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A Little ‘Event Horizon’ and a lot of ‘Conan’…

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The end of my job is only two and a bit weeks away but somehow seems to be dragging out at the same time… I’ve handed all of my projects over, to the new folk, now and I’m left with all the ‘leavers admin’ stuff and all the fiddly little bits that it wouldn’t be fair to leave to someone else. If only I could remember where I left my motivation in the meantime… ;o) Add a couple of pissed off cats into the mix (it’s far too hot at the moment…) and yesterday was pretty miserable to be honest. As luck would have it though, ‘past me’ saw a situation like this occurring and very thoughtfully ordered some comic books that turned up yesterday morning. So, once all the ‘work stuff’ was done for the day, I settled down for some reading… ‘Event Horizon: Inferno’ #4 – Ward, Carey, Honchar (ID Dark) After all the excitement, and a little heartbreak, of #3, this fourth instalment slows things right down again; some of the players didn’t get their ‘time in the sun’ and presumably need to get caught ...
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‘Currency of Souls’ – Kealan Patrick Burke

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Page Count: 178 Pages You wouldn’t have thought it possible but living in a small flat (with loads of books) makes me uniquely qualified to say this ;o) The smaller the flat, and the more books you own, the easier it is for those books to ‘hide in plain sight. And I’m pretty sure that I don’t own that many books… Either way, my books like to hide right in front of me and while sometimes it can be bloody annoying trying to find a book that I was sure I owned, sometimes it makes for a nice surprise to come across a ‘forgotten’ book and think to myself, ‘I was going to read that…’ ‘Currency of Souls’ has been lurking in various TBR piles since October 2024 (thanks for the reminder Amazon) and when I came across it, the other day, I thought to myself, ‘I was going to read that’. So, before I forgot (again), that’s exactly what I did. Welcome to Eddie's Tavern, the only functioning waterhole in a near-dead town. Among the people you'll meet tonight are: Tom, Milestone's haunted ...
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‘Red’ – Jack Ketchum (Leisure Horror)

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  Page Count: 211 Pages I’ll be honest… I’m very much a ‘dog person’ (although Cats 1 & 2 are growing on me) and that’s the reason I haven’t read ‘Red’ up until now. If you’ve read the book, or even just the blurb, you know what happens and I just wasn’t ready to go there. And then I saw a copy of ‘Red’ for sale (Greenwich Oxfam, I love that shop...), the other day, and couldn’t very well leave it there. And once I’d brought it home, I couldn’t very well not read it; not when I’m trying to be a little more disciplined about reading the books that I buy… I’ll warn you now, there’s an absolutely massive spoiler in the blurb, below, and if you’re a dog person, you might not want to read the blurb at all. I get it :o) It all started with a simple act of brutality. Three boys shot and killed an old man’s dog. No reason, just plain meanness. But the dog was the best thing in the old man’s world, and he wasn’t about to let it pass. He wanted justice, and he’d make sure the kids paid f...
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‘Luther: First of the Fallen’ – Gav Thorpe (Black Library)

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  Page Count: 211 Pages Now, here is a book that I really should have read a long time before now… Nothing to do with how good the book is (it’s not bad but we’ll get onto that a little later), more that I put it in my work backpack a year ago, for a ‘commute read’, and then spent most of the last year either off sick or working from home. ‘Typical me’ really, I completely forgot it was there until a few days ago. Due to, erm… reasons, my ‘work backpack’ is now ‘just a regular backpack’ and I found ‘Luther’ nestled inside, looking slightly reproachful but ready to be read. I’m just starting out on a week of cat-sitting so thought that yesterday would be the ideal moment to finally read it… Knight of the Angelicasta. Saviour of the Lion. Grand Master of the Order. Lord of the Dark Angels. Protector of Caliban. Chaos Heretic. Destroyer of Caliban. Sorcerer of the Abyss. Arch-traitor. Dark Oracle. First of the Fallen. Can one man be all of these things? Kept alive and imprisoned f...
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‘The Walking Dead: Volume 3’ & ‘Preacher: Book Two’

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So, I’m back at my ex-partner’s place, looking after house and cats while her and my daughters are away. And… I don’t want to jinx it but here goes… I think I may have finally got the hang of this cat-sitting business :o) Cat Number 1 still isn’t too keen on me but knows that ‘Graeme = Being Fed’ so I’m tolerated. Cat Number 2… I’m pretty sure I saw her, from the bathroom window, trying to catch a sparrow, the little psycho. And just to clarify… If I see her with a bird, that bird will be rescued. Anyway, the cats being cats, yesterday was quite a nice one actually. While they were doing their thing, I did mine; that being just sitting there and working my way through a couple of comic books that I’ve been meaning to get to. One re-read, one ‘first time read’. Today will be more of the same :o) While I do that, have some quick thoughts on yesterday’s comic book reading… ‘The Walking Dead: Volume 3, Safety Behind Bars’ – Kirkman, Adlard, Rathburn (Image) Page Count: 136 Pages Last week...
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A ‘Did Not Finish’… ‘Splasher’ – Billie Host (Penguin)

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  So, we’ve already established that I’m a sucker for a title that has a pun in it. Not only that, I’ve also got a real soft spot for any horror book with a garish cover (takes me right back to the eighties, that does). That is all it took for me to take a chance on ‘Splasher’, the other day. I keep telling you, there is absolutely nothing scientific about how I choose what to read next ;o) It’s a little bit of a relief then to know that I’m not just drawn to a shiny cover etc; the words, in between the cover art and the blurb, still determine how much I get out of a book. Unfortunately for ‘Splasher’, I ended up putting the book down after a hundred and thirty pages. These days though, I’m a lot more forgiving about ‘DNFs’. The way I see it, as the reader, I’m as much a part of the experience as the book so I’ll happily shoulder some of the responsibility for a read that didn’t quite work out. Right book, wrong reader? Something like that ;o) Have some blurb… Autumn 2006. Low-rise...
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‘Ushers: A Short Story’ – Joe Hill

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  Page Count: 29 Pages It’s all starting to get a little intense over here… It’s mostly work related. to be honest, and that’s fair enough, given that my job is coming to an end at the end of the month. There’s still a fair bit to hand over and I’m right in the middle of not wanting to leave (it’s a good company to work for) but really looking forward to the holiday that I’m planning on taking in September. I’ll have earned it ;o) Anyway… That was a roundabout way of saying that while three books read isn’t a bad return for this week, I ran out of time (and steam) to finish off a fourth. That’s ok though, that’s what the weekend is for ;o) I did have a few minutes spare though and ‘Ushers’ looked like it could be an interesting read so… Martin Lorensen is a twenty-three-year-old counselor for disturbed teenagers. He’s bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing. He’s also—and this is the most interesting thing—not dead. Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disa...
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