Lord Samper's Library

My reading has kind of stalled over the last few days; there’s a few reasons for it but honestly, nothing that you’d be interested in hearing about. I’m just going to dust myself down and take another shot at it this week instead; that’s all you can do sometimes ;o) As is often the case here; when I’m not finishing books, I tend to watch more movies instead. That’s what happened over the last week and it ended up being a bit of a mixed bag. Let me tell you all about it… ‘Society’ (1989) A Beverley Hills teen feels increasingly alienated from his wealthy family but there’s far more to it than even he realizes. I love ‘body horror’ and I’ve been meaning to watch ‘Society’ for years now, so when I saw the movie was on ‘Shudder’, watching it was inevitable ;o) Now that I’ve seen it, I have to say… erm… You watch ‘body horror’ movies for the practical effects (well, I do) and ‘Society’ does not disappoint. I got what I came for, that’s the bottom line. Plot-wise though, that’s where the fi...

It been quiet on the 'Books for the TBR Pile' front just recently but like the title says, all it took was last week's payday (and a rough week at work, mustn't forget that) to kickstart the whole thing again :o) At least for now that is, I've actually been having fun 're-discovering' books and don't want to lose that. Anyway... The blog was all quiet yesterday, mostly because I made a concerted effort to sleep as long as possible (didn't set any records but that's ok) but also because I took myself into Greenwich for a little book browsing that inevitably became book-shopping. Lets have a little look at what came home with me... Three books from the Greenwich Oxfam and one from the Waterstones over the road :o)  Regular visitors to the blog will know that I already have a copy of 'The House On The Borderland' but what I didn't have was a copy of 'The House On The Borderland' with cover art by Ian Miller. I will never pass up...

I'll be honest... At this point, I'm so far behind with the MCU that I don't think I'll ever catch up. There are just too many movies now to get my head round (do the ones with Kang in them even count any more?) and that's before we get to all the stuff on Disney+... And that's a bit of a shame really because it always looks amazing when you see it in a trailer (although that's kind of the whole point of trailers, isn't it...) And 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' looks pretty cool in the trailer (maybe more so because of the Punisher, that's just me though) so, maybe, I'll jump back in. We'll see...

  Page Count: 144 Pages NOT ALL MONSTERS HIDE IN THE DARK. Archer’s Peak is in lockdown, as Erica Slaughter has lost control of the situation and news of the killings has spread outside the town. But as the House of Slaughter arrives to clean up the situation by any means necessary, Erica will find that the true threat to those around her isn’t who - or what - she ever expected. And the cost of saving the day may be too high for anyone to pay... So I didn’t quite make a ‘short story a day’ but given the way that this week has panned out, I think I did well spnning it out as long as I did. Work has just got very ‘interesting’ (and not in a good way, dammit) but last night balanced things out a little. I didn’t get any reading done but I did get to hang out with my youngest daughter and that is always a lot of fun (she absolutely has my weird sense of humour). Anyway… I had a great time with volumes one and two of ‘Something is Killing the Children’ and didn’t wait too long before ...

  Page Count: 17 Pages My journey, through this week, continues with another short story that I managed to squeeze in, last night, between bouts of looking for my youngest daughter’s Geography school book. I finished off ‘The Lesser Horsemen’ but I’ve got no idea where her school book is; oh well.. That’s a 50% success rate, I’ll take it. Anyway. Sometimes you can go for ages, reading books that are perfectly fine (even brilliant) but aren’t quite the right book at the right time. And sometimes… Sometimes you find yourself reading a short story that turns out to be exactly the right story at exactly the right time. And that’s what happened to me when I picked up ‘Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons: Stories’, opened it up and started reading ‘The Lesser Horsemen’. Three out of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can’t stand each other, the fourth is off pursuing an inevitable solo career but God really needs the other three to buckle down and work together. It’s time for a week’s cruise...

  Page Count: 42 Pages I’ve had a good run, finishing full length novels, but I think it’s time to take a little breather and make this week all about short stories instead. I’m pushed for time at the moment, and I have plenty of anthologies to choose from. Lets see where the journey takes me. Well, the first stop is pretty obvious, not only because you’ve already read the title but also because ‘Warhammer’ has become a real ‘go to’ for me these days, the Old World most of all. I’ve travelled a fair way through the Old World but I’ve never made it to the outskirts of Mordheim, let alone behind its walls. That changed last night though with a tale of friendships lost and found, a horde of rat-men and possibly the best dog ever… Captain Heinrich Gogol is a man on a mission, a mission that will take him into the cursed heart of Mordheim to locate the Heart of Sigmar. The only problem is that the Skaven already have the Heart and they’re not interested in giving it up. And who is the m...

  Page Count: 10 Pages I had a great weekend, thanks, but I somehow didn’t get any time to make headway into what I’m reading right now. It happens :o) So, after my ‘Kull’ post from the other day, I thought I’d dig out my ‘Kull’ collection and read a little more about the man himself. Turns out that I actually have two ‘Kull’ anthologies, it’s an occupational hazard in my flat… Anyway, the best place to start is always at the beginning so last night, I ended up going back to the first recorded sighting of Kull, having a meal by a camp fire... If you’re reading the ‘King Kull’ collection, from Lancer Books (1967), you’ll know this story as ‘Exile of Atlantis’. If you’re reading it in the more recent Del Rey collection (funnily enough, titled ‘Exile of Atlantis’…) you’ll know it as ‘Untitled Story’. For the sake of this post, I’ll be referring to this tale as ‘Exile of Atlantis’; it feels a bit weird to refer to it as ‘Untitled Story’ but maybe that’s just me… ;o) Everyone’s story ha...

  Well… This week was supposed to be the week where I read stuff that wasn’t just ‘Warhammer 40K’ or ‘Horus Heresy’ and… Here we are ;o) I don’t regret it all to be honest, this week hasn’t been a bad one but it has been a week where I’ve really needed some time in the grimdark universe of the far future. The other books, on the TBR Pile, are still there though, lets see if I can get any of them on the blog next week instead ;o) Anyway… It’s been a long time since I picked up the opening books, in the ‘Horus Heresy’ series, so I thought it was way past time that I did. You can read my thoughts on ‘Horus Rising’ over Here and I posted about ‘False Gods’ the other day . This time round, we’re taking a look at ‘Galaxy In Flames’ and two books in, Horus is finally making a move… Having made a miraculous recovery from the grievous injuries he suffered on Davin, Warmaster Horus now leads the triumphant Imperial forces against the rebel world of Isstvan III. An unprecedented alliance bet...

I'm not a hundred percent sure but it's a fairly good bet that I got home last night and fell asleep in my chair; not the ideal way to get ready for a busy day in the office today (although I guess it can't hurt...) but here we are :o) It wasn't the ideal way to have a blog post sorted for today either so... 'Past Me' came to the rescue and, here we are :o) So while I'm trying to bend 'office stuff' to my will (and probably get a lot of reading done on the bus), you lucky folk get a little 'Kull action', courtesy of those nice folk at Dark Horse. The original post can be found over Here and looking at the date on it makes me feel pretty old... ;o) My ‘Kull’ reading, so far, is limited to two short stories and a poem (from the ‘Conan’s Brethren’ collection) along with the comic book adaptation of one of these tales. Not really a lot to be going on with then and it’s not a title that seems to be on the bookshelves either… I’m pretty sure there...

Last night, I turned off my work laptop and settled down in my chair, ready to get stuck into ‘Old Moon Quarterly Vol. 8’ and… The next thing I knew, I’d woken up and it was far too late to read anything, let alone post about it here. I should clarify, it wasn’t ‘Old Moon Quarterly’ that sent me to sleep, it had just been a really long day. I’m getting old... Luckily for today’s post, I’ve got a few more movies under my belt and they weren’t bad ones either. That made for a nice change ;o) ‘Dark Match’ (2024) A small time wrestling company accepts a well paying gig in a backwoods town, only to find that they’ve been hired by a mysterious cult leader with his own plans for their match… The other night, I was having one of those evenings where I really wanted to watch something but it was taking far too long to make my mind up so… I figured I’d give ‘Dark Match’ a go, otherwise I’d watch nothing at all. And… A few days later, I’m still not a hundred percent sure what the point of it was...

  Page Count: 306 Pages When you’re writing about the Chaos gods of the 40K universe, it’s a fairly straightforward job for 75% of the ‘Big Four’. Writing about Khorne? Just make his followers really angry and always up for a scrap. How about Tzeentch? Easy… Just make it all about the intrigue and the ‘long game’; have his followers stab each other in the back in their quest for knowledge (and be completely at the whim of a god who has it’s own myriad plans…) Nurgle’s fairly simple as well. Lots and lots of plague with a generous helping of ‘fungal body horror’ on the side. Enjoy your next meal ;o) Okay, I’m probably over-simplifying it but you know what I mean. You know what these lot are about and it’s not a huge deal to show it on the page. Slaanesh though… That’s a little different. We all know what Slaanesh is about but for a god styled as the ‘Lord of Excess’, writers need to practice restraint when talking about his followers. Because, well… You know ;o) And what would Games...

  Page Count: 503 Pages After (finally) finishing ‘Era of Ruin’ the other day, it felt like the obvious ‘next step’ to pick up ‘Ashes of the Imperium’ and keep trekking along the timeline. So that’s exactly what I did :o) I’ve heard vague talk of ‘The Scouring’ (or ‘What next after the Siege of Terra’) but know next to nothing about what happened during that time. Well, as luck would have it, Black Library have kicked off a new series that will fill in all those gaps so, lets do it :o) Last week being what it was, it took me a little while to properly get stuck in but, I got there in the end. Yesterday was all about sitting in my favourite chair and really getting to grips with everything that happened after the Siege ended… The Traitor Warmaster is dead. Terra lies in ruins. The Emperor is silent. Amid the rubble of the Palace, shell-shocked survivors emerge into the light of an uncertain dawn. New powers are present now, ones that have travelled the length of the galaxy to bring ...

It hasn't been a bad week but I'm really glad I've got a day, to myself, where the only solid plan I have is to sit in the comfy chair and read a book or two. Everything else is optional ;o) I'm coming out the other side of a bout of Warhammer 40K and 'Horus Heresy' reading so while I'm finishing a few bits off, it's time for my reading to head in a slightly different direction for a bit. Let me show you what's what... First things first, here's what I'll be trying to finish off today, I'm also reading 'Horus Heresy' instalment, 'Galaxy In Flames' but the spine proved to be very uncooperative, when faced with a camera, so... Here we are ;o) To be honest, 'Galaxy In Flames' is more than likely going to be a 'commuter read', later on in the week, so today, I'll be working my way through the rest of 'Ashes of the Imperium' . Look at the size of the book, there's no way I'd be taking it on ...

  Page Count: 406 Pages I told you that my ‘Horus Heresy’ reading is all over the place… While I’ve been reading the last book of ‘The Siege of Terra’, I’ve also been going back to the very beginning of the series for a little re-reading. Because as much as reading speculative fiction is about new adventures, it’s also about revisiting those old favourites. Go on, tell me that it isn’t ;o) Anyway… We’ve seen the seeds of Heresy sown , lets see them take root and grow… Far from Terra, the XVIth Legion continue in the Great Crusade as the 'Sons of Horus'. Putting the debacle with the Interex behind him, the Warmaster has become more withdrawn as he struggles to deal with the jealousy of his brother primarchs, and increasingly relies on the council of his advisors as he plans each new campaign. Noble captain Garviel Loken harbors misgivings about the clandestine ways adopted by many of his brethren, but when the Legion is sent to reconquer the moon of Davin, it is clear that Horus...

I was in the office today and we all know what that means… Well, apart from the inevitable ‘lunchtime bagel’ from Bagel Factory, that’s probably a subject for a different blog entirely ;o) Nope, what I’m talking about is that point, on the bus ride home, where I realise that I’ve finished my book so I end up seeing what’s what on my Kindle App. Luckily, I always seem to have a couple of quick reads, waiting to be read ;o) Today, I visited another nightmarish, grimdark world of the 40th Millennium and then… I’m not sure where I visited, but I’d love to go back one day… ‘The Dark Hollows Of Memory’ – David Annandale (Black Library) The sinister limbo of winter is falling on the Imperial archive world of Mnemosyne. A great fog rolls in, one that will not dissipate for months. With it comes unimaginable hell for the planet’s citizens as the Chaos Space Marines of the Company of Misery stage a brutal invasion. But as the defenders of Mnemosyne fall before the Traitors, something moves in th...

  My journey through the war zones of the ‘Horus Heresy’ and ‘Siege of Terra’ continues in much the same way that it always has; a vague nod at some kind of reading order but mostly determined by what book(s) I can afford and what cover catches my eye at any given moment. The cover for ‘Era of Ruin’ looks absolutely amazing, and I’ve been dipping in and out of anthologies at the moment, so this seemed like a good book to visit :o) We’re coming in right at the end of the Siege of Terra this time. The big guns have fallen silent but you can still hear scattered small arms fire in the ruins, amongst other things… Horus is dead. His Heresy is over. The scars of mankind’s great schism will never fully heal. For those left behind, a new Era of Ruin is dawning, promising both new beginnings and fresh peril for an Imperium riven by trauma and war. When I spoke about ‘The Shattered and The Soulless’, not so long ago , I wondered whether every plot-line needs to have a line neatly drawn unde...

  Page Count: 134 Pages I can feel my reading starting to head in a ‘fantasy direction’, more specifically a ‘Sword & Sorcery’ direction. That’s never a bad direction to head in and we’ll see where the road takes us but for now, I thought I’d start off with some short stories from ‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’. Well, all the short stories from ‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’, actually. You know what I mean ;o) One of the reasons I follow Jim’s blog (and you should too) is that he really knows his ‘Sword & Sorcery’ and has a happy knack for broadening my knowledge of the genre with what he writes about. So when I saw Jim had posted about ‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’ , I thought to myself, ‘I’ll have some of that...’ And after I turned off my work laptop last night, that’s exactly what I did :o) I’ll be honest, I read through the whole volume, in one sitting, but came unstuck with the two poems; ‘The Kings Two Bodies’ (Joe Koch) and ‘A Warning Agaynste Woldes’ (Zachary Bo...

  Run Time: 80 Minutes I had my youngest daughter over, for a chunk of yesterday, and followed that up with a quick game of ‘Uno’ and ‘Monopoly Deal’ with said daughter and my ex-partner. Turns out that playing to win (instead of playing to lose really quickly so I can get back to my book) can be fun after all, who would have thought it…? :o) What I didn’t do yesterday was pick up a book but I did manage to watch ‘XX’ when I got home. And… It was pretty good, all the more so as I’d managed to confuse it with ‘X’ (which I still need to watch) and my expectations were all over the place going into it. Regular visitors here will know that I have a real soft spot for ‘horror anthology’ movies, almost as much as I do for zombie movies ;o) If there’s more than one separate story collected in a horror movie, I’m watching it. That’s what ultimately encouraged me to keep going with ‘X’ and it proved to be worth sticking with. That’s not to say that there weren’t issues. There are four stori...

I try not to follow a 'trailer post' with another 'trailer post' but... a) I pretty much came to a full stop this weekend (I'm going through one of those phases where the chemo tablets knock me out). I read about half of two different books, there's no way that was going to end up as a whole post... ;o) b) I was actually watching 'The Backrooms' with my eldest daughter, the other day, and she mentioned there was a movie coming out. I know it's only a teaser trailer but when I saw it, I had to leave it here as a reminder to myself ;o) It looks like it could be interesting...