Lord Samper's Library

After leaving Cimmeria filled with wanderlust, a young Conan heads north in search of glory. What he finds in that cold climate will change his outlook forever, setting him on the path that will make him a legend. It’s taken me a little longer than planned to pick this book up (blame ‘Into the Narrowdark’ but in a good way, that book absolutely grabbed my attention) but I’m thoroughly enjoying Zub’s ‘Conan’ so reading ‘Frozen Faith’ was always going to be a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. And at the risk of repeating myself. It was well worth the read. I’m definitely repeating myself but at this point, I don’t care :o) ‘Conan’ really is in the best of hands with Jim Zub who instinctively gets the character, both in terms of adapting Howard’s stories and in letting Conan search out further new adventures. And Doug Braithwaite’s artwork continues to be just superb, really capturing the essence of Conan himself as well as the wider world that he strides through. I’ll be honest… I’ve go...

Morning all :o) Apologies for the 'blog silence' yesterday. I'm 'on-call' for work and yesterday, I got a call that took a fair while to resolve. If it is resolved that is... I should hopefully find out later on this morning. When I wasn't on-call, I was hanging out with my youngest daughter and that was a lot more fun. I'll be honest, I didn't think of the blog once but, here we are now ;o) Lets talk books, shall we? It has been (another) one of those weeks and it coincided with payday so I thought I'd cheer myself up in the best way that I know how, book shopping :o)  I've skimmed the first couple of chapters of 'Scuttler's Cove' and it looks very promising, promising enough that I thought I'd take a chance on 'Withered Hill' . I will be reading 'Scuttler's Cove' first but 'Withered Hill' won't be far away. I'm more about the shorter reads, at the moment, but finally finishing 'Into the Na...

Yesterday was one of those Thursday's where I find myself repeatedly muttering things like 'just get through it mate' and 'not long until the weekend'... Not the worst day ever, just very intense with a lot of stuff to pack into not enough time. Oh well, not long until the weekend ;o) I wasn't up for much yesterday evening then, stuck a couple of 'Hellraiser' movies on in the background and read a couple of 'Horus Heresy' short stories that I had on my Kindle (well, the Kindle App, I still have no idea where my actual Kindle is...) Turns out that short stories are just good for the bus ride home from work, they're also good for while you're waiting for your dinner to heat up. Let me tell you a little bit about them... 'Ordo Sinister' - John French (Black Library) Page Count: 22 Pages The webway – a bizarre alien landscape created by the eldar in ages long past; a network of otherworldly tunnels that burrow through time and space. ...

I'm more than a little run off my feet today with month-end, at work, bringing two deadlines that I'm trying (unsuccessfully, it has to be said) to bend to my will. Oh well, just tomorrow to go and then it's the weekend :o) In the meantime, I haven't been able to focus on any current reads enough to finish them for a post here. Because of that, I'm relying on the work of 'Past Me' to cover todays post; I hope you don't mind too much! The plan was to read 'The Ice Schooner' for a more current review but that never quite happened and I need a break today so, here we are ;o) You can read the original review Here but all the important bits are below, A new Ice Age covers an Earth of the distant future, an earth where men pilot mighty ice schooners and hunt down the slowly dwindling race of land whales. It is a world where time is running out for its lonely inhabitants, or is it? Schooner captain Konrad Arflane’s life takes an unexpected turn when he...

Page Count: Eight Pages. After working my way through the last couple of hundred pages of ‘Into the Narrowdark’, my next read needed to be something completely different and a change of pace as well. You know where I’m coming from ;o) With that in mind then, I took the jump from epic fantasy, straight into a slice of science fiction that I hadn’t read in almost forty years… (Note to self: Stop thinking about how long it has been since you’ve read certain books, you’ll just upset yourself) Wikipedia very kindly let me know that Isaac Asimov’s short story ‘Flies’ first appeared in the June 1953 issue of ‘Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction’, eventually ending up as part of the Asimov collection ‘Nightfall and Other Stories’. And that’s where I first came across ‘Flies’, poring over the books on my Dad’s shelves. He was cool with me reading a little Asimov and while I got a few short stories under my belt, it was ‘Flies’ that stuck with me and the other day, I figured I was well overd...

It struck me yesterday that I’ve been reading (and re-reading) Tad Williams’ ‘Osten Ard’ books for most of my life and while that’s not a bad way for any fan, of fantasy fiction, to spend their time; it has left me feeling rather old now ;o) Not as old as I felt though when I realized that if I was ever going to finish ‘Into the Narrowdark’, I would have to finish it in hardback as the print there is slightly larger… On the one hand dammit but on the other hand, I did feel a little like Father Strangyeard complaining to Deornoth that his sight is failing when there is so much still to be read. I love it when a book grabs you like that and you really identify with a character. That’s just one of the reasons that I go back to this series over and over again. Anyway… This review has been a long time coming and for many reasons that had very little to do with the book itself. And it was really liberating to finally realize that and be able to just kick back and enjoy ‘Into the Narrowdark’....

I finally finished 'Into the Narrowdark' on Saturday, the 'Easiest TBR pile' is finally complete :o) And yep, it has taken me since early November to finish off three books but cut me a little slack, it's been a tough few months... And that is why it felt so good to finish off 'Into the Narrowdark', kind of drawing a line under a crappy period. That and the fact that it ended up being a very good read (I mean, I was sure it would be but you never know until you give it a go...) Let me get my head around the book a little more and you'll see a post in the next couple of days. In the meantime... I managed to sort out one health issue last year but one of the tests, coming out of that, highlighted another possible issue which, a few weeks ago, was confirmed as an actual chronic condition and I'm now getting treatment for that. I'm not happy but you know what? It could have been a lot worse :o) My Uncle knows me very well and kindly sent me a book t...

The plan, for today, is still very much to get some reading done. It’s still early(ish), I can do it :o) But I’m also full of cold today so when I finally dragged myself out of bed, I went straight to my favourite chair and turned on the telly to see if anything on my Prime watchlist appealed. You know, something to blow the cobwebs away while I was having breakfast.. You know me, I love a good ‘creature feature’ and sometimes, even a bad one ;o) So when I saw that ‘Alligator’ was on Prime, that was my ‘breakfast telly’ sorted… ‘Alligator’ (1980) A pet baby alligator is flushed down the toilet but survives in the city sewers, growing to an enormous size on a diet of laboratory dogs injected with growth hormones. Twelve years later and sewer workers have begun to go missing. The police are looking for a killer but were not expecting to find anything quite like this… ‘Alligator’ is one of those movies that I’ve always meant to watch but never quite managed to because, well… There so many...

So I'm on call this weekend, for work, which means that I can't go too far away from the flat, just in case the phone rings. Seriously... The last time I went into town when I was on call, I ended up taking a Major Incident call in the Children's Section of Waterstones Piccadilly; luckily my youngest daughter was having a browse so I got away with it :o) Anyway... I'm not making that mistake again so I've resolved to sit in my living room and read while I wait and see if the phone rings. Here's what I'm planning on reading... With only a hundred and sixty three pages to go, 'Into the Narrowdark' is the priority read and I reckon I might even finish it today :o) It's not a bad book at all, I just haven't had the time or focus to really get into it. I'm hoping that today will be different. And 'Mortis' ? I gave it a few pages the other day and the next thing I knew, I was really into it. If I finish 'Into the Narrowdark' th...

Page Count: 128 Pages I never leave it too long between watching ‘Hellraiser’ movies (I actually re-watched the 2022 remake the other day, it’s still a good one) but I always seem to leave it far too long between re-reads of ‘The Hellbound Heart’. It’s a particularly slim book, my edition is anyway, so I guess it is too easy to lose it on the shelf. I came across it again, the other day, and thought to myself that if I don’t read it now, it could literally be years before I come across it again. Plus I was due a bus ride into work, yesterday, and ‘The Hellbound Heart’ is just the right length for a commute so… It came along with me :o) The Doorway to ultimate pleasure. At last, he had solved the puzzle of LeMarchand’s box. He was standing on the threshold of a new world of heightened sensations. In moments, the Cenobites – who had dedicated an eternity to the pursuit of sensuality – would be here. They would reveal dark secrets that would transform him for ever. But with the exquisite ...

I’ll be honest, I’m not a hundred percent sure what the page count is here as I was reading ‘The Deacon of Wounds’ as part of of the collection ‘Unholy: Tales of Horror and Woe from the Imperium’. I’m going for a hundred and eighteen pages, in this edition, but I don’t trust my math and that’s all I’ll say about that ;o) I’ve managed to get a few Black Library tales under my belt over the last few months and ‘The Deacon of Wounds’ was a read back in December, one that I’d been looking forward to finally picking up. I couldn’t spring for the hardback, when it first came out, so the ‘Unholy’ collection was a welcome purchase and having already read ‘The Bookkeepers Skull’ , I went straight for ‘The Deacon of Wounds’ and… I’m glad that I finally got to spend some time with it. The planet of Theotokos is dying of thirst. For years, Arch-Deacon Ambrose has done everything in his power to help the people. Charismatic, virtuous, pious, he is as beloved as the corrupt Cardinal Lorenz, who hoar...

Page Count: 507 Pages. At this point, I have absolutely given up even trying to read the ‘Horus Heresy’ and ‘Siege of Terra’ books in any kind of order. And I know that I really should have done but sometimes you just have to say ‘the hell with it’ and read whatever takes your fancy first, otherwise you’d never read anything at all. And that may well be my ‘Reading Resolution’ for the rest of the year but, anyway… So lets not worry too much about what has come before, if only because I may not have read it just yet ;o) Instead, let us skip to the final stages of the Siege of Terra where hope has almost disappeared… but not quite. The walls have fallen. The defenders’ unity is broken. The Inner Palace lies in ruins. The Warmaster’s horde advances through the fire and ash of Terra’s dying breaths, forcing the loyalists back to the Delphic Battlement, the very walls of the Sanctum Imperialis. Angron, Herald of Horus, has achieved immortality through annihilation – now he leads the armies ...

Because that's all I've really been good for just recently. Like I said yesterday, the new medication is giving me a bit of a kicking and there are some other things going on as well. It's all a little much so as much as I want to be reading books at the moment, all I can do after work is stick the TV on and try and make a dent in my watchlist(s) instead. I will try and get something bookish posted, there are books here and there that I have finished but not written about, but for now, lets take a look at some of those movies... 'Werewolves' (2024) One year ago, a supermoon event triggered a global outbreak, transforming anyone exposed to moonlight into bloodthirsty werewolves. A year has passed and another supermoon looms; while scientists work on a possible cure, the rest of the world is left to try and make it through the night... 'Werewolves' is more action than horror (despite what Prime Video might say) and you know what? When you're in a headspace...

Some new medication, that I'm on, is putting me through the wringer; not loads but enough that I'm starting to notice it a little. And if that wasn't enough, I'm off to the dentist, later today, to finally have that troublesome tooth removed. Don't worry, I'm not after sympathy, just trying to put a little context around why I'm recycling an old review today instead of coming up with anything new. Fingers crossed, I'll be back to normal tomorrow ;o) In the meantime... Lets take a look at an old 'SF Masterworks' review from almost twelve years ago. I would normally link to the original review (ok, Here it is... ) but today I'm posting pretty much the whole thing here. And this is because I opened it with a question that I still think is relevant; I know that one person who reads this blog wouldn't agree... ;o) I really don’t read enough of the SF Masterworks books as I should. This is especially the case as I haven’t found a book in the se...

The last week has been a quiet one, as far as the ongoing hunt for books goes, and you know what? That's not a bad thing sometimes, especially seeing as once again, small piles of books are starting to spring up around the flat. My attention has been elsewhere this week, that's the long and short of it. There have been some new arrivals though, of course there has ;o) A bargain, a 'must purchase' and a long overdue read. Lets take a look at them... Not the best picture I've ever taken but I think you get a decent idea of just how gorgeous the cover art is for both books. I already have the three books collected in 'The White Wolf' ('The Dreamthief's Daughter', 'The Skrayling Tree' and 'The White Wolf's Son') but this edition looks amazing and was on sale at a fraction of the cost that you normally see it go for. I couldn't resist it and I'll be honest, I didn't try that hard ;o) And 'The Company of the Wolf...

I had a lot of fun with David Wragg's 'The Hunters' (you can read my review Here ) and I'm already into 'The Company of the Wolf'. And yes, I should be finishing off 'Into the Narrowdark' as well, I'm working on it ;o) In the meantime, while I was grabbing a copy of 'The Company of the Wolf', I came across the cover art and blurb for the final instalment, 'The Iron Road'. I absolutely love the cover art for the series so thought I'd share the cover art and blurb here. Possible spoilers though if you haven't read the series. If you're still here, check it out, Rebellion’s about the journey, not the destination. Ree is at war. Determined to free the townships from the Guild's larcenous rule, she can’t take her eyes off victory. Not now, with the scent of blood in the air. Not for her consort, not even for her kid. Javani is ready for her own adventures. She’s no longer a child and determined to blaze her own trail, even ...

Page Count: 28 Pages Yesterday was a day in the office so as ever, the journey home was just the right amount of time for reading a short story :o) ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ first appeared in ‘Harper’s Monthly’ way back in September 1902 ( much obliged Wikipedia ) and I came across it while having my lunchtime bagel yesterday. I was having a look at the plot for ‘The Monkey’ ( thanks again Wikipedia ) which led to the Stephen King story, of the same name , and finally, what looked like the root inspiration for those tales. I was intrigued and that was all it took for me to find myself a copy of ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ and give it a go myself. Mr. and Mrs. White are about to learn the price you must pay when you interfere with fate; a lesson they will learn courtesy of a withered monkey’s paw… ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is a creepy tale that doesn’t hang around getting to the heart of the matter, a very effective exploration of human greed and what inevitably happens when this is set against fate, no matte...

I've been pretty wiped out just recently which has inevitably led to me trawling through my movie watchlists in search of anything that would either hold my attention or at worst, be on in the background while I played on my phone. What? Sometimes it's nice to have a bit of noise in the flat :o) A bit of a mixed bag this time round with a couple of films where I genuinely don't know why I stuck with them the whole way through (I guess I was really tired...) It's not the first film though... 'The Giant Spider Invasion' (1975) When a black hole strikes North Wisconsin, gigantic spiders emerge, craving human flesh and leaving NASA's top minds with a real problem on their hands. I don't I ever truly realized what the phrase 'so bad, it's good' really meant until I watched 'The Giant Spider Invasion' the other day. It really isn't good but the movie just says 'fuck it' and leans into it as far as it can go. The result is a lot ...

I haven’t read an awful lot by Clive Barker (‘The Hellbound Heart’, ‘The Scarlet Gospels’ and ‘Sacrament’ but that was close on thirty years ago now, damn…) so when I saw a copy of the first ‘Books of Blood’ omnibus in the British Heart Foundation shop, I had to pick it up. For me, the best way to get to know an author is through their short stories so this was a no-brainer ;o) This edition collects the first three volumes of the ‘Books of Blood’ but I’ll only be covering the first volume today as I haven’t had the time, or focus, to delve into the book any further than that. How did I get on with Volume 1 then? Well, lets just say that I’m still looking for the holy grail of anthologies (book, TV or film) where every single entry is a winner. That didn’t make this volume a bad read though, far from it. Not all the stories were hits but all of them had something to recommend it and that’s what will have me coming back to read the other two volumes in this edition. What follows then are...