Lord Samper's Library

  Page Count: 126 Pages If you were to look up the word ‘prolific’ in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Adrian Tchaikovsky next to it, presumably of him writing a book. Now, that may not be quite true (although it has been a while since I looked up the word ‘prolific’ in the dictionary…) but there’s no doubt that Tchaikovsky is one of the harder working genre authors at the moment. His output is not to be sniffed at :o) It was a bit of a treat then to see Tchaikovsky carve out his own little spot in the Warhammer 40K universe but, as a fantasy fan first and foremost, it was even more of a treat to see him finally set foot in the Mortal Realms. Especially as I’ve always seen him as an author who is more than willing to deep dive into a Race/Species and really look at what makes them tick. And there isn’t that much to work with when it comes to Ogors, is there…? It took me a little while to get round to it (no surprises there…) but I finally read ‘On the Shoulders of Gian...

Page Count: 178 Pages My reading continues to take me down very familiar paths (short ones) and you know what…? That suits me just fine ;o) It’s not a bad life but there is rather a lot of it going on right now and as someone who (mostly) likes everything to be in the correct place… Lets just say that there’s a lot of ‘filing’ that’s outstanding ;o) Oh well, just a few days until the weekend. When I get a chance to escape into a book then, time is at a premium so I’m looking for reads that I know I’ll enjoy. I’m looking to recharge, not waste more energy ;o) A little ‘Doctor Who’ is usually a safe bet then and when I saw ‘The Crimson Horror’ on my favourite Greenwich Market book stall, I picked it up with some comfort reading in mind. As it turned out, ‘The Crimson Horror’ wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening, just not for the reasons that I’d been anticipating… ‘We must get to the bottom of this dark and queer business, no matter what the cost!’ Something ghastly is afoot in Victori...

  Page Count: 220 Pages I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon at the hospital (nothing urgent, just a regular appointment for blood tests and so on) so of course I made sure that I had a book in my bag; for the queue in the pharmacy if nothing else ;o) And when I’m stuck in a long, and seemingly never ending queue, the best book to have in your bag (in my bag anyway…) is a ‘Warhammer 40K’ book. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary but a large slice of ‘all out warfare’ will always make the wait in a line a little easier; especially when the pharmacy forget to put your number up on the screen and it turns out your medication was waiting on the side the whole time… Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I’ve been enjoying William Crowe’s ‘Veterans of the Fall’ collection (check out my reviews of ‘Tattershield’ and ‘Tatters of Hope’), and I figured I wouldn’t be in the hospital that long, so I thought I’d take the chance to read the final novella and finish off the book. Given how ...

  As I’ve mentioned previously, the plan was to have a post here for each of the novellas from Ronald Malfi’s ‘Ghostwritten’ collection. I started off well with ‘The Skin of Her Teeth’ and was pretty pleased when I kept things going with ‘The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride’ (last week was tough, the blog was lucky to get any posts at all…) And while things continued in that manner, over the weekend, when I read ‘This Book Belongs to Olo’; my reading plans ended up hitting a bump. I should have seen it coming really… I finished ‘This Book Belongs to Olo’ and just kept going, I didn’t want to wait for another week ;o) That should tell you all you need to know about my experience with ‘Ghostwritten’ but that would make for a very short post here so I’ll tell you about those final two novellas in a minute. As far as the collection, as a whole, goes, I would highly recommend you give ‘Ghostwritten’ a go if you haven’t already. And if you have, well… read it again. I will be doing just that ...

Yep, it’s ‘Movie Time’ again. I haven’t done too badly on the reading front, over the last week, but there have been a couple of occasions where, for whatever reason, it didn’t happen so I watched a movie instead. Most of these were ‘re-watches’, the kind of thing you have on in the background but don’t pay too much attention to, but I did manage a few that I’d never seen before. Let me tell you about them, one sequel and two examples of my ability to watch any movie if the title is daft enough. Oh yes, and a ‘Killer Chimp’ movie as well… All high-brow viewing here ;o) ‘Night of the Demons 2’ (1994) Six years after the last party thrown at the Hull House funeral parlour, another group of teenagers decide that it’s way past time for another one. Good idea? Not when the original host is back from from Hell and determined to put in an appearance… I had a quick re-watch of ‘Night of the Demons’, the other day and while I’m still not a hundred percent convinced , I had enough fun with it to...

Page Count: 178 Pages I was poring through my Doctor Who books, last night, and it occurred to me that I’ve managed to read at least one ‘Doctor Who; book (often more) for almost all of the Doctor’s regenerations. It was the ‘almost’ that really bugged me… :o) I’ve watched a few of the stories, featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, but never picked up any of the books. Luckily for me, I’d found a copy of ‘The Witchfinders’ fairly recently (Greenwich Market, always good for Doctor Who books) and that filled in the gap nicely. ‘I am an expert on witchcraft, Doctor, but I wish to learn more. Before you die, I want answers.’ The TARDIS lands in the Lancashire village of Bilehurst Cragg in the 17th century, and the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz soon become embroiled in a witch trial run by the local landowner. Fear stalks the land, and the arrival of King James I only serves to intensify the witch hunt. But the Doctor soon realises there is something more sinister than paranoia and superstiti...