Lord Samper's Library

  Page Count: 393 Pages Now here is a book that I originally bought back in October 2022 (thanks for the reminder Amazon) with every aim of reading and… Didn’t. Don’t judge me. I am at the mercy of my reading whims, always have been and always will be. Anyway, I ended up giving that copy to my eldest daughter and she really enjoyed it. All’s well that ends well ;o) Fast forward to about a week ago, I was in the office and that days ‘commute read’ wasn’t working’ at all; I needed something to get me home and there’s a Waterstones just round the corner from the office so… In I went :o) You can see where this is going, can’t you? Almost four years after I let my original copy of ‘The Final Girl Support Group’ fly the nest, I found myself with another copy and a bus ride home to crack it open. It took me a little while to get into it but this weekend, just gone, ended up being the best time to sit down and polish off ‘The Final Girl Support Group’. Let me tell you about it :o) In horr...

  Page Count: Nightfire picked the weirdest font for the page numbers, I couldn’t even read it with my glasses on (damn, I’m old). Oh well, I’ll have to take Amazon’s word for it and go with 240 Pages. I’m staring down the barrel of a week with one less day to get work done (Bank Holiday on Friday) and trying to mediate between an over enthusiastic kitten and an older cat that just wants to be left alone. I’ll tell you how it all went next weekend. Having said that, I’m headed into that week off the back of a weekend where I pretty much spent the whole time reading (with small breaks for ‘sporadic cat mediation’) so I’m in a good place :o) Lets see if I can stay there... Regular visitors here will know that I love the movie ‘Event Horizon’ and honestly, just seeing those two words on the back of ‘Crawlspace’ was all it took for me to grab a copy and make time for it over the weekend. Well played Tor Nightfire, well played ;o) ‘Crawlspace’ definitely plays to the ‘Event Horizon’ fan...

Today sees me looking after my ex-wife's cats while her and my daughters are away. The kitten thinks I'm brilliant and has just been my little shadow since I've been here. The older cat, well... She absolutely hates me albeit with very good reason. Lets just say that I called the emergency vet out a couple of years ago, for something that ended up not being an emergency at all, and the cat has a very long memory, Anyway... That's all I've got on today so I'm going to hunker down and read, just read :o) I'm a couple of books ahead of myself and I want to see if I can keep that streak going, Also, I had an MRI scan on Friday (nothing serious, it just didn't help that I'm pretty claustrophobic) so I'm owed a little downtime. In the meantime, as far as the blog goes... As someone who watched the Warhammer 40K 'Ultramarines' movie back in the day (and was... underwhelmed), It's always a little bit of a treat, for me, to watch the latest tr...

  It doesn’t happen often but, it happens. As much as I want to finish everything I read, it doesn’t happen every time. Well, most of the time it does but every so often… And I’ll tell you what happens even less often. You can normally count on me finishing a book if it’s a ‘Black Library’ book. This time round though… Here we are. As the Empire’s mighty armies clash against the rampaging hordes of evil, they leave in their wake the detritus of war, including the dead and the dying. Resourceful Angelika Fleischer ekes a living by looting the bloody battlefields, searching for the trinkets and gold carried by soldiers of all sides. But an encounter with the mysterious Kopf brothers leaves Angelika desperate to discover the dark truth behind their quest to find their missing brother before the sweeping tide of battle overtakes them all. What I love about the Warhammer Fantasy books set in the Old World is that you really feel like you’re there. The best writers here, get that setting...

  Page Count: 160 Pages Apologies for the ‘blogging silence’ yesterday; I was trying to sort stuff out at work and sort the flat out, for an inspection, at the same time… I did it though! Well, I sorted the flat out, work might take a little longer to tame ;o) Anyway… I was looking at copies of Warren Ellis’ ‘Black Gas’ and while I balked at the price, Volume 1. of ‘Trees’ was a lot more affordable so I figured ‘what the hell’ and took a chance. I’ve never said that my reading choices are based on any kind of decision process other than impulse or, at the very most, whatever catches my eye (which, now I think about it, is the same thing) Anyway… One day, I’ll find an affordable copy of ‘Black Gas’ but for now, I’m very glad I took a chance on ‘Trees’. Let me tell you all about it. Ten years after they landed. All over the world. And they did nothing, standing on the surface of the Earth like trees, exerting their silent pressure on the world, as if there were no-one here and nothin...

  Page Count: 128 Pages Despite all my best intentions, my reading plans pretty much collapsed, over the last few days, and there was only one thing left to do… Rip up all my plans and start again! It’s not like I don’t have plenty of other books to choose from when I hit a slump ;o) And where better a place to pick myself up and start again than another old ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelisation? Nope, me neither ;o) For far too many years, ‘The Power of Kroll’ had sat, filed under ‘Hadn’t read it since I was a very young Graeme, vague memories of not being that impressed’ but I saw a cheap copy and had to give it another go. I mean, it couldn’t have been that bad… Could it? Well… ‘Six or seven year old me’ was a far harsher critic than ‘middle-aged, just wants a little fun with his reading’ me but I can kind of see where he was coming from… The huge, octopus-like Kroll lived deep in the swamps of the humid, steamy planet. To the native swamp-warriors, Kroll was an angry, mythical god. ...

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...