Lord Samper's Library

Sometimes, it feels like the more Warhammer 40K fiction I read, the more I want to side with Horus and march on Terra myself. I've said this before but I wouldn't expect anyone to scroll back through a couple of weeks of posts so... The Emperor wasn't the best at his job, was he? Alienating his greatest general, being omnipotent but apparently not omnipotent enough to see what was coming and actually do something about it, the list goes on... One of the Emperor's biggest cock ups though has to be the whole debacle with the Thunder Warriors, proto-space marines used in the earth conquering Wars of Unity and then gunned down by their own side because... they weren't quite what the Emperor needed to take the fight to the stars? Because they weren't built to last? Really? Just imagine how things could have gone if the Emperor had thought to himself, 'why don't I take a little more time and get these Thunder Warriors just right ? Then I can conquer th

Ever since I read Gary Braunbeck's 'We Now Pause for Station Identification' (which you can read Here ), I've been fascinated by the whole idea of being stuck in a radio station, reporting on the zombie apocalypse outside (because you're stuck inside and you may as well talk about something...) and wondering the whole time, is anybody actually listening...? With that in mind then, 'Dead Air' was always going to be a film that I ended up watching but, as is always the case with me, life completely got in the way and it wasn't until last night that I finally got round to settling down and giving it a watch. Not only is 'Dead Air' a short film but I've got about a million work related things to get done today so apologies in advance for a review that will be on the short side. If you do take one thing away though, it's that you should give this movie a chance if you get the chance. It's not a bad movie at all... Logan Burnh

My ongoing quest to watch all the zombie movies took an unexpected turn yesterday when I watched 'Anna and the Apocalypse', a zombie movie with a pretty big difference to the zombie films that I'd normally watch. This one's a musical. To be honest, I'm not all that big on musicals so this one passed me by when it first came out (and 2017 was not a year for making it to the cinema) but a little time spent on Amazon left me intrigued when I saw this movie. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of musicals but I was up for trying something new and I had just been paid so... Here I am to tell you all about it. A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy Scottish town of Little Haven, forcing Anna (Ella Hunt) and her friends to fight, slash and sing their way to survival, facing the undead in a desperate race to reach their loved ones. But they soon discover that no one is safe in this new world, and with civilisation falling apart around them, the only people th

So there I was, thinking that Lockdown would save me money... Ok, I'm not spending quite so much money on Banh Mi's but my book and DVD spending has just shot up over the last couple of months. And I've suddenly found myself with a subscription to Shudder, not quite sure how that happened (of course I am, that'll teach me to pay more attention to free trials...)  I clearly need to be reading a lot faster then but in the meantime... Here's some of the books that have arrived, at mine, over the last couple of days (and a couple of DVDs as well). The common theme, for the books anyway, is 'Replacing books that I had to sell/lost etc during a very bad patch about three years ago'. I'm 'on the up' now, it's all good :o) First of all, huge thanks to @breakfastruins (owner of the rather awesome 'Breakfast In The Ruins' Podcast) for giving a me a copy of 'Wizardy and Wild Romance' to replace the one that I had to sell. It goes

I feel like I’ve been reading a little too much horror recently so needed a little change, not much of a change though. The great thing about Eric Powell’s books is that while there’s still a vein of horror running through it all, his work is so many other things at the same time; just what I needed then. I’m well behind on his ‘Hillbilly’ series (read the first volume back in December , where did the time go…) so thought it was time to do some catching up… With the Devil’s Cleaver in hand, Rondel still walks the wooded hills and valleys of a fairytale world that is hauntingly familiar. If you have a problem with a sprite or troll, it may be that Rondel is the man to help but don’t cross him… He will always have the last laugh. Powell is really taking his time setting this series up and that’s a brilliant thing if you’re a fan, or even if you just like a well told story. If you’re after something to get stuck right into though… Well, you’re going to need to give ‘Hillbill

When I was looking for some cover art, for ‘The Fucking Zombie Apocalypse’ , the other day, Amazon threw me a little reminder that I hadn’t read Bryan Smith’s ‘Last Day’ yet. I’ve been meaning to read ‘Last Day’ for a long time, but never quite got round to it, so decided to make yesterday the day that I finally did something about that. The plan was to get some work done as well but yesterday ended up being about stealing every moment that I could in order to finish ‘Last Day’. It’s not the easiest book to finish (and you’ll find out why as the review goes on) but it’s a book that you absolutely have to finish once you’ve started reading it. Let me tell you all about it… The last day of the world starts out like any ordinary day. Everything seems normal. Then news breaks of an imminent killer asteroid strike and everything changes forever. With the human race facing sudden extinction, the world descends into chaos. Now that no one has anything to lose, hidden horrors are u

So, I was writing yesterday's review and had got to the bit where I'm looking around for a nice cover picture to use. I found it but what I also found was mention of more Angron 'Horus Heresy' stories wrapped up in a neat little collection of three stories at a decent price. I didn't need much encouragement to grab a copy, I've got a bit of a soft spot for Angron anyway and have a lot of time for the tragedy of the character and his honesty as well. You know exactly what you're getting with Angron, even if most of the time it's just an axe to the head. Like I said then, it didn't take a lot for me to get 'Angron' on my Kindle and get reading. And it was awesome as I expected it would be. You do need to bear a little something in mind, before you buy it, though but I'll get to that in a second... Many are the legends surrounding the wrathful primarch of the XIIth Legion. From the bloody sands of the Desh'ean gladiatorial p

I told you there'd be a book review coming along :o) Well, I say 'book'... 'Ghost of Nuceria' is only twenty one pages long, it counts though and not just because it's all I've had time for today what with coaxing my youngest daughter into doing school work and trying to get my own work done. The weekend seems so long ago now, when's the next one coming along? Back to the story at hand... I've been enjoying the Black Library short stories (they're a great way to kill half an hour when you need a little time out) and Angron is probably my favourite of the Traitor Primarchs... 'Ghost of Nuceria' pretty much chose itself then as I've heard about Angron's first meeting with the Emperor but never read anything that focussed on that fateful day. Until now... Angron, former gladiator and slave, and now leader of a rebellion against the High-riders of Nuceria, prepares to sell his life dearly in the name of freeing his peopl

I know, I know, another movie night... You've probably guessed it already but I am having a bit of a nightmare trying to start reading anything, let alone finish it... It's a mixture of having a lot of work to get done (and very little time to get it done in) and just generally feeling low about everything that's going on out there (and in my head but that's another story that you don't want to know about). I'm going to try and post a couple of book reviews this week, lets see how it goes. So yeah, another movie night, it is really easy to pop something on the laptop and just let my eyes do all the work. Amazon Prime has also thrown a whole load of zombie movies my way and it would be a shame not to work my way through them, wouldn't it? Last night's movie was 'Blood Quantum'; I'd seen the trailer on Youtube and had made a mental note to give it a go when I got a chance. One free 'Shudder' trial later and I did just that l

What would I do without my Amazon wish list...? Well, more than likely run up a massive overdraft (easily done, trust me...) buying loads of stuff books that I 'absolutely have to have'. I've been there before and one day, I may finally pay it all off... Nope, it's far easier to have a wish list where I can leave things for a few days and see if I still want them once the 'new book excitement' has cooled down. I'll be honest, of course I still want the new book but I do get to feel a little pleased with myself for holding out a couple of extra days. It's almost like I've got the hang of being an adult (I did say almost)... The other great thing about my wishlist is that it has been known to give me a little inspiration for posting about cool books that are on the horizon. Books like 'Northern Wrath' by Thilde Kold Holdt for example. Check it out... A dead man, walking between the worlds, foresees the end of the gods. A survivor searc

My journey to watch every single zombie movie ever made, that I can get my hands on anyway, continues with a movie that I'd heard a lot of good things about but never seemed to find the time to watch... until now. 'One Cut of the Dead' is one of those films that seems to keep popping up in various '20 Zombie Movies To Watch Before You Die' (or become one of the living dead) lists but you never seem to find out quite why, just that you really need to watch it. Almost like they are trying to hide something about the movie... I'm normally a little wary of this approach (as I've been burnt before by films that shouldn't have been on those lists at all) but I figured it was way past time that I gave 'One Cut of the Dead' a go... so I did :o) 'One Shot of the Dead' tells the tale of a low budget Japanese zombie movie being shot in an abandoned water filtration plant, rumoured to be the site of experiments carried out by the mili

Today was meant to be a book review post but yesterday was mad and I pretty much fell asleep just after the kids went to bed last night... Seriously, I am really looking forward to the weekend when things will hopefully slow down a bit. I was just racking my brains for something to post today (because I'm nicely in the habit now and didn't want to miss a day) when I remembered that I had been paid yesterday and went a little nuts on Amazon, particularly in the Kindle department. I know the other day was all about me saying that I should tackle the 'real book' TBR pile, and I will (maybe), but I couldn't help myself. Okay, I could totally help myself but did it anyway. I regret nothing :o) So here goes... Here's what landed on my Kindle last night, 'The Odds' - Jeff Strand After a disastrous evening playing slot machines, Ethan Caustin wonders how he's going to explain his massive loss to his wife and kids. As he tries to find his way out of

Lockdown has divided my reading into the books that I know I ought to read (read yesterday's post and see how well that's going...) and everything else, on my Kindle, that I know I'll enjoy. Jeff Strand's books feature prominently on my Kindle at the moment, his slightly off beat horror and creature features are very easy to get into and very hard to put down until you've finished them. That is exactly the kind of reading I need right now so if and when I see a new Jeff Strand book, I buy it pretty much straight away. You should too, seriously, they're a lot of fun. So when I saw 'Allison' then, I made sure to grab myself a copy and get reading as soon as I got a chance. 'Allison' is a short read, weighing in at only two hundred and seventy pages, but that was just what I was after as well; a quick and horrifying read. And that's just what I got with 'Allison'; a Jeff Strand book written in the best traditions of, well...

I have been well into my Kindle recently, it's absolutely crammed full of quick reads that have been a lot of fun and don't demand too much. Well, apart from 'Space Marine' but anyway... So yeah, I've had a lot of fun with my Kindle, I don't think I've ever used it so much and will definitely not shove it back in the cupboard when Lockdown finally comes to an end. The downside to this though is that I have been totally neglecting all the 'real' books that I bought to my ex's house when it finally dawned that Lockdown wasn't going to end any time soon... So... While I gear myself up to write tomorrow's review (funnily enough, for a book that I've read on my Kindle...) lets have a look at the latest incarnation of the 'Reading Pile of Shame', that monument to good intentions that sadly lead us to posts like these... Look, in my defense... Ok, there's no defending this pile is there? 'Empire of Grass' has been

Remember when I said I'd watch anything with zombies in it? Yep, it's another one of those posts... Yesterday saw me feeling like one of the living dead (after a couple of celebratory G&T's the  night before) and trying to get work done all at the same time. If that wasn't enough, I was also trying to homeschool the youngest one again and that never goes well. I'm not going to lie to you, I got precisely no reading done yesterday and that's what eventually lead me to Prime Video, to see what random zombie movies I could find... I've actually had half an eye on 'Darkest Dawn' for a while, I just haven't found it on DVD (for some reason, all my zombie movies have to be on DVD). I haven't really seen many animated zombie movies (although 'Seoul Station' wasn't bad) so that piqued my interest, even if it looked to be a re-telling of 'Night of the Living Dead' (which it totally is but more on that in a bit...) £3.

So Facebook has been throwing me links to various sites telling me that we're a step closer to seeing the full director's cut of 'Event Horizon'. I'm firmly in the 'I'll believe it when I see it but I don't think we'll ever see it' camp, it's been years now and surely if the footage is there then we would have seen it by now... or would we? I think we would have done and as much as I'd love to see 'Event Horizon' as it was meant to be seen (because I'm a total gorehound so of course I want to see a starship crew tear itself to pieces) I don't think it's going to happen. What all these links did give me though was the perfect excuse to sit down, last night, and watch 'Event Horizon' again. Yesterday was one of those days (in a good way but it threw me mentally and I couldn't get anything done afterwards) so I knew that the only way to round it off was to watch a favourite film of mine. There, I said i

I may be 'forty and quite a bit' now but deep down, I'm still a little kid who will absolutely jump at the chance to include a few swear words in whatever I'm writing. I mean, we all would... Wouldn't you? Bryan Smith clearly doesn't need an excuse but that's not the only reason I'm posting about 'The Fucking Zombie Apocalypse'. Smith's brand of horror (I'm looking at you in particular 'Depraved Trilogy'...) got me through some tough times, a few years ago, and I've kept an eye open for his books ever since. I loved 'Slowly We Rot' so when a random trawl through Amazon turned up 'The Fucking Zombie Apocalypse', it didn't take me long to buy a copy and get reading. 'The Fucking Zombie Apocalypse' is an entirely different beast to 'Slowly We Rot' but is just as easy to get into and keep reading. That ending though... I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning.