Lord Samper's Library

I’m in the office today which means that my bag was jammed full of laptop, and assorted paraphernalia, this morning. No room for the books that I should be reading then (and that pile seems to be growing…) but just enough room for a short story collection to dip in and out of whilst sat on the bus. I decided that ‘Operation Arcana’ hadn’t been out of the house for a while so it was way past time that it had a jaunt 😉 There are a whole load of stories, in ‘Operation Arcana’, that I still haven’t read (and it’s a book that’s been on my shelf for years now…) but it was six in the morning and I was at least an hour away from breakfast so in the end, I settled on the story that I bought the book for in the first place… What? I was tired 😉 I’ve been a fan of ‘The Black Company’ for years (although true to form, I still haven’t read ‘Port of Shadows’…) so picked up ‘Operation Arcana’, back in the day, when it looked like reading the odd short story here and there was the only way that I’d

I had such a great time reading ‘Beheaded’ that it was a real no-brainer to go looking for more books by J.R. Park to get into. I settled on ‘Mad Dog’ in the end, mostly because I have a soft spot for visceral werewolf tales (I will always watch ‘Dog Soldiers’ whenever I get half a chance) but also because ‘Beheaded’ has a little nod in the direction of Mad Dog Mooney and I love joining up stories and getting that sense of continuity. ‘Mad Dog’ it was then and… Bloody Hell! Again! “You don’t need my expert opinion of the esoteric to know there was something very, very wrong with him.” - Father Matthews Mad Dog Mooney was a ghost story. A legend that spooked even the most hardened of criminals. But when he came to Darkdale prison he proved all too real. The inmates are shell shocked by his arrival and rumours persist of his strange behaviour, whilst accusations of cannibalism from the media are not forgotten. As tensions grow amongst the prison population, a jail break is planned t

It's a little bit late in the day but honestly, if you'd seen today then you'd totally understand why I'm frantically trying to get this posted before midnight... Actually, it wasn't that bad; I was just really lazy in the morning and left myself not an awful lot of time to get everything done. The fry-up was nice though, just what I needed ;o) But having said all of that, I managed to carve out an hour just for me where I could sit and finally get caught up with the latest episode of 'The Wheel of Time', a series that I'm into almost despite myself and also a series that has seen me go out and buy 'New Spring' and 'The Eye of the World'. Now I just need to find the time to read them... But anyway. While we're all here, it would be rude not to take a quick look at 'The Dragon Reborn'. The party has split up but everyone is headed in roughly the same direction, Tar Valon (I think, it's been a long day...) On the way thoug

Last week wasn't a bad one but damn there was a lot of it... And if that wasn't bad enough, I did most of it in the wrong shoes... I thought I'd finally found a decent pair of work shoes but it turns out that the gout had one final throw of the dice to make and... I lost :o( Oh well, back to the drawing board (and trainers) So yeah, that was a week and I've got my fingers crossed for a weekend of sitting about, reading and not a lot else. Having said that though, it was also a week of getting books :o) I mean, every week is a week where I find books but you know what I mean; it was a full on week tempered by the discovery of cool books. Come on, lets take a quick look at what landed on my doorstep this time round. Because of course I bought me some 'Guy N. Smith', of course I did ;o) I've had my eye open for a cheap copy of 'Death Bell' for ages and when I finally came across one, I couldn't hang about; I had to grab it before someone else had it

It has been 'one of those weeks', this week, and when it's 'one of those weeks'... my reading invariably goes to shit. It certainly did this week, you've probably guessed already given the TV posts over the last couple of days ;o) Bear with me, there may be a couple more to come before the end of the week. I've watched a couple of movies, as well, this week; an old favourite and a movie where the trailer caught my eye a few weeks ago. Which one should we talk about first...? 'The Spore' (2021) A deadly mutating virus hits a small town in Michigan and is attacking people at an alarming rate. The lives of ten strangers intersect through a terrifying chain of events as the mutating fungus spreads, wiping out everyone that comes into contact with it. Horror movie villains do evil things and as much as I want the lead to make it through, I can get why the masked killer is doing what they do. There's an element of humanity (even if it is twisted) th

Even in middle-age, I’m still finding stuff out about myself… Like the fact that a mixture of Christmas music, fights and archery moments will get me really hyped up for Marvel’s latest mini-series, ‘Hawkeye’. They’ve been drip feeding the trailers for a few weeks now and I’ve just been getting more and more excited, which is kind of weird as Hawkeye is ok but he isn’t exactly my favourite Avenger (it’s Steve Rogers, of course it is, although I do have a soft spot for Ant-Man as well). Oh well, here we are now and Disney+ have been kind enough to kick things off with two episodes at once; I suspect that’s so they can get the finale as close to Christmas Day as possible but I’m not complaining, yesterday was a killer and a double dose of ‘Hawkeye’ was just what the Doctor ordered for the evening… 😊 Before we get started, I’m aiming for no spoilers in this post; it’s more about first impressions here rather than detailed plot discussion. If you’re after a recap of the plot, so far, th

So a couple of days ago I had my Covid booster jab which meant that there was an air of inevitability to my waking up feeling like absolute crap yesterday morning... Oh well, it's still not as bad as having actual Covid, and I'm good now, so can't complain too much I guess. Yesterday then was a day for taking all the paracetamol and searching in vain for anything decent on Prime. Luckily I realised it was like I'd been saving a Doctor Who DVD in the knowledge that this was going to happen... I was all of about four years old (almost five) when 'The Leisure Hive' first appeared on TV so I've got vague memories of an alien dying because bits fell off his head and the scene on the beach at the beginning. I couldn't remember a thing about the rest of it though which made 'The Leisure Hive' a little more intriguing to watch... The Doctor and Romana decide to forego Brighton Beach and take a much needed holiday on the pleasure planet of Argolis. Ra

I feel a bit sad writing this one as I'm having a blast trawling through Guy N. Smith's back catalogue and 'Beheaded' was the the last book that he was working on before he passed away. There's not a lot more to say than that really; it's sad to know that no matter how many more books of his that I manage to track down, that's the lot now. The bottom line though is that 'Beheaded' is still another Guy N. Smith (and Justin Park, not forgetting him) book for me to read so that's exactly what I did and... Bloody Hell... Angela, a gifted potter, wants to follow her dreams, but trapped in an abusive marriage her life is crumbling around her. Her hatred calls across time, awakening a murderous force that proves to be something far more terrifying than an old man's ghost story. Bloody Hell. What. A. Read. I thought I knew what I was in for with 'Beheaded', basically more pulp horror goodness, and while I got loads of that, I got a w

Looking back at an old blog of mine and not only was it just over eleven years ago that I admitted to never having tried any Fritz Leiber but in all that time since, I never got round to picking any of his books up. Until now that is. To be fair, I spent most of those eleven years reading stories to my girls and that didn't leave me a lot of time for my own reading. And the period between 2015 and 2018... Shit... I was no good for reading anything other than the most comfortable of comfort reading (and reading to my kids of course) Here I am now though and I can finally say that I've done it, I've actually read my first Fritz Leiber book. Go me :o) Being a bit of a 'Sword and Sorcery' fan, there was only one place that I could start and that was with 'Swords and Deviltry', let me tell you all about it. Here is the legendary epic of how the greatest heroes in the annals of fantasy met for the first time. Fafhrd, the white furred princeling of the barbari

Before we get started, it's worth letting you know that these are the words of a man who finished 'Knife of Dreams' but had been burned by 'Crossroads of Twilight' and never finished the series. I still don't really know how it ended, how did it end? Anyone...? What I also am though is a guy who will watch anything on TV if it's fantasy. Okay, within reason' I never watched 'Legend of the Seeker' but I would probably have watched the 'Shannara' TV show if I could have got to it at the time. Anyway... There's still a big 'Fantasy TV' shaped hole in my TV watching so I was always going to give 'The Wheel of Time' a go, even if an tiny part of me was dreading getting bogged down in all the nonsense that the Aes Sedai Ajahs get up to. Yes, I remember only too well... I couldn't resist it though so here goes. First up, I'm not telling you what happens because you've either read the books already or you watche

Because the day before payday, I had about 60p in my account and I really want to do better than that this month. That's the plan anyway, we're off to Greenwich tomorrow and the Oxfam there is always a good bet for some decent fantasy and horror. Lets see how it all goes, shall we...? It's a bit of a late post today because it's been a bit of a day really, one of those days where everyone in the house is fighting something off and you end up wondering if Covid has found its way in again. Sue and I took a test and thankfully, we're both good :o) Looks like the kids have caught a nasty cold and we're just fighting it off, because that's what the weekend is for... So, not as much book buying as you'd normally see but I have treated myself to a couple of bits off Amazon and came across a book I fancied while looking for shoes. Come, take a look (at the books, not the shoes...) I told you I'd be having a copy of 'Songs of the Dying Earth' ;o) I re

Just one more day to get through and it's the weekend. You can do it mate, you're almost there... Ahem... I had such a great time reading 'A Night at the Tarn House' that not only have I gone and ordered 'Songs of the Dying Earth' (which will be a nice little treat to come home to) but then I remembered that Glen Cook's 'The Good Wizard' can also be found in the 'Best of Glen Cook' collection. So instead of waiting for the delivery person to turn up with my book tomorrow, I went and read 'The Good Wizard' last night. I know it has only been a couple of days but just in case you were wondering, I still haven't been able to read any Jack Vance so I'm going back into the world of the Dying Earth having only read one story and that's by George R.R. Martin. Yeah, I know. I haven't made things easy for myself this week so why stop just because it's almost the weekend? ;o) Now, let's talk about 'The Good Wi

Well, it has been one of those weeks this week; what with work kicking things up a gear and having to field Twitter messages from someone whom I suspect is trying to scam me. Don't get me wrong, he's very polite but he's also persistent (I have a feeling that a blocking may well be imminent)... It hasn't been the best week for reading then which is a real shame as 'Brothers of the Wind' is just amazing, hopefully I'll be able to get back into it over the weekend. Short stories always come in handy at times like these as they're basically nice bite sized chunks of story that you can fit into that one hour you have free where you just want to clear your head a bit before jumping back into it. That's why I have short story collections placed strategically round my flat; so that when I need one of those bite sized chunks, there's always one close to hand ;o) I needed some of that last night and 'Tales of the White Wolf' was the collection t

The ‘Great Book Tidy Up’ continues at pace although I’m starting to suspect that all this will mean is that everything just goes under my bed which will be left teetering on top of a massive pile of books. I guess I’ll just have to learn to lie really still when I’m sleeping… 😉 As ever, my tidying up brings up books that I’d put to one side, meaning to read later, only to have them form the basis of brand new TBR piles that I keep meaning to get to and… you know the rest. I’d enjoyed Scott Lynch’s entry in ‘The Book of Magic’ and meant to check out a couple more stories that looked intriguing. Four (and a little bit) months later and I’ve finally got round to reading George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Night at the Tarn House’, a tale that originally appeared in the ‘Songs of the Dying Earth’ collection but can be found here as well. You can also read the story, in its entirety, over Here . The Tarn House; come for the hissing eels, stay for… Three travellers are about to find out that even i

I'll be honest, Spider-Man is one of my least favourite Marvel heroes (nothing against the wall-crawler, there are just a whole load of other heroes that I enjoy more, I still haven't watched 'Far From Home'...) but these trailers for 'No Way Home' are just getting better and better :o)  I guess I'll be watching 'Far From Home' tonight then... ;o)

It's another day back in the office so while I'm getting back into the habit of a commute that's longer than from my bed to my desk, the books that I post about here will be of the 'quick read' variety. There's also the fact that I built up a little stockpile of 'finished books' that I'm working my way through while I get further into 'Brothers of the Wind'. Which is just amazing by the way but lets leave that for now, it won't be long before you see that post here ;o) So, another Guy N. Smith read then and we're headed right back to the start of Smith's horror output. 'The Sucking Pit' was written in 1975 and the 'By The Same Author Page' only lists 'Werewolf by Moonlight'. Guy N. Smith was just getting started then and 'The Sucking Pit' isn't a bad start at all... Deep in Hopwas Woods was a green and peaceful glade. The grass was smooth and weed less, the sun rarely penetrated there, and the

Did I tell you that I'm having a bit of a tidy up of all my books? Didn't I...? Well, that's what I'm doing in between all the other stuff that I need to do; taking some books to the charity shops but boxing a whole load of others (that I do want to read but can't see it happening anytime soon) in an attempt to make my place look less like the basement of a second hand book shop. Which isn't a bad thing but anyway... The good thing about all this is turning up books that I'd bought ages ago and then gone and forgotten about; books like 'The School of Death' for example. I bought this book at the Hilly Fields Fair, back in July, and despite my best intentions... Well, it's November and I'm only just getting to it. Better late than never I guess ;o) While the Doctor makes 'friends' on an orbital space station, Clara discovers a deadly, millennia-old conspiracy when one of her teacher friends goes missing at a prestigious Scottish sch

I'll be completely honest, I pick up Guy N. Smith books wherever I can find them so wasn't really aware that the werewolf had gone away in the first place, let alone come back again... ;o) The title never lies though and despite having never read the first book, I grabbed 'Return' as soon as I saw it (on eBay I think... yep, on eBay ). And then I totally forgot all about it because damn there are too many piles of books at my place and I can't be expected to keep track of all my book buying, can I? I can...? Oh, anyway... 'Return of the Werewolf' is only a tiny little book (a mere one hundred and ten pages long, a slip of a thing in fact) so this will be a quick post. Just to let you know though... The blurb has a pretty big spoiler, if you haven't already read 'Werewolf by Moonlight', so you might want to skip the next paragraph. You've been warned... ;o) The Black Hill werewolf, Philip Owen, has been dead for a year, and there have been n

Today didn't start off looking like the best Saturday ever to be honest... The day began with my being slightly hungover and wishing that payday came a little earlier than next Thursday, typical Saturday morning really ;o) But then it got better. Turned out that all I needed was my ex-wife buying me a fry-up to turn things round :o) And then it got even better than that, seriously :o) I got back to mine and found this book waiting for me... Pride often goes before a fall, but sometimes that prideful fall is so catastrophic that it changes history itself. Among the immortal Sithi of Osten Ard, none are more beloved and admired than the two sons of the ruling family, steady Hakatri and his proud and fiery younger brother Ineluki - Ineluki, who will one day become the undead Storm King. The younger brother makes a bold, terrible oath that he will destroy deadly Hidohebhi, a terrifying monster, but instead drags his brother with him into a disaster that threatens not just their family