Lord Samper's Library

I’m still that person who forgets he has Shudder and then goes on a mad watching spree to somehow try and justify the expense… I’d like to say that I’ll sort myself out but I’m a regular creature of habit so that’s not going to happen ;o) Halloween got me in the mood for some horror but after the bleak horror of ‘Lockdown Tower’, I needed something a little more light-hearted so when I realised that Season 4 of ‘Creepshow’ was on ‘Shudder’ and I had no other plans for Sunday, my afternoon and evening pretty much took care of itself. Just under six hours later… ‘Creepshow’ was just what I needed to get me over the bleakness of ‘Lockdown Tower’. It was a good mix of laughs, unsettling moments, full on scary bits and some particularly unlikeable people getting what they deserved. Not all of the episodes worked for me but enough did to make the Season a success, for me overall. Episodes are below followed by some quick thoughts on each… Episode 1 – ‘Twenty Minutes with Cassandra’ & ‘S

Saturday was going to be the day that I let the estate agent in, to show people around my flat, and once they’d gone, I’d settle down with any one of a number of books that I really should have finished by now. What I had totally forgotten though was that most of Saturday was meant to be about something else entirely and by the time that was done, it was Sunday afternoon and I wasn’t in the mood for reading at all so… It was time to try and make another dent in my watchlist on Prime. I managed to polish off Season 4 of ‘Creepshow’ but that’s a post for tomorrow. Lets take a look at the movies I watched over Saturday evening and most of Sunday… ‘Lockdown Tower’ (2022) The inhabitants of a tower wake up one morning to find that their building is shrouded in an opaque fog, obstructing doors and windows - a strange dark matter that devours anything that tries to pass through it. Trapped, the residents try to organize themselves, but to ensure their survival, they gradually succumb to their

Every so often I'll see a book, think 'ooh that could be good for my eldest/youngest daughter', buy it for them and see what happens. I've got a pretty good success rate and I added another book to the 'success column' when my eldest finally got round to reading 'The Girl with all the Gifts'. She loved it and now wants to see the film so you can guess what at least some of tomorrow's post will be about ;o) In the meantime, watching 'The Girl with all the Gifts' reminded me that I'd actually reviewed the book a long time ago, on another blog entirely. I was going to take today off, from blogging, so it felt like just the right time to bring that review back and let it have its time here. So, let me take you back to 2014, a far simpler time ;o) And as a bonus, you get to laugh at my bold prediction that there would be no sequel, shows what I know... ;o) Here goes... Every time I reach my absolute limit with zombie fiction another book arri

Page Count: 186 pages. As happy as I was to see ‘Doctor Who’ finally return to the BBC, what I was really excited about (along with many others I suspect) was seeing the Daleks back on the telly. Even if it was just one Dalek to be honest; when you’ve spent years without any Daleks at all, even just the one will do very nicely thank you :o) I’m not going to go into the TV episode too much. Suffice it to say that if you haven’t watched ‘Dalek’ then you really should do something about that. And if you have seen, you know full well that you’re way past due a rewatch. You know I’m right. Nope, what I’m all about here is Robert Shearman’s novelisation of ‘Dalek’ and how yesterday, it became pretty much the perfect ‘bus read’ for my trip into work. I didn’t get my phone out once, just read ‘Dalek’ all the way to work and all the way back again. And it was great, let me tell you about it. And I know it’s becoming a bit of a habit here but we’re talking quick thoughts again. I got about th

I originally bought this copy of ‘The Singing Citadel’ as I’d never read the short story ‘The Greater Conqueror’ and at the time of writing… I still haven’t :o) I’ll probably pick the book up again, over the next week, but as I was settling down for a read yesterday, it struck me that I’d never read ‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ and having a soft spot for Rackhir the Red, I figured that I should really do something about that… And here I am. The edition I’m reading from has ‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ weighing in at a slender thirty four pages so don’t expect anything too deep from this post then. More like quick thoughts on a quick read, you know how it goes… ;o) The Lords of Chaos grow tired of their human servants renouncing Chaos and finding peace in the fabled city of Tanelorn. The time has come for the city to burn and the Chaos Lord Narjhan raises an army to do just that. In it’s way stand the defenders of Tanelorn but they are far too few to do anything other than delay the inevitable. It fal

Another book that I’d pre-ordered and completely forgotten about. It was a nice surprise when it came through the door but it has left me wondering what else I’ve forgotten that I ordered. I guess I’ll find out over the next few months… ;o) But that’s for another time. Angron is surprisingly high up my list of ‘Favourite Primarchs’ and I was really glad when the news first came out that he was headed back to the Warhammer 40K universe. All that rage backed up by a tragic backstory (what the hell, Emperor of Mankind…), what’s not to look forward to in ‘The Red Angel’? Well, let me tell you about that... In the darkness of Imperium Nihilus, across half a million worlds cut off from the dim light of Holy Terra, a beacon is lit. The Red Angel returns to an unsteady galaxy and his scattered sons heed the call to slaughter. Aboard the World Eaters’ flagship, Kossolax the Foresworn, self-appointed lord regent of the XII, fights to keep the old dreams of the Legion alive, but finds the retu

Page Count: 160 pages. I came across this book during my ‘Birthday book shopping’ trip and was immediately intrigued. The cover art by itself would have been enough for me to pick the book up, definitely another ‘sword and sorcery’ book that rode the crest of a ‘fantasy boom’ and then slowly sunk over time, eventually ending up in a secondhand book shop in Brockley. I love the thought that books are printed and then each one goes off on a journey that will more than likely outlast many of its owners, but anyway… The title also caught my eye. Those snow castles have got to be pretty impressive if they’re the whole title, don’t they…? And wouldn’t our barbarian friend on the cover just be really cold all the time? I finally finished ‘Snowcastles’ a couple of days ago, about a month after picking it up. I’m not the slowest reader so a month to read 160 pages should tell you all you need to know about this book. If you want a bit more though, here goes... Prince Greylock, the last su

My kids are away, with their Mum, for a few days so I'm looking after their cat and rabbit. The rabbit loves having a fuss made of her but for some reason known only to her, loves eating my rucksack even more. The cat... Well, the cat has made it pretty clear that she will tolerate me when it's time for her to be fed but after that, I've got no idea what she gets up to. By yesterday afternoon then, I had to get out for a bit. Book shopping in Greenwich it was and yes, I know... I'm moving soon and really don't need to buy more books but here I am again ;o) My usual haunts didn't give up any riches, this time round, but I did find a new shop in Greenwich Market ('Rare Books & Curios') that looked promising and as luck would have it, there was plenty there for someone like me. I could have probably come out with more but limited myself to these three beauties... Don't they look amazing? Absolutely hearkening back to a time when genre fiction wasn&#

Page Count: 33 Pages I’ve really been enjoying the Tyranid short stories that have come out of Black Library recently (it’s almost like there’s a new edition of Warhammer 40K out or something…) and I thoroughly enjoyed Richard Swan’s ‘The Justice of Kings’ so when I saw that Swan had written a Tyranids tale… Well, that was an easy purchase and a quick read while I was waiting for a blood test on Friday (insert ‘Blood Harvest’ joke here). As always, short stories mean shorter posts than normal so without further ado… As Hive Fleet Kraken approaches their home world of Raphaela, Mukta Lim and his fellow conscripts prepare for the worst. However, the arrival of a Tempestus Scion with an important piece of information for the sectors commander may just alter their fate. For the better? Who can say... Another Tyranid short story that I couldn’t put down until it was done and there was nothing left to read. You can’t ask for any more than that and Swan delivers in fine style; if he ever

Yesterday was one of those days and it looks like today is shaping up for more of the same 😊 Oh well, only a few hours to go until it’s the weekend… It’s pretty clear then there hasn’t been a lot of time for reading (especially when I’m still trying to get through Duncan McGeary’s ‘Snowcastles’, that’s a story for another day though) so, in the short space of time between getting the bus home from work and falling asleep on that bus, I thought I’d give ‘The Convocation’ a go. The promise of a bulk freighter brimming over with Genestealers was all it took. Quick thoughts on a quick read… When an Imperial Navy team uncovers a Genestealer infestation upon a bulk freighter, they must move quickly to cleanse the alien taint. As the struggle escalates, it soon becomes clear that the ship is completely compromised – a motherlode of xenos corruption, eager to spread to new worlds. With time running short, they'll need desperate measures to contain the nightmare aboard. The whole point

I'm moving house next month so really should be getting rid of books but... Here I am :o) To be fair, there have been more books going out the door, then there have coming in, but I still can't walk past a charity shop without going in and once I'm in, stuff like this happens... I've never read anything by Dennis Wheatley and I'm always partial to a slightly lurid cover so 'The Devil Rides Out' was an easy purchase. In this month of months, you would think that it's an easy reading choice but I'm stuck on a book right now with several others waiting to be read. Lets see how that one goes. 'The Complete Alien Omnibus' was another easy purchase because, well... It's 'The Complete Alien Omnibus', look at it. As well as being partial to lurid covers, I also have a weakness for movie novelisations and if/when I read it, I can pretend that Ripley's story stopped at 'Alien 3' ;o) To be read in movie sized chunks 'post mov

As far as my reading goes, I can’t really remember what the first part of this year was all about. But as we start to turn the final corner and head for the end of 2023, I can say with great certainty that I am all about comfort reading for the foreseeable future. Not that my life is particularly bad at the moment, there’s just a hell of a lot of it trying to cram itself into not enough space and that’s where the comfort reading comes in. Good books that I know I’ll enjoy and a way to take time out to get my head straight before heading back into it. You know what I mean, don’t you? Yes, you do… 😊 And that’s where the good Doctor pokes his head out of the TARDIS to say hello. You lot probably knew this already but it struck me, the other day, that a ‘comfort read’ doesn’t have to be a book that you’ve read countless times before. All it needs to be is familiar and for me, that instantly includes every single ‘Doctor Who’ book, whether I’ve read it or not. Especially if it has the Fo

I actually have another copy of ‘Waylander’, somewhere, but I saw this cover (while doing a bit of ‘birthday book shopping’) and had to get it. It makes me all nostalgic for those seemingly long ago times when cover art wasn’t afraid to just yell out what the actual book was all about. In this case, a guy with a cool looking crossbow fighting monsters. There’s more to it than just that though… Daylight is hitting that mountain top but it’s shadowy and dangerous underneath the trees where the action is, which is pretty much this book as well. I’ll warn you in advance, David Gemmell’s books are real comfort reads for me and I’ve been in need of that recently so… Don’t expect me to be too balanced here. I love all of his books and that’s all there is to it. And it’s another ‘quick thoughts’ kind of post as well. Maybe I’ll write longer posts in the future but that’s a little beyond my reach at the moment, hope you don’t mind… 😉 Anyway, enough of that. Lets talk about the book… The

Page Count: 236 Pages There’s me going on about how I can’t finish any books, at the moment, and I completely forgot that I’d actually finished a whole load (during the hiatus) and put them one side, especially for a situation like this. You can blame my memory on last week, probably this coming week as well (I think it’s going to be a rough one). But anyway… Regular visitors to the blog will know that’s there nothing I love more than rooting around in big piles of books found in second-hand bookshops. It’s like searching for buried treasure and you never know what else you’ll find during the hunt. When I was in the Faction Bookshop, a few months ago, I never expected to come across ‘The Street’ but the line on the cover about ‘The black tarmac is boiling for revenge’ caught my eye and the blurb on the back left me with no choice but to make the purchase. Have a read and tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same… Angry Asphalt… The roads that made up the new Diamond Estate w

The plan, for yesterday, was to get so much reading done; there are a number of books that I’ve had on the go for ages and I feel like I’m doing them a disservice by not finishing them. That was the plan anyway. What really happened? I ended up sleeping for as long as I could (didn’t break any records but I thought I did alright) and after I’d got myself something to eat, ended up camping in front of the telly and watching some movies (with another nap in between two of them). No regrets to be honest, I needed a break and I took it ;o) What’s that? What did I watch? I’ll tell you. ‘ V/H/S 85’ (2023) I’ve been waiting for this movie since the end credits rolled for ‘V/H/S 99’… I won’t go on about it again (well, not too much) but I’m a big fan of the franchise and a new instalment is always a ‘must watch’. ‘V/H/S 85’ didn’t disappoint. While none of the stories surpass my all time favourites, ‘A Ride in the Park’ and ‘Safe Haven’ (‘V/H/S 2’), there’s a greater sense of consistency

Page Count: 30 Pages Well thank goodness that the week is over, except… it isn’t, not yet ☹ I’ve still got a few bits to do and then the weekend can properly start. In the meantime, one quick break and then I’m back into it so… Lets make good use of that time then and talk ‘The Devouring Void’. Quick thoughts, this time round, as this is a quick read. I had some fun with Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Long and Hungry Road’, last week, so when I saw more Tyranid short stories popping up here and there, I knew I had to dive back in. Danie Ware has good form for 40K short stories so I figured I’d check out ‘The Devouring Void’ and see what Ware made of the Tyranids… The infamous Black Ships ferry imprisoned psykers to Terra from across the Imperium, to feed the astronomican. When one Black Ship drifts too close to the edge of a hive fleet's warp-shadow, it finds itself stranded in realspace and under alien assault. With the situation dire, a dangerous imprisoned psyker offers to help

Page Count: 46 Pages, give or take a few for adverts etc. This was originally going to be a totally different post but I’ll be honest, I fell asleep last night (the best time for it, to be fair) and that post never happened. I don’t regret it, I was tired 😉 I’ve really got into what Titan Comics are doing, with their turn on the Conan licence, so when I heard that Titan Books were also in on the action, it didn’t take too much for me to be part of that as well. I suspect that their series of ‘Conan’ short stories will be collected, at some point, but for now, I thought I’d follow them as they are released monthly. First up was ‘Lord of the Mount’ by Stephen Graham Jones, an author whose horror output I’ve enjoyed. Just quick thoughts and impressions to follow as this was a very short read. Awakening covered in blood, the sole survivor of a doomed raiding party, Conan sets out for the taverns, women, and ale of Trinnecerl. To reach the village, however, he must pass ruins scatter

Page Count: 200 pages Pre-ordering stuff, on Amazon, always ends up being a bit of a shock for my wallet but this is generally balanced out by a nice surprise in the post after a shitty day at work. Last week was full of those so when ‘Valdor’ suddenly appeared in the post, it came at absolutely the right time. I love pretty much everything that Chris Wraight writes (I’ll try and be objective but I’m fan, that’s how it is) but the limited edition was more than a little beyond my finances so I’ve had to wait on this one. We got there in the end though and it was worth the wait. Constantin Valdor. It is a name that brings forth images of heroism, honour and peerless duty. For it is he who commands the will of the Legio Custodes that most esteemed and dedicated cadre of elite warriors. He is the Emperor’s sword, His shield, His banner and he knows no equal. Clad in shining auramite, his fist clenched around the haft of his Guardian Spear, he is the bulwark against all enemies of the t

Fingers crossed, things are hopefully starting to calm down a bit. The exam stuff is out of the way, work is slowing down a tad and yesterday, my flat hunting reached a successful conclusion. I’m not looking forward to moving but I am looking forward to living in my new place, it’s lovely (expensive but lovely 😉 ) My reading has definitely taken a hit over the last few days but I have managed to finish a couple of bits. I’ll tell you all about ‘Valdor’ (by Chris Wraight) in the next day or so but right now, we’re back with Conan and all those zombies… I’ve managed to get to #2 which means that there’s perhaps another three single issues to go before I fold and end up getting the collected trade edition instead; or maybe not, let’s see… Conan and Brissa have left the massacre at Hauler’s Roam and are tracking the zombie horde as it tears through Cimmeria. What else will they find, on the way, though? The short answer is, well… not an awful lot that’s new actually. That’s the proble

Saturday was about flat hunting (one decent one, fingers crossed, and one erm… shoebox) and hanging out with my daughters. A little bit of reading happened but we’ll talk about that in the next day or so. Sunday was mostly spend waiting for a large headache to pack its bags and leave; no reading then but a lot of time spent in my favourite comfy chair, watching awful zombie films. If there’s a zombie film that I haven’t watched yet, well… it’s only a matter of time before I do and now that Prime Video has finally cottoned on to my viewing habits, it’s recommending me a whole load of dodgy zombie films to watch. You know the ones that I mean ;o) Like I said, I have to watch them all, I have no choice in the matter. Let me quickly tell you about them… ‘Zombieworld 3’ (2020) In the wake of a terrible virus that claimed most of the human population, zombies have risen but humans continue to survive. Now the zombies face a threat of their own, Naked Zombie Girl!’ Seriously, I really will wa