Lord Samper's Library

It hasn't been a bad week but it has been one of those weeks where you feel like it trampled all over you in a rush to get to the weekend first. I can't blame it, it has been an interesting few days ;o) I thought I'd give myself a little break then and let 'Past Me' come up with a post while I either catch up with some reading or catch up with some sleep, it could go either way... I'm still a big fan of Conan's time in Dark Horse Comics so thought I'd take a look at an older blog and see what I could share, 'Road of Kings' is the post I settled on. I've trimmed the thoughts of 'Past Me' a little bit, you can find the original post over Here . I'll leave you to it. See you tomorrow :o) When I heard tell that Dark Horse were publishing ‘Conan: Road of Kings’ I thought they’d dug up the old Karl Edward Wagner tale of the same name. Having only read Wagner’s ‘Dark Crusade’ (which is excellent and I highly recommend it) I was really lo...

I spent a large chunk of yesterday trying not to fall asleep at my desk so I didn’t even try to read anything last night, know your limits and all that… ;o) Nope. I sat down, in the comfy chair, instead and watched a couple of movies; mostly because that was all I was good for but also because I’ve gone through a spell of watching disappointing films, just recently, and I really wanted to break that streak (it had gone on far too long). And you know what? You can consider the ‘Bad Movie Streak’ well and truly broken :o) A zombie movie is more or less guaranteed to always do that (apart from if it’s ‘Hard Rock Zombies’) but there was still room for another movie that I was pleasantly surprised by. Lets start with the zombie movie. ‘We Bury The Dead’ (2025) After an experimental EMP weapon is accidentally detonated off the coast of Tasmania, the populace of the island is utterly wiped out and the Australian government mounts a massive clear up operation with volunteers flown in to collec...

Just a quick post today… I spent yesterday with my daughters (which is always great) and today looks like it’s going to be a very busy one; this is the little bit of time in the middle where I can get something on the blog ;o) Yesterday was all about shopping in town, book shopping to be more exact. It was pretty much inevitable that we’d end up in Forbidden Planet and that’s where I took the opportunity to get caught up with my ‘Conan’ reading. I haven’t made it through the latest ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ yet but did manage to read the following in the meantime… ‘Conan The Barbarian #28’ – Zub, Dagnino, Rodriguez And I was doing so well collecting the single issues… That all came to an end yesterday when I found myself going to #28 without having picked up #27. It happens and it’s not as if I can’t go back and buy it later. I read on anyway though and yep, I really should have been better at picking up #27, that’s on me though. It’s not too hard to get back into the groove though and w...

  Page Count: 418 Pages ‘The greatest conflict this galaxy has ever seen reaches its climax and the players in this drama must congregate. From the lead actors to the chorus, where else in this melodrama could any soul of consequence be drawn?’ -  ‘The Fury of Magnus’ I’d blame it on middle age, if I could, but the truth is that I’m naturally awkward so when I saw these lines in ‘The Fury of Magnus’, my first thought was, ‘Really? Does everything have to be tied off neatly…?’ Because, really, does it? That’s not how life works, for everything that does come to an end, everything else keeps on moving and not necessarily in the same direction. When you’re looking at a ‘mega-series’ like ‘The Horus Heresy’ though, I guess there’s some justification for it, and I’m not just talking about the need to eke a few more coins out of readers. With a series of this length and the resulting size of the cast, everyone is going to have favourites that they follow and I guess it’s only fair t...

  Page Count: 168 Pages Well… The plan, for last night, was to finish off ‘The Shattered And The Soulless’ in time for today’s post and I was on track to get it done too. But there ended up being too much left to read, and not enough time to read it all in, so I quit while I was ahead. ‘The Shattered And The Soulless’ is proving to be a decent read but it isn’t one that I’m going to stress over finishing. If you’re reading this today, the odds are that I’ll be reading the last hundred and thirty(ish) pages, of ‘Shattered’, at the same time.  Anyway… Where does this leave me today? In my flat, books have a nasty habit of being moved from one pile to another (dependant on a whim or nice cover art) and it may be a little while before they catch my eye again. That’s my excuse for having left ‘The Nice House By The Sea’ unread for as long as I did, especially after I enjoyed ‘The Nice House On The Lake’ as much as I did. Last night was the night for finally getting round to it th...

  Page Count: 144 Pages I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ season of ‘Doctor Who’; although I do have the box-set lurking somewhere, maybe it’s time to give it another go (maybe…) What I’m a huge fan of though is poring through second-hand bookshops and finding old ‘Doctor Who’ novelisations, hidden away on the shelves, and that’s how I came across my copy of ‘Terror of the Vervoids’. It has taken me a while to get round to reading it (this particular bookshop doesn’t take great care of its books and this one required a little cosmetic work…) but I came across it again, over the weekend, and figured it was overdue a read. So, that’s just what I did… :o) The Time Lords have brought the Doctor to trial, accusing him of gross interference in the affairs of other planets. If he is found guilty, the Doctor must forfeit all of his remaining regenerations. In his defence, the Doctor tells of an adventure set on board the Hyperion III space liner, in his future. Answer...

  Page Count: 176 Pages Going to sleep late, and waking up early isn’t a great combination but that’s the way my body clock rolls and so I had a little extra time on my hands, yesterday morning. I’d rather have been asleep but here we are, hopefully today will be a quiet one. Anyway… That ‘little bit of extra time’ went on my reading the first volume of ‘Die!Die!Die!’, a book I’d picked up not so long ago but not managed to read, until it caught my eye yesterday morning ;o) We don't like to admit it, but this is an evil world where evil people do evil stuff all the time. Thankfully, there is a secret cabal with the United States government that works outside our normal system to influence world matters through targeted assassination. The world around us is manipulated right under our noses, mostly for the better... sometimes for individual gain. So if you're hurting people, somehow making the world worse than it already is, or even just standing in the way of something good hap...

These posts seem to be helping, right now, in terms of my having a little something to aim for each week. So... Here we are again with a little look at my reading plans, for the next week at least.  Yep, that's a pretty ambitious 'Mini' TBR Pile, there is no way I'm even going to try and read all of those books over the next week (one or two will be a good showing). I had one of those moments where I was picking books up and others caught my eye at the same time... ;o)  I'll probably go for just one of the 'Doctor Who' books, I just can't decide between them at the time of writing this post. Any suggestions? And while I've had my eye on re-reading the 'Black Company' books for a while, the Book Stooges review of 'The Black Company' prompted me to finally take it off the shelf. I'm trying to avoid rash 'reading promises' this year but there may well be a re-read of the series... We'll see ;o) The Pile is also looking...

  Page Count: 193 Pages I’m not sure why they felt the need to have ‘Blade Runner’ in large type, on the cover, with the actual title all tiny and almost like an afterthought. Hmmm… Oh well, I’ve always loved the film art which is funny because I’m not actually a big fan of the film itself (apart from the bit at the end with Roy Baty’s speech). That’s probably a post for another time though ;o) It has been a number of years now since I last read ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’; long enough that I’ve managed to lose my original copy, and possibly two others, in the meantime. It felt like a re-read was long overdue then and one cheap Amazon deal later… Here we are :o) World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft o...

  Today’s post will be shorter than normal, yesterday was a bit intense in places so, erm… yeah :o) There may be another post today, lets see how it goes. Anyway… As someone who normally goes for the trades (my memory for collecting single issues is atrocious), I’m feeling a little bit pleased with myself that I managed to collect all five issues of ‘Event Horizon: Dark Descent’; one after the other as well. It was ‘Event Horizon’ though so of course I was going to make sure I got the whole story. And on the whole, ‘Dark Descent’ has been a welcome return to the setting, promising good things from the ‘Event Horizon’ sequel (more comic books, not another film) that is due out this year. How would it all end though? Especially given that ‘Dark Descent’ is a prequel and we know what’s coming… Well, I’m kind of ‘half and half’ about the whole thing… With Captain Kilpack dead, only two sane crew-members of the ‘Event Horizon’ remain and their mission is clear. Stop the ship from retu...

Yesterday was a busy one… I had a few things to get done, at work, and one of those was my Mid-Year Review; not something that I ever really look forward to but this one had the added ‘plot twist’ of having been on sick leave for a large chunk of that review period. I got through it though, now it’s a straight shot to August and my End of Year Review :o) And then, being all optimistic at the moment, I thought I’d sit down and read ‘Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?’ last night. It’s not even two hundred pages, I thought to myself, it shouldn’t take that long to read… should it? Dear reader, I managed about a quarter of the book before taking a break; there’s a lot going on here and I was in the mood for something a bit more light-hearted. Which led me to my copy of ‘Swords & Larceny’, a book that has been sat on my shelves since September, threatening to be read but never quite managing it. Have some blurb, FIND THE MARK The dragon’s hoard. The dwarves’ hidden mine. The mage’s ...

The unofficial resolution, for 2026, is to focus a little more on the books that I’ve already bought rather than buying too many more. Erm… I’m not doing too badly at the moment, it’s early days :o) With that in mind then, I thought I’d pay a little more attention to some comic books, that I’d picked up fairly recently, and having thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Nice House On The Lake’, I thought I’d spend last night with the first two volumes of ‘Something is killing the Children’. So, that’s exactly what I did and you know what…? I think I’ve discovered another series that I need to collect. Not exactly a chore but my wallet is suddenly looking a little nervous. Oh well :o) Volume One. Page Count: 128 Pages IT’S THE MONSTERS WHO SHOULD BE AFRAID. When the children of Archer's Peak—a sleepy town in the heart of America—begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories—impossible details of terrifying creatures that liv...

  Page Count: 348 Pages There is nothing quite like starting the week off with some ‘Age of Sigmar’ cover art; it’s almost the equivalent of a strong coffee, just when you need it (and I think I’m going to need that today). Anyway… :o) Since I’ve been blogging here, I’ve been lucky enough to read a few of Evan Dicken’s ‘Age of Sigmar’ short stories (links at the bottom of the post) and my thought has always been that I’d love to see how Dicken did with a whole novels worth of story to play with. Well, it turns out I blinked and now I’ve got a few to choose from :o) I went for ‘Lioness of the Parch’ as while I have nothing against any of the factions in the setting, I do have a bit of a soft spot for the regular humans just doing their best to make it through, no matter what side they stand on. And that’s what I read over the weekend :o) Let me tell you about it... Rogue. Mercenary. Champion. Tahlia Vedra is all these things and more. But overcoming the new threat facing Hammerhal ...

I’ve been more about the books just recently but at the same time, the flat has been a little quiet as well so in the evenings, I’ve had a few movies playing, just for a bit of background noise (and also to drown out the singing from the pub over the road…) The movies weren’t brilliant but that’s ok; I wasn’t after ‘brilliant’, just something to occupy my eyes when I wasn’t reading ;o) Even so, I still managed to find a movie that I really shouldn’t have bothered with. Lets start with that one first… ‘Evilution’ (2008) When an alien life form resurrects the dead and turns them on the human race, a young scientist must fight to contain the catastrophe and eradicate the alien menace. One of those films where I wish I’d paid a little more attention, just so I knew what was going on, but at the same time, it was so dull that my attention kept sliding. That will teach me for insisting on watching every single zombie movie I find… :o) All I’ll say is… If the young scientist really wanted to ...

When I'm reading in my comfy chair, my attention inevitably wanders to the shelves and I find myself thinking, 'ooh, I want to read that next...' or 'I haven't read that in a while'. More and more these days, I also find myself thinking, 'no more books for you until you've read those two at least...' These books find their way to the 'chair next to the comfy chair' and that's where they eventually become another random TBR Pile. It also really bugs my eldest daughter who has to deal with all the books before she can sit down in her favourite chair :o) Anyway... That was a bit of a roundabout way of introducing you to my latest TBR pile, thanks for sticking with it ;o) TBR piles always look good in a photo so while I'm getting some actual reading done today, why don't you take a look at what could be featuring on the blog soon(ish). The usual disclaimer applies, this is the TBR pile until something shinier catches my eye ;o) I'...

A couple of comic books to round off the week; both drawn beautifully but one far more of a compelling read than the other… ‘Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees’ – Patrick Horvath (IDW) Page Count: 152 Pages   Don’t. Murder. The. Locals. This is adorable brown bear and small-town serial killer Samantha Strong’s cardinal rule. After all, there’s a sea of potential victims in the big city just beyond the forest, and when you’ve worked as hard as Sam to build a cozy life and a thriving business in a community like Woodbrook – surrounded by friendly fellow animal folk and the aroma of cedar trees and fresh apple pies – the last thing you want to do is disturb the peace. So you can imagine Sam’s outrage when one of Woodbrook’s own meets a grisly, mysterious demise… and you wouldn’t blame her for doing anything it takes to hunt down her rival before the body count rises and Sheriff Patterson starts (literally) barking up the wrong tree. I’ve mentioned before that there are many ways in w...

It's been a while since I've had to 're-cycle' an old blog post but last night... Well, I won't say anything other than that 'last night' crept up and ambushed me when I least expected it. It was nothing that couldn't be fixed but while I could manage a few short stories afterwards, I was in no state to conjure up a blog post about them. I can definitely say that you should read Nathan Ballingrud's short stories but that's a really short blog post; I'll have to get back to you with something a little more detailed than that ;o) Anyway... It's at times like this that I turn to older, defunct, blogs of mine and go hunting for a post that looks like it could do with a breath of fresh air. And this time round, the hunt led me to a post from about twelve years ago ; a 'Science Fiction Masterwork' that was a tough nut to crack but ultimately, worth that time and effort... I never seem to read as many SF Masterworks as I mean to. There’s...

  Page Count: 207 Pages. When I’m struggling to maintain focus at work, I find that the best way to pick my next read is to just go with my gut feeling. Whether it’s the cover or the blurb (or both), I stand a better chance of finishing a read if I don’t feel obligated to read/finish. Hence my starting off with a little Warhammer 40K on Sunday and then a brief sojourn in horror territory over the last couple of days. And today? Well, today, it’s time for a little ‘Doctor Who’; technically a re-read (although it has been a number of years since I last picked it up) and at the same time, a chance to have a little nibble at the ‘Doctor Who TBR Pile’ that I’ve built up. I didn’t realise this, until just now, but ‘Doctor Who And The Zarbi’ is actually the second ‘Doctor Who’ novelization published, back in 1965 (based on the TV serial ‘The Web Planet’), don’t ask me what the first one is… ;o) Thanks ‘Doctor Who Wiki’ ! It hasn’t been that long since I read it, just long enough that i...

  Page Count: 37 Pages You can read ‘Agate Way’ over at Reactor if you fancy it; I visit very irregularly so completely missed this tale when it appeared last year, story of my life really… ;o) No free read for me, not this time. I felt like following ‘Acquired Taste’ with a much shorter read and came across ‘Agate Way’ whilst in the middle of finding out that Nathan Ballingrud is actually a real writer (and not just a literary creation of Clay McLeod Chapman). I’m not afraid to own up to my mistakes, just don’t laugh at me too much (I’m feeling fragile)? Anyway, lets take a little trip down ‘Agate Way’; just a little one though, you wouldn’t want to end up lost. Not here… A pair of sisters are hired to find--and if necessary, dispose of--whatever is killing neighborhood pets in a dying town. No-one told them that people have been going missing as well, now Casey and Tara are about to find out that ‘nature never tires, she never rests…’ Sometimes, you read a story and by the time...