Lord Samper's Library

Well, that's the plan anyway :o) I'm trying to be a little more ruthless with my bookshelves and get rid of books that I'm not going to re-read. The Oxfam bookshop, in Greenwich, has done very well out of me so far. Lets see if I can shift a few more books over the weekend :o) In the meantime, books are still finding their way back to my place, albeit a little more slowly than usual. Lets take a look at a few, shall we...?  I have been after a copy of 'Into the Maelstrom' for a number of years (loads of them...) so when I saw this second hand copy on sale, for a decent price, I had to jump on it. I'm on call today so will be stuck indoors by the phone; I've got a feeling that I'll be reading 'Into the Maelstrom' while I wait for the phone to ring. And a couple of Ray Bradbury books as well, just because I enjoyed 'The Illustrated Man' so much :o) It might be a little longer before I get to 'Fahrenheit 451' and 'Something Wic...

Page Count: 128 Pages Before we even look at the book itself, just take a few moments to gaze in silent wonder at that glorious cover. Carnivorous alien vegetation under attack from the sky and explosions! The Doctor and Sarah-Jane Smith are almost an afterthought; there’s so much else going on here that it’s easy to lose track of them if you’re not careful. But anyway… ;o) There’s definitely a pattern starting to emerge here. I’ve watched ‘The Seeds of Doom’ fairly recently (although I thought I had the DVD but I can’t find it) but it’s been about forty years since I last read the book. Nostalgia isn’t a bad thing but damn, it makes me feel old… ‘The Seeds of Doom’ was another book that I borrowed, from the library, back in day, scared myself reading it and then never saw it again… Until the other week when I came across it on Greenwich Market. I had to have it and then I finished it off over yesterday’s commute. Lets talk about ‘The Seeds of Doom’… In the snowy wastes of blizzard swe...

Page Count: 294 Pages Now here’s a book that I haven’t read since I had to study it for GCSE English (which is so long ago now, I’m really trying not to think about it). Well, I say study… I think we looked at one story (‘The Veld’) and then we had to try and write a story in the style of Ray Bradbury. Seriously :o) Lets just say I was better at writing about ‘TheVeld’ and leave it at that. ‘The Illustrated Man’ had been on my mind just recently so when I saw a copy on the shelf, in Waterstones, it didn’t take too much for me to buy it and take it home for a read. It’s been a long time since I read a short story collection from cover to cover but that’s just what I did here and that should tell you something about this collection. I’m not a big reader of science-fiction but I ended up very glad that I made an exception to that rule here… If El Greco had painted miniatures in his prime, no bigger than your hand, infinitely detailed, with his sulphurous colour and exquisite human anatomy...

I actually managed to finish Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Illustrated Man’ last night (look at me, finishing books that I’ve bought) but there was a lot to wrap my head around there, and there was no way I was going to get all that in a post last night, so… I thought I’d clear my head a little with a couple of Black Library short stories that I found on my Kindle. One exercise in filling in the gaps in the ‘Horus Heresy’ and a ‘Warhammer Horror’ tale that, erm… wasn’t, not from where I was sat anyway. That sounds a little more harsh than was meant. These weren’t particularly bad tales, they just don’t rank highly amongst those that I’ve enjoyed. Still, not a bad way to round off an evening. Here goes… ‘ Massacre’ (Aaron Dembski-Bowden) Shunned by the rest of the Legions after the destruction of their home world, the Night Lords have fought without their disgraced primarch Konrad Curze for many years. But now the self-proclaimed ‘Night Haunter’ has returned and will lead them to the backwater ...

I thought I’d already posted about this book but… apparently not. I couldn’t tell you exactly when but I have read ‘Riders of the Dead’ (since I bought my copy a couple of years ago ), it just looks like once again, life got in the way and before I knew it, I’ve just come across my copy and thought ‘damn, I owe the blog a post’… So, I’ve taken the long way round (again) but here we are :o) Regular visitors to the blog will know that I’ve got a real soft spot for the Old World setting and also, I firmly believe that Dan Abnett is incapable of writing a bad book. So, an Old World book written by Dan Abnett is pretty much the perfect storm. Well, it should be… I’m messing with you ;o) ‘Riders of the Dead’ was a great read. It’s going to be a shorter post than normal (it has been a while since I read the book and there’s so much to catch up with at work…) but let me tell you about it. In the Chaos-infested wastes, the strongest of friendships can easily be manipulated into the deadliest of...

Page Count: 232 Pages The last few days have been rough so my comfort reading has taken me down that familiar road signposted ‘Doctor Who’ ;o) Yesterday’s read didn’t quite work out but I also had another book on the go, at the same time, and that worked a lot better for me. No prizes if you guessed that ‘The Day of the Doctor’ was that book ;o) This is going to be a shorter post than normal (I’m on a new dose of one of my tablets and I think that today could well be about riding out some side effects, or is it side affects? I don’t know…); lets see if I can get those thoughts in order... When the entire universe is at stake, three different Doctors will unite to save it. The Tenth Doctor is hunting shape-shifting Zygons in Elizabethan England. The Eleventh is investigating a rift in space-time in the present day. And one other – the man they used to be but never speak of – is fighting the Daleks in the darkest days of the Time War. Driven by demons and despair, this battle-scarred ...

I am absolutely shattered today so I thought I’d take another stab at that big ol’ pile of comic books (I showed you a couple of weeks ago ) and I see if I could cut it down to size a little. And I did, just not in the way I was hoping… As I get older, I’m finding it a hell of a lot easier to just not finish books that aren’t working for me. Too many other books to read, not enough time and all that. Comic books though, they’re a little easier on my eyes so I generally stick with them to the bitter end, no matter the quality. Not this one though… Pitiless war machines committed to universal conquest, the Daleks have terrified and enthralled Doctor Who fans for generations. Collected together for the first time, Panini Comics proudly presents the first volume of Dalek stories taken from Doctor Who Magazine’s 40 years of award-winning comic strip. Growing up, I was all about watching ‘Doctor Who’ on the TV and filling in any gaps by reading whatever I can lay my hands on in the library. ...

I've got a few things that I need to do today, and my reading kind of tailed off over the last couple of days, so once again, I'm raiding the vaults of old blogs (mine!) to give myself a little breathing space while I try and finish a book or two. It's another Bank Holiday Weekend here so I'm quietly confident that might actually happen, we'll see ;o) In the meantime... 'Ragemoor' is one of those books that likes to lurk at the back of my mind; popping out just when I least expect it to remind me just how weird and unsettling it is. I used to have a copy and fingers crossed, maybe I'll find a cheap copy again one day. Here's what I had to say about it back in the day (the original post can be found Here ), A living castle, born of blood and eager to work its will on the people that it ensnares. A castle with plans that must come to fruition, no matter what the cost in human lives… Hang on, haven’t we heard this all before? Aren’t we just looking at y...

I've got a chronic health condition (well, two actually but we're only talking about one of them today) that has absolutely done for me over the last couple of days and my reading took a beating as a result. That means I'm going through one of my periodic phases where I make small piles of books and read a few pages of each until I decide on one to stick with. Fancy a quick look at one? Of course you do :o) As you can see, I'm a little way into 'Withered Hill' and 'Creed: Ashes of Cadia' , I'm also a fair way into 'The Day of the Doctor' . Those are the front-runners so far :o)  I was watching 'The Dark Tower' the other day (What? I like it) and that prompted me to stick 'The Gunslinger' on the pile. I was after some 'old school' fantasy as well so 'The Trolltooth Wars' joined it. And 'Spores of Doom' looked like a safe bet for some short story action to break things up a bit. Is there anything here...

The days are pretty much relentless at the moment, what with one thing and another (and then another, and then yet another), damnit. Nothing this blogger can't handle, there's just an awful lot of it and I'm really tired (which, funnily enough, is one of the 'things' I'm having trouble with)... Typical really ;o) Oh well, just a couple of days and it's the weekend. I haven't been good for much, in the evenings so, while I have read a couple of books, it has been mostly about the movies again. I'm cool with that, so long as the movies are half decent ;o) Most of them were half decent, not all of them though... 'Bait 3D' (2012) A freak tsunami traps a group of people in a submerged grocery store. Not only do they need to escape the rising water level, they must also contend with the two Great White Sharks that are trapped in there with them... A little bit of a cheat as I've seen this movie a few times and knew exactly what I would be getti...

Page Count: 20 Pages A long read, then a short read then… I’m not thinking that far ahead, we’re halfway through the week and it feels like I’ve been through a week already ;o) Just a couple more days after this and it’s the weekend. Anyway, after spending the last couple of weeks in ‘The Fall of Cadia’, I needed my next read to be short and sweet but something I could get my teeth into, and chew on for a bit, at the same time. I had a feeling that ‘Human Resources’ was the read I was after so I gave it a read and… Set years before Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s all-too plausible short story navigates a world where humans are increasingly redundant. “Holring and Baselard value your contribution to our team” As one of the last non-robot employees at Holring and Baselard, Tim Stock retains a vital role in the human resources department: firing the multinational conglomerate’s remaining human workers. But the soul-crushing task eats away at Tim. As he watches the company replac...

Page Count: 651 Pages I feel like I’ve turned a little corner by reading this book :o) The ways have been just recently, I’ve only been good for books that are just over a couple of hundred pages at the most (and sometimes, they’ve beaten me too). ‘The Fall of Cadia’ comes from a chunkier breed of books though, and I finished it :o) Go me, but also go Robert Rath and ‘The Fall of Cadia’ for getting me through another tough week and a bit. Warhammer 40K reads have been good to me, just recently, and ‘The Fall of Cadia’ can hold its head up high with all the others… Cadia licks its wounds in the wake of the Thirteenth Black Crusade. The heretic forces retreat on all fronts. The day is won. But Lord Castellan Creed cannot rest easy. Something tells him the assault was a mere prelude to something greater, something more final. He is right. Out of the Eye of Terror comes Abaddon the Despoiler, at the head of a warhost unmatched in scale since the dread days of the Horus Heresy, and in posse...

Sorry for the brief period of 'radio silence'... I had my daughters over yesterday and it was great but there was also a lot of walking around Central London looking for certain Manga books (my eldest daughter loves the stuff) and we didn't find anything... Well, nothing that she was after anyway, we found loads of stuff that didn't make the grade ;o) Seriously, if anyone knows of places in London that sell all the Manga you won't find in Waterstones or Forbidden Planet, let me know... Having said that though, I came back with a couple of books because of course I did ;o) I also picked up a couple through Amazon, can you tell I've been paid? ;o) As things stand, there are more books leaving the house than coming in, I just need to read a little quicker... Lets take a look at what I've picked up. 'The Incorruptibles' was a charity shop find on the way home from a hospital appointment; not a priority read but one that I enjoyed years ago and fancied r...

Run Time: 22 Minutes Just a quick one today because, well… Look at the run time here ;o) I had to nip over to the pharmacy, yesterday, and the bus ride there and back was just the right length for a little audiobook action. As you know full well by now, Black Library audiobooks are my ‘go to listen’ so, here we are :o) On the world of Solennes, the battle between the forces of the Imperium and the heretics has become a stalemate of seemingly eternal artillery bombardments. The land is devastated, and the attempts to gain ground by either side end in disaster. Morale is low, and when Trooper Arehn is caught apparently fleeing the front lines, Commissar Selander does not hesitate in condemning him to a very public execution. When Selander starts to see Arehn after his death, he follows the apparition, wracked by doubts - but what will he find? ‘Judge of the Wastes’ is a very atmospheric piece, great script work from Annandale (with the gradual breakdown of Commissar Selander) which is de...

You can find ‘Pain Engine’ and ‘Chains’ as eBooks but not here, not today :o) I was poring over my shelves the other day and came across a copy of the ‘Black Library Celebration 2024’ free anthology. ‘Doubly Free’ for me as I picked it up from the free book library at Lewisham station. When there was a free book library at Lewisham station… I miss it :o( But anyway… In the spirit of ‘reading the books on my shelves first’ (payday today, we’ll see how much longer that lasts…) , I thought I’d forego the usual ‘quick read for the commute’ post and have a night in with a couple of these tales instead. And that is exactly what I did, it wasn’t all smooth sailing though… ‘Pain Engine’ – Chris Thursten A drukhari haemonculus searches for the pain engine of a renowned master. Venturing into the depths of Commorragh, he must complete a series of horrific trials in the hope of proving himself an equal in the art of fleshcraft. I’ve read about the drukhari, in 40K, but I’d never actually read a d...

Page Count: 99 Pages I’ve read a few books with Wile E. Young’s name on the cover (you can see what I thought Here , Here and Here too) and without fail, they’ve all been excellent reads. So when I saw Wile E. Young’s name on the cover of ‘Borealis’, the book pretty much bought itself ;o) And then I promptly left it on a shelf and forgot about it until yesterday. To be fair, I bought my copy back in December last year and that was the worst time, that I can remember in a long time, for getting anything read. It’s 2025 now though and in the spirit of actually reading books that I already own (instead of just buying more), I thought it was way past time that I gave ‘Borealis’ a read. It isn’t the right time of year; it isn’t the right geography. But the lights are still there. Drifting out of the stars, the people of Atlanta, Texas are eager to sit on their porches and take in the sight of this “once in a lifetime” event. Even when they crash their cars, they watch. Even when they’...

Page Count: 256 Pages (Kindle Edition) This cover art isn't for the Kindle Edition by the way, that was just a black rectangle with the title in red, we deserve better than that here ;o) I don’t normally read anything much longer than around thirty pages on my Kindle app (regular visitors will know that already though…) but I was looking after my daughters the other night and didn’t have a book handy after they’d gone to bed. It’s at times like that, I’m glad I’ve got my phone on me ;o) I’d read John Halkin’s ‘Slither’ a few years ago and enjoyed it enough to treat myself to the Kindle editions of ‘Squelch’ and ‘Slime’. I decided to go for ‘Squelch’ first as I was intrigued to see what kind of a ‘creature feature’ Halkin could make from caterpillars and moths. Not much of one as it happens… When Ginny first spotted the beautiful moths, she felt sure they were welcoming her to her new cottage... But by the time the lethal caterpillars arrived, she knew she was very, very, wrong. Hug...

Page Count: Six Pages I came across ‘Eight O’ Clock in the Morning’ in ‘The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction No.13’ (Edited by Avram Davidson); in fact, it’s the main reason I bought the book when I saw it in Greenwich Market. If you’re looking to read it yourself, you can find it Here or the November 1963 edition of ‘The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction’ (thanks Wikipedia!) Either works but clicking on the link might be quicker ;o) I came to ‘Eight O’ Clock in the Morning’ the long way round, taking a circuitous route via Stephen King’s ‘The Ten O’Clock People’ and a brief stop to (finally) watch ‘They Live’. I’d always had it in mind to give ‘Eight O’ Clock in the Morning’ a go though so like I said, when I saw it mentioned in the blurb, I had to grab the book before someone else did… At the end of the show the hypnotist told his subjects, “Awake.” Something unusual happened. One of the subjects awoke all the way. This had never happened before. His name was George Nada ...

Page Count: 184 Pages Like I said the other day, I’ve been trying to clear my shelves a bit and being me, have ended up with a proliferation of small TBR piles around the flat. Look, it’s a long process, I’ll get there eventually ;o) Going over the comic book shelves, I found far too many comic books that I’d picked up and then completely forgotten I had. This post is the start of me working through that pile before I let myself go out and buy any more. It’s the least I can do for ‘Past Graeme’ and all the effort he went to, buying those books ;o) I’ll be honest, I’m not a hundred percent sure how ‘Goblin’ ended up on my bookshelf (it’s been a while since I bought it) but there it was and CAM, on Bluesky, suggested I pick it up first… So, lets go. A young, headstrong goblin embarks on a wild journey of danger, loss, self-discovery, and sacrifice in this new graphic novel adventure. One fateful night a sinister human warrior raids the home of the young goblin Rikt and leaves him orpha...

What do you do when you only found a couple of books on your travels and you've only managed to stay awake through a few movies over the last couple week? Simple. You take the two 'half posts', join them together and see what happens next ;o)  It has been an odd last few days... I haven't been well and have been falling asleep at almost every time except when I've actually wanted to. And book-wise? Well... I've been focusing more on getting rid of books than buying them. I did find a couple though, let me show you :o) I really wasn't looking for books but I saw these two for a pound each and I had £2 in my pocket... Seemed like too much of a coincidence for me not to buy them so... ;o) I'll be honest, I can't see myself reading 'Fevre Dream' any time soon but it does fill in a gap in my 'Fantasy Masterworks' collection so, I'm happy. And 'Life, the Universe and Everything' is a book that I'm pretty sure I haven't r...

Some more book pictures for you ;o) I should have seen it coming :o) I've spent the last week, and a bit, trying to make some room in the flat by getting rid of books that I'm clearly never going to read (again). What has actually happened is that I now have 5-6 extra piles of books that I'm absolutely, definitely going to read (honest!) If 'making things difficult for yourself' was a dictionary entry, I'm pretty sure I'd be the illustration ;o) Same deal with comic books... Now I've got a pile of comic books to work through and I've got no idea where to start. Can you help?  Is there anything here you'd like to see feature, on the blog, sooner rather than later? Leave a comment and let me know ;o)

Page Count: 27 Pages Amazon is jammed full of Black Library short stories but right now, I’m running out of ones that I’d be happy to pay £1.99 for so this will probably be the last one I buy for a while. I’ve got a few anthologies that will keep me going in the meantime. So it’s that time of the week, again, where everything catches up with me and my reading slows down to a crawl. Just one more day to the weekend though, we can do it :o) While we wait for Friday to sort itself out, lets have a little talk about my last read of the week… Dalchian Rassaq, the skin-taker, leads his Night Lords warband – the Blades of Atrocity – in a lightning raid on an Adeptus Mechanicus facility. Abandoned by their supposed allies, Rassaq must massacre his way out of the facility if he has any chance to exact revenge. Sometimes, you find yourself at the end of the week and all you’re after is a short, sharp burst of mayhem to get you through the day; like an espresso in book form ;o) If that’s what you...