Lord Samper's Library

I've spent most of today boxing books, for the move, and what I've done has barely scratched the surface. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be more of the same and if my books are all packed, there's not going to be an awful lot to blog about so... I'm going to pause the blog for a bit. Not a hiatus this time, just a little break so I can get all my stuff moved and for me to settle into the new place. Give me a week and I'll be back (that's when I get broadband in the new place). In the meantime, there's plenty to read here so have at it! I'd suggest starting Here and working your way along but then I would say that... ;o) See you all later :o) 

Sorry... It's another 'recycled review' (from the 'heady' days of 2011) today but in my defence, there is a lot of other stuff happening and only the one of me to get it all done. I can see it being more of the same over the next week (especially with only a few days to go until the big move...) and then, fingers crossed, everything should start to get back to normal. Right now though... Here's another book that I found, in a pile of other books, and I absolutely adore it; if you read it too then I reckon you'll feel the same ;o) I'm including the whole review in this post but if you want to see where it first featured, well... that's over Here . And as far as the final comment goes, 'Stories' was a surprise read for 2011. As good as it is, I wouldn't say it's that in 2023 but only because I saw it coming this time round... ;o) So, here goes... One of the things that I enjoy most about blogging here is the opportunity that it gives me...

Things are starting to get busy at work and if that wasn't enough (it was more than enough for me), I've finally started to pack for the move. Not an awful lot of time for reading then... You'll have to excuse me some more recycled reviews then, at least for the next few days, until things start to calm down again. I really hope they do... There's nothing like packing books up to make you realise just how many you own... Some of the local charity shops are going to be very happy this weekend ;o) You know what though, it is fun going through piles of books and finding ones that you completely forgot you had, books like 'Swords & Dark Magic' for example. My current copy replaced another copy that got lost in one of many moves several years ago and I thought it would be cool (and save me a little time today) if I dug up my old review and shared it here. It's a long post so grab yourself a coffee and settle down for a read. And fair warning... Given the rece...

Yesterday was a day in the office so, of course, I needed a little something for the bus ride in and the journey home (and for some of lunchtime too, once I’d found something to eat). I’ve been really enjoying revisiting some of the old Doctor Who novelisations and figured it was time to go back and read ‘Day of the Daleks’, one that I always enjoyed as a kid. Way, way back in the day (and it’s a bit scary how long ago that was now), I used to have ‘Day of the Daleks’ as part of the ‘Dalek Omnibus’ collection, I’ve no idea where that book is now but Amazon saw me coming and so, when I left for work yesterday morning, ‘Day of the Daleks’ came with me... UNIT is called in when an important diplomat is attacked in his own home - by a man who then vanishes into thin air. The Doctor and Jo spend a night in the 'haunted' house and meet the attackers - who have time-jumped back from the 22nd century in the hope of changing history. Travelling forward in time, the Doctor and Jo find...

Thousands of years ago the evil city of Kuan Hador was defeated by a vast army of mystic warriors, the Enemy banished beyond the Gateway between Worlds. Spells of enormous power sealed the Gateway. Now icy mists begin to form around the ruins of Kuan Hador. Awesome beasts stalk the hills and forests. The spells are fading. Beyond the Gateway the vengeful armies of Kuan Hador await. And where years before a host stood against the Enemy, now only a handful of warriors prepare to face it once more: Kysumu the Swordsman, last of a dying breed, Yu Yu Liang, the ditch digger, Ustarte, the Beast-Priestess, and the mysterious Waylander. Together they must solve an ancient mystery, which will bring the dead to life for a final battle outside Time. But first Waylander must find a way to kill a man who cannot die... Before we get into the book itself… I used to try and come up with my own blurbs, when writing a review, but now I’m all old and tired so just swipe an online blurb instead. A...

Once again, not a lot of reading happened over the weekend; mostly because I was working my way through 'Superstore' (horribly late to the party but I'm really enjoying it anyway) but also because I was up in the loft, going through piles of books ahead of moving house next week. Damn I have a lot of books that I had totally forgotten about... I managed to bag some up, for a charity shop run, but I also found myself doing what I normally do when I find myself in the middle of a pile of books, cracking a couple open and having a little read. So not a lot of reading then but enough to get in the way of what I should have been doing, dammit... ;o) I picked up a copy of 'The Troop' a few months ago and this weekend was the weekend it finally got a read. I'm recycling an older review as my views haven't changed and also, it's going to be another hectic week so I'm going to be kind to myself and let 'Past Graeme' take up the slack for a little bit ...

I saw this floating around Twitter (yes, I still call it Twitter) and thought I'd share it because (A) it's awesome and (B) I'm going to be out and about for most of today and wanted to post something while I was near a computer. Mostly (A) though ;o) I really hope this is canon now. And if this is how we see Davros from now on, I'm cool with that too.

Page Count: 35 Pages This week has been all about short reads (just to keep myself ticking over really) and the way that things are going at the moment, you’ll see more than a few other short reads featuring here. What with work and my upcoming house move, things are about to get even more hectic before they start to die down. What a time to be alive etc etc 😉 In the meantime… I came across this title while I was looking for something to read on the way home last night. Justin Hill’s Warhammer books ( 40K and The Old World ) haven’t let me down yet and I’m always partial to some 40K action where the heroes are the least powered faction in the setting, going up against certain terrifying death armed with a piss poor las-rifle and faith in the God Emperor. What’s not to like? Well, that’s what I thought when I saw ‘Lost Hope’ so I went with it and… In desperate need of fresh troops for his long campaign against traitors and renegades, General Creed of the Cadian 8th and his aide, Colou...

Page Count: 40 Pages The plan wasn’t to follow up one Luke Scull read with another (my reading plans are as vague as ever these days) but Amazon threw ‘Boss of Bosses’ at me, I’m growing to really enjoy the ‘Age of Sigmar’ setting and I needed a quick read for the bus ride to work so… Everything just came together perfectly and here I am. Another short post today but you probably guessed that already 😉 I had about three hours sleep last night and there are a few other things that need to happen today so bear with me a little longer. More detailed posts are coming soon. In the meantime then, lets talk about Orks sorry Orruks and what they get up to when they’re not fighting full scale wars… Following the failed siege of Excelsis and the emergence of the Kruleboyz, Gordrakk must tighten his control over his own Orruk hordes. So, what does an Orruk do when it’s not at war? It’s a trick question, Orruks are always at war, the only difference lies in who (or what) they are fighting. In ‘B...

Page Count: 27 Pages One of my current reading goals is to re-read the first two books of the ‘Grim Company’ series and then finally finish it off either around Christmas or just after. You know what I’m like with setting reading goals so maybe don’t take that aim too seriously, lets see how it goes 😉 I thought I’d dip a toe back into the world of the Grim Company with a short story and as luck would have it, ‘The Dark Son’ was a new release that caught my eye. And at only twenty seven pages long, it easily fell into my ‘quick reads’ criteria so away I went and… Fifteen years ago, Prince Salidar escaped a near-hanging ordered by his very own father, the king. Now the exiled prince has returned to his homeland, vengeance burning like poison in his heart. Swords will rise. Heads will fall. The golden city of Shar will run red with blood. My first thought, upon finishing ‘The Dark Son’, was along the lines of ‘damn, it has been far too long since I’ve read these books…’ ‘The Dark Son’ is...

Page Count: 191 Pages This is going to be one of those shorter posts and not just because the book isn’t a long read. Work and packing stuff (along with everything else) have combined to really get me down but this book is a good one so I couldn’t not write about it. Here goes… When a brilliant scientist seeking to solve the problem of world hunger tries to create giant mushrooms through genetic manipulation, what could possibly go wrong? The mutated spores escape the lab and spread across all of England. Toadstools grow to twenty feet tall, and a case of athlete's foot can mean a grisly and horrible death. But those who die quickly are the lucky ones. Those who survive infection by the fungus will be transformed into something unthinkably monstrous ... I’ve read enough Jeff Vandermeer (the earlier stuff anyway) and seen enough clips from ‘The Last Of Us’ to know that ‘The Fungus’ would be just the book for me. Actually, thinking about it, ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ helped make ...

Page Count: 101 Pages I’m not quite sure what happened, this weekend, but it’s Monday and although I managed to buy several books, I didn’t actually read any… I did managed to pack three boxes of DVDs though, so that’s something :o) Today then sees another trip to the HBR Pile (‘Has Been Read’) and another Brian Keene re-read. The original plan was to read ‘The Rising’ first but I was after reading the ‘Author’s Preferred Edition’ and I couldn’t find my Kindle so… ‘Deliverance’ it was. Go back to the beginning of the end of the world... Hell has come to earth as sadistic zombies rampage and massacre the human population. Reverend Thomas Martin has lost his congregation to the chaos but has found two wayward survivors to protect - Becky and John. The three of them have holed up in Martin's church in a desperate attempt for survival. But as supplies run low and civilization crumbles around them, Martin must come to a realization - God has abandoned them. But why? Is there any ch...

So I'm going to be moving house, in the next few weeks, and predictably, it's been an absolute nightmare trying to cull my book collection before it all gets boxed up. I actually felt all pleased with myself because I managed to get rid of about five yesterday evening... Yep, I know ;o) With that in mind then, you would have thought that the sensible thing for me to do would be to lay off buying even more books in the meantime. You would have thought, wouldn't you...? Well, it's me and this week has been a little bit shit so you can guess what happened next... I only went and ordered a couple of books that I really wanted to re-read but then... I went out to Halcyon Books, yesterday lunchtime, with the idea of treating myself to a book and a coffee; I came home with five books having drunk no coffee at all. Packing, for the move, just got a tiny bit more complicated ;o) Enough of that though, lets have a look at what I've gone and bought... I've been enjoying my...

I am so glad this working week is coming to an end. Not that it’s been a particularly bad week, it just felt like the standard five days weren’t quite enough for this one. Oh well, a few more hours and then it’s pizza and play station :o) Right now though? It’s been another one of those weeks where comfort reading was the best way to recharge and ‘Doctor Who’ has always been a ‘go to’ comfort read so… It was time to give ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ a go, a book that felt like it had been on the TBR pile far longer than it actually had (only about three weeks) and a story that I enjoyed when I revisited it back in 2021 . Let me tell you about it... ‘Beware the hands that heal...’ The Doctor and Peri land on the planet Necros to visit the funerary home Tranquil Repose – where the dead are interred and the near-dead placed in suspended animation until such time as their conditions can be cured. But the Great Healer of Tranquil Repose is far from benign. Under his command, Daleks guard ...

I’ve got a couple of Basil Copper’s books waiting to be read (‘The Great White Space’ and ‘Necropolis’, in case you were wondering), but I saw ‘The Fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories’, in Crofton Books, and ‘The Spider’ is Copper’s first published work so where better a place to start reading…? Nope, me neither, the decision pretty much made itself ;o) Monsieur Pinet has had a good days business, but a long one, and decides to break up his journey home with a night in a nearby hotel. When Pinet encounters his greatest fear, in his hotel room, the night will be a long one and he may not live to see the sun rise in the morning… ‘The Spider’ is only seven pages long so was just the right length of tale to cap off a Wednesday that could have gone a lot better than it did. I’m not a huge fan of spiders (not a fan at all in fact…) so I knew, before I picked the book up, that ‘The Spider’ would do it’s job on me. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to do that job as well as it did, I was well an...

I’ve been struggling to settle on a book to read recently (I can see the pile of books that only lasted a few pages…) and then I realised that the answer had been on the bookshelf the whole time… I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read of ‘Waylander’, back in October , and the next two books were right there waiting to be picked up so… I’ve spent the last few days getting reacquainted with Waylander and what happened next for him and his newly found family. And you know what…? I read the book the whole way through, again, and it was glorious. High in the wooded mountains of Skeln, the woodsman, Dakeyras, and his daughter Miriel, live a life of solitude. Unbeknown to them, a group of bloodthirsty warriors stalk the mountains. Men who have never known defeat, to whom revenge and torture are meat and drink. For ten thousand in gold they are eager to kill the woodsman. Battle-hardened warriors all, they have no fear of this task - but they should have. For Miriel is a woman of fire and iron, s...

Page Count: 161 Pages Another fairly recent read from the HBR pile…   Things being a little on the hectic side just recently (okay, more like chaotic…) I’ve naturally been gravitating towards the shorter reads and as you can see, ‘Slimer’ fits comfortably in that category. I hadn’t originally planned to buy this but it kept popping up, every time I looked at buying ‘The Fungus’, so in the end I took the hint and here we are. I’ll be honest, this isn’t going to be a massive post; yesterday was one of those days and today looks like it’s going to be one of those days as well. Also, there’s only so much you can write about shorter books because well, you know…   And ‘Slimer’ is a little difficult to sum up, I’ll try and explain.   When a yacht being used to smuggle drugs sinks, the six smugglers must seek refuge the only place they can - an abandoned oil rig in the middle of the sea. But there's something strange about this oil rig. For one thing, it looks more lik...

In a break from the norm, I actually managed to get some reading done this weekend; didn’t actually manage to finish the book but you know, baby steps and all that ;o) Nope, this weekend was all about estate agents showing my studio flat to prospective buyers, taking my youngest daughter on another trip through ‘Brooklyn 99’ (she loves Doug Judy), some fireworks (the good kind) and of course, catching up with some movies. After sleeping through most of it the other day, ‘The Thing’ felt like a film that I had to finish and ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ was cheap, on Prime Video, so it was clearly the best time to finally give it a watch. Let me tell you about them… ‘The Thing’ (1982) We all know the plot to this one but on the off-chance that you don’t, here goes… A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. Can they stop the Thing before it escapes Antarctica and infects the rest of the world…? Every time I watch any of Rome...

My Halloween usually involves a scary movie and/or some similar reading but this year… When I woke up and realised that I’d slept through half of ‘The Thing’, that told me things weren’t going to plan (and that I could do with more sleep in general). My copy of ‘Shadows over Innsmouth’ hadn’t turned up either (and I didn’t fancy reading anything else) so I went back to sleep and I’ll see if I can do Halloween better next year instead 😊 ‘Shadows over Innsmouth’ actually turned up yesterday so it wasn’t as if I had to wait too long 😉 It was the promise of a Guy N. Smith Mythos tale, that I hadn’t read, that originally had me hitting the ‘Order’ button and even though I’ve already read ‘Only The End of the World’, that was years ago and it’s in this collection so that was an easy decision to make. Quick thoughts again for this post, I hope you don’t mind 😉 These were two very quick reads and I’ve got a few other bits that I need to get done today…  ‘Return to Innsmouth’ – Guy...

Well, it took about a week longer than I’d planned but I got there in the end :o) ‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ ended up being the first story read from ‘The Singing Citadel’ but ‘The Greater Conqueror’ was the tale I was really after reading and the main reason I bought the book. My edition of ‘The Singing Citadel’ is pretty old and one of the reasons it took a while to finish ‘The Greater Conqueror’ was that the book actually started to come apart in my hands as I was reading… A touch of superglue took care of that ;o) There were other reasons for the delay though, let me tell you about it. Simon of Byzantium wants to travel East and as a fighting man, sees an opportunity to do just that as part of the army of Alexander the Great. After meeting the man himself though, Simon finds himself drawn into a much wider struggle with the fate of far more than an empire at stake… As I get older, I’m becoming more aware of what I bring to my own reading experience; because it’s not just on the book, is ...

So there I was, slightly panicking that I’m not reading quickly enough to post stuff on the blog and then I remembered that there is a literal pile of read books in my loft space, waiting for moments like this. And yep, I shouldn’t be worried about how quickly I’m reading; it’s just that I’m one day into November and it already feels like there isn’t enough month to get everything done that I need to. But anyway… Before I put the blog on hiatus, I was working my way through all of Brian Keene’s books and that continued. I still need to (re)read ‘The Rising’ and ‘City of the Dead’ (I have the revised editions on Kindle but I want to read them in paperback and I don’t have these yet) but the stories from ‘Selected Scenes’ fit in across that timeline so it’s an easy book for me to pick up and get into. If you’re new to the series though, I’d say read the two main books first and get the whole picture. Anyway, let’s talk some ‘Selected Scenes from the End of the World’… Best-selling author...