Rusty too. More invested in his death than the others. It's explained because he had a couple of interactions with Rusty when he never knew Stucky so it felt different which I get in some ways but that's a choice I didn't see coming. And Alan is affected by the taken he kills in the game too but not to this degree. He reflects more about killing people in general, not who they were and the book does not do the leg work to make this reaction believable. weirder Even weirder when he's thinking about Rusty and Rose’s possible love life snuffed out by the horror story and I just don’t get it.
The book also tried to give more personality from Alan's head/thoughts at the start but it fizzles out fast, losing any semblance of inner perspective. After Stucky it borderline disappears. The game also does this with monologues which are absent from the book. Not saying every monologue should be in the book, many are just for guiding players or stuff you could see but sometimes it couldn't hurt for story related things. The book lacks description too so some of those monologues would've come in handy imo. Alan as a whole feels like a downgrade in the book imo Most of the characters do save for Alice since she has more scenes but this didn’t make her better just included her more.
Changes for the Worst: Some scenes (and manuscript pages) were altered. I noticed a lot of unnecessary changes and some that seem minor but they kind of change the trajectory of why they were in the game. It may seem nitpicky but even the smallest changes can change the meaning and purpose of a scene. (So ironic since in the game Alan says this in one of the TVs in the writer's cabin).
One in particular is the clicker scene. Very significant but it flowed differently in the book but not in a good way. In the game it works as a good memory and setting up for later, showcasing Alan and Alice's relationship before his writer's block. It's a sweet scene too and helps establish they have a lot of love for each other, in contrast to the start of the game where you can see the tension and the rockiness of their marriage. In the book, this scene is used as a means to vocalize Alan's guilt and honestly, it doesn’t work because that’s not what it’s for. It’s to establish a personal memory of his to the player for the big reveal at the end and a stable foundation of his character and their relationship. I know the book establishes their love in the beginning (sort of) but in doing so you don’t get a feel that their marriage is strained and the vacation is needed.
Same could be said about that ending (I had to bring it up again) when Alice comes fresh from the lake and she doesn’t even get to process it because Sheriff Breaker finds her immediately after. The ending of the game we see her processing her freedom then she’s calling out to Alan hoping he responds, and it doesn’t happen. The camera pans out to eventually seeing Alan still writing, still typing until he says "It's not a lake, it's an ocean" like a man processed.
In the book the author just tacked on this weird chemistry Alan and Sheriff Breaker had TO THE WIFE HE SPENT THE ENTIRE STORY TRYING TO SAVE (why he added this weird dynamic is unknown to me). This was so unnecessary and tacky af imo It’s also strange when Alice says she doesn’t think Alan is coming back because in the DLC this is not something neither her or Barry had come to terms with since his disappearance. I am sure this book was written/released before the DLC to explain that discrepancy but still. They also removed the park with Rose and Nightingale confined at the end. THAT is something I wanted to learn about but this book does not explore anything.
And speaking of another weird change, when Alan, Barry and Sarah (Sheriff Breaker) are in the Well-lit Room in the book and game Sarah volunteers to leave with Alan to the lake for a final time and he insists he has to go alone. In the game he has to literally pull his gun on her (and get Barry to disarm her) to get her to stay behind but in the book they have this shared look and she just understands. I guess you can't pull a gun on that romantic tension lol. This seems like nitpicking (maybe it is) but this moment shows the mentality of the characters. In the game Sarah does not have romantic tension with Alan to drive her she's just a good person trying to help him and the people of Bright Falls. Alan having to resort to such tactics shows he could not convince her otherwise, she's as stubborn as he is. I just think details like this really make scenes and character moments.
Not to mention there's a page, of course missing from the book, where Sarah mentions Alan reminds her of her father and it was the reason she didn't think Alan would hurt his wife. Then she recalled the hair-trigger rage she saw when he punches Dr. Hartman at the sheriff station. She mentions her father a lot in the book, hmm, wonder why the author left this page out of the book? (we know why, the romance part).
Lack of Descriptions: They are nonexistent in a lot of ways. The book really depends on fans from the games instead of writing it as a standalone experience for first time readers unfamiliar with the game. It's inconsistent, sometimes it paints a picture and sometimes not. Also, dialogue is kind thrown out there but no description. I kind of hated that someone would say something and Alan replied “What’s so funny?” but there was zero text to indicate a laugh/chuckle/giggle/whatever. I know that’s nitpicky but it annoyed me. Barely see text dedicated to physical response to anything like frowning, laughing, etc.
I saw people complain about the combat and I’m like half and half with it. I won't pretend the combat in the game can inspire a grand battle encounter every time so it kind of works but also doesn't. Those boss battles are difficult and the book doesn't convey that. No mention of the unnatural speed of the bosses, their heavy hits or the shit they gargle at you (they play it with Stucky well enough but probably because they followed the game to a T in that part). It’s just “Wake shined a light, three head shots and dead” for a lot of encounters. This IS the combat from the game sometimes but when you play it feels way more intense than that and there’s nothing mixing it up to make encounters feel different and desperate. Like maybe Alan missing sometimes, fumbling bullets while he reloads, parrying, slipping, dodging, cursing, etc. Alan only has experience with a gun from a fire range in a controlled environment, so this was a great opportunity to show that he's out of his element in so many ways. The most you get that is interesting is the encounter at the Anderson farm, that’s as good as combat gets in the book.
I think this is where liberties could've been used since it's a gripe with people who criticize the book, me included. They do mention Alan getting hurt too but he gets more jacked up by random taken than the bosses and idk why. And his injuries are forgotten after a chapter, hell, after the encounter. He never mentions this or it affects other encounters so it feels off. Like most of the book.
February 9, 2013
Easy to read, serviceable, and most importantly, more fun than the game it's based on. Nothing ground-breaking in terms of plot or characterisation but that's not the point of books like this. If you delve into this tome expecting brain candy, you won't be let down. Serious pursuers of literary entertainment need to go elsewhere.
March 10, 2023
The video game is a much more interesting and immersive experience but this novelization is pretty decent. I haven’t played the game in about ten years so I figured being blurry on certain details would enhance this scene by scene recreation. I was right and wrong. The things I’d forgotten were either insignificant to the overall plot or were enhanced much more in the actual game through music, acting, visuals, etc. I also agree with some other reviewers that the author here depicts the protagonist in an oddly pessimistic light than how he’s portrayed in the game. Here he’s fairly cold and selfish. The game gives him character development to lighten up throughout his journey but you never got the sense that he flat out despised people like he seems to here. Just an unusual change. Overall, a high quality game adapted into a mediocre book with some entertaining imagery, even if through uninspired prose. This reminds me of something like taking an amazing movie like Oldboy (2003) and remaking it in 2013 where the story for the original was so good that even a sloppy adaptation is watchable. So yeah, not a complete waste of time but just play the game or watch Twin Peaks if you need your fill of Pacific Northwest spookiness
January 23, 2021
I was gonna go with 2 stars because I figured if I finished it, that at least says something, right? It’s at least readable, right? RIGHT? But, readable or not (and I use that term loosely), I just can’t; 2 is too much.
This is a hollow shell of a book, barely more than an outline, a cliff notes version of the story as it might have been pitched to the development team before they started working on the game. There’s minimal attempt at setting a mood or describing the events with any detail, and there’s really no authorial flair; Burroughs writes the plot of the game in the simplest, most straightforward way possible, adding nothing to paint a picture. With relatively large text and the writing complexity of a Fear Street, this book at least reads fast — so I guess there’s that to be thankful for?
This is a hollow shell of a book, barely more than an outline, a cliff notes version of the story as it might have been pitched to the development team before they started working on the game. There’s minimal attempt at setting a mood or describing the events with any detail, and there’s really no authorial flair; Burroughs writes the plot of the game in the simplest, most straightforward way possible, adding nothing to paint a picture. With relatively large text and the writing complexity of a Fear Street, this book at least reads fast — so I guess there’s that to be thankful for?
July 11, 2019
I fell in love with the first half of the story right away but as it proceeded I experienced more terrifying, surprising things happen. All in all I liked Alan character and the novel.
April 19, 2016
Read this review (and others) at: https://literatureislife.com/2016/04/...
Alan Wake is an adaptation of the video game of the same name. Title character Alan Wake is a best-selling author specializing in crime novels who has hit a hard case of writer’s block. At his wife Alice’s suggestion, Alan goes on a vacation to a small lakeside town called Bright Falls in order to clear his head and get his writing back on track. But then something strange happens and Alice disappears under mysterious circumstances. Alan blacks out and wakes up only to discover that it has been days since Alice vanished. Desperate to find his wife, Alan begins to search for clues and quickly realizes that sinister forces are at work on the shores of Cauldron Lake.
Books made as video game adaptations are a fickle thing. The Alan Wake video game was one of the best video games of 2010. It tells the tale of a fantastic Stephen King-esque horror story; the style of which gives fans enough information to leave them pleased but does not fully explain the supernatural elements that occur. This story gives the feel that there are things going on that extend far beyond human understanding and that Alan Wake and the other characters are but small pieces in a much larger, longer game. That being said, the book is not perfect.
Different mediums of storytelling can produce vastly different results. Something that is fantastic as a book may not do well as a movie (as many, many readers know), or a video game does not transition as well as it could into a book. The thing that makes horror video games so scary, often more so than a book, film, or some other form of storytelling, is the fact that you are in control. While watching a horror movie, it is easy to see the mistakes that a character is making and yell things at the screen like, “What are you doing? Don’t go in there! The killer’s in that room!” While playing a video game, any mistakes that are made are on you. Maybe you hear the monster creeping up behind you and can fire a round between its eyes before it gets you, or maybe you will turn around just half a second too late and find yourself at the game over screen. The sense of real danger that a video game is able to generate when you get really into it is harder to convey in a book and that makes the Alan Wake book much less frightful than its video game counterpart.
One of the positive things about this story is the addition of scenes that were not in the video game. Since this story has a fair amount of mystery, any amount of new information is good and it helps fill in a few of the gaps from the game. However, the opposite is also true; there are bits of the video game that were not present in the book. Not all of this is need-to-know information, and it is a little irksome, but that is just part of the give-and-take process here. If you have not played the video game first, you may be a little lost during parts of the book. If you jump right into the book and decide it is good enough, the game is still worth picking up for the DLC packages that expand upon the original story (which is all that the book covers); there is also a short sequel game called Alan Wake’s American Nightmare that is worth playing at least once. Considering that this was author Rick Burroughs’ very first book, he did a good job. Great literature this is not, but it is what you can reasonably expect from a video game tie-in.
Alan Wake is an adaptation of the video game of the same name. Title character Alan Wake is a best-selling author specializing in crime novels who has hit a hard case of writer’s block. At his wife Alice’s suggestion, Alan goes on a vacation to a small lakeside town called Bright Falls in order to clear his head and get his writing back on track. But then something strange happens and Alice disappears under mysterious circumstances. Alan blacks out and wakes up only to discover that it has been days since Alice vanished. Desperate to find his wife, Alan begins to search for clues and quickly realizes that sinister forces are at work on the shores of Cauldron Lake.
Books made as video game adaptations are a fickle thing. The Alan Wake video game was one of the best video games of 2010. It tells the tale of a fantastic Stephen King-esque horror story; the style of which gives fans enough information to leave them pleased but does not fully explain the supernatural elements that occur. This story gives the feel that there are things going on that extend far beyond human understanding and that Alan Wake and the other characters are but small pieces in a much larger, longer game. That being said, the book is not perfect.
Different mediums of storytelling can produce vastly different results. Something that is fantastic as a book may not do well as a movie (as many, many readers know), or a video game does not transition as well as it could into a book. The thing that makes horror video games so scary, often more so than a book, film, or some other form of storytelling, is the fact that you are in control. While watching a horror movie, it is easy to see the mistakes that a character is making and yell things at the screen like, “What are you doing? Don’t go in there! The killer’s in that room!” While playing a video game, any mistakes that are made are on you. Maybe you hear the monster creeping up behind you and can fire a round between its eyes before it gets you, or maybe you will turn around just half a second too late and find yourself at the game over screen. The sense of real danger that a video game is able to generate when you get really into it is harder to convey in a book and that makes the Alan Wake book much less frightful than its video game counterpart.
One of the positive things about this story is the addition of scenes that were not in the video game. Since this story has a fair amount of mystery, any amount of new information is good and it helps fill in a few of the gaps from the game. However, the opposite is also true; there are bits of the video game that were not present in the book. Not all of this is need-to-know information, and it is a little irksome, but that is just part of the give-and-take process here. If you have not played the video game first, you may be a little lost during parts of the book. If you jump right into the book and decide it is good enough, the game is still worth picking up for the DLC packages that expand upon the original story (which is all that the book covers); there is also a short sequel game called Alan Wake’s American Nightmare that is worth playing at least once. Considering that this was author Rick Burroughs’ very first book, he did a good job. Great literature this is not, but it is what you can reasonably expect from a video game tie-in.
November 25, 2020
The titular Alan Wake is looking for his missing wife in this supernatural novel. His quest took him in many directions, encountering countless obstacles between him and his wife.
This book didn't really click with me. It was chocked full of potential which is why I finished it, and there were parts that I found intriguing. Minor disclaimer: I did not play the video game this book is based on; so my opinions are of the book only.
The plot seemed to somewhat jump around in the early parts of the book. I found myself questioning if I had missed something and reread previous pages only to find that I hadn't missed anything. This decision made the book difficult to follow, and it took me out of the story.
There were only a few characters that lasted long enough to really get to know. I'll touch of two of the characters here. In the early part of the book, Wake was a surly man, interested in what people would do for him. After the events of the book start to get rolling, very little personality of any kind for him comes through to me. I found myself not particularly caring about Wake; not caring whether he prevails or not. To me, this is worse than actively disliking the main character. If I dislike the protagonist, I can actively root against him; I'm invested. Here, not really.
The other character I want to touch on is Barry. He starts out as an obnoxious character who thinks himself a big shot. Later on, he's a coward. Not long after that, he's arguably the bravest character in the book shortly before playing a drinking game listening to a DJ talk. Barry is so wildly inconsistent that I can't find myself to believe in him or to invest in him. If he wasn't so unbelievable, I'd probably have forgotten him within minutes of closing the book.
All that said, the book itself is solid. The events in the book are interesting and a couple of the locations Wake visited were surprising in a good way. I would have liked to visit the cabin in greater detail; there was just enough there to make me want to see more. Other locations were also fun to visit. Reading the events in the book, and seeing how one would lead into the next was what kept me going. I wanted to see how the book ended. As I stated, I didn't particularly care about the character, so I didn't care about the outcome, but I wanted to see HOW the book ended, what events would lead to the conclusion.
In the end, I can't recommend the book. It was not a waste of time, mind you. It occupied that odd ground where I said to myself "Yeah, I want to finish it" while simultaneously being pretty forgettable for me.
This book didn't really click with me. It was chocked full of potential which is why I finished it, and there were parts that I found intriguing. Minor disclaimer: I did not play the video game this book is based on; so my opinions are of the book only.
The plot seemed to somewhat jump around in the early parts of the book. I found myself questioning if I had missed something and reread previous pages only to find that I hadn't missed anything. This decision made the book difficult to follow, and it took me out of the story.
There were only a few characters that lasted long enough to really get to know. I'll touch of two of the characters here. In the early part of the book, Wake was a surly man, interested in what people would do for him. After the events of the book start to get rolling, very little personality of any kind for him comes through to me. I found myself not particularly caring about Wake; not caring whether he prevails or not. To me, this is worse than actively disliking the main character. If I dislike the protagonist, I can actively root against him; I'm invested. Here, not really.
The other character I want to touch on is Barry. He starts out as an obnoxious character who thinks himself a big shot. Later on, he's a coward. Not long after that, he's arguably the bravest character in the book shortly before playing a drinking game listening to a DJ talk. Barry is so wildly inconsistent that I can't find myself to believe in him or to invest in him. If he wasn't so unbelievable, I'd probably have forgotten him within minutes of closing the book.
All that said, the book itself is solid. The events in the book are interesting and a couple of the locations Wake visited were surprising in a good way. I would have liked to visit the cabin in greater detail; there was just enough there to make me want to see more. Other locations were also fun to visit. Reading the events in the book, and seeing how one would lead into the next was what kept me going. I wanted to see how the book ended. As I stated, I didn't particularly care about the character, so I didn't care about the outcome, but I wanted to see HOW the book ended, what events would lead to the conclusion.
In the end, I can't recommend the book. It was not a waste of time, mind you. It occupied that odd ground where I said to myself "Yeah, I want to finish it" while simultaneously being pretty forgettable for me.
November 9, 2014
As a fan of the video game "Alan Wake" and also an avid reader, when I had learned a novelization of the game was made, I couldn't resist buying a copy and reading it.
Best-selling novelist Alan Wake has been suffering from writer's block for the past two years. In hopes to cure it, Alan and his wife, Alice, go on a vacation to a small remote town called Bright Falls. Shortly after arriving in their cabin, a force of darkness kidnaps Alice and Alan wakes up in a car crash almost two weeks later. Trying to wrap his head around the scenario, Alan soon finds himself a target to the force of darkness, possessing the people of Bright Falls to stop him from saving his wife. It's a horror story Alan is unsure he could overcome and a mystery he seems to have written in a manuscript he has no memory of.
I was ecstatic to start the book, but, unfortunately, I am a bit disappointed. For a book that praises creative storytelling, the writing of the book falls a little above basic quality. There is a lack of detail in the narrative, not really describing the setting or the characters too well. This is also a problem when it comes to the action sequences written in the book; they lack the thrill and the tension the game had created so well. Thankfully, the last third of the book gets better, where the story becomes more complex and nearing its conclusion (which is a bit anti-climatic for fans of the game).
The writing is the only problem with the novelization, whereas everything else is a plus. The book contains deleted scenes and an extended ending that are not in the game and clears up mysteries that were left to the players to solve, albeit those answers come off as anti-climatic. Even if you have not played the game (which I highly recommend doing so), you may still find enjoyment in this book because of the plot.
Much like "Flashforward" by Robert J. Sawyer, the writing makes it feel like a paperback you could buy at the grocery store for a few bucks, but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it.
Best-selling novelist Alan Wake has been suffering from writer's block for the past two years. In hopes to cure it, Alan and his wife, Alice, go on a vacation to a small remote town called Bright Falls. Shortly after arriving in their cabin, a force of darkness kidnaps Alice and Alan wakes up in a car crash almost two weeks later. Trying to wrap his head around the scenario, Alan soon finds himself a target to the force of darkness, possessing the people of Bright Falls to stop him from saving his wife. It's a horror story Alan is unsure he could overcome and a mystery he seems to have written in a manuscript he has no memory of.
I was ecstatic to start the book, but, unfortunately, I am a bit disappointed. For a book that praises creative storytelling, the writing of the book falls a little above basic quality. There is a lack of detail in the narrative, not really describing the setting or the characters too well. This is also a problem when it comes to the action sequences written in the book; they lack the thrill and the tension the game had created so well. Thankfully, the last third of the book gets better, where the story becomes more complex and nearing its conclusion (which is a bit anti-climatic for fans of the game).
The writing is the only problem with the novelization, whereas everything else is a plus. The book contains deleted scenes and an extended ending that are not in the game and clears up mysteries that were left to the players to solve, albeit those answers come off as anti-climatic. Even if you have not played the game (which I highly recommend doing so), you may still find enjoyment in this book because of the plot.
Much like "Flashforward" by Robert J. Sawyer, the writing makes it feel like a paperback you could buy at the grocery store for a few bucks, but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it.
June 12, 2014
So....Alan Wake. I have played and completed the video game which has an amazing story in my opinion so I figured that I should get the book.
I absolutely loved it. I could not put in down once I started so this was read in one sitting.
You may think that the story is already there from the game and all Rick Burroughs had to do was stitch the game events together but I don't think this is as easy as it may sound. Rick does an amazing job. It never feels like filler and it definitely keeps you turning the pages. This is Rick's first novel so I'm even more impressed.
Even though I already knew what was going to happen it did feel different to the game in some ways. For instance I wasn't previously a fan of the character of Barry whilst playing the game but I really like how he was portrayed in the book. The humour present in the dialogue between Barry and Alan made me grin so much.
The only less than positive thing I will say is that readers that haven't played the game to completion may not fully understand the ending.
I absolutely loved it. I could not put in down once I started so this was read in one sitting.
You may think that the story is already there from the game and all Rick Burroughs had to do was stitch the game events together but I don't think this is as easy as it may sound. Rick does an amazing job. It never feels like filler and it definitely keeps you turning the pages. This is Rick's first novel so I'm even more impressed.
Even though I already knew what was going to happen it did feel different to the game in some ways. For instance I wasn't previously a fan of the character of Barry whilst playing the game but I really like how he was portrayed in the book. The humour present in the dialogue between Barry and Alan made me grin so much.
The only less than positive thing I will say is that readers that haven't played the game to completion may not fully understand the ending.
April 19, 2018
From beginning to end, I just wanted to keep on going. Fun read.
March 5, 2024
Sam Lake is one of the most interesting writers working today. His love of storytelling and the way he engages with his own influences combine to make stories that are deeply engaging and familiar in the best ways.
This book is not written by Sam Lake, but instead a novelization of his story. The game Alan Wake should lend itself well to a book (or a great TV series), and yet in this it just feels lacking. Rather than diving deeper into the world and characters, this book feels like a transcript of the story, relating plot and character without making use of its medium to dive even deeper into them.
This is a novelization, so I will also rate it by the correct scale here: does this make you want to watch the original?
And somehow, no. This relays all the information of Alan Wake the game, but without any of the charm to interest you in engaging with the source story.
This book is not written by Sam Lake, but instead a novelization of his story. The game Alan Wake should lend itself well to a book (or a great TV series), and yet in this it just feels lacking. Rather than diving deeper into the world and characters, this book feels like a transcript of the story, relating plot and character without making use of its medium to dive even deeper into them.
This is a novelization, so I will also rate it by the correct scale here: does this make you want to watch the original?
And somehow, no. This relays all the information of Alan Wake the game, but without any of the charm to interest you in engaging with the source story.
January 8, 2025
My son gave me this book and I am so glad he did. If you love weirdness, Twin Peaks, In The Mouth Of Madness…. This book is for you!
September 6, 2013
Alan Wake, which hit was published on the Xbox 360 in 2010, was one of those games that made me sit up and pay attention. From its initial announcement years earlier through to the game’s publication, I was hooked. Having little experience with survival horror in games, but being a veteran reader of Stephen King and a newbie Lovecraft nerd, it stood out from the crowd. Alan, the titular hero, isn’t a muscular, taciturn, grimdark gunbro; he’s a depressed, anxious writer. Its villains aren’t zombies or terrorists; they’re painfully familiar locals who have been possessed by an ancient power. Its setting is uncomfortably familiar, too: a tiny mountain town. Alan Wake is one of those rare high points of this console generation that just didn’t get enough love. Still, it’s one of my favorite games, and I was so, so excited to get a chance to review the tie-in novel that Tor Books sent me. How does author Rick Burroughs’s freshman novel live up to the blockbuster horror game? Read on to find out.
A foreward note: It should come as no surprise that we’re going to be covering Alan Wake on the Games as Lit podcast. While we have yet to record that episode, I simply couldn’t hold myself back from writing about the book. Having read more than a dozen videogame novels in the last year, there have been only one or two others that have gripped me with the same ferocity that Burroughs’ book did. This is as pitch-perfect a companion to the game as I can imagine; indeed, I think it’s an all-around superior novel. This is as good as it gets as a gateway into supernatural horror writers like King, Kuntz, and Barker.
Structurally, the game and novel share much in common. It opens with Wake’s nightmare, wherein he hits a hitchhiker and is then attacked by a shadow-cloaked man, and finally rescued by a light-wreathed diver who carries a message for him. It’s an interesting, in-media-res beginning that leaves readers wondering what’s going on, but it also foreshadows the later horror of the book, and opens the metanarrative with gusto (more on that later). Wake wakes up to find himself crossing into Bright Falls, Washington, with his wife, Alice. She’s beautiful and patient, cheery on the opposite end of the spectrum from Alan’s brooding funk. Where he sees inconvenience and something approaching barbarian custom in the town’s celebration of “Deer Fest,” Alice finds only healthy charm. This vacation set-up is matched step for turn in the game, and from here on out, the majority of the game and novel narratives are identical. For some readers, this might be a letdown; those hoping for an experimental “expansion” on the game’s already heady meta-narrative won’t find it here. Instead, what you’ll find is a fleshed out, intelligent companion to the game’s longer, more combat-oriented campaign. However, it would be unwise to write this off as a repeat of Will Dietz’s Halo: The Flood, which does little to distinguish itself from the game.
Burroughs has not merely converted the script of the game over to prose. Though there are marked similarities, there is an intelligent and loving treatment applied here, and evidence abounds. Consider the different needs of the two versions of Alan Wake: the game needs to keep the players engaged and dramatically in danger, so certain elements of the horror--like creeping suspense--are often disvalued or lost altogether, in favor of jump scares and lots of gun-toting combat; dialogue takes second-seat to danger. Not so in the book; here, Wake’s terse, angry interactions with those surrounding the disappearance/death/mystery of his wife, and the Weird goings-on around Bright Falls takes front and center. A focus on combat wouldn’t work in the book, and so characterization steps in to fill the void. Wake, while often alone in the book, more often than not has a companion. This is a big divergence from the end of the game, where Wake must sally forth on his own, but the abundance of company help round the book out throughout.
I was hugely impressed with the character written into the dialogue. Though many lines are lifted directly from the game’s script, Burroughs adds on some much-needed gloss to build out the story, particularly when Wake is interacting with characters like Barry, and Sheriff Breaker. Barry, Wake’s enthusiastic and over-the-top literary agent receives the loving touch of good humor. Sheriff Breaker, the tough-as-nails top cop of Bright Falls, receives enough new dialogue and interaction with Wake to fill her out as more than just a point of authority. The craft with which Burroughs’ ideas are melded to those of the game proper is remarkable, and as an adaptation of the game, he ought to be commended.
But writing a videogame-based novel is not as simple as building out the dialogue and descriptions to swell the word count: the tone and atmosphere of the novel must be simulated, too, or the entire affair will fall apart (as it did in Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade). Indeed, writing a novel based on Alan Wake must have been doubly difficult, because throughout the game there are discarded scraps of the character’s own writing, which, due to the meta-narrative of the story (we’re getting to that), must form the foundation of the language of the book. Wake is criticized several times as a writer for having “too much dialogue” and “too many metaphors” throughout the course of the game, and I found very satisfying that Burroughs was able to ‘write like Wake.’ The language is both dialogue-heavy and metaphor-heavy, to a wonderful effect. Like the discarded manuscript pages players of the game are tasked with collecting, Burrough’s sentences are often clipped, terse, and packed with killer imagery. Again, the lock-step performance of the adaptation alongside the book is perfect. Included, too, at the end of each chapter is one or another of the game’s many manuscript pages. Often they seem unrelated to the events as they’re happening, but they do serve to build out the greater happenings around Bright Falls, including the effect of the Taken (the possessed enemies) on the locals.
Burroughs’ prose, which is both gripping and horrifying, is always at its best right before and after Wake engages with the Taken. While the game pits the player with killing dozens and hundreds of the possessed Taken, the literary Wake kills only a few; each of these weigh heavily on him, especially as Burroughs turns up the personality. While we never spend any real time with Stucky, the first Taken whom Wake kills, we do see a fair amount of discourse between Wake and Rusty, and many others. This makes the creepy-crawly feeling of knowing you’re going to be attacked all the more poignant, and Wake’s recognition of the dead men he is fighting makes the combat that much more horrific. The darkness that pervades the book is as thick oil, and it keeps the whole story well-greased. Every time Alan is in danger, you are, too. That it handles both combat and the horror better than the game is a true achievement; I felt nervous while I played the game, but Burroughs’ silent construction of terror is far more powerful to me as a reader.
The tone the author strikes helps build out the meta-narrative, too. Alan Wake is a novel about a writer’s struggle with a supernatural evil, which he must write about in order to fight. The narrative traces Wake’s determined march to save his wife from the clutches of a Lovecraftian Other Thing, a force that Wake calls the ‘Dark Presence’ and that subsists on the creative energies of artists. In the ‘real world,’ the stories captive artists construct emerge as real, but twisted and grotesque; they power the Dark Presence, which receives little characterization in the game. Burroughs handles it more tactfully, I think, reminding the reader constantly that it isn’t just dark outside: the darkness is manifest outside, waiting for your lights to blow so it can get at you. The meta-narrative contained within the story, linking Alan Wake and Thomas Zane, both writers whom the Dark Presence sought to feed off of, is well-handled. Alan Wake is about Alan Wake writing about Alan Wake so he can free himself and his wife. In order to do that, Wake must write about Wake freeing himself. It’s circular at best, and ouroboric at worst.
Burroughs is well-aware of that function of the game, though, for there are paragraphs sprinkled throughout that don’t quite belong, detailing a different timeline, as if the book’s channel has been tuned slightly off-key and we’re getting a contextless, sudden glimpse into some weird pocket-world where Wake is stuck over a typewriter. These clues build up to excellent fruition, but to sally on in that regard would spoil too much.
I’m really looking forward to recording the Alan Wake episode of the podcast in a way that I haven’t for many of the other episodes. Game tie-ins and spin-offs can be plodding, pointless, and offensive. They’re rarely sensitive, gripping, genuinely funny, and damned good reads. To be frank? I’d put recommend the book over the game; they go good together, but the book is just superior. It has excellent prose, a clear sense of self, and a slightly-expanded narrative that builds well on the back of the game. Its characters are fully-realized and its pacing is perfect. Burroughs’ treatment really is a remarkable feat, so if you’re a thriller or horror fan, this one’s for you: horror can be done well on the console, and horror games, it seems, can have meaningful, frightening stories.
A foreward note: It should come as no surprise that we’re going to be covering Alan Wake on the Games as Lit podcast. While we have yet to record that episode, I simply couldn’t hold myself back from writing about the book. Having read more than a dozen videogame novels in the last year, there have been only one or two others that have gripped me with the same ferocity that Burroughs’ book did. This is as pitch-perfect a companion to the game as I can imagine; indeed, I think it’s an all-around superior novel. This is as good as it gets as a gateway into supernatural horror writers like King, Kuntz, and Barker.
Structurally, the game and novel share much in common. It opens with Wake’s nightmare, wherein he hits a hitchhiker and is then attacked by a shadow-cloaked man, and finally rescued by a light-wreathed diver who carries a message for him. It’s an interesting, in-media-res beginning that leaves readers wondering what’s going on, but it also foreshadows the later horror of the book, and opens the metanarrative with gusto (more on that later). Wake wakes up to find himself crossing into Bright Falls, Washington, with his wife, Alice. She’s beautiful and patient, cheery on the opposite end of the spectrum from Alan’s brooding funk. Where he sees inconvenience and something approaching barbarian custom in the town’s celebration of “Deer Fest,” Alice finds only healthy charm. This vacation set-up is matched step for turn in the game, and from here on out, the majority of the game and novel narratives are identical. For some readers, this might be a letdown; those hoping for an experimental “expansion” on the game’s already heady meta-narrative won’t find it here. Instead, what you’ll find is a fleshed out, intelligent companion to the game’s longer, more combat-oriented campaign. However, it would be unwise to write this off as a repeat of Will Dietz’s Halo: The Flood, which does little to distinguish itself from the game.
Burroughs has not merely converted the script of the game over to prose. Though there are marked similarities, there is an intelligent and loving treatment applied here, and evidence abounds. Consider the different needs of the two versions of Alan Wake: the game needs to keep the players engaged and dramatically in danger, so certain elements of the horror--like creeping suspense--are often disvalued or lost altogether, in favor of jump scares and lots of gun-toting combat; dialogue takes second-seat to danger. Not so in the book; here, Wake’s terse, angry interactions with those surrounding the disappearance/death/mystery of his wife, and the Weird goings-on around Bright Falls takes front and center. A focus on combat wouldn’t work in the book, and so characterization steps in to fill the void. Wake, while often alone in the book, more often than not has a companion. This is a big divergence from the end of the game, where Wake must sally forth on his own, but the abundance of company help round the book out throughout.
I was hugely impressed with the character written into the dialogue. Though many lines are lifted directly from the game’s script, Burroughs adds on some much-needed gloss to build out the story, particularly when Wake is interacting with characters like Barry, and Sheriff Breaker. Barry, Wake’s enthusiastic and over-the-top literary agent receives the loving touch of good humor. Sheriff Breaker, the tough-as-nails top cop of Bright Falls, receives enough new dialogue and interaction with Wake to fill her out as more than just a point of authority. The craft with which Burroughs’ ideas are melded to those of the game proper is remarkable, and as an adaptation of the game, he ought to be commended.
But writing a videogame-based novel is not as simple as building out the dialogue and descriptions to swell the word count: the tone and atmosphere of the novel must be simulated, too, or the entire affair will fall apart (as it did in Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade). Indeed, writing a novel based on Alan Wake must have been doubly difficult, because throughout the game there are discarded scraps of the character’s own writing, which, due to the meta-narrative of the story (we’re getting to that), must form the foundation of the language of the book. Wake is criticized several times as a writer for having “too much dialogue” and “too many metaphors” throughout the course of the game, and I found very satisfying that Burroughs was able to ‘write like Wake.’ The language is both dialogue-heavy and metaphor-heavy, to a wonderful effect. Like the discarded manuscript pages players of the game are tasked with collecting, Burrough’s sentences are often clipped, terse, and packed with killer imagery. Again, the lock-step performance of the adaptation alongside the book is perfect. Included, too, at the end of each chapter is one or another of the game’s many manuscript pages. Often they seem unrelated to the events as they’re happening, but they do serve to build out the greater happenings around Bright Falls, including the effect of the Taken (the possessed enemies) on the locals.
Burroughs’ prose, which is both gripping and horrifying, is always at its best right before and after Wake engages with the Taken. While the game pits the player with killing dozens and hundreds of the possessed Taken, the literary Wake kills only a few; each of these weigh heavily on him, especially as Burroughs turns up the personality. While we never spend any real time with Stucky, the first Taken whom Wake kills, we do see a fair amount of discourse between Wake and Rusty, and many others. This makes the creepy-crawly feeling of knowing you’re going to be attacked all the more poignant, and Wake’s recognition of the dead men he is fighting makes the combat that much more horrific. The darkness that pervades the book is as thick oil, and it keeps the whole story well-greased. Every time Alan is in danger, you are, too. That it handles both combat and the horror better than the game is a true achievement; I felt nervous while I played the game, but Burroughs’ silent construction of terror is far more powerful to me as a reader.
The tone the author strikes helps build out the meta-narrative, too. Alan Wake is a novel about a writer’s struggle with a supernatural evil, which he must write about in order to fight. The narrative traces Wake’s determined march to save his wife from the clutches of a Lovecraftian Other Thing, a force that Wake calls the ‘Dark Presence’ and that subsists on the creative energies of artists. In the ‘real world,’ the stories captive artists construct emerge as real, but twisted and grotesque; they power the Dark Presence, which receives little characterization in the game. Burroughs handles it more tactfully, I think, reminding the reader constantly that it isn’t just dark outside: the darkness is manifest outside, waiting for your lights to blow so it can get at you. The meta-narrative contained within the story, linking Alan Wake and Thomas Zane, both writers whom the Dark Presence sought to feed off of, is well-handled. Alan Wake is about Alan Wake writing about Alan Wake so he can free himself and his wife. In order to do that, Wake must write about Wake freeing himself. It’s circular at best, and ouroboric at worst.
Burroughs is well-aware of that function of the game, though, for there are paragraphs sprinkled throughout that don’t quite belong, detailing a different timeline, as if the book’s channel has been tuned slightly off-key and we’re getting a contextless, sudden glimpse into some weird pocket-world where Wake is stuck over a typewriter. These clues build up to excellent fruition, but to sally on in that regard would spoil too much.
I’m really looking forward to recording the Alan Wake episode of the podcast in a way that I haven’t for many of the other episodes. Game tie-ins and spin-offs can be plodding, pointless, and offensive. They’re rarely sensitive, gripping, genuinely funny, and damned good reads. To be frank? I’d put recommend the book over the game; they go good together, but the book is just superior. It has excellent prose, a clear sense of self, and a slightly-expanded narrative that builds well on the back of the game. Its characters are fully-realized and its pacing is perfect. Burroughs’ treatment really is a remarkable feat, so if you’re a thriller or horror fan, this one’s for you: horror can be done well on the console, and horror games, it seems, can have meaningful, frightening stories.
December 18, 2019
brief synopsis:
a writer suffering a block vacations to an idyllic town only to find himself embroiled in a horror of his own imagining.
setting:
bright falls
named personalities:
alan 'hemingway' wake - a best-selling author
clay steward - a young man alan met at the lighthouse
alice wake - alan's wife
pat maine - the kbf-fm night host
carl stucky - the man who the wakes' rented a cabin from
rose marigold - an oh deer diner waitress; alan's absolute biggest fan
alex casey - a fictional character from the sudden stop, alan's published book
rusty - a deputy park ranger
tor anderson - a cauldron lake lodge patient who was a member of the heavy metal band old gods of asgard
odin anderson - tor's baby brother and fellow patient; was also a member of old gods of asgard
emil hartman - a doctor specialized in helping artist with creative problems
tommy - a barkeep?
frank lloyd wright - an architect
barry 'edison' wheeler - alan's new york literary agent
thomas 'tz' zane - a writer alan has never heard of
blaine - a vacationer in bright falls
asako - blaine's japanese wife
janes - a bright falls sheriff's station deputy
paul - maker of the best hotdogs in the state
maurice horton - a dog-owner
toby - maurice's dog
nelson - a bright falls doctor who loves fishing
thornton - a deputy sheriff
sarah breaker - the bright falls sheriff
cynthia weaver aka lamp lady - some crazy lady that walks around all day carrying a lantern
grant - a deputy sheriff
walt (walter?) snyder - a drunk who's afraid of the dark
mulligan - another deputy sheriff
danny - a person walt beat badly
buck-toothed charlie - a columbian mammoth, washington state official state fossil
max - rusty's mutt
nightingale - an asshole fbi agent
ellen - a 7th-grade girl
tippi hedren - an actress
hitchcock - a director
randolph - a trailer park manager
barbara 'bj' jagger aka scratching hag aka granny claws aka baba yaga - a local girl who was thomas' lover
bill - a local
timmy - bill's little brother who disappeared playing hide and seek
clara - bill's wife
jimmy eagan - the kbf-fm morning show host
birch - a cauldron lake lodge nurse
emerson - another cauldron lake lodge patient
sinclair - another cauldron lake lodge nurse
ben mott aka the tooth fairy- the kidnapper
john dillinger - a gangster
oprah - a talk show host
finn - nightingale's partner who saved his life
frank breaker - sarah's father
tom eagen - a lousy carpenter
phillip seymour hoffman - a good, but fat, actor
mr scratch - the other wake
grammar:
p164: fifty-pounds sacks of corn were stacked haphazardly in the corner.
i would have loved a prequel or a spin-off, not this condensed novelization.
this contains very few unique aspects and no new explanations of any kind for the mysteries presented in-game.
a writer suffering a block vacations to an idyllic town only to find himself embroiled in a horror of his own imagining.
setting:
bright falls
named personalities:
alan 'hemingway' wake - a best-selling author
clay steward - a young man alan met at the lighthouse
alice wake - alan's wife
pat maine - the kbf-fm night host
carl stucky - the man who the wakes' rented a cabin from
rose marigold - an oh deer diner waitress; alan's absolute biggest fan
alex casey - a fictional character from the sudden stop, alan's published book
rusty - a deputy park ranger
tor anderson - a cauldron lake lodge patient who was a member of the heavy metal band old gods of asgard
odin anderson - tor's baby brother and fellow patient; was also a member of old gods of asgard
emil hartman - a doctor specialized in helping artist with creative problems
tommy - a barkeep?
frank lloyd wright - an architect
barry 'edison' wheeler - alan's new york literary agent
thomas 'tz' zane - a writer alan has never heard of
blaine - a vacationer in bright falls
asako - blaine's japanese wife
janes - a bright falls sheriff's station deputy
paul - maker of the best hotdogs in the state
maurice horton - a dog-owner
toby - maurice's dog
nelson - a bright falls doctor who loves fishing
thornton - a deputy sheriff
sarah breaker - the bright falls sheriff
cynthia weaver aka lamp lady - some crazy lady that walks around all day carrying a lantern
grant - a deputy sheriff
walt (walter?) snyder - a drunk who's afraid of the dark
mulligan - another deputy sheriff
danny - a person walt beat badly
buck-toothed charlie - a columbian mammoth, washington state official state fossil
max - rusty's mutt
nightingale - an asshole fbi agent
ellen - a 7th-grade girl
tippi hedren - an actress
hitchcock - a director
randolph - a trailer park manager
barbara 'bj' jagger aka scratching hag aka granny claws aka baba yaga - a local girl who was thomas' lover
bill - a local
timmy - bill's little brother who disappeared playing hide and seek
clara - bill's wife
jimmy eagan - the kbf-fm morning show host
birch - a cauldron lake lodge nurse
emerson - another cauldron lake lodge patient
sinclair - another cauldron lake lodge nurse
ben mott aka the tooth fairy- the kidnapper
john dillinger - a gangster
oprah - a talk show host
finn - nightingale's partner who saved his life
frank breaker - sarah's father
tom eagen - a lousy carpenter
phillip seymour hoffman - a good, but fat, actor
mr scratch - the other wake
grammar:
p164: fifty-pounds sacks of corn were stacked haphazardly in the corner.
i would have loved a prequel or a spin-off, not this condensed novelization.
this contains very few unique aspects and no new explanations of any kind for the mysteries presented in-game.
June 23, 2019
4.5/5 Stars!
Before sharing my thoughts on the book I want to tell how I came across the book:
If my memory isn’t betraying me I first got introduced to Alan Wake (the video game) in 2012 and it instantly became one of my favorite video games of all time. However, after finishing the game I completely forgot about the game even though I was impatiently waiting for a sequel. Until very recently when I discovered that a book of the very same video game that I used to love exist (I know I’m a little late finding out about the book). So obviously I wanted to read it ASAP.
About the book:
Alan Wake is the novelization of the video game, so if you’re familiar with the video game you don’t have to read the book because it's not different at all from the video game unless you’re a big fan of it, then I'd say go for it.
It describes the game and the happenings in and around Bright Falls very well. To get the tension, the game should be played first. I read the book only after that, so I understood and deepened the story again.
The writing style was amazing, Rick Burroughts vividly recreated the content and story of the game. It was exciting and atmospherically written, I was captivated by it from the very beginning and the author did a fantastic job on it, I finished the book in 2 days.
Of course there were minor changes here and there but other than that it was exactly like the video game. Same sentences, same characters and etc. But what I really liked what the author did was that he added more sarcasm to Alan’s character given that the game’s Alan is a little more on the dull side.
Who I recommend this book to?
If you loved playing the video game I’d say read the book too. I personally loved revisiting the story and everything that happened.
Or if you ever watched Twin Peaks or indeed are a fan of the tv series this book is the one. They’re very similar with a lot of events and characters.
Before sharing my thoughts on the book I want to tell how I came across the book:
If my memory isn’t betraying me I first got introduced to Alan Wake (the video game) in 2012 and it instantly became one of my favorite video games of all time. However, after finishing the game I completely forgot about the game even though I was impatiently waiting for a sequel. Until very recently when I discovered that a book of the very same video game that I used to love exist (I know I’m a little late finding out about the book). So obviously I wanted to read it ASAP.
About the book:
Alan Wake is the novelization of the video game, so if you’re familiar with the video game you don’t have to read the book because it's not different at all from the video game unless you’re a big fan of it, then I'd say go for it.
It describes the game and the happenings in and around Bright Falls very well. To get the tension, the game should be played first. I read the book only after that, so I understood and deepened the story again.
The writing style was amazing, Rick Burroughts vividly recreated the content and story of the game. It was exciting and atmospherically written, I was captivated by it from the very beginning and the author did a fantastic job on it, I finished the book in 2 days.
Of course there were minor changes here and there but other than that it was exactly like the video game. Same sentences, same characters and etc. But what I really liked what the author did was that he added more sarcasm to Alan’s character given that the game’s Alan is a little more on the dull side.
Who I recommend this book to?
If you loved playing the video game I’d say read the book too. I personally loved revisiting the story and everything that happened.
Or if you ever watched Twin Peaks or indeed are a fan of the tv series this book is the one. They’re very similar with a lot of events and characters.
May 6, 2024
This will be hard to digest for anyone who hasn't played the game, which is unfortunate because I thought the purpose of the book was to make the story accessible to those who couldn't experience it through that medium. I found myself filling in a lot of the vague descriptions with visuals I remembered from my playthrough.
I love me some "cursed, otherworldly presence/object alters/warps reality" stories, but I need to remind myself that oftentimes the story itself won't make sense until you're about 90% through.
I love me some "cursed, otherworldly presence/object alters/warps reality" stories, but I need to remind myself that oftentimes the story itself won't make sense until you're about 90% through.
December 28, 2023
Feel like I learnt a lot from this book. Will be reviewing it.
March 12, 2024
Read to refresh my memory before I play the sequel. Unless you're unable to beat/play the game there's really no other reason to bother reading this book.
May 27, 2024
Almost done with this book. Based off the video game Alan Wake but includes more dialogue between characters that are not included in the game. I love all of the Alan Wake games and I have enjoyed this book. The writing is "okay" but reading it brings me back into the game like I'm playing it again. The games are spooky and creepy, as the book say on the cover it's a psychological thriller which is accurate. If you played the games or haven't played the game and like this kind of horror, I recommend reading this.
October 15, 2024
“I entered your dream to teach you. The darkness is dangerous. It’s sleeping now, but when it feels you coming, it will wake up.”
February 28, 2024
I wish it was written by a more professional author
December 28, 2023
Poco que decir del libro. Es una decente adaptación a novela del primer juego de Alan Wake.
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