Lord Samper's Library

Today looks like it's going to be a tough one with the flat being inspected while I'm trying to get my monthly report done at the same time. At least it's Friday though, right...? ;o) Because of this, I've got nothing for the blog today. Well, apart from an old review of John Gardner's 'Grendel' that is ;o) If you want the full thing then have a click Here . If not, don't worry, all the important bits are below. Normal service should resume tomorrow (fingers crossed) but for now... The original story of 'Beowulf' is one that everyone knows, even if (like me) they have never read it. It is a story whose influence you will find in any number of fantasy books; you know, the whole ‘hero saves a helpless village from the monster that preys on it’ kind of thing. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a story that attempts to retell the ‘Beowulf’ tale from Grendels perspective though. This is possibly because Gardner has already done it so well but also be...

It has been far too long since I saw a dentist so today, I'm doing something about that :o) It's a fairly safe bet that I'll come home with one tooth less than I started with but, lets see. Maybe I'll get lucky... What with that and a few other things happening, there's no book review today I'm afraid. I'll see what I can do for you tomorrow :o) In the meantime, I've got a few books on the go right now, mostly because I can't seem to concentrate on one book until I've finished it. I'll be honest, it is frustrating reading a few pages and then jumping into another book to read a few pages there. That's the way it is though; hopefully if I keep chipping away at it, I'll get one of the bigger books finished and then the floodgates will open :o)  What books are these? Let's take a look, It is of course no surprise to see 'Into the Narrowdark' taking its place in the pile. When it's good, 'Into the Narrowdark' is r...

I haven’t been good for a lot, these last few days, (work and so on) so have spent the last couple of evenings crashed out in front of the TV, trying to find something decent to watch. Okay, you’ll see in a second that I wasn’t too fussy about finding something decent… ;o) Quick thoughts on four movies then. One brilliant, one ‘not bad’ and the other two… Lets just say that they weren’t great (fun but...) I really will watch anything sometimes :o) ‘ Saint Maud’ (2019) A pious nurse becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient but is it her own soul that is in true peril? I’m not entirely sure what led me to watch ‘Saint Maud’ but I’m really glad that I did. It’s beautifully shot, Morfydd Clark is excellent in the title role and just when you think you know what’s going on, ‘Saint Maud’ delights in pulling the rug from under you and sending you in a different direction entirely. I’m thinking about certain bits of the movie and trying to puzzle out what real...

Page Count: 216 Pages Before we get started, I’m going to come right out and say that if I had to make a list of my favourite horror movies, ‘Session 9’ would be right up there with its ‘creepy asylum vibe’ building up to a reveal that blew me away when I first saw it and everything came together. Obviously, everyone’s mileage will vary but that’s where I am with this film :o) So when I saw that there was a novelization, of course I ordered myself a copy and of course I got into it over Christmas. Hopefully it’s clear then that I’m a fan and I bought all of that to the book as I opened it and got reading. That’s a double edged sword though, isn’t it? You know what I mean, you can be over the moon that there’s a ‘book of the film’ but that’s a lot of expectation to bring. Luckily, ‘Session 9’ lived up to the standards set by the film, and a little extra as well. When a hazardous materials team is tasked with clearing out the crumbling ruins of the Danvers State Hospital, they uncover...

A quick post to kick off the week :o) If you were reading the blog in November last year, you’d have seen me say that ‘The Age Unconquered’ was a book that I’d be reading while I got over my surgery. Well, it took a little longer than expected (nothing to do with the book, more with my not being in any fit state to concentrate on reading anything…) but I got there in the end. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Jim Zub’s take on ‘Conan’ and given how ‘Thrice Marked For Death’ ended, I was really keen to see where it went next. Not going to give the game away but there are some things even Conan can’t come back from, aren’t there…? Of course there aren’t, this is Conan we’re talking about ;o) Sent back in time to the Thurian Age, Conan battles terrifying creatures and meets Kull the Conqueror, a barbarian-king as strong as himself. Although these two legends begin at odds, they quickly realize they must quest together to stop the dark machinations of Thulsa Doom, an ancient necromancer wh...

My eldest daughter swears by these books and seeing as I taught her everything she knows, I trust her ;o) And the trailer looks pretty good as it happens... 'Clown in a Cornfield' is out in May this year and by happy coincidence, not too far away from my eldest daughters birthday :o)

I'm not going to go into detail, that's not what you're here for, but this week has been pretty brutal and I'm glad it's done. Here's to a weekend (well, at least Saturday) of not doing much at all other than reading like a [insert speedy noun right here] and not stopping until I've finished 'Into the Narrowdark'. I think today could be the day :o) In the meantime... Like I said, this week has been really intense and when that happens, I buy books to make myself feel better. I shouldn't but... Here we are and I do feel a little better as it happens :o) Now I just need to read them but for now, lets take a look at what I bought, shall we? The whole reason why this is the 'Barbarian' Edition ;o) I've been looking forward to 'Island of the Dead' for a long time now (just had to wait for the right payday) and this could very well be the next book up after I finish 'Into the Narrowdark'. Either that or Volume 1 of the new ...

Page Count: 366 Pages I managed to get through my half year review, yesterday, relatively unscathed so when I popped out for lunch, of course I popped into Waterstones to treat myself to a little reading material for the commute home. I mean, yes I did already have a spare book in my bag but hush you, don’t judge me ;o) It’s not just zombie books that I will automatically pick up these days, I’m also partial to anything that features giant spiders (have a click Here and you’ll see what I mean). So when I saw ‘Scuttle’ lurking on the bottom shelf, I knew what I’d be reading on the way home. And… Your worst nightmare is closer than you think… For a group of teenagers, a night away from home in secluded woodland with no phone signal is the perfect way to spend Halloween. But when their camping trip comes to a grisly end, with one of the campers found dead, the whole neighbourhood is left in shock. What killed her? And why? The name of the publisher is pretty apt here as ‘Scuttle’ ...

Page Count: 19 Pages Life did its thing again, last night, and didn’t leave me a lot of time for reading; that’s the way life goes though and at least there was some good (hanging out with my eldest daughter) to offset the bad (after a drunk chap took a nasty fall outside the house, he’s ok now). So it was then that ‘These Deathless Bones’ was promoted from ‘todays commuting read’ to last nights ‘quiet time reading’. At only 19 pages. ‘These Deathless Bones’ was just the right length for what ended up being not a lot of quiet time. Oh well… ;o) The other reason I grabbed myself a copy of ‘These Deathless Bones’ was that I’d picked up a copy of ‘The Salt Grows Heavy’ and thought that a much shorter work would be a good way to get a feel for Khaw’s work before picking that book up. If ‘These Deathless Bones’ is anything to go by, I think I’m going to be in for a bit of a treat. All the King ever wanted was for his second wife to love her step-son but it is far easier to hate, especial...

Page Count – 20 Pages Apologies for the brief radio silence, life stepped in and demanded some attention… For what it’s worth, I didn’t read an awful lot over the last couple of days. I did make some decent inroads into ‘Into the Narrowdark’ but am still a good couple of hundred pages away from the finish line. Just a quick post today as ‘Down Amongst the Dead Men’ was a short and sweet read that I got into on the way to yesterday’s hospital appointment. That and the fact that I have my half-year review tomorrow morning, that’s taking up a lot of my brain right now :o( In the meantime then, On the nightmare world of Krieg, the elite Death Korps practise their killing arts against the only enemy they have available: those among the population unsuitable to join the regiments of the Imperial Guard. In the midst of a live-fire exercise, one of these human targets disobeys orders and follows the trail of a mysterious alien beast, one that could spell doom for all of Krieg if it is not s...

 I know the trailers have been doing the rounds for a while but... I'm getting excited about this movie and it's out on the 21st so, here's the red band trailer for you if you fancy a watch :o) Now I just need to remember which Stephen King collection this is in so I can re-read 'The Monkey' before it's released. And yep, you'll probably see a post about that this week ;o)

Just a quick one today, I've got my daughters coming over later and I've got a few other things to sort out as well. I may even get some sleep before then, we'll see ;o) And I know these posts are usually about the books that I've picked up in the preceding week. Today though, we're all about the books that I picked up, or received as presents, over Christmas. What? I wasn't blogging at that point and they deserve a post of their own ;o) Lets check em' out... 'Sharp Ends' was a little treat to myself and replaces another copy that I gave away (during the 'Big Move') and shouldn't have done. I'll be dipping in and out of it for a little short story action :o)  'Half a King' was a little Christmas Shopping treat to myself; I'd bought everyone else books so figured I deserved one too ;o) It's been years since I read it last but I remember enjoying it so am hoping for the same this time round. There's a Waterstones i...

Page Count: 127 Pages You probably won’t have noticed the difference but the last couple of months have been all about the short reads while I tried to get back into my reading groove again. And for the record, I’m still not quite there but… It’ll come :o) In the meantime, if I’m after a short read then they don’t come a lot shorter than the old ‘Doctor Who’ novelisations. A conversation on Twitter (nope, still not calling it ‘X’) led me back to ‘The Enemy of the World’, a book that I haven’t read since I was nine or ten; quite a while then ;o) I’ve never seen the TV serial either (it’s on the list…) so picking the book up again was almost like reading it for the first time. The year is 2030 and the planet Earth is struck by a series of terrible ‘natural’ disasters. No sooner has the TARDIS landed on an Australian beach, then the Doctor has to flee from attack. A case of mistaken identity – for he is the exact double of Salamander, a despot who will stop at nothing to achieve total ...

I haven’t read an awful lot over the last couple of months (well, nowhere near what I’d normally expect to get through) but I did manage to read a few books and while I try and finally finish ‘Into the Narrowdark’, I thought I’d post my thoughts on those books here. And one of those books was ‘Pariah’, a book that I remembered thoroughly enjoying back in 2010 but somehow, hadn’t gone back to in the intervening years. I was struggling to settle on anything and if you know me, you’ll know that ‘zombie horror’ is a sure fire way of holding my attention so the choice pretty much made itself. So in I dived and… I’ll be honest, there’s still a lot to like about ‘Pariah’ but either I wasn’t quite in the mood for it or the book has lost a little something over the years. I’m not sure, let me see if I can explain. A global plague has nearly vanquished mankind; the citizenry of New York City is no exception. Eight million zombies. Should to shoulder. Walking the streets, looking for their ...

December was a quiet month for reading but, at the same time, it was also a great month for lying in bed (dosed up on codeine) and listening to some old Black Library audiobooks. And yep, I know that audiobooks count as reading but if I don't have an actual book in my hands (or a Kindle) then it doesn't feel like it, you know? That's just me though :o)  Anyway, in the interests of me remembering what I've read, I thought I'd post some quick thoughts here. These were all re-reads (re-listens?) so I'm swiping those thoughts from older posts posted way back when. Cut me a little slack, I'm going to be away over the weekend so wanted to get a couple of things posted before I go ;o) And with all that said, check out some of what I've been listening to... Formerly of the Death Guard Legion, Captain Nathaniel Garro is now on the business of the Regent of Terra himself. Garro doesn’t fully know what this business is as yet but there is only one minor task yet to...

And... I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you and that's why I'm back, thanks for popping by and keeping the place going while I was gone ;o)  I ended up being away for a little longer than I'd planned. December was all about getting over my surgery and I'll be honest, it was a total write off for reading anything so there was no point in blogging. And then January, and a little bit of February, was about the follow-up appointments plus some other doctor/hospital stuff that's still ongoing. Hopefully I'm going to get most of that sorted fairly soon (fingers crossed). I've also been trying to stay on top of work which has really been stressing me out and that is why I've come back to give blogging another go. I need something fun to take my mind off the stress so... Lets see how I do with this... ;o) I don't think I'm at a post a day right now but I'll try and keep it interesting. It won't surprise you though to learn that I still hav...