Lord Samper's Library

  I’m doing my absolute best not to be ‘book tempted’ (especially since my run of overtime came to an end just before Christmas…) but every now and then, I can’t help myself, especially when a certain Womble is doing the tempting ;o) Like I said before , I really enjoyed ‘Wake Up And Open Your Eyes’ , and I’m always partial to a collection of horror short stories, so it didn’t take too much persuading for me to grab myself an ‘Acquired Taste’. I’ve been dipping in and out of the book and polished it off over a lazy Sunday afternoon in the comfy chair. Let me tell you about it… They're feeding on you too. A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace, and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one. From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemi...

  Page Count: 37 Pages Just a quick one today as I’ve got the day to myself and three books (I think) that are a good way along the road to being fully read. I want to see if I can finish at least one of them, lets see how it goes… In the meantime, here’s a tale that found its way onto my Kindle, back in 2024, and then proceeded to languish unread for the next couple of years. Nothing against ‘Faith In Iron’, if you’ve seen my place, you’ll know that it’s very easy for a book to get lost in the crowd; especially if it’s hidden away on my Kindle ;o) Anyway… I was watching a lore video that mentioned ‘Faith In Iron’ the other day; I put two and two together and realised that I needed to get my moneys worth out of the read. And that’s exactly what I did... The tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus eschew the weakness of flesh, preferring to show their faith in the Omnissiah by replacing their organics with machine parts. As well as religious, this is practical – disease can't affect ...

  Page Count: 140 Pages I’ve said it before so I’m just going to be honest (despite what happens to Professor Everard for his honesty)… I’ve got a lot of time and respect for the mythos that Lovecraft gave us, there aren’t many literary settings that have endured in quite the same way. It’s just that from where I’m sat, a number of other authors did (and still do) ‘Cosmic Horror’ with more ‘flair to the telling’ than Lovecraft’s dry prose. That’s just me though, your mileage will vary. So when I came across ‘Strange Stones’ then, I knew that I had to give it a read; it’s cosmic horror with a little something to say about the man who started it all. Turns out that ‘Strange Stones’ had a few more things to say at the same time... Professor Everard, weird fiction scholar and proclaimed critic of H.P Lovecraft's works, is no stranger to making people mad. Giving convention presentations on the triteness and melodrama of Lovecraft's work pays the bills, though. Sometimes he even ge...

And we’re back for the last three ‘Raiders of the Realms’ stories. You can read my thoughts on ‘Conn Crowhand’s Last Oath’ and ‘Vipers of the Marsh’ over Here or you can just scroll down a bit, either is fine by me ;o) I was going to do this as ‘two stories per post, across three posts’, over the week, until I remembered that the ‘Raiders of the Realms’ collection only has five tales in total. Now, my math is comically bad (seriously, I’ve had interview feedback that said I shouldn’t be allowed to work with numbers…) but even I know that two into five will always leave one left over. So, here we are :o) The following three tales didn’t hit the mark quite as hard, as the previous two, but there was still fun to be had here and overall, I’m glad I forked out for the set. Some quick thoughts follow… ‘Slinktalon’ – Robbie MacNiven (Black Library) Page Count: 35 Pages A trio of rival assassins from the Clans Eshin join forces to take out a high profile Skaven. Pooling their prodigious skil...

Today had a few surprises for me (and 'chemo-fatigue' did for me last night) so no book post today I'm afraid; I'll see if I can make up for that tomorrow... In the meantime, 'Send Help' continues to look like my kind of film so here's the final trailer (at least, that's what it says) to keep us ticking over ;o) And now, I'm heading off to read something. See you tomorrow :o)

  Page Count: 128 Pages I’ve used this very phrase on a number of occasions over the years (mostly old jobs and at least one UK city…) so when I saw it across the front of a comic book, my interest was immediately piqued. And what looked like glowing green zombies didn’t hurt its chances either ;o) What clinched it though was when my youngest daughter took a look and said, “yeah Dad, you should get it.” My process, for choosing books to buy, is subject to change and is pretty incomprehensible to everyone else; it makes sense to me though and that’s the main thing ;o) And that’s how I found myself reading the first volume of ‘I Hate This Place’ last night :o) Let me tell you about it… They wanted a fresh start…. Instead, they got… THE MOST F***ED UP PLACE EVER. After inheriting a farmhouse, Trudy and Gabby are ready to start the next chapter of their lives together… except the farmhouse is already home to a mysterious forces that’s attracted ghosts, aliens and all kinds of super...