Lord Samper's Library

  Page Count: 12 Pages ‘It turns out that if I’d actually read ‘The Haunter of the Ring’, I’d know that we’re looking at three REH adaptations in one ongoing ‘Scourge of the Serpent’ tale. I really need to read ‘The Haunter of the Ring’ now…’ That’s what I said, at the end of last year , when I realised that there was yet another gap in my ‘REH Reading’. Well; it took me a little longer than planned to get round to addressing that but last night, ‘got round to it’ I finally did ;o) I’m reading a lot of ‘Warhammer 40K’, at the moment, and while that’s not a bad thing, I do need to vary things a little bit. ‘The Haunter of the Ring’ popped into my head at just the right time. If you’re looking to read ‘The Haunter of the Ring’ yourself (and no surprises but I think you really should), you can find it in ‘The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard’ (Del Rey) or if you like your eBooks, on Project Gutenberg . I found it in the ‘Necronomicon’ collection (which I’d been meaning to pick up an...

  Page Count: 411 Pages You probably figured this out already (especially as I finished off the last three books, in the series, not so long ago) but I gave up trying to read the ‘Siege of Terra’ series in order (and the ‘Horus Heresy’ books as well, thinking about it) a long time ago. Finding the books is one thing, I’m also completely at the mercy of whatever cover art catches my eye at any particular moment. It’s a hard life ;o) That’s why I headed back to the beginning of the Siege, just after seeing what happens at the end, and saw how it all kicked off; with the kind of pyrotechnics that would give the Death Star Superlaser a serious inferiority complex… After seven years of bitter war, the end has come at last for the conflict known infamously as the Horus Heresy. Terra now lies within the Warmaster’s sights, the Throneworld and the seat of his father’s rule. Horus’ desire is nothing less than the death of the Emperor of Mankind and the utter subjugation of the Imperium. He ...

Well, maybe not that positive, one of these films wasn’t actually that great, but the next week and a bit is (hopefully) going to be a pretty big deal for me so I wanted to start it off on the right note. Well, try any anyway ;o) Anyway… I did manage to get a little reading done over the weekend, there’s nothing like a long bus ride to make some headway in a ‘Siege of Terra’ book, but I started things off with a movie and ended up just continuing from there :o) And here’s what I watched… ‘Predator – Badlands’ (2025) In which a young Yautja warrior (I believe they answer to ‘Predator’ as well) is cast out from his clan but finds a new family on his journey to confront the ultimate adversary… I’ve got to admit, I was a little wary of what I think is the first ‘Predator’ movie to carry a ‘12’ certificate; I mean without the horror, gore and flayed bodies hanging in the jungle, is it really a ‘Predator’ movie at all? On the other hand though, my eldest daughter and I love to hang out and...

The plan for 2026 is not to buy so many books and concentrate on the unread books, on my shelves, instead. That's still the plan but little did I know that I'd be the victim of a master book-tempter, and so early in the year... If you made the same resolution that I did, and you don't want to be book-tempted, then keep an eye open for this Womble as vigilance is the only thing that will keep your wallet safe ;o) The only problem is, if you do see this Womble then it's already too late and you are now the proud owner of a new book ;o) Anyway... I was reading through some of my favourite blogs, the other day, and came across this review for Clay McLeod Chapman's 'Acquired Taste' collection. I'd already read, and enjoyed, 'Wake Up And Open Your Eyes' so one payday later, and a little wait for delivery, I now have an 'Acquired Taste' as well ;o) They're feeding on you too. A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terr...

  Page Count: 122 Pages and about 5 Lines (yep, I'm in one of those moods...) It felt like a little while since I’d last read an old Target ‘Doctor Who’ novelisation (although looking back down the list of books posts, not that long as it turns out…) and it also felt like one of those weeks where you just want to round things off with a light read so… I put those two feelings together, paid a visit to my pile of unread ‘Doctor Who’ books and ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ was the book that I came up with for last night’s reading. I’ve never seen ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ (I was about a year old when it first aired so, maybe I did see it and just can’t remember…?) but I’ve got the vaguest memories of reading a library copy when I was little. From what I can remember, I didn’t particularly enjoy it back then (I’ll go into that later on) but when you’re looking through a pile of old ‘Doctor Who’ books and this one was only a fiver… You figure that maybe it’s time to give ‘Masque’ anothe...

  Page Count: 23 Pages What with one thing and another, Wednesdays are always busy, in and outside work, and while I wouldn’t swap it (well, I wouldn’t swap the bits where I get to hang out with my daughters); there’s never enough time at the end of the day to settle down with a good book. So, I settled down with (what I hoped would be) a good short story instead. And it was :o) I had seen that Chris Wraight’s ‘Vaults of Terra’ trilogy is due to be published soon, collected in one volume, so I thought I’d go and see if any of the accompanying short stories were available on the Kindle. ‘Argent’ was the first one that I came across so that’s the one I went with. And... Interrogator Luce Spinoza’s hunt for a traitor brings her to Forfoda and into the company of the Imperial Fists. Unearthing a den of corruption, Spinoza learns what it means to fight alongside the Emperor’s Angels, and vows to prove herself worthy of this honour or die in the attempt. It has been a long old time since...

  ‘No bold act is too small to be without consequence.’ The true strength of the Emperor’s largest military force lies not in their artillery, trenches and tanks, but in the courage of the ordinary men and women of the Astra Militarum. Against the countless foes of the Imperium, Guardsmen stand together. They fight to live and die not only for the glory of the God-Emperor, but for their fellow soldier. To survive against the Ruinous Powers and the overwhelming xenos tide, the trust and bravery of daring Catachan jungle fighters, indomitable Cadians, stoic Kriegsmen and more will be tested to the limits. Black Library’s authors give voice to the untold stories of heroism, determination and betrayal amongst the endless war of the 41st millennium. This is a little bit of a ‘cheat post’ as a number of the stories included, in this anthology, have already been covered here (as part of my ‘commuter reading’ on the Kindle app); I’ll link to these as we go ;o) I ended up buying the b...

  Page Count: 295 Pages I will always have an unashamed soft spot for movie novelizations, mostly because of my old copy of ‘Return of the Jedi’ and how it helped me bridge the gap between seeing the movie, at the cinema, and finally watching it on the telly one Christmas. That and my (slightly older, I think) copy of ‘Ladyhawke’. As a kid, movie novelizations were the best way for me to experience movies that I was far too young to see, and it really felt like they were all written by Alan Dean Foster ;o) Anyway… These days, I’m still reading movie novelizations before I see the actual movie; something that happened last night with ‘Devour’. The trailer looks absolutely awesome but my googling has completely let me down, I can’t find a single mention of when the movie is definitely coming out or where I can watch it. Oh well… I saw the novelization, on Amazon, and figured it would keep me going in the meantime. And… The Virginia Bitches: an all-female, all-vampire metal band, shro...

  Page Count: 208 Pages It’s that time of year where I find myself trying to finish off the books that I foolishly promised myself I would read before the New Year started. Books like ‘The Savage Sword of Conan: Volume 1’… Now here’s a book that has been sat on the shelf for the best part of a year; every so often, I’d grab it for a read but never get more than a few pages in before swapping it for something else. I don’t think there was any specific reason why, it just never seemed to be the right time to get into it (which was the same for a lot of books, to be fair, so this was more about me I think). It’s ‘Conan’ though so it was always going to be read, eventually… And ‘eventually’ ended up being last night, in a ‘now or never’ kind of way ;o) The Savage Sword of Conan is back from Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics! Featuring an epic new Conan epic from John Arcudi and Max Von Fafner, the rousing return of Solomon Kane written and drawn by Patch Zircher, an electric prose s...

After my first full week back at work, in a good three months, yesterday was always going to be one of those days where it wasn’t even worth trying to make solid plans; just wing it and anything achieved counts as a win. So that’s exactly what I did, just got through the day (with my kids so not exactly a chore) and rounded things off with a couple of movies before bed ;o) I’ve tried to focus a little more on reading, just recently, but that was never going to happen yesterday, and I did have a couple of movies in mind. The title, of the post, probably gave the game away but neither movie was that bad to be fair. Not every film has to be a winner (unless you invested in it, of course), so long as they do their job, that’s the main thing. And with that said… ‘The Evil in Us’ (2016) Run time: 90 mins. Six friends celebrate July 4th on a small island but by July 5th, only one of them will be left alive after some recreational cocaine has some unexpected side affects… This was a re-watch a...

Am I going to finish all of these books by the end of the month? Absolutely not. Am I going to have fun trying though? I sure am :o) Is this TBR pile subject to change at a seconds notice? You don't really need me to answer that ;o) For now though, lets take a quick look at what my reading is looking like in the short term... One movie novelization (that looks like it has come out before the actual movie...), a couple of 'Warhammer' books (one of which looks like it has gone on a cannibalistic spree and eaten several other books...) and another stop on my journey to eventually read Keith Rosson's 'Coffin Moon'. You can see that I've made a start on 'Devour' and 'Ashes of the Imperium'; looking at the size of 'Ashes' though, it's more likely that I'll finish 'Devour' first. We'll see... I really want to finish 'Savage Sword of Conan' now and all being well, the plan is for that to happen this weekend. Out of...

  Page Count: 368 Pages My ‘kind of’ resolution to read more books that I already own, and as a result maybe buy less books (we’ll see…), in 2026 is going… Okay, it’s only been nine days, so far, but I think I’m doing alright so far. If the year ended tomorrow, I could say I kept my resolution. What? It’s a start :o) Anyway… I was looking for something to read, yesterday, and noticed ‘We Used To Live Here’ , sat on a shelf that I generally don’t pay a lot of attention to. You know that feeling you get when it is exactly the right time to read a particular book? Well, I finally got that feeling about ‘We Used To Live Here’ last night so sat down for a read and… You let them back in. You shouldn't have... Young couple Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they got on an old house deep in the mountains. One day, a man knocks on the door. He says he lived there years before and asks if he can show his family around. But, as soon as they enter, strange things start to happ...

This seems to be turning into a bit of a week, what with trying to get back into full days at work as well as having to deal with other stuff once I turn my work laptop off. Oh well, I’d get bored if there wasn’t stuff happening (spoiler, no I wouldn’t)… ;o) This goes a long way then towards explaining why this week is also turning into one of those weeks where my reading takes me into the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40K. It still feels a little weird to be calling it ‘comfort reading’ but I’ll be honest, that’s exactly what it is right now. A cast of morally dubious characters fighting the xenos (or each other), set against a backdrop that is almost the literal definition of ‘raging against the dying of the light’. If you’re me and just want to check out of the real world for a bit, what’s not to like? And there’s a lot to think about as well. Is someone a hero if they’re purging to the point of genocide (maybe), is there really any difference between the Imperium and the followers...

  Page Count: 382 Pages Now here’s a book that I’d been trying to read, on and off, and then Christmas happened and that was more or less that… Until now :o) Like I said the other day, I’m trying to go a little easier on myself this year (as far as my reading goes) but I do want to read more of the books that I’ve already bought and ‘Oaths of Damnation’ felt like the best place to start for that. I’ve also read a couple of Macniven’s 40K short stories , fairly recently, and it felt like time to pick up something novel-length. ‘Oaths of Damnation’ it was then… :o) The Exorcists are a Space Marine Chapter unlike any other. To combat the forces of Chaos, they willingly accept daemonic possession, knowing that once it is purged their shattered souls will no longer be susceptible to corruption. Those who fail the banishment trials become Broken Ones, living prisons for the terrors expelled from their brethren. Should such desperate measures become known to the wider Imperium, there is l...

  A couple of years ago, I showed my eldest daughter the first episode of the ‘Walking Dead’ (Season 1), just to see what she thought of it Two years on and we’re deep into Season 8 so it’s fair to say that the experiment has been a success ;o) We have hit a bit of a roadblock though as a certain character is about to die, and she’s not ready to see him go, so I’ve been looked at a couple of the ‘spin-offs’, just to keep things ticking over until we’re ready to go again. ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ is looking like a safe bet for future viewing, it will be a while before I give ‘World Beyond’ another go though… ‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ is an anthology series of stand-alone tales set in the ‘Walking Dead’ universe; it was also on sale, on Prime Video, so it seemed like a good ‘next stop’ in my journey to find more ‘Friday night zombie telly’. And… It’s not a bad series, not brilliant but not bad either. I spent most of yesterday working through all the episodes, which should tell you ...

I’ll be honest, I did an awful lot of ‘re-watching’ over the holidays and it was just what this Graeme needed, a large dose of ‘comfort’ movies and TV shows. I wasn’t a lot of good for much else anyway but it was nice to have something on in the background while I did things like wrap presents and so on ;o) I did manage to watch some stuff that I hadn’t seen before though, and because my reading plans absolutely went down the drain over the weekend, this post (right here!) is where I’ll tell you about it. Lets start with the obvious one… ;o) ‘Stranger Things’ (Season 5) My eldest daughter and I have been working our way through the series, over the last few years, and while I wasn’t too bothered about watching ‘Stranger Things’ back in the day, watching it with my daughter has been brilliant fun. Now, we really need to finish watching ‘The Walking Dead’ :o) Anyway, there was never any question that we wouldn’t finish it and… I’m not going to go into it loads (the internet has done that...

What with one thing and another (including Cat 2 who is lovely but lets just say that looking after her is very much a full time thing), Friday night and most of yesterday was pretty much booked solid. And that was cool but my reading took a hit. Lets see how I do today :o) In the meantime, I try not to leave the blog unattended for too long (unless I absolutely have to) so when I came across the trailer for 'Primate', soon to hit cinemas, I thought I'd post it here while I got on with the reading side of the weekend. Will I give the film a go? I most definitely will, looks very much like my kind of thing. Will I see it in the cinema? Unlikely, my overtime got cut so I've got to be a little more selective about any trips to the cinema, that's the way it goes... Anyway, check it out...

Those few days between Christmas and New Year, days when the shops seem to open up especially so you can take back presents that you bought your daughter in error. There are sales as well but it’s mostly taking stuff back, at least as far as I’m concerned ;o) That’s what I ended up doing the other day, exchanging a ‘Christmas Manga Present’ for Volume 1 of ‘The Nice House On The Lake’. Now, here’s a book that I hadn’t planned on reading at all. I’d sorted something else out for my daughter so here was a chance to get something for me; I’d never even heard of this title until I saw it on the shelf but the cover looked cool and the blurb intriguing, that was all I needed. The title of the post gives it away really, I finished Volume 1 and, yesterday, went straight out for a copy of Volume 2. That should tell you everything really but that would make for a very short post so… Lets see if I can give you a little more than that. Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter―well, they...

  So long 2025, not the worst year I’ve had but a long way from being one of the better ones… No pressure, 2026, but I’m hoping for better things from you, don’t let me down... To everyone who stops by, Happy New Year! I hope this year brings you more of what you’re after and none of the stuff that you’re not after, it’s that simple :o) This would be the paragraph where I talk about what I want to read this year, maybe even make a ‘reading resolution’ or two, but I’ll be honest… I failed to keep any of my Reading Resolutions, for 2025, and I’ve got enough going on right now, I’m going to be kind and not give myself any more pressure. If I’m making any resolution at all, it will be to just carry on enjoying what I read and posting about it here. And really, we should all be doing that shouldn’t we? The ‘enjoying reading’ that is; I’ll continue to be the only one posting here ;o) Actually, I do have one small resolution and that is to make a decent inroad into all the books that I en...