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‘Tatters of Hope’ – William Crowe (From ‘Veterans Of The Fall’ – Black Library)

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  Page Count: 120 Pages I’ve been picking up the last few issues of ‘White Dwarf’ magazine to read the continuing adventures of Sergeant Elias Bain and his Cadian Shock Troopers. It was a great tale but if ‘Veterans of the Fall’ is anything to go by, I could have saved myself a few quid and waited for those adventures to be collected in book form. Oh well, like I said, it was a good read and there’s still something cool about having to wait a month to find out ‘what happens next’ ;o) At the same time, there’s also something cool about having the whole story in one place and that’s what I had with ‘Tatters of Hope’. All five episodes collected in 'Veterans of the Fall', lined up and ready to go. The ‘Tattershield’ Kasrkin troopers have taken down the Maligner but there are still plenty of Traitor Guard and Heretics who are ready to take his place and carry on the fight for the planet 04-Gavaine. The Tattershields, and supporting Anvil Battalion, are outnumbered and low on suppli...

‘Rooster Fighter: Vol.1’ – Shu Sakuratani (Viz Media)

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  Page Count: 192 Pages Just a quick reminder that this blog isn’t just about zombies, Warhammer 40K and Conan. Well, it mostly is but just for today, it’s about demons… And the rooster who fights them :o) My eldest daughter loves her Manga so I thought I’d give some a go too, have something to read and chat about while she’s reading :o) The only problem was, where to start…? As a fifty year old guy (who hadn’t read any Manga since the earliest days of his earliest blog) it felt a little weird to be seen with some of the stuff that my sixteen year old daughter reads. And then I saw the cover for ‘Rooster Fighter Vol.1’ and there was no longer a question about what my next read would be… Giant demonic monsters wreak havoc and level Japanese cities! While the citizens flee in terror, it’s up to one brave rooster to stand his ground! In a world where terrifying monsters walk the earth, one heroic rooster is destined for greatness. When giant demons threaten the innocent, he’s going ...

‘Conan And The Emerald Lotus’ – John C. Hocking (Titan Books)

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  Page Count: 243 Pages I was pretty excited to see Titan & Heroic Signatures go all in with their ‘Conan’ line so I’ve been making sure to pick up the new ‘Conan’ novels as they’ve been published. Because it’s me though… It’s now a couple of years (ish) in and I’ve got a lovely stack of fresh ‘Conan’ reading that I haven’t even touched. What? I’m very much the ‘mood reader’ these days and the stars never quite aligned… Until now. I’m having a lot of fun, at the moment, with my new mission to read the actual books on my actual shelves (turns out that bookshops aren’t the only places with loads of unread books, who’d have thought it…?) and the other day, I found myself in the mood for a little Sword & Sorcery. I’d heard a lot of good things about John C. Hocking’s ‘Conan And The Emerald Lotus’ so off I went to Titan’s ‘City of the Dead’ omnibus and got reading. A few days later, here I am. One wizard is bad. Two are a disaster...And a deadly disaster, too. For Conan, after r...

‘The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride’ – Ronald Malfi (From the collection ‘Ghostwritten’ – Titan Books)

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  Well, it took a few days but the Covid jab has (finally) stopped making me feel rough as [insert expletive here] and is, presumably, getting on with its actual job, blunting the effects of real Covid. I hope so, I’ve got a fair bit to get through at work today… Anyway, I was actually in a good place, yesterday, to sit down and get some more reading under my belt; so that’s exactly what I did ;o) I’ve got a couple of collections that I’m working my way through, amongst others, so made those my focus and… A very nice afternoon’s reading was had by this reader, here’s to more afternoons like that ;o) And one of those collections was Ronald Malfi’s ‘Ghostwritten’. ‘The Skin Of Her Teeth’ had already proved to be a fine opener, yesterday was time to see if ‘The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride’ was more of the same and… It was, of course it was, let me tell you a bit about it. Page Count: 110 Pages Is there a job that’s easier than putting a book in your car at Point A and then deliveri...

'Masters of the Universe' - Final Trailer

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It's been a heck of a week so I'm pretty much decided; I'll be spending today in the comfy chair, working my way through a small TBR pile, accompanied by some assorted snacks. Just what this Graeme needs before another week rears its head ;o) While I do that, take a look at the final trailer for 'Masters of the Universe', appearing in cinemas imminently. I've got to say, I've officially moved from 'cautiously optimistic' to good ol' 'optimistic', this looks like a lot of fun. I will say though... If the film doesn't end with Orko doing something dumb (or Cringer being scared) and He-Man, Teela and Man-At-Arms all laughing, I will be disappointed ;o) Lets see what happens...

Another Couple Of Richard Matheson Short Stories

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  Way back in 2022, I rounded off a ‘Richard Matheson Short Story Post’ by saying that ‘I’ll be looking at more of these short stories in the near future’. Well, I’m not sure what the actual threshold is but I’m pretty sure that ‘four years later’ is more of a ‘medium term thing’ at the very least, more likely ‘long term’. I’m not sure what happened but, here we are ;o) Anyway… I took a days leave, yesterday, and while the original plan was to get a few bits and pieces done, what actually happened was I spent a lot of time in the comfy chair, wrapped up in a blanket and trying to get over the Covid vaccine. And reading, I managed to get some reading done as well :o) I saw ‘The Best of Richard Matheson’ lurking on a shelf and thought it was way past time I paid it a visit so… that’s exactly what I did. Let me tell you about them. ‘Long Distance Call’ Page Count: 13 Pages Miss Elva Keene is bed-bound and on her own, in the house, while a storm rages outside. And then the phone ring...

'She Who Waits' - Daniel Polansky (Hodder)

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I won't go into too much detail about last night... Lets just say that life took a look at my reading plans, smiled sympathetically and then proceeded to wipe its feet all over them (and considering I was only planning on reading another short story...) I wanted to post though and figured that it was time to pay another visit to 'Past Me' and 'borrow' the post I'd written about the next 'Low Town' book, 'Tomorrow the Killing'. Well, that was the plan, but... I did read 'Tomorrow the Killing', way back in the day, but it fell between the closure of my first blog and the creation of the second. Typical ;o) All I can say then, is that if you enjoyed 'Low Town' then you're in for more of the same with 'Tomorrow the Killing'. Where does that mean for today's post? Well, we're going straight to the finale, 'She Who Waits'. You can find my original review Here but seeing as I've copied and pasted it here ...