Lord Samper's Library

And Robert E. Howard of course! In a turnaround that I never saw happening, not this week anyway, I've only actually gone and read something! :o) I was looking after my kids tonight and they were sat there reading so I thought it would be rude not to join in. Plus if I hadn't, I would have fallen asleep... But anyway. I've got a sweet little pile of unread comic books so I thought I'd start chipping away at that pile and Conan is always good for a read. I'd enjoyed Volume 1 as well as the adaptation of 'Beyond The Black River' so I figured this volume would be a safe bet as well. And you know what...? Of course it was. Apologies if you've read these stories before but for those of you who haven't, here's some blurb for you... In The People of the Black Circle, the king has just died in the kingdom of Vendhya, struck down by the spells of the black prophets of Yimsha. The king’s sister, Yasmina, decides to avenge him…and contacts Conan, then

The way this week is going, I'll be really lucky if I manage to read anything, let alone finish an actual book. I should probably say, at this point, that it's not a bad week, it's just another one of those weeks where work has exploded and there's really not enough time in the day to get it all done. Oh well, I'm on leave next week (which is a large part of the reason why this week is being a problem...) In the meantime then, I've had to go and search out the 'Emergency HBR' pile ('Has Been Read') for something to write about today. And as it happened, there was only the one book left in said pile. It had to happen. So lets talk about a favourite book of mine then... With the hordes of Chaos marshalling in the north and the Emperor lost, it falls to Reiksmarshal Kurt Helborg to prepare to meet the forces of the Ruinous Powers. The End Times are coming. With the hordes of Chaos marshalling in the north, Emperor Karl Franz leads his armies in de

A shorter post today as I’m scrambling to get stuff done before I go on leave next week, and there is a lot of ‘stuff’ to get done. In the meantime though… The traitor fortress of Mone is under siege. The Astra Militarum of the 11th Antari Rifles Stand against the rebels, desperately seeking a way to break the siege and claim victory. When their captain refuses an order to advance in the face of devastating enemy firepower, it falls to Commissar Severina Raine to marshal the Antari forces and lead them on their dangerous mission. I’ve been meaning to read Rachel Harrison’s ‘Honourbound’ for a long time and I’m finally going to have the chance to do just that in the next couple of days, when Amazon gets its act together. While I’m waiting, I thought I would see if there was any shorter fiction doing the rounds so I could get a feel for what Commissar Severina Raine was all about. And as luck would have it… Black Library’s ‘short reads’ series (not sure if that’s exactly what it’s ca

I wasn’t up to much this weekend, book-wise, so used being on-call as a bit of an excuse to catch up and try and make a dent in the pile of DVDs that I seem to have built up (no idea how that happened etc etc…) I still haven’t quite managed to fully make the leap to Prime and so on… I like having a shelf full of my favourite movies although yes, I really need to do something about the all the ones that I’m clearly not going to watch. But anyway… 😉 I found the ‘Purge’ movies, that I’ve seen, to be a bit of a mixed bag but Youtube did that thing where it threw a whole load of interesting clips my way and before I knew it, I’d somehow convinced myself that it was entirely my own idea to ‘book-end’ my viewing (chronologically, anyway) with the first and last movies in the series. And here’s what I thought… ‘The First Purge’ (2018) To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America test a sociological theory that vents aggression

I'll be honest... I'm paying for not getting much work done last week (I was studying but even so, it's time to make all those hours back) which has left me working today and with absolutely nothing to post here. At least that's what I thought until I saw the 'Wakanda Forever' and 'She-Hulk' trailers... So, apologies for the 'cheat post' but these trailers look awesome (although they also remind me how much 'Marvel Stuff' I still need to catch up on but anyway...) Did I feel a little bit sad watching this trailer? Sure did :o( Won't stop me from watching it though, looks like it's going to be another good one. Two things... First up, who was Jennifer talking to offscreen? Is there a fourth wall thing happening here? And secondly... Daredevil? I can't wait to watch this show :o) Look out for it in August. And now, back to all the work that built up last week... :o(

Despite the best attempts of several computers to stop me, I only went and passed my ITIL V4 Foundation exam yesterday :o) It was a nightmare of a morning as first my laptop betrayed me and then I was dashing about, trying to find another one that would work. Turns out that my eldest daughter's laptop is dreadful at most things but is more than happy to let me sit an exam :o) I scraped a pass but right now, a pass is a pass and I'll take it. Which leads us to this week's books... Here's a mixture of 'Well done' books and books that somehow found their way to mine after I'd had a shitty day at work. It's almost like someone thought I could do with some cheering up... I wonder who that could have been... ;o) As always, it's not a 'Books' post without a Guy N. Smith book to kick things off ;o) I've been on the lookout for a copy of 'Manitou Doll' for a long time now and eBay just so happened to point me at an affordable copy, I was a

Today has just been a little bit too much for this Graeme... Normal service will (hopefully) resume, on the blog, tomorrow but for now, I'm going to leave you with this trailer for 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' as it is easily the most fun I've had all day :o) It's like 'The Legend of Vox Machina' got really drunk with the first 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie and nine months later, this movie was born... I love it :o) I've never watched a 'Dungeons & Dragons' movie but I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for this one in March next year...

I didn’t see myself getting any books read this week, apart from ITIL study books, but I’ve been chipping away at this one (a few pages here and there) and the next thing I knew, it was the last page and I was done. Go me 😊 I don’t think you’ll see another book post this week (seriously, my exam is tomorrow…) but this one isn’t a bad one to be going on with in the meantime 😉 ‘Brak the Barbarian’ has been a favourite of mine for years now but this is only the second time, in a number of years, that I’ve been able to read ‘Brak the Barbarian versus the Sorceress’. These books weren’t so easy to come by, back in the day, and when I did manage to get hold of them, well… I was rubbish at keeping hold of them (not all of it my fault but even so…) Reading ‘Brak the Barbarian versus the Sorceress’ was like a ‘first time read’ then. Let me tell you about it. “The road is long to Khurdisan, barbarian. Beware of Septegundus. I will be there…” Clad only in a lionskin, armed only with his b

I might have to break my 'just Prime, Shudder and Disney' rule, the trailers get better every time (which is kind of the whole point of trailers but you know what I mean...) Check this one out, I really should read the book as well but I don't know if I'm going to to be able to fit that in before the show premieres in August. Oh well, what's a blog for if not to make wild promises that I'll never be able to keep... ;o) I shall read 'Fire & Blood' before the show premieres in August... (Now I've gone and done it...)

Because I'm not just about the old stuff ;o) Ever since the BBC closed the 'iPlayer Loophole' (and to be fair, they really had to) I've had real trouble staying up to date with the latest adventures of Jodie Whittaker's Doctor. Okay... I've fallen so far behind that the only way I figured I'd get a feel for what 'current Doctor Who' was about would be to pick up the latest 'specials' and have a watch. That and I'd get to see Daleks, I love Daleks ;o) So while I'm studying and trying to read a few pages, of books that I actually want to read, here and there, let me tell you about 'Eve of the Daleks' and 'Legend of the Sea Devils'... 'Eve of the Daleks' Welcome to the New Year's Eve from hell. Sarah is working – again. Nick is her only customer – again. Same old, same old. Excecpt this year, their countdown to midnight will be the strangest and deadliest they've ever known. Why is an Executioner Dal

I was trying to read my ITIL notes last night, exam on Friday, and I couldn’t even finish them, let alone read an actual book. That’s how my week seems to be going so far, how about you? It was far too hot last night for anything apart from watching a bit of telly, so that is just what I did 😊 It’s not just books that pile up in my flat… Despite Prime Video, Shudder and Disney+ all wanting a piece of me, I’ve got a bit of a habit of picking up DVDs that look like they could be fun. Just in case all the streaming services collapse, erm… it’s just me that thinks that, isn’t it? Anyway… At the bottom of a pile of books, I found ‘Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger’ and a little bit of Ray Harryhausen action felt like just the thing for me… Sinbad, daring sailor and Prince of Baghdad, sets sail towards Charnak seeking permission from Prince Kassim to wed his sister, Farah. But Sinbad discovers that Kassim has been placed under a spell by their fiendish stepmother, Zenobia. To break the wick

'The Reavers and the Dead' is taken from the Games Workshop (way back before there was even a Black Library...) collection 'Ignorant Armies'. I'm going to warn you in advance that this coming week is going to be a bit of a patchwork affair on the blog. Work is kicking off in a way that it hasn't done for a while and I've got an exam to study for on Friday. And has anyone noticed just how hot it is...? ;o) My reading plans have gone right out of the window this week; they're more or less 'get to Friday night and see what you're able to pick up...' I'm falling back on the familiar refuge of short stories then, at least for today, and I thought I'd pay a visit to 'Ignorant Armies', a collection that I haven't picked up for ages. I've read 'Geheimnisnacht' already and next up was 'The Reavers and the Dead', a title that promised an awful lot. Did it deliver though...? Not really. As Ragnar One-Eye's r

It's that time again where Youtube throws me a 'Shudder' advert and I think to myself, 'I'm paying five quid a month for this, I really should watch something, lets give it a go...'   This time round, 'It' was the film 'Mad God' and the trailer was this mad batshit crazy shot of stop-motion horror that was over before I'd had a chance to get my head round it; leaving me pretty unsettled but with no clear idea just why that was... That's all I need sometimes, I was in... It's almost an hour later and, damn, that was grim, bleak and... What the hell just happened? A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. That is about all I can tell you about 'Mad God' and that's only because I had a quick look on IMDB and that was all IMDB could tell me... 'Mad God' is any number of things but it's not

It's going to be a quick one today as the rest of Saturday got filled up with all sorts of interesting stuff and there isn't a lot of time left for anything too in-depth. That's ok though as I've been rooting around my TBR piles, just recently, and came up with 'Death Squad', a comic book that I bought back in February when I was mid-way through a Sven Hassel phase (and I really need to dig out those books, that I haven't read yet, and keep reading) and Amazon suggested that I picked up this book as well. So that's exactly what I did and several months later, here I am. Better late than never and all that ;o) I never read 'Battle' comic when I was a kid (I got the 'Victor' comic and I was happy with that, thank you very much) and I'd never really read it as an adult either so was interested to see what I'd get here. Lets just say it's got me in the mood for a little more Sven Hassel in my reading... Meet the deadliest band o

Well, three out of four wasn't bad... ;o) The plan for this week was to read all these books but 'Empire of Grass' took a larger than expected chunk out of the week so 'Brak vs The Sorceress' will have to wait it's turn until next week. I didn't do too badly though and managed to post about the following tales... 'Alligators' (Guy N. Smith) 'Empire of Grass' (Tad Williams) 'The Way Down The Hill' (Tim Powers) I'm aiming for another good reading week next week although I do have an exam to study for so that could all change. Lets see... And this is why today's post is all about the bookhaul ;o) I had to pick up my heart medication the other day (and god do I feel old saying that...) and Crofton Books is only a ten minute walk away so I thought to myself 'why not...?' The danger with visiting your local second hand bookshop too often is that the stock never has a chance to replenish but I got pretty lucky and came home

‘The Way Down The Hill’ can be found in the collection ‘Strange Itineraries’ (Tachyon Press).  I was pretty shattered, after a sprint through the last hundred or so pages of ‘Empire of Grass’, so fancied something a little shorter but hopefully just as sweet. Luckily for me, I’d already re-discovered my Tim Powers collection and decided that it was time for me to dive back in and have another read. This is going to be a short post by the way, mostly because ‘The Way Down The Hill’ is a very short read but also because it has been a long day and I’m just about done… So then, how did I find ‘The Way Down The Hill’…? ‘ The Way Down The Hill’ is 'The Eternals' writ on a much smaller scale but somehow all the better for it. With the characters more 'present' for the reader; the mysteries become that much more engaging as the players are right there with you not separated by their lack of humanity. It's a simple yet very effective tool to get people on board, it didn

While I try and get my head round how I feel about a Tim Powers short story (post coming up shortly), have a look at the 'Rings of Power' trailer... I'm now officially really excited for this :o) I know there's a little 'Based On...' caveat in there but I believe that there are tales in 'The Rings of Power' that are well worth the telling and I can't wait to see them. 'The Rings of Power' premieres, on Prime Video, on the 2nd of September.

These past few years, I’ve been absolutely awful at finishing larger books for a number of reasons, no matter who the author. Work has been the chief culprit for the most part but plain old anxiety has also had a part to play, stopping my reading before I get a hundred pages into any book that needs both hands to hold. Sometimes though, you have to take a leap and just read otherwise the story gets away from you and you’ve lost out. And that was the case with ‘Empire of Grass’, a book that I’d had to put down a year ago (see the reasons above) but wanted to read before I tackled ‘Into The Narrowdark’. And it’s Tad Williams! ‘Empire of Grass’ was never going to remain unread for long 😉 The heat woke me up far too early this morning so I took the opportunity to finally finish the book off, and what a ride it has been. Bring on ‘Into the Narrowdark’… The kingdoms of Osten Ard have been at peace for decades, but now, the threat of a new war grows to nightmarish proportions. Simon an

I’m not sure what happened here, most likely an amazing run of luck on eBay, but I used to be so good and keeping up with my Guy N. Smith reading and now I’m a good fifteen books behind at least… Like I said, an amazing run of luck on eBay, I’ve gone from not being able to find books to finding them faster than I can read them. Not a bad problem to have though 😉 I couldn’t leave a pile of Guy N. Smith books for that long though, not without reading them, so I thought I’d get started last night and read ‘Alligators’… Freeing the alligators from the reptile zoo is the very last act of defiance by two Animal Rights activists. For, horrifyingly, the primeval monsters turn on their liberators with sudden savage fury. Now they have tasted human flesh – they want more. Hiding in the river, they mutilate and devour their unwary victims. Poachers, campers, illicit lovers, straying children… the appalling daily toll of victims increases. Now men and reptiles must match their strength an

Where do you stand on the whole 'remake/reboot movie' question? It won't surprise you to learn that I'm somewhere in the middle ;o) On the one hand, of course I want to see original movies or at the very least, see movies tackle source material that hasn't already been mined. On the other hand though, one of my all time favourite movies is a remake and I've got to say that, well... If you can improve on the original then why not? And yes, the 2004 version of 'Dawn of the Dead' is a very different movie but I still think that it does a lot of stuff better than the original. Hang on, I'm off on a tangent again... :o) After watching 'Child's Play' the other day, I thought I'd give the 'remake/reboot' a go and see if and how well it held up to the original. And while I was at it, I found a DVD of the 'Fright Night' remake lurking in a TBR pile and figured why not give that a shot too while I was there. And that was exac

I'd more or less stopped doing these posts as I just wasn't getting the books read and it had reached the point where I could have just posted any old picture and still not read the book... Where was the point in that? I'm feeling a little more confident about this week's reading, this time round, so here goes and we'll see how it pans out this time next week... I had to put 'Empire of Grass' down, last year, as it just wasn't working for me back then. Right now though? I'm just over halfway through and it's a slow burner but it's so richly detailed (and the new characters have a found their voice now) that I don't mind; I'm in it until the end now. I'd like to finish it this week, so I can start on 'Into The Narrowdark', but I'll be a little sad when I do. We'll see... I'm in the office, a couple of days this week, so I've picked a couple of shorter reads for the commute (or for the end of a long day when

This isn't your regular 'book haul' post, more a book haul that has happened over a lot longer period of time than just a week...I'm still a book short of finishing off the collection but I'm unlikely to find a copy of 'The Book of Kane' (not in hardback anyway, I've got the Kindle edition but it doesn't look the same on the shelf does it?) , not unless I go absolutely mad after payday and resolve not to eat for the following month... Of course I'll keep an eye open but deep down, I think my collection will probably stop here and you know what? I'm ok with that. Check these beauties out... I first came across Karl Edward Wagner's Kane in Norwich market, far too many years ago now, where a copy of 'Dark Crusade' was nestled in amongst a massive pile of old paperbacks. It proved to be easily the best 20p I've ever spent (you can read my review Here ) and I read that old copy to death over the next far too many years. It never oc