Lord Samper's Library

Page Count – 196 Pages There isn’t a lot that’s good about moving house (especially when it slowly dawns on you just how much the new place is going to cost to run, I need to get another job…) but there are some good bits if you look for them. For me, it was mostly around getting all my books unpacked and back on shelves around me again, not stuffed up in the loft where I couldn’t see them. Old favourites were back within easy reach, along with a whole load of new books that I really should have read ages ago. You can probably guess what my main New Year’s resolution will be… ;o) ‘Day of Ascension’ was one of those new books and I figured it was as good a place as any to start over in making a dent in the ol’ TBR Pile. And I’m really glad I did. On the forge world of Morod, the machines never stop and the work never ends. The population toils in the mines and factoria to protect humanity from the monsters in the void, while the Adeptus Mechanicus enjoy lives of palatial comfort. Gene...

I'll be honest with you... This wasn't meant to be today's post but then again, yesterday evening really wasn't meant to be the evening that I flooded my kitchen either (for clarity, there is never a day when I deliberately plan to do this...) and by the time I'd sorted that out, I wasn't really in the mood for reading or writing. What's that? Turns out I was in just the mood for a pizza and watching 'Strays'. A full stomach and a few chuckles later... It's all good ;o) Where does that leave me though? Well... While I was looking through older blogs the other day, to see if I'd ever written anything about 'Worms of the Earth', I came across a short review that I'd written about Robert E. Howard's 'Pigeons from Hell'. When the universe is clearly telling me to give that review some time on this blog, I don't ignore it (especially after yesterday evening). You can read the full review over Here but all the importan...

Page Count: 27 Pages I have a copy of this on my shelf and the plan was to pick it up for a read on the way into work this morning. Well, that was the plan but I was half asleep, leaving the house, and totally forgot… No matter though, that’s what the Kindle app is for (although if I’d been a little more awake, I’d have read it off Project Gutenberg instead, you can find ‘Worms of the Earth’ Here ). 99p later and my ‘commute reading’ was secured 😉 I always seem to fall into the trap of just reading ‘Conan’ stuff whenever I fancy reading a little Howard. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that there’s a lot of his other stories out there that are more than worth your time when you come across them. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is very much one of those tales but you knew that already, didn’t you? You didn’t? You should do something about that, take it from me… After witnessing one of his subjects die at the hands of Roman governor Titus Sulla, Bran Mak Morn vows vengeance on Sulla but at w...

Because I will always post about these two Titans throwing down with each other. And as far as the 'Baby Kong' goes... I lived through 'Godzooky', we've got nothing to worry about with 'Baby Kong' ;o) Keep an eye open for 'The New Empire' in 2024.

Page Count: Ten and a Bit Pages. I found out, the other day, that author David Drake had sadly died, a reminder that Drake is one of any number of fantasy authors that I have shamefully never got round to checking out. In my defence, I do get there in the end, it just takes bloody ages sometimes (it’s not like I don’t have a lot of other things going on at the same time, anyway…) The article I was reading mentioned that ‘The Barrow Troll’ continues to be worth a read and can be found in any one of a number of anthologies. I had a feeling that I had one of those anthologies and was right 😊 I don’t know about all the other anthologies but ‘The Barrow Troll’ can definitely be found in ‘The Sword & Sorcery Anthology’ (Edited by David G. Hartwell & Jacob Weisman). With all that said, lets talk a bit about ‘The Barrow Troll’. Quick thoughts today because it’s my lunch break and I’ve got a few other things to get done before the weekend starts. That and the fact that ‘The Barrow Tro...

Page Count: 38 Pages It’s like God doesn’t want me to have broadband… Every time I think I’ve got it sorted, something happens and I’m back to square one. Oh well, next time’s the charm, lets see if tomorrow is the day it happens. Sorry, mini-rant over. Lets talk about ‘The One Road’… ;o) Out for the count and oblivious to the world around him, Gotrek Gurnisson becomes a prime target for the vengeful Sylvaneth. Can the bold riders of the Freeguild Cavaliers reach the stricken baggage train containing the blacked-out Slayer before the forest warriors do? So… When is a Gotrek tale not a Gotrek tale (and is, all at the same time)? When it’s ‘The One Road’. I love the fact that Gotrek sleeps through practically the whole thing and only wakes up right at the end… and it’s still a Gotrek tale. Freeguild rider Elsworn may well do all the heavy lifting as far as the plot goes but at the same time, Vogel is more worried about disturbing Gotrek than he is about the Sylvaneth warriors attacking t...

While I try and get work and Christmas Shopping to be patient and take turns, you lucky people can have another trailer for 'Dune: Part Two'. It looks absolutely gorgeous, especially when that Sandworm comes out of the storm cloud... :o) 'Dune: Part Two' comes out in March next year and I think I'll have to make a trip to the cinema for this one, how about you?

Page Count: 342 Pages Packing all of my books up, and then promptly unpacking all again about a day later (I really hate moving house…), re-introduced me to a whole load of books that had previously been hiding in the loft. These days, they’re a lot more accessible (a loft full of books sounds awesome but seriously, I hardly ever went up there…) and there isn’t really any excuses any more, I’ve got to read them or get rid. ‘Bethany’s Sin’ was an easy decision to make in that respect. My ‘Robert McCammon Reading’ has a few gaps in it and ‘Bethany’s Sin’ had been patiently waiting to be read for just over four years ( me and my rash promises... ) Last week ended up being just the right time to do something about both of those things. Let me tell you how it went. Even God stays away from the village of BETHANY'S SIN. For Evan Reid, his wife Kay, and their small daughter Laurie, the beautiful house in the small village was too good a bargain to pass up. Bethany's Sin was a weird ...

I’ve worked out how to make my phone into a hotspot (and if you knew me in real life, well… you’d know that’s a pretty big deal for me) so here’s a little catchup on the bits and pieces that I’ve managed to read and watch over the last few days. Not a lot as it happens, it hasn’t been the best week for doing the things that I wanted to, or the things that I needed to for that matter. Oh well, hopefully next week will be a better one ;o) I’ll be spend today catching up with a couple of books and maybe some movies too. There might even be a blog post tomorrow ;o) In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this… ‘300: Rise of an Empire’ (2014) Greek general Themistocles of Athens leads the naval charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy. While I’ve been waiting to get the internet back, I thought I’d watch a few of the DVDs that were hidden away in a cupboard (at the old place) and are now all over the place here...

Page Count: 183 Pages With the move and associated difficulties to be solved, there hasn’t been an awful lot of reading happening over the last week and a bit; more a case of my finding books, that I really want to read, and piling them up in one of those ‘pile of good intentions’ that, well… We all know how that ends don’t we? 😉 There have been a couple of books that I’ve been able to finish off though and now that I’ve worked out how to turn my phone into a hotspot, I thought it was way past time I got some thoughts down here. Being all of about three years old at the time, the ‘Key to Time’ series passed me by when it was originally broadcast. I’m sure that one day, I’ll finally get round to watching it (and yep, it’s all on iPlayer now but I’m still refusing to get a TV licence) but for now, it’s the book for me and that’s never a bad thing when you see Douglas Adams’ name on the cover. Let me tell you about it… The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all...

Another day in the office so another short read was required for a trip into work that reminded me how much I hate the trains and that buses are a lot nicer. Lesson learned, at least until the next time I’m running late… 😉 Anyway… As luck would have it, I’d found ‘The Battle of Tyrok Fields’, browsing Amazon last night, so my commute read ended up choosing itself. I haven’t gone wrong with any of my previous ‘Justin Hill reads’ so was looking forward to more of the same with this one. And as luck would have it… I chose well again. Every hero has a moment that defines their legend, a battle that sets them on the path they are meant to walk. For Ursarkar E Creed, that moment is here. Cadia itself is under threat – the hordes of Chaos emerge once more from the Eye of Terror, and the forces of the Imperium muster to meet them. But on Tyrok Fields, an act of base treachery, spurred on by an old enemy of Creed's, will change everything and provide General Creed a chance to prove his wor...

It's been a hell of a weekend, capped off by EE totally screwing up my broadband transfer, to the new place, and having to start all over again. So even if I had done any reading, I've got no way to post it other than a few minutes in the office when I'm not doing any one of a hundred other things. Sorry, you've caught me on a bad day, things will pick up though :o) In the meantime then, have a trailer for 'House of the Dragon Season 2'. It's looking good but then anything looks good when you bung dragons in it ;o) I'll leave you to watch in peace but I'm left wondering, is anyone still waiting for 'The Winds of Winter', at this point, or has everyone just decided to make do with the TV offerings now...?

I'll be honest, I'd totally forgotten that 'Furiosa' was even a thing... Is it just me or has this taken far too long to make it to the screen? Oh well, either way... The 'Mad Max' franchise isn't a favourite of mine but this does look good. Count me in :o)

I'm surfacing, albeit briefly, as I've found myself with a little internet and wanted to say hi. Hi! :o) The move went ok, all things considered. It's really weird not being in my old place but the new place is bigger and I think it's going to work out. I've certainly got a lot more room to spread out all my books :o) Talking of which... It's been great going through boxes of books and finding stuff that I'd completely forgotten I had, books like 'Death Troopers' for instance. Once I found this book again, I took a little break and had a read and... thought I'd share my original review ( from the 'heady' days of 2009 ) with you. I know it's another recycled review, sorry about that. Original content will be back once I've got the rest of the unpacking done and worked out how to turn the heating on. Here goes... I first saw the cover for this over at Dave Brendon’s Blog and, once I’d managed to convince myself that this wasn’t a pr...