Lord Samper's Library

An old landlady of mine used to say that she could tell how bad a week I'd had by the number of Amazon packages that would arrive, addressed to me. I wonder what she'd make of all the books that came home with me over the past week and a bit... This week hasn't been all bad to be fair (me and my eldest daughter are working our way through 'The Walking Dead' on Prime, that is always cool), but it has been pretty grim in places and I'm glad it's done. Just in time to tackle next week head on ;o) Enough of that though, lets take a look at those books... From the top... It has been years since I read the 'Sword of Shadows' series, long enough that all my old copies are long gone now. With the end of the series (finally) rumoured to be in sight, I thought I'd have another crack at reading the books and that's why 'A Cavern of Black Ice' is sat at the top of the pile. 'The Tripods Trilogy' was an impulse buy from 'Any Amount o...

Well... It's the blurb that I saw on Amazon while I was mooching around, making idle plans about how to spend my next paycheck (plans have now been made, just in case you were wondering...) If you haven't already seen said blurb, here it is... A goddess awakens to a new world, only to find that some things never change. Amidst the ashes of a failed rebellion in Seven Cities, new embers are flaring to life. There are furrowed brows at the beleaguered Malazan Legion headquarters in G’danisban for it would appear that yet another bloody clash with the revived cult of the Apocalyptic is coming to a head. Seeking to crush the uprising before it ignites the entire subcontinent, Fist Arenfall has only a few dozen squads of marines at his disposal, and many of those are already dispersed - endeavouring to stamp out multiple brush-fires of dissent. But his soldiers are exhausted, worn down by the grind of a simmering insurrection and the last thing Arenfall needs is the arrival of the n...

I’m on call today so am making the most of it (I can’t be too far away from my work laptop and wi-fi connection) by staying indoors, even though it’s lovely outside, and trying to catch up on some reading. Okay, catching up on some telly as well :o) Who knows, today may even be the day when I finish ‘Into the Narrowdark’ but for now, lets talk a little bit about ‘Conan the Barbarian #18’ which I picked up during a brief stop in Forbidden Planet the other day. I’m still very much about collecting the trades (try as I might, I always forget to pick up single issues) but I needed some reading for the train home so, here we are :o) On the road of Kings… While resupplying in the Shemite coastal city of Kyros, Conan of Cimmeria and Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast, sought refuge and respite at an inn known as the Hidden Haven. There, the duo indulged in drink and nostalgia, recalling their charged first meeting before retiring to the privacy of their room. But their presence was noted by a ...

Yesterday was a day in the office and the commute is always a great time to catch up on a little reading. The journey home saw me finally start on Edward Ashton’s ‘Mickey 7’ which is shaping up to be a great read so far (actually, at just over 200 pages in, it’s a great read all in all), a review should follow in the next few days. The commute in though, that was about catching up with a couple of shorter stories from the war-torn times of the Horus Heresy. Let me tell you about them… ‘ Visage’ – Rich McCormick Page Count: 40 Pages Following the Battle of Signus Prime, the indignation shown by Erebus, Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers, is met with brutal retribution from the Warmaster Horus. After having his tattooed visage flayed from his scalp, Erebus seeks the power of the avatars of Chaos to restore his faith in the Dark Gods. So, Erebus has lost face… Sorry, I couldn’t help it ;o) Out of all the players in the ‘Horus Heresy’ series, Erebus is one of the most important charact...

Because I'll be honest, I had a little sleep yesterday evening, an 'accidental power nap' as it were :o) I should have tried to stay awake but here we are... So todays book post will happen tomorrow and instead, here's a couple of bookshelves that I haven't shown you yet. Please excuse the quality of the photos, my eyes aren't in great shape ;o) Anyway... I don't pay this shelf enough attention and I really should; it's a really good representation of what I'm about as far as books go. I think there are a couple of books here that have already featured on the blog (I'm looking at you 'Bethany's Sin' ) but there's a lot here that was unpacked, after the move, and hasn't been looked at since. Is there anything here that you'd like me to bump up the TBR Pile? And here is the 'Fantasy Masterworks' shelf :o) There are a few other Masterworks on other shelves, like in the photo above, but this is where the bulk of them l...

Page Count: 131 Pages If I should ever happen to bump into G.P. Nedloh, I will shake his hand and buy him a pint at the nearest pub. Why? Well… Up until last night, I’ve had a nightmare trying to stay the course with any book that I’ve picked up. Didn’t matter what the book was or who had written it, I was good for about ten pages (ish) and then I’d either be asleep or watching the telly. There are reasons for this, I’ve got a few things going on at the moment, but you don’t need to know about that ;o) Lets just say that for a chap who lives in a flat chock full of books, I was starting to get a little concerned. And then my copy of ‘The Woodlice’ arrived, yesterday, and I couldn’t put it down until it was done. Had I rediscovered my reading mojo or had I discovered an awesome read? A little bit of A but mostly a generous helping of B. Well played Mr Nedloh, well played :o) When a secret chemical experiment goes horribly wrong at a remote lab, a horde of woodlice, once harmless, mu...

I haven’t been getting a lot of reading done, just recently, but I have got a couple more audiobooks under my belt so all is not lost yet :o) I really enjoy Black Library’s output here so it’s no surprise then that one of those listens was in the universe of the far future whilst the other was a welcome return to the Old World. Let me tell you about them… Quick thoughts though, yesterday was a tough one and I’m still regrouping. Enough of that though, lets talk audiobooks :o) ‘Perpetual (The Horus Heresy)’ – Dan Abnett Run Time: 26 Minutes Oll Persson stands apart from the rest of mankind. He is one of the old ones, one of the undying. One of the Perpetuals., Now, fleeing from the ruins of Calth with his band of fellow refugees, the vagaries of the warp have brought him through the backways of time and space to a city that rests on the edge of oblivion...and no further. The path has ended abruptly, and Oll's enemies are finally closing in. Will his immortality be enough to s...

I've got a hospital appointment (another one) this afternoon and I'll be honest, this one has been playing on my mind a fair bit. I'm in a bit of a weird spot you see, the Doctor has said that something isn't quite right, they're just taking a little while to figure out what the issue actually is. Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious... :o) But anyway, you don't really want to know about all that. Lets just say that I couldn't concentrate on any books so I watched a load of telly instead, that worked a lot better for me :o) Let me quickly tell you about the movies I got through... 'The Day of the Triffids' (1963) After an unusual meteor shower leaves most of the human population blind, a merchant navy officer must find a way to conquer tall, aggressive walking plants that feed on people and animals. If the blurb wasn't enough of a clue, I'll tell you now that this isn't a particularly faithful retelling of the book. Actually, it...

Not here, on the telly while I'm writing this ;o) I've got the 1961 film on in the background, just so the flat doesn't feel completely quiet, and while it's not true to the book at all, it's actually not a bad movie. I'll have more to say on it soon(ish), it just depends on what else I watch over the course of today. Talking of which... Sorry for the silent blog yesterday. I had my girls over and we ended up going into town for a little 'Forbidden Planet' shopping, rounded off with a decent helping of McDonalds afterwards. Much as I enjoy my blog, spending time with my daughters is a million times better so... No blogging yesterday :o) That's enough of that though. This week was another tough one so of course, I was in and out of bookshops and a fair few came home with me. Also, there were a few books that should have gone in last week's post but I completely forgot. We're not too bothered about that though, are we...? ;o) I was at a funeral...