Lord Samper's Library

I'm still not quite ready to tackle another Brian Keene series of books but give it time, there's one series that I haven't tried yet and one that's an old favourite of mine. They're both on the table (and by table, I actually mean the ladder that goes up to my little library) but for now, there are still a few stand-alone books left to read and today, we're talking 'Dead Sea'. No talking zombies, not this time anyway, but the question these shambling husks help to pose is still a bastard to answer. A book that makes you think a little then, at the same time as you're wincing to yourself and begging your favourite character to summon up a little more strength and not get bit... Three guesses what I thought of this book then and the first two guesses don't count ;o) The city streets are no longer safe. They are filled instead with the living dead, rotting predators driven only by a need to kill and eat. Some of the living still struggle to survi...

What should have been last Friday's post becomes the first post of this week instead :o) Friday was a bit of a write off, at least as far as blogging went, so instead of trying to force it, I thought I'd save this quick post for a day when things were going to be a little on the heavy side... Funnily enough, a day like today. A few of the miniatures to one side, I was very much an outsider looking in when Games Workshop was doing it's thing in the eighties and nineties so I missed Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy and Blood Bowl. I got there in the end though, by way of the Black Library's prodigious output, and while I've read a fair bit of 40k, Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar, I've never seen any representation for Blood Bowl so I thought I'd have a look and see what I could find. It turns out that there wasn't a lot to be had, at least on Amazon. Out of a choice of something like two books, I went for 'More Guts, More Glory!' and, well...

I'm at the tale end of the cold now where my body has run out of stuff to cough but has also decided that it still needs to cough, both often and very loudly so... A quick post today and then I'm going to try and drown that cough with a Lemsip or two. Whatever it takes basically, I'm in the office tomorrow so I need it to clear up by then, fingers crossed... Anyway... You're being very polite but you're here for the books aren't you? Of course you are? Most of what I've picked up is still headed to me via Royal Mail but some other bits have turned up here; not much but it's all stuff that I'm keen to keep reading. Or have already read, I had to... Starting from the right this time... I enjoyed 'Castaways' so much that I thought it was way past time I gave the series that inspired Keene's book a go and 'The Cellar arrived not long after. It's only a short read (I've finished the whole thing over the last couple of nights) so ...

I was no fit state to see this last night and as it was, I still had to eat pretty much an entire packet of Soothers so that I wasn't coughing the whole way through the film. I just about managed it, timing the unavoidable coughs to coincide with particularly noisy deaths on the big screen. I did it though, I've finally seen 'Cocaine Bear' and it was the most fun I've had in a long time :o) You probably know the plot already but here goes... Bags containing millions of dollars of cocaine are thrown from an aeroplane and scattered across a national park. Drug dealer Syd White wants his cocaine back and sends his son, Eddie, and his fixer Daveed to retrieve as much as they can; nurse Sari is also on the scene but all she's after is finding her runaway daughter before anything bad happens. Something like a Black Bear with a hair trigger temper and a real hankering for cocaine... A film like 'Cocaine Bear' only really needs to do one thing right and that...

 Of course it does :o) 'Cocaine Bear' is released tomorrow and I'll try and catch it then but it's more likely that I'll see it over the weekend. Either way, I'll let you know how it goes ;o)

Page Count: 220 Pages. Content Warning: This review will make mention of rape scenes that take place in the book. I know, it's not Monday and Brian Keene's books are always featured on a Monday... Monday was a complete write off (although I did get a lot of work done), Tuesday saw me wondering whether to quit blogging entirely and the largest chunk of yesterday was spent in bed, trying to get over the latest illness that my kids brought home from school. The sooner this week is done the better ;o) We're here today though, better late than never and all that. I realised that I wasn't quite ready to start another series (so the 'Bastard' books have to wait a little while longer) so opted to make 'Castaways' my next read, a stand-alone book that I hadn't read for a long time, years in fact. Let me tell you about it... They came to the deserted island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one hoped to be the last to leave. Now they...

The last book in the HBR pile... Well, more like the second from last but I can't for the life of me remember where I put my 'Blood Bowl' comic book. Dammit. Anyway... It's been a bit of a week for Warhammer reading but that's never a bad thing, especially when the 'Age of Sigmar' books just seem to be getting better and better. I'm still hoping that there will be a line of 'Old World' books for when the game comes out but in the meantime, the 'Age of Sigmar' setting has really found it's voice and there are loads of cool tales to be told. That'll keep me going in the meantime ;o) I really enjoyed Strachan's 'Thunderstrike' which led me to 'Hallowed Ground' and... Let me tell you about it. The siege of Excelsis is over, and amidst the rubble of the city the survivors count the costs. But for Galen and Doralia ven Denst, two of the most feared witch hunters in the Order of Azyr, the horrors they have witness...

Page Count: 29 Pages. Another short read today, I’m afraid, because damn that was a day I’ve just had… One of those days where you wish you had an extra set of arms (and maybe another head, I don’t know…) so you could work from two laptops at the same time and actually make a dent in all the work you have on. Oh well, it could be worse 😊 Anyway… I’m always partial to a Black Library short read, especially on days like today, they keep the reading muscles exercised but they don’t demand too much out of your day. That’s a deal I can happily work with at the moment 😉 The main thrust of the ‘Horus Heresy’ series looks like it’s finally nearing an end but there are still more tales to be told, far away from the front lines and corridors of power, in places where only a former Oblivion Knight may walk without fear… Amendera Kendel, Agentia Tertius, returns from the investigation of a noble family, finding no traces of guilt. That is, until, they destroy her groundcar in an attempt to...

Page Count: Forty Pages Turns out that the weekend really wasn't one for getting much reading done. It was very much a weekend though for losing the book I was reading (and enjoying), watching 'Big Ass Spider' with my eldest daughter, hanging out and watching 'Big Bang Theory' with eldest and youngest daughter and even managing to find a little time to catch a nasty little cold as well. See? I can be productive when I want to be ;o) I did want to kick off the week with something on the blog though so, on my way home, I had a little look to see if there were any Warhammer short stories that appealed. There were, of course there were, and this time I went for a little Warhammer Crime, a part of the Warhammer 40k universe that I haven't had a lot to do with and wanted to get to know a little more... Life is cheap in the hive city of Varangantua but information? When everyone is on the take, information is without price and the promise of something big has led Pr...

Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines... I hate deadlines and there are loads of them headed my way over the next week at work. Woohoo, can't wait and all that... ;o) You wouldn't believe it but I actually really enjoy my job. I've had enough awful jobs to know when a good one comes along and this is definitely a good one; I just wish it would quieten down a bit sometimes, that's all. Oh well, it's not the worst problem to have... ;o) My blogging plans for the week may have to change though, we'll see how that works out. In the meantime then, lets take a quick look at some of the books that have made their way to mine over the course of the week (and in a couple of cases a little longer than that, I clearly need to keep a better track of things...) All new books this time round, that's what invariably happens when it's payday and I've had another one of those weeks at work... ;o) I treated myself to couple of big comic books this week :o) 'Judge Dredd:...

I didn't quite manage to finish any books for the end of the week (work and well... work really) but here's a quick look at some of the books I have on the go at the moment, Most of it is just a few pages here and there but they're all looking like they're worth sticking with. My main focus is on 'The Dark Between the Trees' which is turning out to a superb read and I'm slightly red-faced that it took me so long to pick up. Better late than never I guess 😀 It won't be too long before I pick up 'Castaways' either, I want to keep my 'Monday Brian Keene Posts' going so it looks as if I'll be reading that over the weekend. Everything else... 'Wereblood' is just the right length for one of next week's 'commuter reads', the others might have to wait for a bit though. What do you think? Is there anything here that you'd like me to pick up before the rest? Leave a comment and let me know 😉

I suspect a whole bunch of this is only going to make sense to people who watched 'The Clone Wars' and that other one... 'Rebels'? Grogu is still adorable though so... I'm in :o) Season 3 of 'The Mandalorian' will be on Disney+ from March 1st...

Having an HBR (Has Been Read) pile is a nice thing to have, from where I’m sat anyway, but can become a problem if you leave it for a while and end up forgetting what you’ve read… ‘Call to Arms’ was on that pile and hadn’t quite reached that point but wasn’t far off so I thought I’d dig out and give it a post all of its own here 😊 I’m enjoying the ‘Age of Sigmar’ books more and more but have still have a little soft spot for the Old World so have been dipping in and out of the ‘Empire Armies’ series every now and then. ‘Call to Arms’ was a book that I read way back in the day, long enough ago though that it felt like I was picking it up for the first time. Let me tell you all about it… Dieter Lanz is a young recruit to the 3 rd Hochland Swordsmen, otherwise known as ‘the Scarlets’. His regiment is called into battle when an Orc army starts to rampage across the countryside, and when the Scarlets are defeated, Hochland is threatened with collapse. Desperate times call for desper...

Page Count: 190 Pages. Yep, I've still got a few DVDs to work my way through (and I really should do something about that...) but I saw this book cheap on Amazon and it was a day ending in a 'Y' so I really needed to treat myself... I was a little too young for this story when it was on the telly (I was only three so maybe I did watch it and just can't remember, I don't know...) but I did read the Terrance Dicks novelisation, years later, and it creeped me out just enough to stay with me and make this a book that I wanted to check out. Even if this edition wasn't actually written by Terrance Dicks, hang on... "We won't find Dracula hanging around the Manor. But we may find something equally disturbing..." The Doctor is delighted when his quest for the Key to Time leads him to his favourite planet, Earth. But his friends are less enchanted: Romana is nearly lured to her death by a sinister apparition, and K9 is all but destroyed by a belligerent ...

Well, it turned out there were only twelve episodes after all and I went through them a little quicker than I'd planned (What? They were good...) so while I catch up on a little reading while I'm headed into work, you lucky folks get to hear all about how I found this second season of 'The Legend of Vox Machina'. If you've been following my previous posts on the series, you can probably take a guess and be confident of getting it right. If you haven't (or if you're just still here...), let me tell you about it. I have the most passing of passing acquaintances with 'Critical Role' (I know it's a thing, that's it) so I have no idea which bits of the show fit with which chunk of the game. All I know, right now, is that no sooner had Vox Machina dealt with those vampire types and come back to the capitol to bask in some well deserved acclaim... A bunch of dragons turn up and level the place. Our heroes must go against the instincts of a lifeti...

Welcome to another Monday you lucky, lucky people... ;o) Did you have a good weekend? I hope you did. Mine was pretty busy but you knew that already... There was time for a little reading here and there though and what with it being Monday and all... You get to take another dive, with me, into all the Brian Keene books that I've been reading (and re-reading). I finished the 'Earthworm Gods' series with 'Selected Scenes from the End of the World' but it was a much shorter read than it's predecessors so I thought I'd give you a little something extra to kick Monday off on. You're welcome... ;o) 'The Last Zombie Vol 1: Dead New World' – Brian Keene & Joseph Wright (Antarctic Press) Follow the frantic journey of a man seeking his one ray of hope in a post-apocalyptic nightmare United States. The zombies have come and (mostly) gone, but the disease is still out there, threatening the survivors. The country swarms with roving packs of wild anim...

Sorry about the 'blog silence' for the last couple of days... Friday was monstrous and by the time it was done, so was I ;o) I had about enough in me to crack open a beer and watch a whole load of Season 2 of 'The Legend of Vox Machina' (made it to about episode ten, of however many episodes are on Prime at the moment, and then I was dozing so I stopped there). There'll be a post to come, about all of that, soon; I'm just debating whether to wait for the season to conclude or divide it into a few 'bite sized' blog posts. And as for Saturday, I'm a complete lightweight so that one beer, on the Friday, resulted in me sleeping through half of it... :o)  But you're not that bothered about my daily comings and goings, are you? Thanks for sitting through my rambling but I know what you're here for. Lets talk about books, the books that turned up at mine over the course of the week. Without further ado, lets go... You can always tell when I've h...

I've finally made it into my loft and rearranged all the books that now live up there... It was great actually :o) If you ever get the chance (and the time), I thoroughly recommend dumping all your books in another room and just going through them for a day or two. I've re-discovered a few old friends as well as a whole load of books that I bought with good intentions and then forgot about... Books like 'The Fog' for example... I was listening to the 'Breakfast in the Ruins' podcast on 'The Fog' and although I'd read it before, figured it was time for a re-read. Well, that was the plan back in November and then everything happened and now it's February and I've just finished reading it. Erm... better later than never? Maybe... Either way, let me tell you all about it ;o) It has come to destroy... It begins with a crack that rips the earth apart. Peaceful village life shattered. But the disaster is just the beginning. Out of the bottomless ...

Runtime: One hour and eighteen minutes. Just a quick one today as today has been rather busy… Not a bad day, just a busy one, but I’ll still be glad when it’s over. In the meantime… It’s also that time of the month where my bank statement reminds me that I have an Audible subscription and Amazon tells me that I have an Audible credit that needs to be spent. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll keep the subscription for, there’s one audiobook that I want to listen to but after that…? Audiobooks are fun but I’ve got a definite preference for regular books and I can’t see that changing any time soon. I used to listen to a lot of ‘Black Library’ audiobooks back in the day (on CD though, showing my age a little…) and I remembered ‘Fireborn’ being a favourite so I thought I’d spend my credit on that and see how (or maybe if…) it had held up over the years. No ‘review recycling’ this time though, not so soon after the last one… The world of Sepulchre IV stands on the brink of destruction. ...

I'm really not planning on doing this too often but work is already gearing up to be a bit of a nightmare this week, and there's only so much of me to go round, so it's time for another re-cycled review. In order to play the 'Re-Cycle Review' card though, three conditions have to be met... Work has to be eating into the rest of the day (a condition that is never too hard to meet at the moment...) It has to be a book that I've actually read recently (I'm not going to mine my old blog for reviews, that kind of takes away the whole point of this blog...) I've got to feel the same about the book as I did when I last picked it up (otherwise, why am I not writing a new review instead?) Darius Hinks' 'Warrior Priest' satisfies the last two conditions and work is going to be a nightmare today so... here we are :o) I get to make a little time back and you get a blog post, fair trade and all that ;o) If you really want to know how I introduced blog pos...

It's Monday so you know what time it is... ;o) After reading 'Earthworm Gods' last week (you can read the review Here if you haven't already), my next Brian Keene read very much chose itself and that's where I've been for a chunk of this weekend. I'll be honest with you. I've got a bit of a soft spot for 'Earthworm Gods II' as it was one of a number of Keene's books that I loaded onto my Kindle after I split up with my wife and had to move out. Those books got me through a number of lonely nights, still do, and I'll always be grateful for Brian for writing them, they really helped. That said then, I'll try my hardest not to be too effusive in my praise but if you've come here looking for an objective review then you might want to come back tomorrow instead. Enough of that though, it's still raining out there and the water is rising... In Brian Keene's cult-classic, Earthworm Gods, global super-storms decimated the plane...