Lord Samper's Library

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

June 02, 2026

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)

June 01, 2026

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

May 31, 2026

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

May 29, 2026

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)

May 28, 2026

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 ...

‘The Skin of Her Teeth’ – Ronald Malfi (From the collection ‘Ghostwritten’ – Titan Books)

May 27, 2026

The Bank Holiday Weekend may be well and truly over (at least until the next one comes along) but it left a final present in that the rest of the working week is that little bit shorter. Today feels like a Tuesday but it isn’t, is it? No, it isn’t :o) Anyway, we’re all about short reads here at the moment (a natural fit for a shorter week); mostly because of work, partly because it’s still far too hot for anything more substantial, but also because yesterdays Covid vaccination is starting to make its presence felt. In the spirit of ‘trying to focus on my shelves instead of the shelves in Waterstones’, I thought I’d (finally) check out Ronald Malfi’s ‘Ghostwritten’ collection. I had a lot of fun with ‘They Lurk’ , and four novellas means four posts here, so it all made kind of sense. And in the spirit of ‘keeping things nice and simple’, I’m starting off with the first novella in the collection. That made sense too ;o) Page Count: 86 Pages A lot of money is riding on whether the s...

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