Lord Samper's Library

Last night, I turned off my work laptop and settled down in my chair, ready to get stuck into ‘Old Moon Quarterly Vol. 8’ and… The next thing I knew, I’d woken up and it was far too late to read anything, let alone post about it here. I should clarify, it wasn’t ‘Old Moon Quarterly’ that sent me to sleep, it had just been a really long day. I’m getting old... Luckily for today’s post, I’ve got a few more movies under my belt and they weren’t bad ones either. That made for a nice change ;o) ‘Dark Match’ (2024) A small time wrestling company accepts a well paying gig in a backwoods town, only to find that they’ve been hired by a mysterious cult leader with his own plans for their match… The other night, I was having one of those evenings where I really wanted to watch something but it was taking far too long to make my mind up so… I figured I’d give ‘Dark Match’ a go, otherwise I’d watch nothing at all. And… A few days later, I’m still not a hundred percent sure what the point of it was...

  Page Count: 306 Pages When you’re writing about the Chaos gods of the 40K universe, it’s a fairly straightforward job for 75% of the ‘Big Four’. Writing about Khorne? Just make his followers really angry and always up for a scrap. How about Tzeentch? Easy… Just make it all about the intrigue and the ‘long game’; have his followers stab each other in the back in their quest for knowledge (and be completely at the whim of a god who has it’s own myriad plans…) Nurgle’s fairly simple as well. Lots and lots of plague with a generous helping of ‘fungal body horror’ on the side. Enjoy your next meal ;o) Okay, I’m probably over-simplifying it but you know what I mean. You know what these lot are about and it’s not a huge deal to show it on the page. Slaanesh though… That’s a little different. We all know what Slaanesh is about but for a god styled as the ‘Lord of Excess’, writers need to practice restraint when talking about his followers. Because, well… You know ;o) And what would Games...

  Page Count: 503 Pages After (finally) finishing ‘Era of Ruin’ the other day, it felt like the obvious ‘next step’ to pick up ‘Ashes of the Imperium’ and keep trekking along the timeline. So that’s exactly what I did :o) I’ve heard vague talk of ‘The Scouring’ (or ‘What next after the Siege of Terra’) but know next to nothing about what happened during that time. Well, as luck would have it, Black Library have kicked off a new series that will fill in all those gaps so, lets do it :o) Last week being what it was, it took me a little while to properly get stuck in but, I got there in the end. Yesterday was all about sitting in my favourite chair and really getting to grips with everything that happened after the Siege ended… The Traitor Warmaster is dead. Terra lies in ruins. The Emperor is silent. Amid the rubble of the Palace, shell-shocked survivors emerge into the light of an uncertain dawn. New powers are present now, ones that have travelled the length of the galaxy to bring ...

It hasn't been a bad week but I'm really glad I've got a day, to myself, where the only solid plan I have is to sit in the comfy chair and read a book or two. Everything else is optional ;o) I'm coming out the other side of a bout of Warhammer 40K and 'Horus Heresy' reading so while I'm finishing a few bits off, it's time for my reading to head in a slightly different direction for a bit. Let me show you what's what... First things first, here's what I'll be trying to finish off today, I'm also reading 'Horus Heresy' instalment, 'Galaxy In Flames' but the spine proved to be very uncooperative, when faced with a camera, so... Here we are ;o) To be honest, 'Galaxy In Flames' is more than likely going to be a 'commuter read', later on in the week, so today, I'll be working my way through the rest of 'Ashes of the Imperium' . Look at the size of the book, there's no way I'd be taking it on ...

  Page Count: 406 Pages I told you that my ‘Horus Heresy’ reading is all over the place… While I’ve been reading the last book of ‘The Siege of Terra’, I’ve also been going back to the very beginning of the series for a little re-reading. Because as much as reading speculative fiction is about new adventures, it’s also about revisiting those old favourites. Go on, tell me that it isn’t ;o) Anyway… We’ve seen the seeds of Heresy sown , lets see them take root and grow… Far from Terra, the XVIth Legion continue in the Great Crusade as the 'Sons of Horus'. Putting the debacle with the Interex behind him, the Warmaster has become more withdrawn as he struggles to deal with the jealousy of his brother primarchs, and increasingly relies on the council of his advisors as he plans each new campaign. Noble captain Garviel Loken harbors misgivings about the clandestine ways adopted by many of his brethren, but when the Legion is sent to reconquer the moon of Davin, it is clear that Horus...

I was in the office today and we all know what that means… Well, apart from the inevitable ‘lunchtime bagel’ from Bagel Factory, that’s probably a subject for a different blog entirely ;o) Nope, what I’m talking about is that point, on the bus ride home, where I realise that I’ve finished my book so I end up seeing what’s what on my Kindle App. Luckily, I always seem to have a couple of quick reads, waiting to be read ;o) Today, I visited another nightmarish, grimdark world of the 40th Millennium and then… I’m not sure where I visited, but I’d love to go back one day… ‘The Dark Hollows Of Memory’ – David Annandale (Black Library) The sinister limbo of winter is falling on the Imperial archive world of Mnemosyne. A great fog rolls in, one that will not dissipate for months. With it comes unimaginable hell for the planet’s citizens as the Chaos Space Marines of the Company of Misery stage a brutal invasion. But as the defenders of Mnemosyne fall before the Traitors, something moves in th...