Lord Samper's Library

This week has been a bit of a nightmare in terms of finding time to get any reading done (work in particular ; ‘Sharpe’s Tiger’ is giving me reproachful looks (as I write this) but there literally hasn’t been the time to really get stuck into it. Oh well, maybe things will pick up over the weekend. In the meantime, a little bit of reading time (and I do mean little…) finally came my way, last night, but I wasn’t up to much so took the opportunity to carry on with my ‘Goon’ re-read instead. And… Here we are 😊 As always, remember that I’m a pretty big fan of this series so don’t be looking for anything too objective here. Especially as ‘Heaps of Ruination’ is one of my favourite books in the series as a whole… Lonely Street comes under all manner of threats both tragic and hilarious in this collection of four of the most beloved Goon stories to date. The Goon learns that a friend is in the clutches of the Zombie Priest and must call on each of his weird allies to help in the rescue. An

I'll be honest, everything is getting a little too much at the moment... Not only are various parts of my life lined up to give me a kicking (at least they're waiting their turn though, I guess), I'm not getting the time to settle down with a decent read either. No escape from my stresses then but also, not a lot to write about here... Luckily for me then, I wasn't a bad blogger back in the day and this means that when needed, I can raid a couple of 'blogging stashes' and have something ready made to post here. Posts like this old review of 'The Frost Giant's Daughter', originally written and posted back in 2014 . I'm reposting it here; mostly to give myself some breathing space, partly because I've got vague plans to do a 'Big Conan Read' but also because I read it again and liked what I'd written. Here goes then, Every so often, nothing else will do apart from a Conan story. After a morning spent juggling my children (not litera

So… All my intentions of collecting a series of comics (just like I did when I was a kid) have come to this; to be fair, just like I suspected they would 😉 The plan was to treat myself to a regular trip into town, pick up the latest issue and maybe have a nice coffee while I read it. And then I looked back over the issues that I’d already bought and realised that I was at least two issues behind, maybe three. I know when I’m beaten, I settled down to wait for the first trade and now, here I am 😊 This is going to be a short post today, mostly because I’ve already covered a large chunk of this book in my posts on the single issues (seriously, have a look Here , Here and Here ) and I don’t want to repeat myself too much here. I can’t leave a story unfinished though (unless it’s absolutely awful then in which case…) so, here I am. Let’s have a little chat about ‘Bound in Black Stone’. Armed with only his wits and his weapon, Conan set out from his homeland of Cimmeria in search of glory

I'll be honest. As cool as this looks (and it does), it's a 'wait for it to stream' rather than 'see it at the pictures' movie for me. I just feel like I've seen it before and that's not a deal-breaker, more a 'don't want to spend loads of money watching it' kind of thing. It does look cool though ;o) If you are going to watch 'Boy Kills World' in the cinema, look out for it in April.

While I try and get work sorted out, before my boss returns from holiday (tomorrow...), and while I'm trying to get my head round a possible 'Conan' re-read (and get stuck into 'Sharpe's Tiger', that's looking really good); I thought I'd enlist the help of 'past me' once more, just so this place doesn't get too empty. Past me has come up with the goods again :o) I'm not sure if I still have my copy of 'The Gods of Bel-Sagoth' (a number of book have left my possession since the original post) but I thought the post was still worth recycling here. You can find that original post over Here , I've tweaked this one just a little bit - bits of introduction that worked back then don't work so well now. Here goes... I was mooching through my bookshelves and realised that I hadn’t got round to reading anything from ‘The Gods of Bal-Sagoth’ (one of the books that I picked up at Nine Worlds). Howard’s writing output always astounds m

It's been another one of those weeks so I'm officially declaring today, a day to watch 'House of Ninjas' (three episodes in and looking good so far), read 'Sharpe's Tiger' (also looking good) and maybe, just maybe, catch up on some 'Conan' reading too. We'll see ;o) For now though, I didn't want the blog to go another day without a post so I thought I'd enlist the help of 'past me' to fill the gap ;o) 'Past me' has very kindly supplied a David Gemmell review for your reading pleasure. 'Sword in the Storm' is as awesome a read today as it was when I reviewed it back in 2014; if you haven't read it already, I'd do something about that if I were you. Anyway, my 'Sword in the Storm' review was originally posted over Here but right now, here it is for you... Born in the storm that doomed his father, Connavar grows to manhood among the mist-covered mountains of Caer Druagh, where the Rigante tribe dwell

I’ve had one of those days today and there’s not an awful lot of today left… With that in mind then, we’re looking at (a) a shorter post than normal and (b) another stop by Lonely Street to catch up on the adventures of the Goon. As much as I love these books (and I really do), I’m going to try and pace myself a little better reading through the series. Three ‘Goon’ posts here, in just under a week might be a little excessive and the other thing is that you read ‘The Goon’ because you have a particular sense of humour and you enjoy pulp weirdness. ‘The Goon’ delivers on both fronts in every book but it doesn’t leave me with a lot that’s new to say and that isn’t a good look in a blog post. I’m going to hold off at least a week then, until the next ‘Goon’ post, but for now… Work has been intense and I’ve needed a few laughs, ‘My Murderous Childhood’ certainly helped out on that score. The Goon and Franky have been best friends ever since childhood. This is the story of how these two ank

Page Count: 169 Pages Before I talk about the story itself, I’d like to take a brief moment and just admire the absolutely gorgeous cover art on show, courtesy of Julie Dillon. Look at it, isn’t it lovely? It was covers like this that got me into Fantasy in the first place, far too long ago now, so it’s always a bit of a treat to see more recent books travel down that same road. I say, ‘recently’… I’ve just checked the inside and ‘The Hounds of Ash’ was published back in 2008… Damn, I feel old. But anyway… I did that thing I always end up doing where I buy a book (in this case, Greg Keyes’ ‘The Basilisk Throne’), hop on Amazon to see if I’ve missed any other books and then buy something else entirely and read that instead. I will read ‘The Basilisk Throne’ one day but the last couple of days have been all about ‘The Hounds of Ash’. Let me tell you about it. Thrust into perilous action by his father’s spirit and his village’s shaman, Fool Wolf, perhaps the laziest of heroes in his fathe

I love a good spider movie... Actually, I love bad spider movies too (they're all good in my eyes) but 'Sting' looks like it's definitely going to sit in the former camp. Check out the trailer, What do you reckon? I'm adding 'Sting' to the list of movies that I want to see, in the cinema, this year. 'Sting' hits cinemas on the 12th April.

Well, this post came round a little sooner than I’d originally planned but, when nothing else that you’re reading really hits the spot, sometimes you just have to revisit and old favourite. I’ve kind of given it away here but I think you already knew that I’m a big fan of this series? Yeah, you did. I’ve already mentioned it a couple of posts down ;o) If you’re after an objective review then… This won’t be the place to find it, sorry. If you’re after me waffling on about how much I love ‘The Goon’ though, welcome to this post. I’d normally copy and paste a bit of blurb here but we’re at a point in the run where the main plot is just beginning to emerge from a tangle of individual tales. For now then, lets just say that we’re looking at a book that kicks off with Fishy Pete, ends up with the Psychic Seal running his mouth (not for the last time) and finds time for some lascivious bird women and Father Christmas (not at the same time) as well. Oh yes, and a cannibal sheriff (from times p

Because last week was one of those weeks and I got paid on Friday, that's all there is to it. I'm pretty sure that this week is going to be one of those weeks as well but, at least I've got some new books to keep me company ;o) Lets check em' out, My reading isn't going brilliantly at the moment (another attempt at 'Into the Narrowdark' failed miserably over the weekend...) so I thought I'd take a step outside my comfort zone with 'Sharpe's Tiger'. Fingers crossed it jumpstarts me back into my groove again. I've just got the final story of the 'Fool Wolf' collection to read and then maybe, 'Sharpe's Tiger' will be my next read. We'll see. We're back onto slightly familiar ground with 'Blightslayer', a book that has my favourite dwarf and favourite Chaos god inside. You can't go wrong with a combination like that, can you? I'll let you know. And then finally, for this picture anyway, we've go

Looking back over the blog, I’ve reviewed a few ‘Goon’ books but only really from ‘Occasion of Revenge’ (Volume 14) onwards. I thought it might be fun then to fill in the gaps and do a re-read of all the preceding volumes. Fun for me anyway, I’m a huge fan of ‘The Goon’ (hopefully you’ll enjoy it too) 😉It’s been years since I last read the series so a re-read is long overdue. I’ll try and aim for a volume a week, should be doable, but knowing me and these books, I’m just as likely to flip and go through the whole thing at once. We’ll see… 😊 All of that said then, lets kick things off with ‘Rough Stuff’ and see where it all began. It’ll be a short post, for reasons that will become apparent very quickly (so, not just the fact that I have a ton of work as usual then…) The nameless man, the zombie priest, had come to town to build a gang from the undead. But even the undead fear THE GOON. The Goon's earliest battles with the undead are mixed with stories of his childhood years, wher

Because my Mid Year Review is done and I'll never turn down the chance to watch giant monsters beating the crap out of each other - it's one of life's little joys ;o) This may well be the most ridiculous movie I watch this year, but in a good way. 'The New Empire' will be in cinemas in March.

Today is 'Half Year Review' Day, at work, and comes complete with all the stress that you'd expect so you probably won't be surprised to hear that I didn't read at all last night; I went to the pub instead to watch a little football and try and forget about today (a good result for my team brightened the mood a little). While I'm going through my review business then, I thought I'd recycle another 'post from the past', just to keep things ticking over until I can get home and write tomorrow's post ;o) It's been a while since I featured anything by Michael Moorcock ( November 2nd, to be precise ) so figured it was time to do something about that :o) The full review is over Here but really, it's just the addition of an opening paragraph that no-one will miss in this post... A chance meeting leads Karl Glogauer into the maelstrom of time and space; cast in various roles but always a witness to man's inhumanity. What will be left of him

It took me a long time but I got there in the end :o) I used to be a big fan of ‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen’ but, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the books, burnt out on the series a long time ago. I’ve tried a few times since but have never been able to finish the series. That might just be about to change though… I finished ‘Dancer’s Lament’ not so long ago (another first, the first Ian Cameron Esslemont ‘Malazan’ book I’ve read, review to follow) and to go with that, I finished reading ‘The God is Not Willing’ a couple of days ago. I’ve got a couple of books that I want to read first but I’m starting to think that a re-read of ‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen’ could well be on the cards. In the meantime though, let me tell you a little about ‘The God is Not Willing’. Given my recent track record, I must be the last person to the party but in the event that I’m not and you’re wondering whether to give this book a go… Definitely give this book a go. Many years h

I'll be honest, I'm still feeling pretty rough over here so this is going to be a short post today. That's not the only reason for the short post though, we're into the last few days before payday and things are a little too tight to be buying loads of books (plus I really am trying to read what's on my shelves first...). That hasn't stopped a couple of books coming home with me though, check em' out... I found this copy of 'The Bachman Books' in a charity shop near the hospital while I was waiting for them to sort out some new heart medication for me (now there's a sentence that really makes me feel old...) It doesn't have 'Rage' in it, not a huge deal (and I completely get why it's no longer in the collection, I just fancied reading it again), but it does have everything else so don't be too surprised to see posts on those stories pop up over the next few months. 'The Hounds of Ash' came onto my radar after I'd p

Yes I'm posting another trailer but to be fair, today kind of got away from me (most of it feeling pretty sick but the rest of it hanging out with my youngest daughter so it all balanced out in the end). As far as the blog went, I was going to give on today (as a bad job) until I saw this trailer and had to post :o) I'll be honest, I'd pretty much given up on the MCU with far too many movies and TV shows to catch up on, none of which really stood out as something that I definitely had to make time for (so much so that I've cancelled my Disney+ subscription). 'Deadpool & Wolverine' though... This could be the movie that drags me back in :o)  'Deadpool & Wolverine' will find its way into cinemas on July 26th this year, I'll see you there ;o)

My mental health has been a lot worse but life is aiming a few kicks at it so I'm giving myself the day off, probably tomorrow as well, to read and eat chocolate until things feel better. I didn't want to leave the blog empty though so, seeing as next week is looking like it will have a slight 'Malazan feel' to it, I thought I'd revisit an old review from far too long ago and re-post it here ;o) I'm not one of 'those' fans (you know what I mean, that kind of enthusiasm is great but read the room guys) but I always enjoy the books and can feel myself starting to dip a toe or two back into that world. We'll see, I might even finally finish the main series... In the meantime, have some thoughts on the opening novellas in the sequence of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. If you really want to see what I was chatting about in 2009, the original post is Here . I've changed a few bits, just to bring it up to date as it were, but my feelings around the book

Well... In an ideal world, today should have seen a post for 'The God is Not Willing' but this is not an ideal world and I still have another 68 pages to go before I'm done. I absolutely do not regret falling asleep in my chair, last night, though; it was clearly what was needed ;o) Where does that leave the blog though? Well, I've also been dipping in and out of 'The Image of the Fendahl' target novelisation and figured another 'recycled review post' would sit nicely here today. If you want, you can read the full, original, review over Here but you won't be missing much if you don't. The key bits are all here in a 'blink and you'll miss it' short post. In my defence, 'Image of the Fendahl' is a very short read and doesn't have a lot of meat to it. I'd say the book is still worth a look though... A sonic time scan draws the TARDIS to the Fetch Priory on Earth. There, the Doctor and Leela discover an impossibly old hum

Page Count: Around thirty pages but felt much longer at times, I’ll tell you more about that further down the post. Apologies for the silence these last few days… It was a mixture of things really; partly work (far too much to do) but also a hefty dose of ‘Turn of the year, do I really want to carry on with the blog?’ overthinking. I’m not planning on quitting blogging just yet but I want to turn it back into something I really enjoy so, a lot to think about there. I’ve also finally broken the back of Erikson’s ‘The God is Not Willing’ so a lot of my free time went into that this week, expect a review fairly soonish, for real this time 😉 I didn’t want the blog to be silent for too long though so thought I’d hop back in and tell you about a short story that I tackled the other day. My reading is still full of pretty big gaps, one of which is anything by C.L. Moore, in particular her ‘Jirel of Joiry’ stories. I was in the office last week so grabbed an e-copy of ‘Black God’s Kiss’ for r

My reading has hit another bump (far too many of these recently, I need a holiday...) so while I figure out what to do about that, have a trailer for 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'... ;o) I've got two 'Ghostbusters' movies that I need to catch up on first (and the fact that both of them have been out for a while should tell you that I'm pretty ambivalent about the franchise in general) but... I quite like the look of this one, especially with the return of Walter Peck :o) 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' will be in cinemas on March 22nd. 

I'll be honest, I don't normally plan ahead with my reading, other than a vague TBR pile of books that 'I really should read one of these days'. Nope, I'm more of a 'read whatever catches my eye' type of person. Every now and then though, a book will pop up and become 'a book that I need to read when it's released into the wilds'. A book like this one, ALONE AGAINST AN EMPIRE. When Yash of Zeltah arrives in the fortress city of Honaq she is greeted as a barbarian, a simple pawn. Her marriage to prince Chej has been arranged, they say, to avert war. Yet she knows the truth, for the armies already ravage the land. A skilled and deadly assassin, there is more to Yash than any might suspect. Before another day can pass, she must defeat the masters of the nine towers―the plagues, magics, and monsters they control, the soldiers they command. Without raising an alarm, she must kill all who oppose her―even the immortal emperor. The lives and souls of Zel