Lord Samper's Library

Sorry, I couldn't help myself... Actually, I could but chose not to... ;o) Anyway... Sorry for not being around, the last couple of days, but life kind of took over and demanded I put the book down and do other stuff instead. Which was a shame because the book in question was bloody good, I'll tell you about it tomorrow. 'Dead Bait 2' though... Now, here's a book that I ended up buying for the Guy N. Smith story inside. Yep, I have turned into the kind of guy who hunts down short story collections just to get hold of one story... I'm not sure how I feel about that to be honest, I'd say 'middle aged' but that seems to be how I feel about everything at the moment ;o) This was just going to be a post about Guy N. Smith's 'The Fish Thing' but that was only six pages long and I wanted to make a little bit more of the limited reading time that I had today so... Steve Alten's 'Lost in Time' was right next to 'The Fish Thing...

No, not that 'Walking Dead' although it may feel like the show has been around for as long as this book has ;o) Nope, it's time for another installment in my read through of all things pulp horror and Guy N. Smith... Not of a lot of reading has happened this week and I didn't want to hit today not having posting something bookish so it was a bit of a no-brainer to round things off with a short, sharp dose of Guy N. Smith. Especially as it was 'The Walking Dead', I'm not so hot at finding 'Guy N. Smith Sequels' so it felt like a bit of a treat when I found this book and now I've finally got round to reading it... He sank deeper, deeper... The black sullen water closed over his head. Bubbles of vile-smelling marsh gas rose from the slime and mud of the pool. Still deeper he sank, eyes staring, wide-open. Now strange figures - human figures - swam before him with weed-entangled hair and outstretched, beckoning arms. An unearthly siren song of des...

I love zombie movies (even the bad ones, especially the bad ones sometimes…) and I have a particular soft spot for the ‘Resident Evil’ movies. I’ve yet to watch a decent one but they’ve all got a lot of heart and they’re all a lot of fun to watch. I’ve never really played the games though… I had a go at ‘Resident Evil 2’, way back in the day but never made it out of the initial alleyway, let along into the police station. Maybe if I’d seen ‘Welcome to Raccoon City’ first, I might have stood a better chance… Raccoon City, which was once a booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, is now a dying Midwestern town. The company's exodus  left the city a wasteland... with great evil brewing beneath the surface. When that evil is unleashed, a group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night. I’m not the world’s biggest ‘Resident Evil’ fan but if there’s a new film to be watched then you can bet that I’ll be watchi...

Episode 10 – ‘Depths of Deceit’ Episode 11 – ‘Whispers at the Ziggurat’ Episode 12 – ‘The Darkness Within’ This should have been a post that appeared over the last weekend but damn that was a weekend… I was far too busy hanging out with my kids and by the time that was over, work was on hand to give me a bit of a kicking (not too painful, work just likes to let me know that it’s important sometimes 😉 ) By the time that had sorted itself out… Well, I had to go back and watch the last three episodes all over again, just to remind myself what had happened 😊 And that wasn’t a huge chore, far from it. It was actually a bit of a treat to myself. ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ has been a real highlight of my week, over the last few weeks, and I found myself in that slightly bittersweet place where I was really looking forward to seeing how it all came together, at the end, but at the same time being just a little bit sad that it was coming to an end. Well, for a little while, until Se...

Sorry for the shorter than normal post but it has been another one of those days and it has only just come to an end... Not a bad day, just really intense and I'm done now. Book reviews are on the horizon, I just need to find some time to actually do some reading! In the meantime, have some 'Conan' in comic book form... It's been a long time since I last paid 'Forbidden Planet' a visit and I finally got a chance to take my daughters in and get them all acquainted with the geeky stuff, they loved it :o) It wasn't just all about them though, I got to explore the shelves and found some 'Conan' to take home with me. I've always been keen to see where Marvel take 'Conan', now they are holding the rights, and it turns out that they've taken him over the Western Sea, to an island full of trouble... I'd like to think that I'll be off to the comic shop (any will do) each month to pick this title up but I've got to face up to the ...

Sorry about the silence over the last couple of days... My ex-wife was away for the weekend so I had my daughters to hang out with and otherwise keep occupied, which I did and it was awesome (apart from being caught out in the middle of Storm Eunice, that was bloody dreadful but that's another story). The other side though was that I thought I'd have time to blog or read, after bedtime, and that didn't happen at all, I was shattered and only good for catching up on the rest of 'The Legend of Vox Machina' before falling asleep. And now I've got to go back to work in a few hours... Let me show you book pictures in the meantime... Payday was on Friday and we all know what that means... ;o) And it turns out that the girls love going round Forbidden Planet and we all know what that means... ;o) Take a look at these beauties, These are a bit of a cheat because I didn't actually buy them (my ex-wife found them) but they did come home with me so here they are ;o) I ...

The Youtube algorithm has pretty much given up on me at this point and just throws me anything that it thinks might hold my attention for more than a few seconds. Stories about dogs being rescued are always a decent bet as are those 'Kill Count' videos for movies where, you know... And that's where I first came across 'The Domestics' the other day. Now, I used to be a domestic assistant (in a psychiatric hospital) which may be why I never bothered with this movie when it first came out. Shows how wrong I was... What I got was a four and a bit minute clip of people dying in all sorts of ways against a weird looking backdrop of post-apocalyptic suburbia. And last night, after the day I'd had, it turned out that was just what I needed for an evening's viewing. Let me tell you all about it. In a terrifying post-apocalyptic world inhabited by sadistic gangs divided into deadly factions, Nina and Mark race desperately across the devastated and lawless countryside...

I'm not going to go into loads of detail but take it from me, yesterday was appalling. The kind of 'first day back at work after being on leave' where you have to ask yourself what on earth possessed you to take a couple of days off in the first place. Oh well, it's almost the weekend... After all that then, all I was really good for last night was comfort eating and comfort reading. 'The Justice of Kings' is an amazing read, and I hope to tell you more about it soon, but what I wanted was a book that I knew inside out so wouldn't have to worry too much about concentrating on the words. Step forwards, 'Brak the Barbarian'... I first came across 'Brak the Barbarian' years ago (and it really is years ago, damn I feel old) on holiday in Norfolk when I was trailing after my family, shopping, and came across the first two books on the paperback rack (well I think they were the first two, the numbering seems to change or it might just be that I...

The plan wasn't to buy books, not at all. The plan was very much to spend Monday doing 'museum stuff' with my two daughters. And we did, but 'book stuff' happened as well. The other reason that you're getting this today is that in a few hours, I'll be turning on my work laptop in abject fear of all the possible things that could have gone wrong in the two days that I was off work. This seemed like a nice easy post to do while I'm worrying about work... ;o) The books though... I wasn't planning on books but books happened. Check this little lot out... I can never remember the name of the bookshop but if you come out of South Kensington station and head towards the Natural History Museum, you'll find it. All the books are cheap as well which makes it easier to pick something up while you're there ;o) I have never read 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' and... that was pretty much it. I've never read 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' so I b...

I've had to change my reading plans a little, this week, as as my daughters are both on their half term break and I've had to take a little time off so they're not left on their own (because god no-one wants that). Not a lot of time for reading then and that's before I go back to work tomorrow on what is going to be a particularly busy day (I can't wait for that one...) So, 'The Justice of Kings' is very much still on my radar then (it's brilliant, that's why) but I've got no time, right now, to stick with a thick book like that... What is a Graeme to do...? Read something tiny, that's what... ;o) Before I tell you all about 'Destiny of the Daleks' though, lets take a second to admire the staying power of a physical book that's more sellotape than paper. This edition was published in 1979 and it's clear that the book has either been much loved or just really unlucky. The state of the pages suggests an almost fatal encounte...

Am I missing something here? I thought Marvel had all the rights to Conan stories (which was why Dark Horse weren't able to publish 'Conan' anymore...)? I'm not quite sure what happened here but at the end of the day, it's 'Conan' in comic form and that's never a bad thing ;o) I'll pick up any comic that's 'Fantasy' and so 'The Cimmerian' proved to be an easy buy. It's taken me a while to get round to posting about it though, purely because I picked up issue 2 first and it look me a little while longer to track down a copy of issue 1... Blame payday only falling once a month ;o) I got there in the end though and today seemed like as good a time as any to look at these comics. I fell foul of the 'Variant Cover Lottery' but what's inside more than makes up for this. Issues 1 and 2 of 'Beyond the Black River' collect the Robert E. Howard story of the same name this time round, you get a little extra for your ...

And so my journey to catch up with all the classic 'Doctor Who' stories that I either watched or read, as a kid, continues, via wherever I can find them on DVD (because the thrill is in the chase). 'The Deadly Assassin' was first shown in 1976 and I would have all of about a year old so if I did watch back then, I can't remember it. I first came across this tale via the library and was immediately struck by the cover, check it out... Honestly, a cover like this pretty much demands that you read the book, especially if you're me ;o) It was a little while longer before I'd get to watch the story and even longer before I'd finally get a chance to watch it again. Here we are though, let me tell you all about 'The Deadly Assassin'...(with some spoilers, this story is forty six years old now...) Gallifrey. Planet of the Time Lords. The Doctor has come home, but not by choice. Summoned by a vision from the Matrix, he is drawn into a web of political ...

Because it's the last week before payday and book hunting tends to slow down to a crawl at around about this time. It's not just that though, I'm also trying to get through the massive backlog of books in my flat. There's nothing quite like a flat full of books but I've been running out of room, to keep them, for a while now and I need to take action. 'Varying degrees of success' best describes my efforts but I'll keep trying ;o) Having said all of that though, if I see interesting books then of course I'm still going to buy them :o) Luckily for me, there were only a couple that I saw this week. Here they are, I will never not buy a Moorcock book if I see it.... ;o) I've never read 'King of the City' so am looking forward to giving it a read. I'm not sure quite when that will be though, it's not like I don't have loads to read first. It's a 'definite read' though, no question about it. And 'The Red Knight'....

Episode 7 – 'Scanbo' Episode 8 – 'A Silver Tongue' Episode 9 – 'The Tide of Bone I'm not going to lie but I am going to swear a little... This week has been fucking dreadful. I won't go into details, I know you're just here for the posts (and I'm cool with that, but it has and I'm glad that it's over. As a little 'well done' to myself, I ordered pizza and sat myself down for the latest three episode helping of 'Vox Machina'. It's nice to have a show that gives you something to look forward to, each week, and 'Vox Machina' is exactly that, especially when I can time new episodes to coincide with the end of the working week. I can't lose and Episodes 7-9 turned out to be just what I needed. The Battle for Whitestone is joined in earnest and these new episodes take us from minor skirmishes to a full on fight for the town between its residents and the contents of the local graveyard. Now, you know how much I ...

A lot of the time, you can see a ‘Did Not Finish’ coming at you from a distance. A book clearly isn’t working for you, whatever the reason, and you know, at the back of your mind, that eventually you will stop reading and that will be that. Sometimes though, a ‘Did Not Finish’ can creep up on you when you are least expecting it and you suddenly realise that the last time you picked a particular book up was the last time you’d ever pick it up. That’s what happened to me with ‘The Spread, Book 2’… Ryan and Aaron have escaped the cottage by the hill and finally made it to the village where they hope to find safety, but the threat of the quickly spreading fungus is only growing worse, and not everyone in the village welcomes strangers. It's time to meet the locals.. I’ve gone back and read my post on Book 1 of ‘The Spread’ and I’m a little bit embarrassed now as I was all full of ‘I’m definitely going to read the whole series etc etc’ and here I am, effectively dropping out of the...

I've just seen this on Youtube and I love the 'Jurassic Park'/'Jurassic World' movies (yep, even 'Jurassic Park 3') so I was never not going to post the trailer here. I mean, it's dinosaurs! And Jeff Goldblum! And more dinosaurs! Check it out...  'Jurassic World Dominion' is out in June this year. 

And that's another season of TV watched :o) I'd been really looking forward to watching 'The Book of Boba Fett', ever since that end scene in Season Two (I think) of 'The Mandalorian'. Back from the dead and ready to take over the Tatooine Underworld, what's not to love about that? Well, the concept is still sound but the execution, over the last few weeks, has been choppy to say the least. From stories that probably didn't need to be told to sidelining the main character in favour of someone cooler, 'The Book of Boba Fett' attracts issues like flies on Bantha crap. At the same time, it's been really watchable (even when it shouldn't have been) and while I'll quite happily drop a show if it's not working for me, 'The Book of Boba Fett' wasn't quite there yet so... There I was this morning, watching the Season Finale. And what did I think...? It was awesome but once again, probably not for the reasons that it wanted to ...

I've had my eye on a copy of DMR Books' 'Renegade Swords II' for a while now but apparently not that much of an eye or I'd have realised, a lot earlier than the other day, that there was a Karl Edward Wagner story to be found within... It hasn't been the easiest few weeks so I'm not surprised that I didn't notice, to be fair ;o) Once I realised though, I had myself a copy of the collection pretty much straight away. There may well be a part of the world where Karl Edward Wagner's books are easily affordable but I don't live there, if something like this comes up then I don't hang about. 'Killer' eventually became a full novel in the nineteen eighties but for now, we're heading back to the seventies and a story that was a lot shorter... No-one knew what the creature was... Not the Sarmatians who saw a hilltop explode and found a blue skinned creature in the middle of the rubble. Not Vonones, buyer of curiosities for the arena who...

It's been about a month since the last 'Doctor Who' post (or if not, it feels like it has...) and despite my best intentions, I didn't manage to finish any books this weekend so... It felt like exactly the right time to grab another 'Doctor Who' DVD and settle down for the evening ;o) And yes, I know there's Britbox; I'm operating a 'one in, one out' rule for streaming services and I'm not quite ready to drop 'Shudder or Disney+ just yet. Maybe another time but not today, But anyway... 'Arc of Infinity' is one of those stories that I only have vague memories of seeing back in the day (I was only seven, at the time, though so I'm not beating myself up about that), mostly around Omega going green as he slowly degenerated. I got to revisit that moment again, along with a few more... This story is pushing forty years old (like I didn't feel old enough already) so I'm not going to be shy about spoilers, that's your war...

Episode 4: 'Shadows at the Gates' Episode 5: 'Fates Journey' Episode 6: 'Spark of Rebellion' This last week, I've been 'that guy' who obsessively checks Amazon Prime for new episodes of his favourite show. That's 'The Legend of Vox Machina' by the way, it's brilliant :o) And then I realised that all I needed to do was just ask Twitter and by the time I got round to asking Twitter, I only had to wait for one more day... Thanks Twitter ;o) So, I got there in the end :o) Let me quickly tell you about Episodes 4-6... When we last left Vox Machina, they had managed to upset a diplomatic function and were in the process of being locked up, in their own keep, while an investigation took place. This isn't the end of it though, Percy wants revenge on the Briarwoods while the Briarwoods realise that they've left something behind that they really need... So I settled down to watch 'Shadows at the Gate' and the next thing I ...