Lord Samper's Library

I've had my eye on this book for a while now; it's been ages since I last read anything by Iain Rob Wright but I know he's a safe bet for good horror reading so book one of 'The Spread' was nestled very comfortably in my wish list until yesterday when I saw that the Kindle edition was 99p. I didn't need much more encouragement than that really, payday is a while off so offers like that are made to be jumped on. So I did and I spent a large chunk of last night finding out what lurks on the hill. It's grim up there but what comes down is even worse... The Scottish Highlands; a sparse, mountainous region some say was carved by the gods themselves. Few places are as untouched as this harsh, prehistoric landscape. It is no place for man. But nestled deep within the wilderness lies a cottage, and behind that cottage is a hill… When a group of friends travel up from Manchester and hire the cottage for a weekend of boozy fun, they discover a threat far greater tha

Living in a small flat, like I do, makes a lot of books seem like even more books when they're on the shelves, on chairs, under the bed (still...) and so on... And the strange thing about this is that books can hide in plain sight. Seriously... If I don't read a book straight away then it goes on a shelf (or wherever) and becomes just another book amongst a multitude of books. It's not the worst problem in the world to have but it does get a little embarrassing when you're looking for a book and it was literally right in front of you the whole time... This is all a slightly longwinded way of saying that 'The Regent's Shadow' has been sat in my flat since last November and I completely forgot about it until the other day when I read 'Bloodlines' wanted more by the same author and thought, 'hang on a moment...' And would you believe it...? 'The Regent's Shadow' was hiding in plain sight the whole time ;o) I read 'Watchers of t

Last week wasn't a bad week, at work, but there was loads to get done and not quite enough Graeme to do it all. And the weekend... Again, not a bad weekend but not enough time to sit down and have a proper read. You know what I mean... A comfy chair, a few snacks and a big thick book that you can get lost in for hours. What was the alternative then? I'll tell you... A short, sharp dose of horror that you can read for five minutes, here and there, and a couple of packets of Chewits to eat while you're doing it. Yes, we're back in Guy N. Smith country once again and this time... Well, the 'Thirst' is back. I had completely forgotten but my first book review, here, was Guy N. Smith's ' Thirst' . I'd found 'The Thirst' and 'Locusts' in a Charing Cross Road bookshop and thought reviewing these would be something a little different. I'm rubbish at keeping up with what's new, these days, so thought I'd just feature what I l

 I couldn't get to sleep last night but I'd resolved that one way or another, I'd be asleep before 2am. I just had to. And then it happened... I looked at my phone and thought, 'bloody hell where did the last hour go?' I don't know where it went but I know why it went... Bloody clocks went forward, didn't they... So today has been a slightly grumpy day (apart from feeding the birds with my youngest daughter, that was great) where I've felt like I'm constantly an hour behind with everything, because I am :o) Roll on whenever the clocks go back. But anyway... That's enough moaning about the clocks/inexorable march of time etc (I feel so middle-aged right now). Lets have a look at the books that turned up at mine (or sneaked through the door, in my bag...) The Cimmerian travels to the aid of an old ally in the wretched wastes of Stygia - a desert harboring wealth undreamed of, even for the barbarian. Soon his pursuit of the ancient treasure reveals

My reading has been stuttering a bit, these last few days. This is more to do with work deadlines than anything else but here we are again; not so much a 'reading slump' but definitely a 'reading blip' if you like. With it being what it is, I thought I'd give myself a couple of nights off and watch some movies. I came across 'Satanic Panic' whilst browsing Prime and I'd finally got hold of a copy of the 30 th Anniversary edition of 'Night of the Living Dead' so figured now was as good a time as any to see if the extra bits made any difference at all. It's a quick post today (spent most of the day asleep and the rest of it with my kids) so lets get straight to it... 'Satanic Panic' (2019) A pizza delivery girl at the end of her financial rope has to fight for her life - and her tips - when her last order of the night turns out to be high society Satanists in need of a virgin sacrifice. I'm normally all about the free movies, on

I’ll be completely honest, I totally forgot that today was ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ day. I think that might say a little bit more, about what I thought of last week’s episode, than I realised… Seriously though, I got up and got straight into work, which isn’t a bad thing all things considered; I wish I could have more days like that. I got to lunchtime and suddenly remembered that I had an episode to watch which didn’t make me feel as excited as I thought it would. I mean, last week’s episode was fine, as it goes, but now I was wondering if I went a little too easy on it in last week’s review . Giving it some thought… I think I’m comparing it to how I felt about each episode of ‘WandaVision’, which is a little unfair as they are two very different shows. But anyway… I was always going to watch the next episode so I figured now was as good a time as any. And you know what? There’s a big improvement on what happened last week. Maybe, just maybe, this can be another series th

Every so often, I remember that amongst all the books (in my tiny flat) there is a Kindle with loads more books on it. I grab that Kindle, come across a whole load of books that I barely remember buying (I have a bad habit of buying books during long meetings at work...), pick one and get reading. This time round, 'Hellmouth' was that book and I'm really glad that it was. Watching 'Nightmare Cinema', last night, left me feeling more than a little disappointed and in need of some decent horror to make up for it. 'Hellmouth' delivered on that score. Bohemia,1370. A lost soul named Galien leads a band of hardened mercenaries on a mission for Mother Church. But in the dark forests of central Europe, a darker secret awaits. I love a big, thick read as much as the next person but I am constantly in awe of writers who can strip it all right back and still tell a compelling tale in no time at all. It's a very different kind of control that they have over their

I've got a real soft spot for 'horror anthology' films. I don't care what it is, if I come across one then I'm watching it right through to the end and that's that. And that's why I watched 'Nightmare Cinema' last night... I was idly looking for giant crab horror movies on Youtube (because why the hell not?) and came across a clip from what turned out to be 'Nightmare Cinema'. That was it, as soon as I found out what the name of the movie was, and found out it was a 'horror anthology', I was off to Amazon Prime to give it a go. And I did. It wasn't bad but I'm not going to lie, I was left wanting two hours of my life back... The thing about these kind of movies is that you're never going to get a perfect run of stories; some will hit the mark while others will be way off target. That's the way it goes, we all like different stuff so not everyone will like everything (I kind of envy those lucky people who do but that&#

I'm not on Twitter nearly as much as I'd like to be; work absolutely saw me coming and not only gave me loads to do but also made my laptop refuse to let me anywhere near Twitter. That's not a bad thing to be fair; after my last round of long term unemployment, I have a new found appreciation for the benefits of staying in work ;o) I do make it onto Twitter though, normally at the tail end of all the cool stuff (I'm constantly playing 'catch up') and I was around just long enough, a while ago now, to catch a bunch of horror folk laughing at some cover art (the cover art in the post) for a made-up book called 'The Roo'. I hung around long enough to hear talk of how a book should be written to go with the cover and my reaction was along the lines of 'Would that even work? A demonic kangaroo? Fuck it, I'd still read it though.' And then I promptly forgot about it until the other day when Amazon kindly suggested that I buy it. Of course I bought

I'm not going to lie... I spent much of yesterday either asleep, trying to fix my phone or getting over having my lockdown beard trimmed into something a little more manageable. I got a little reading done but nowhere near enough to be able to post about it today (and I totally forgot about my emergency 'already read' book pile...) so... The clue is in the title of this post ;o) Yep, I went for it and finished my 'Romero Rewatch' way ahead of time. If only I could be as enthusiastic about everything else, that is sat unfinished right now, but here we are. It's been a few years since I've watched these movies so it has been great fun getting reacquainted. Watching them in chronological order, as Danel Kraus did for his work on 'The Living Dead', also helped me get my head round Romero's decision to go for a 'soft reboot' approach for 'Diary of the Dead' (which then led into 'Survival of the Dead'). As far as getting the &#

Damn, I've gone through these films a lot quicker than I was meaning to. What was meant to be a film every week has somehow become five films in eleven days; I wish I was as good at finishing books... You've probably already gathered this but it's been great getting back into these movies (yes, even 'Survival of the Dead'), some of which I haven't watched in a few years. Only a couple more to go and I'm going to have to think about what series I make my way through next; I'm thinking 'Hellraiser' but that's a topic for another day... Right now though, we're taking a big leap forward and it's now three years since the dead first walked. Let's see if there are any of the living left... With the living dead having now taken over much of the world, the few survivors left have retreated to a fortified city, where the rich live in penthouse apartments while the poor suffer on the streets below. Governed by the corrupt Kaufman, the cit

I can't believe I did it again... I finished work, yesterday, and made the short commute to my bed where I thought I'd give my eyes a rest. Before I knew it, I was ambushed by a nap and now here I am, awake for a little longer than I'd planned. Oh well, early night tonight then ;o) In the meantime, how's it going? Work wasn't bad, this week, but I'm so glad we've made it to the weekend, aren't you? I'm going to be hanging out with my kids mostly (which usually involves me making them laugh by saying how creepy their toys look, well they do...) but I've also got my eye on a little quality time that's split between reading and obsessively checking eBay to see how my Guy N. Smith book bids are faring. I've bid on a few so won't mind too much if I lose a couple. We'll see... How about you? Are you up to anything special? Lets talk about books though. Payday was the other day so a few books have arrived, at the flat, since then. I'

What a great time to be a fan of the MCU... Well, it's always been a great time (apart from that brief interlude for 'Thor 2'...) but now the TV shows are starting to hit Disney Plus, it's great isn't it? No more hanging around waiting :o) And so, after a quick break, we're leaving 'WandaVision' and moving on to 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'. I'll be honest, this is the show I was probably looking forward to the most; just because I had no idea what to expect from 'WandaVision'. 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' just felt (to me) like it would be a bit more straightforward, Sam flies loads and looks really cool while Bucky beats people up; oh yes, and some kind of mystery to be solved through a combination of flying and beating stuff up ;o) This is only the first episode so way too early to say one way, or the other, if that's the way it'll be. There's still a far bit to discuss though so lets talk about

Yesterday was pretty much wall to wall meetings and trying to get outstanding documentation written. Not the worst day of work but one of those days where I get to the end of it and all I'm good for is watching a movie rather than reading books. I've already had to process a lot of information and I don't want to process any more, I just want loads of moving pictures to tell me the story instead ;o) Which handily leads me onto the latest instalment of the 'Romero Re-Watch', it's time for 'Dawn of the Dead'. While I've got loads of time for 'Dawn of the Dead', at over two hours long I rarely have the actual time to sit down and watch it. Not last night though. An evening with absolutely nothing to do is the perfect time to sit down and watch 'Dawn of the Dead' so that's exactly what I did. It is now three weeks since the dead started walking; we know this as an angry government official mentions this as part of his rant at the ta

As much as I'm rediscovering my love for big, thick books, reading them means that I end up several books behind where I want to be as far as having posts, for the blog, goes. In the great scheme of things, it's not the worst problem in the world (by a long shot) but can be a bit off-putting and often leads to random films being pulled off the shelves as a quick alternatives. But not at the moment though. 'Past Graeme' very kindly read a few books and then left them for me to find and use to fill in 'review gaps'. It was good of him to do this and I'm very grateful to him for it ;o) One of my reading resolutions, for this year, was to read more of Guy N. Smith's work outside of the 'Crabs' books and 'The Black Fedora' was one of those books that I'd seen (in second hand bookshops) but never got round to picking up. This time, I thought I'd stop looking at it and start reading it instead (thanks to eBay, or Amazon, one of the two

I can't believe this book has been sat on my shelf, unread, since August last year... Actually, yes I can. As much as I wanted to read 'The Living Dead', there just wasn't the time to sit down with a big, thick book and get stuck in; you know, what with everything going on (but mostly juggling work and homeschooling). There was also the fact that this book is the last bit of George A. Romero zombie fiction that we are ever going to get. Once you read 'The Living Dead', that's it; there won't be anything else. So yeah, that blew my mind (just a bit) and the book sat there, unread. And then, sometime last week, I realised I was being a bit daft about the whole thing. Books are there to be read, after all, and it struck me that Romero wouldn't have wanted his death to have stopped people from seeing how the story ended (and neither would Daniel Kraus, who put the book together while taking us into a future that Romero hinted at in notes). That was al

I'm going through these movies a little quicker than planned but in my defence, I'm still working my way through 'The Living Dead' (492 pages read, about 150 to go) and movies have always been a great way to give myself a little breathing space, here, while I finish books off. There's also the fact that I've remembered that I absolutely love these films; I mean, I knew I liked them but there's nothing like a good ol' rewatch to rekindle just how much I like them. Out of all of them though, 'Survival of the Dead' is the film that I'm never quite sure about.. I've seen it a few times and my responses seem to flicker between 'it's not that bad actually', 'oh yes it bloody well is' and 'this is a bit dull, what's for dinner?' I wasn't really keen on picking on watching 'Survival' again but if you're going to do a 'Romero Zombie Movie' rewatch... well, you've got to watch them all, ev