Lord Samper's Library

I'm not going to go into details because you don't need to know all that. Lets just say that everything has suddenly got a bit too much and something had to give. And as always, this poor blog has to take the hit :( Right now, I'd love to say the blog will be back but right now, that's looking unlikely. Lets cross our fingers and see what happens... In the meantime, there's plenty here for you to get stuck into; just click on a label and see what pops up ;o) I will see you when I see you...

Because to be honest... Work has been relentless and even when it finally comes to an end, there's still plenty of other things that absolutely have to be done this minute. And that's fair enough, life and all that ;o) It doesn't make for a particularly interesting post here though, does it...? Nope, of course it doesn't. What you're here for are the books and there are plenty of those to be had this week. It's funny how the number of books goes up in relation to how stressful the week is, there might be something in that... ;o) But anyway, on with the books, I've had my eye on 'Paperbacks from Hell' for a long time now and after a particularly long old meeting on Wednesday, I caved in and treated myself to a copy. I'm having a lot of fun just opening pages at random and reminding myself what horror used to be like back in the 70s and 80s when the closest I could get to it was sneaking a look at the occasional blurb while Mum was doing the shoppi

The way things have been the last week or so, I've been seeking out comfort reads where I can get the story but not have to pay too much attention at the same time. You know what I mean? Old favourites are good for when your brain needs a break to recharge 😉 I've got any number of books that I'd class as a 'comfort read' but it was Gemmell's 'Legend' that drew me back in for a very welcome re-read. I mustn't leave it so long next time 😊 Daily demands being what they are though, I haven't got the time to get my thoughts down in a post so I thought I'd recycle what are essentially the same thoughts and feelings from a blog post elsewhere and elsewhen 😉 I've trimmed it a little bit so you can click Here if you want to see me moaning about caravanning holidays. For everyone else though, here goes... The Legend Druss, Captain of the Axe: the stories of his life were told everywhere. Instead of the wealth and fame he could have claimed, he

It's kind of late in the day but, what a day it's been. Not going to lie, you're lucky to have this post as what I really want is to go to bed and try to get a head start on tomorrow ;o) I'm here now though and while I am, I'll bring you another one of those short stories that I've been squeezing into the gaps between work and other things... So the Audible subscription crept up and surprised me again but that's ok. I've been enjoying going back and listening to some older Warhammer 40K audiobooks which are proving to be just as good at getting me through the commute as they were back in the day. I'm a little bit older now but selfish commuters still annoy me, just as much as they did when I was in my twenties, so a little bit of 'grimdark war' in my ears can really go a long way to keeping my blood pressure on an even keel (the tablets help more though). With that said then, lets talk about an old favourite of mine then... On Malinter, th

Sorry for the 'blogging silence', these last few days, and more apologies that this is a going to be a very short post. Life has kind of caught up with me, these last few days, and unfortunately it will always be the blog that takes the hit. That's kind of just the way it is. I'm here now though and in the spirit of the whole ' far too late but here we are' theme, here are a couple of books that I really should posted months ago but... Here we are ;o) These two books have been on a tiny pile marked 'Blog Post' and every time I got round to it, something else would happen. So, before something else happens again... I love me some 'Kane' (and that reminds me, I really should do that re-read soon...) so I was all over 'In A Lonely Place' when I finally got paid last time round. It's a collection of short stories so expect to see a few of these pop up here and there. And 'Hell Hound'... 'What are the possibilities of my streng

I didn't even know that the 'Warlocks and Warriors' anthology was even a thing until I was on eBay, looking to revisit Douglas Hill's 'Last Legionary' series. It very much was though so of course I had to have a copy. And this week being what it was, reading time has been at a real premium, it was pretty much inevitable that I'd be dipping into this collection; especially when I realised that the rest of the week has mostly been Black Library works (nothing wrong with that at all but I fancied a change). The problem I find with Sword & Sorcery collections is that they're all drawing from the same well so it's a question of how many stories you've already read. Doesn't stop me buying them though ;o) The 'Warlocks and Warriors' collection was a bit of a welcome surprise then in that there was only the one story that I'd read before ('The Sleeping Sorceress' of course). Luck of the draw or a little reminder that there

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts (way back in November last year, which feels like an awfully long time ago now)… Looking back at it, ‘Death to the Daleks’ put me off watching any more and when I finally got round to giving something else a go, my DVD player decided not to co-operate. I really should get Britbox I suppose, maybe one day. Anyway… One new TV later, and a copy of ‘Frontios’ that turned up a couple of days ago, and I was ready to give classic ‘Doctor Who’ another shot. And ‘Frontios’ ended up being a pretty good choice. An irresistible force draws the TARDIS to the barren surface of Frontios, where in the far future the last surviving humans cower amongst the ruins of their wrecked spacecraft. Under constant threat from lethal meteorite bombardments, few of the doomed colony realise that the ground of Frontios itself opens up and devours the unwary. Not permitted to assist, the Doctor’s attempt to leave is thwarted when the unimaginable occurs, the

Yesterday was a day in the office and as always, that meant a little short story action on the bus in so I didn't miss my stop. It's only ever happened the once, and there was a lot of alcohol involved at the time, but that was enough for me. Dartford's alright but you don't want to be hungover there in the middle of the night... But anyway. I always have a short story or two, on my Kindle App, for the commute into work and yesterday's read was a very easy choice. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Blood Sands' (Review Here) so 'The Carbis Incident' it was then... A century ago, the world of Carbis was cut off from the Imperium by warp storms. History says that none escaped to warn the wider Imperium of whatever dangers beset the world – but a journal in the possession of Inquisitor Venicii says otherwise… Now the inquisitor has come to the beleaguered planet along with his warband to discover the truth. A truth that could provide Venicii with a powerful weapon

The weekend was a number of things (mostly making sure my kids each got a fair go on the PS4, easier said than done, with occasional breaks for food) but one thing it certainly wasn't was conducive to actually getting any reading done. I wouldn't swap it at all but sometimes, all I want is some time to myself where I can really make a dent in the TBR pile... But anyway. I got the bus back last night and used the time to get stuck into another Black Library short story on the ol' Kindle. The Imperial Guard (yeah I know but it's late and I have a habit of 'overspelling' Militarum if I'm not careful...) have a few new stories out and doing the rounds and I never need much of an excuse to read a 'Guard' book. I'd also never read anything by Victoria Hayward so 'Blood Sands' pretty much chose itself as my next read. And once I'd finished 'Blood Sands', I went straight back to Amazon and bought 'The Carbis Incident', same a

Once again, I'm years behind everyone else but I got there in the end... I finally went and bought myself a PS4 the other day (for the kids, he said, and precisely no-one believed him) and that's what I was doing most of yesterday :o) My eldest daughter loves 'Little Nightmares' so I bought that and we had some time playing that. Well, she was watching ;o) My youngest loves anything Lego so this time round, that meant a few hours working our way through 'Jurassic Park'. Turns out that all she ever wanted was to be a Lego Triceratops and go stomping around Jurassic Park... If I'd known that before, well... This post would have been posted a long time ago... ;o) But you're here for the books, aren't you? Thanks for bearing with me and letting me talk ;o) Lets take a look at the books that found their way here over the last seven days. 'Scourge of the Betrayer' is one of those books that I've always meant to read and it was an 'Amazon De

Yes, I know that everyone else has already watched 'House of the Dragon' and said probably everything there is to say about it. Not me though, I never seem to watch TV shows at the same time as everyone else and come to the conversation at around about the time that everyone else has packed up and moved on to the next show. Dammit. I'm not as late to the party as I was to 'Game of Thrones' (I started watching the first season when everyone else was gearing up for the Red Wedding...) so maybe there's hope for me yet ;o) In the meantime, lets see if I can add anything new to what has already been said about 'House of the Dragon'... I'm working on the assumption that everyone else has already watched the show so if you haven't, beware of possible spoilers to come. The show is set 172 years before Danaerys Targaryen started measuring herself up for the Iron Throne and the Targaryen's rule under the kingship of Viserys. The King grows old though

This is going to be a short post today as I was working late last night and there’s a strong possibility that it’s going to happen again this evening… Oh. Joy 😉 Yep, last night was busy and very quickly put paid to those lovely reading plans that I had. Luckily, my Kindle App always has a few short reads standing by, just in case, and that’s where I ended up turning to after it had all calmed down. It won’t surprise you to learn that I went for another Black Library short read because of course I did 😉 It was ‘Astra Militarum’ this time round (or ‘Imperial Guard’ if you’re as old as I am), another look at the Death Korps of Krieg and an answer to a question you maybe didn’t even realise you had… Disrespect the warriors of Krieg at your peril… A Mordian colonel pulls rank over a regiment of Death Korps of Krieg in an attempt to quickly end a war against the T'au Empire. Will the Death Korps give their lives to the Emperor as readily as the colonel supposes though? And if no

Page Count: 254 pages Sometimes, it takes a while to find the right book... I'd given Richard Laymon a go, a few years ago now, with 'Flesh' and 'One Rainy Night' and they weren't bad books but they didn't grab me either. I really wanted to enjoy Richard Laymon but it wasn't looking good at that point. So I left it a little while and being honest, completely forgot about it until I read Brian Keene's 'Castaways', the other day, and found out a little about the story behind that book. Once I knew where the inspiration for 'Castaways' came from, I had to go and grab a copy of 'The Cellar' and dive in .And I'm really glad I did. It does take a while to find the right book (and that's no-one's fault, just the way that the dice lands) but if you do find that book, it's well worth the wait. I really wish that I'd read 'The Cellar' first... Visitors flock to see the Beast House with it's blood soa