Lord Samper's Library

You've probably noticed that my reading hasn't been going too well recently. Well, that's because my reading hasn't been going too well, loads of good intentions but a massive pile of half finished books by my bed. Work demands have been the main reason (hopefully this will calm down soon, please let it calm down soon) and after another tough day yesterday, all I was good for, when I got back to mine, was a couple of movies before bed.. One of the movies I chose was pretty shocking while the other one just ended up being, well... meh. I really need to get my reading groove on again, I can't sit through more films like that, I just can't... 'Patient Zero' (2018) Humanity is battling intelligent adrenaline fuelled creatures born from a 'super strain' of rabies. After being bitten, human survivor Morgan realises that he is asymptomatic and can communicate with the infected, leading the last survivors on a hunt for Patient Zero and a ...

My Warhammer 40K reading invariably sees humanity being used as the lens through which everything plays out. That’s fair enough to a point (when you’re looking at decades of focus on the fight to save the human Imperium, you’re going to show these stories through human eyes. There are other species out there though and while I don’t think you’d get a particularly coherent story from an Ork’s viewpoint, the tales of other species could be interesting. That was my line of thinking when I was browsing Amazon, looking for a little treat, yesterday. I saw ‘War in the Museum’ thought to myself, ‘I’ve read about Necrons but never seen a story told from their viewpoint, should I…?’ And promptly did. It’s not a bad read either. It’s fairly clear that ‘War in the Museum’ is written for Necron gamers but there is still enough here for casual accquaintances of Black Library/Warhammer 40K to have fun with… On the shadowy world of Solemnace, Trazyn the Infinite tends to his ever-growing mu...

I think this week is going to end up being another week for short stories. Work is giving me a real kicking at the moment and what with the kids being on Summer Holiday now, reading time is strictly limited to whatever time I can grab at home when I'm not getting ready for the 'Audit of Doom' (my title, not theirs, I think it's pretty accurate though...) Short stories are about all I'm good for right now, while I try and get longer books read, but that's ok; I've got shelves full of brilliant short stories that I can share with you. One of them is a favourite of mine, 'Chattery Teeth' by Stephen King. I've got it as part of the 'Nightmares and Dreamscapes' collection (which has proved remarkably stubborn in not telling me where it was originally published, oh well...) 'The case was full of fabulous junk, most of it undoubtedly made in Taiwan and Korea, but there was no doubt at all about the pick of the litter. They were th...

Because I can't actually remember the last time I picked up a book and read it for the blog... Ok, I just checked and it was only a few days go but there's so much going on right now that it feels like a lot longer. I need a holiday, I really need a holiday... Right, self indulgent moan over, lets look at the book shall we...? I've been keen to check out some Warhammer Horror (it's Warhammer and it's horror, what's not to like?) but I couldn't help but wonder whether the line is already redundant. I mean, surely the whole point of Warhammer ('Age of Sigmar' or 'Warhammer 40K') is that it's already all about the horror? There's horrifying stuff in the Mortal Realms and there's certainly horror in the realms of the Warp, you can't really get much more 'horror' than that so why is Warhammer trying to push it further. I don't know but as a fan of both Warhammer 40K and horror, I was interested to see where ...

Yep, I know I watched the remake of 'Rabid', the other day, also yep, I was kind of half ok with it but half disappointed at the same time. It got me thinking though and made me wonder if the original was any better... or not. Luckily for me, it was free to watch on Prime (given how I felt about the remake, I probably wouldn't have paid to watch it) so last night, when I really should have been getting some work done, I settled down, with a couple of bits of marmite on toast, and gave 'Rabid' another go, if you know what I mean... And you know what? I'm really glad I did. The remake wasn't all bad but the original was ten times better, at least. The best thing about posting about a movie the day after you watched the remake, is that I don't really need to worry too much about the blurb this time round. There are a few differences (Rose isn't working in fashion for a start) but the main thrust of the plot is pretty much the same. Ros...

I'd seen trailers for 'Rabid', on Youtube, and promised myself that I'd give it a go if and when I got the chance. Well, the chance finally came a couple of days ago when I had a little store credit in CEX and the DVD was right in front of me on the shelf. I picked it up as I'd just had my year end review, for work, and needed something to take my mind off it (the review went fine as it happens, I just needed to put a little space between it and me, you know how it is). For what it's worth, I've never seen the David Cronenberg original (although it's free on Prime so that will change soon), the only Cronenberg film that I've ever seen is 'Videodrome' (which was fun but really weird, I didn't get it at all...) so if you're looking for a comparison piece, this won't be your final stop for that. Nope, what I'm all about here is what kind of a film 'Rabid' is in its own right. The short answer is, not a bad film ...

I don't know if this is cover art but to be honest, who cares*? It looks amazing and that's all that matters...The closest we've had to this (that I've seen anyway), so far, has just been a collection of silhouettes on the Amazon page. I know the Goon, Franky and the Kid but who are the 'Mad Max' looking lady and that other guy who looks like he's got an evil plan on the go...? I guess we'll have to wait until October until we find out... * Actually, I do care. I really want this to be the cover art. And here's a spot of blurb (taken from Amazon)... Writer/artist Eric Powell presents a spinoff of his Eisner Award winning title, The Goon, in the graphic novella The Lords of Misery. Bridging the gap between Once Upon a Hard Time and A Ragged Return to Lonely Street, this stand alone story reveals the adventure the Goon (along with several other mysterious figures) found himself entangled in after he departed the Nameless Town. The Lords of Mis...

I've got my year end review in the morning and I can't sleep right now. Rationally, I know that I've done the best I can this year, there'll be some room for improvement but it won't be a bad review all in all. Irrationally though... Lets just say that the anxious part of my brain is building up a list of all the things that went wrong this year along with a whole other list of things that I couldn't possibly have done but will be mentioned over the course of my review. Welcome to the inside of my head people, it's dark in here... It will be over by lunchtime so this afternoon will feel a lot better. Lets see how it goes... It's a good job then I've had a few more books come through the post yesterday. Like I've said before, it's almost like past Graeme knows that present Graeme is going to face a few difficulties so he sends a little help package from the past... :o) I'm slowly rebuilding my Michael Moorcock collection at the moment;...

Have you ever watched a movie and found yourself thinking, ‘what the hell was that about?’ as the end credits rolled. Have you found yourself playing games on your phone while the big set piece is happening on the screen in front of you? If you answered ‘yes’ to both questions, then I’d bet money that you’ve sat through ‘Robin Hood’ as well… The thing is, as much as I want to slate it, I can’t slate it too hard as it actually did the job that I needed it to… Work has been a source of some major stress this week and I thought I’d watch something (last night) that made no demands of me whatsoever, something shiny enough to keep me watching but… yeah, not demanding at all. I’d seen the trailer for ‘Robin Hood’ and I like a bit of ‘arrow slinging’ action so the movie pretty much chose itself as something that would keep me amused but wouldn’t tax me too much. And ‘Robin Hood’ did this, it really did. I just really wish that it hadn’t done it quite so well… Robin of Loxley (Ta...

And here I am, hopefully proving that this blog does a little bit more than just post pictures of cool books (even though they were cool books)… This week has been a bit of a nightmare but the up side to that is that although I don’t have the time to do everything that I need to, at least the week is going quickly ;o) Almost too quickly but what can you do apart from hang on and see where it takes you? I did manage to cobble a few minutes together for some reading yesterday and it was another stop on my occasional journey to read more stuff with Vikings in it. Brian Wood’s ‘Northlanders’ book ‘Sven the Returned’ had proved to be a very engaging read so when I realised that Wood had written ‘The Black Road’ as well, it didn’t take too much for me to go out and grab myself a copy (and by ‘go out’, of course I meant ‘order from Amazon’, stupid lockdown…) It took a while for it to get here but it ended up being well worth the read when it finally did. If that wasn’t enough, anot...

Yes, I know I did one of these posts the other day but this one is a little bit special so hopefully you'll indulge a chap a little bit ;o) I used to have a copy of 'The Jade Mans Eyes' pretty much the same as the one Neil Gaiman mentions in his tale, 'One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock', right down to the green ink that the story is printed in. I was lucky enough to get it signed by the man himself and it was a sweet little oddity on my shelf. Then life got really crappy for a bit and I really needed some quick money so I sold it, Moorcock signature and all.  It had to be done but I always regretted it because I was sure that I'd never see another copy. Well, no sooner had I said just that, in the post from the other day, a quick look on Amazon (just on the offchance) proved me totally wrong. No hanging around, I bought it straight away and today, it arrived. Check out my new friend :o) I've got no idea of the history of this edition but a...

It's another shorter looking post today as I'm being audited at work, next week, and I'm not even remotely ready for it. Short of pulling a sickie, as the auditors, ring me up (something I am seriously considering), I'm going to have to take this one on the chin and try to be as ready as I can be. Fingers crossed and we'll see how it goes... But onto the reading... After reading 'The Last Enchantment' the other day, I thought I'd check out another short story while I try and make some time to (finally) finish 'Elric of Melnibone'. 'Fabulous Harbours' had only just come through the door and a quick glance over the table of contents saw 'Crimson Eyes' jump out as the story to read. I mean a story called 'Crimson Eyes', by Michael Moorcock, has to be about Elric, doesn't it? Well... Kind of and not at all, all at the same time.'Crimson Eyes' only ended up being about that amazing detective, Sir Sexton...

I've done a little reading this weekend but I'll be honest, my heart wasn't really in it and I had about a million other more important things that I had to do instead (like teaching my eldest daughter to ride her bike, that beats reading a book no matter what the book is). Yesterday was particularly busy so all I was in the mood for, last night, was watching something familiar before heading to bed; familiar but cool. When I'm in that mood, there's really only one choice of movie and I watched it again last night, the 2004 remake of 'Dawn of the Dead'. I love this movie so don't expect me to be impartial at all, that's just not happening. I wasn't a big fan of remakes back in the day. The way I saw it back then, if a studio has money to burn then surely it would be better spent on making something original, why remake something? If a film's good enough to be remade then surely you'd just watch the original anyway? I still went...

This post is a little later than normal but that's what you get when I'm a lazy bum in the morning and then spend a chunk of the afternoon drinking Southern Comfort & Coke while trying to figure out what to do with my life. In case you're wondering, I drank loads but didn't come to any conclusions so lets take a look at the books I've bought these last few days instead... Payday was yesterday and I've resolved not to go completely mad on books like I have done these last couple of months. I did buy a few though (because of course I did...) and this time round, it's been about buying replacements for the Michael Moorcock books that I used to have but had to get rid of for one reason or another. I don't think I'll ever see another copy of 'The Jade Man's Eyes' (the really old one printed in green ink) but I've found these instead so can't complain really. The 'Book Hunting' has been good... I'm not going to li...

I've been hearing good things about 'The Beach House' (thanks Twitter!) and I had a little time to myself last night so I thought I'd give it a go. As blog post introductions go, that was one of my more succinct openers ;o) Normally, I'd try and be a bit more interesting but sometimes that's all there is to it. I've got two books on the go, neither of which are anywhere near being finished, and work had been tough so I thought I'd watch a movie instead of reading. This is going to be a short review because, well, you'll see why... Emily and Randall have gone to Randall's family beach house in an attempt to reconnect after a rough year. Things aren't about to get any smoother though and it's not the unexpected guests that are the the worst of it. There's something in the water and very soon, it will be on dry land and at the door... 'The Beach House' totally redefines the whole meaning of 'slow burner'...

In what seems to be becoming a pattern, this week has been one of those weeks, I've got a horrible feeling that next week is going to be one of those weeks as well but I'm prepared to give next week a chance and see what happens. Fingers crossed... Whenever it's one of those weeks, it automatically becomes the worst time to be doing a book review blog as you're either stuck with no time to read or you can't get into any of the books on the TBR pile. My way round this (and it works most of the time) is to immediately shift down a couple of gears and bring out the comfort reads. You know the ones, those old favourites that you almost know off by heart and can get lost in for a few hours. Or until your bored kids stop bothering you and decide to amuse themselves for a change (whichever comes first). Which kind of brings me on to David Gemmell and the 'Druss' books, comfort reading favourites for a long old time now. I need some comfort reading and ...