Lord Samper's Library

Today's post is brought to you by 'Tiny Apocalypse', shown here (for context) with his compatriots 'Slim Apocalypse' and, erm... 'Slightly Dusty Apocalypse'... 'Slightly Dusty' will have a name-change very soon :o) 'Tiny' and 'Slim' (who actually has extendable legs, which is awesome) came home with me after yesterday's visit to the Hilly Fields Fair in Lewisham. I love the Fair, partly because they have a petting zoo but mostly because they have loads of stalls, that sell all sorts of stuff, and I'm a big fan of browsing. My daughter isn't as big a fan but she's only young, she'll learn ;o) There were a couple of book stalls and while there wasn't a lot there for the likes of me, I did pick up a couple of books. And because it's me, I also picked up another book on the way home ;o) Lets take a quick look... I did read 'The Wounded Land' , way back in the day, (even then, I had a habit of reading se...

  Page Count: 159 Pages Remember the really cool TBR pile that I made the other day …? Well, the plan is still to read them all but this week has been a tough one (insert usual stresses here) and after polishing off ‘Conan and the Living Plague’ , nothing else from the pile grabbed me and demanded to be read. It happens, I’m hoping that the weekend will be a little kinder and let me choose something. Anyway… In the meantime, it wasn’t like I was just going to read nothing at all ;o) And there is a small pile of unread ‘Doctor Who’ books for this kind of situation… I picked up ‘The Invasion’ a few weeks ago and so it was at the top of that pile, waiting to be read. And that’s exactly what I did. ‘The Invasion’ didn’t exactly make it easy for me but still ended up being a decent way to put a little space between me and the day I’d just had… Materialising in outer space, the TARDIS is immediately targetted by a missile fired from the dark side of the moon. Back on Earth, the newly for...

  It was a lovely ‘late spring/early summer’ (I honestly don’t know when one ends and the other begins…) kind of evening, last night, so you can guess what I did after I’d dropped my daughter off with their Mum… The title, of the post, kind of gives the game away but still, give yourself a bonus point if your first thought was, ‘I bet he went straight home and watched the first two Hellraiser movies’. Because that’s exactly what I did ;o) I’m going through one of those phases where whatever book I pick up, it doesn’t work for me and I have to move onto something else (which kind of puts paid to that TBR Pile I put together the other day…) I know what I’m like, and I know what I like, so it’s not a case of every single book in the flat suddenly becoming a crap read. This is a reaction to work stress, mental stress and a couple of other stresses that I won’t mention here (all sprinkled with a little ADHD). I can’t concentrate on a book so on went the telly for a little ‘Hellraiser’, ...

  Page Count: 352 Pages Just a quick one today, mostly because I’m shattered already (and today is going to be a busy one) but also because I’m 99% certain that I’m the last person to have read ‘Preacher’ and I don’t think I’m going to say anything that people don’t already know. Having said that though, I hadn’t read any ‘Preacher’, until the other day, and this blog helps me keep track of what I’ve read (amongst other things) so… Here we are. The other week, I had a rather nice scratch card win and there was a copy of ‘Preacher: Book One’ on the shelf in Waterstones. I’m not a hundred percent sure what happened next but all of a sudden, I was outside the shop and there was a copy of ‘Preacher: Book One’ in my bag. Funny how that seems to happen… It took me a while to get round to actually reading it but read it I did and… Merging with a bizarre spiritual force called Genesis, Texan Preacher Jesse Custer becomes completely disillusioned with the beliefs that he had dedicated his ...

  Page Count: 250 Pages After finishing ‘Conan And The Emerald Lotus’ a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t in a mad rush to jump straight into ‘Conan And The Living Plague’. Nothing against ‘The Emerald Lotus’ but… Oh, just click Here and read my post if you haven’t already ;o) At the same time though, I can’t seem to leave a book unfinished at the moment and both of these books happen to be in the ‘City Of The Dead’ omnibus so… Here we are. Yesterday was a long one, what with one thing and another (and then another…) so after I’d turned my laptop off, I sat down and started reading. And… A Shemite wizard seeks to create a potion to use as a lethal weapon. Instead, he unwittingly unleashes a hideous monster on the city of Dulcine. Hired to loot the city of its treasures, Conan and his mercenary companions find themselves trapped in the depths of the city’s keep. To escape, they must defeat the creature and its plague wracked undead followers, then face otherworldly horrors beyond morta...

This weekend didn’t involve much reading at all… It did involve a picnic, flying a kite, watching ‘Superstore’ (again), getting beaten at Uno (again, again and again...) and falling asleep when I really should have stayed awake. Reading though, not so much. That’s just the way it goes sometimes, I’ll just have to try harder this week ;o) It’s me doing the talking though so there was a little reading that happened around the edges of all the other stuff. And it absolutely won’t surprise you, in the least, to hear that is was all about ‘Conan’, ‘Event Horizon’ and a little Warhammer 40K to round things off. They were all quick reads so it’s very much a ‘quick thoughts’ kind of post today, hope you don’t mind… ‘Event Horizon: Inferno’ #2 – Ward, Carey, Honchar (ID Dark) It feels like an absolute age since I picked up #1 (it has only been a few weeks but damn, the time hasn’t exactly flown…) so I tried #2, promptly went back for a re-read of #1 and then tackled #2 again. It all made a li...

So, 'Walking Dead Night' didn't happen last night, and I was at a bit of a loose end so you can guess what happened next... An evening spent browsing my bookshelves and making a little TBR Pile, that's what happened next :o) Reading that last sentence back does leave me feeling like I should question where my life has taken me (it certainly didn't take me out last night...) but on the other hand, I love my bookshelves :o) Anyway... The occasional 'TBR Post' helps me stick with what I'm reading (rather than just reading a few pages of something and getting distracted by something else) so, lets take a look at how I spent my Friday night... Here's what I'm working my way through at the moment, you'll more than likely see posts pop up next week. 'Conan and the Living Plague' looks like it could be a bit of an improvement on 'The Emerald Lotus' and 'Alien Harvest' is... Another 'heist' story. I'm ok with that...

The last few weeks have actually been better, for reading, than I thought. Go me :o) Scroll back and you’ll see that I’ve managed to get a few books, and short stories etc, under my belt. What I haven’t done though, is mention the comic books that I’ve also read in that time. This post will be where I remedy that ;o) Just some quick thoughts today though. I’ve got a bit of a day to get through and I need to save a little energy for ‘Walking Dead Night’ with my eldest daughter (seriously, the chemotherapy has me falling asleep at the drop of a hat, don’t want to do that tonight!) Also, a couple of these books didn’t exactly leave me with a lot to say about them, see if you can guess which ones they are… ‘Everything Dead & Dying’ – Brombal, Phillips, Martin, Bidikar (Image) Page Count: 176 Pages Jack Chandler is the sole survivor of the zombie apocalypse in his rural farming community, but rather than eliminate them, he has chosen to continue living alongside the undead ― including t...

  Page Count: 126 Pages If you were to look up the word ‘prolific’ in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Adrian Tchaikovsky next to it, presumably of him writing a book. Now, that may not be quite true (although it has been a while since I looked up the word ‘prolific’ in the dictionary…) but there’s no doubt that Tchaikovsky is one of the harder working genre authors at the moment. His output is not to be sniffed at :o) It was a bit of a treat then to see Tchaikovsky carve out his own little spot in the Warhammer 40K universe but, as a fantasy fan first and foremost, it was even more of a treat to see him finally set foot in the Mortal Realms. Especially as I’ve always seen him as an author who is more than willing to deep dive into a Race/Species and really look at what makes them tick. And there isn’t that much to work with when it comes to Ogors, is there…? It took me a little while to get round to it (no surprises there…) but I finally read ‘On the Shoulders of Gian...

Page Count: 178 Pages My reading continues to take me down very familiar paths (short ones) and you know what…? That suits me just fine ;o) It’s not a bad life but there is rather a lot of it going on right now and as someone who (mostly) likes everything to be in the correct place… Lets just say that there’s a lot of ‘filing’ that’s outstanding ;o) Oh well, just a few days until the weekend. When I get a chance to escape into a book then, time is at a premium so I’m looking for reads that I know I’ll enjoy. I’m looking to recharge, not waste more energy ;o) A little ‘Doctor Who’ is usually a safe bet then and when I saw ‘The Crimson Horror’ on my favourite Greenwich Market book stall, I picked it up with some comfort reading in mind. As it turned out, ‘The Crimson Horror’ wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening, just not for the reasons that I’d been anticipating… ‘We must get to the bottom of this dark and queer business, no matter what the cost!’ Something ghastly is afoot in Victori...

  Page Count: 220 Pages I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon at the hospital (nothing urgent, just a regular appointment for blood tests and so on) so of course I made sure that I had a book in my bag; for the queue in the pharmacy if nothing else ;o) And when I’m stuck in a long, and seemingly never ending queue, the best book to have in your bag (in my bag anyway…) is a ‘Warhammer 40K’ book. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary but a large slice of ‘all out warfare’ will always make the wait in a line a little easier; especially when the pharmacy forget to put your number up on the screen and it turns out your medication was waiting on the side the whole time… Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I’ve been enjoying William Crowe’s ‘Veterans of the Fall’ collection (check out my reviews of ‘Tattershield’ and ‘Tatters of Hope’), and I figured I wouldn’t be in the hospital that long, so I thought I’d take the chance to read the final novella and finish off the book. Given how ...

  As I’ve mentioned previously, the plan was to have a post here for each of the novellas from Ronald Malfi’s ‘Ghostwritten’ collection. I started off well with ‘The Skin of Her Teeth’ and was pretty pleased when I kept things going with ‘The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride’ (last week was tough, the blog was lucky to get any posts at all…) And while things continued in that manner, over the weekend, when I read ‘This Book Belongs to Olo’; my reading plans ended up hitting a bump. I should have seen it coming really… I finished ‘This Book Belongs to Olo’ and just kept going, I didn’t want to wait for another week ;o) That should tell you all you need to know about my experience with ‘Ghostwritten’ but that would make for a very short post here so I’ll tell you about those final two novellas in a minute. As far as the collection, as a whole, goes, I would highly recommend you give ‘Ghostwritten’ a go if you haven’t already. And if you have, well… read it again. I will be doing just that ...

Yep, it’s ‘Movie Time’ again. I haven’t done too badly on the reading front, over the last week, but there have been a couple of occasions where, for whatever reason, it didn’t happen so I watched a movie instead. Most of these were ‘re-watches’, the kind of thing you have on in the background but don’t pay too much attention to, but I did manage a few that I’d never seen before. Let me tell you about them, one sequel and two examples of my ability to watch any movie if the title is daft enough. Oh yes, and a ‘Killer Chimp’ movie as well… All high-brow viewing here ;o) ‘Night of the Demons 2’ (1994) Six years after the last party thrown at the Hull House funeral parlour, another group of teenagers decide that it’s way past time for another one. Good idea? Not when the original host is back from from Hell and determined to put in an appearance… I had a quick re-watch of ‘Night of the Demons’, the other day and while I’m still not a hundred percent convinced , I had enough fun with it to...

Page Count: 178 Pages I was poring through my Doctor Who books, last night, and it occurred to me that I’ve managed to read at least one ‘Doctor Who; book (often more) for almost all of the Doctor’s regenerations. It was the ‘almost’ that really bugged me… :o) I’ve watched a few of the stories, featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, but never picked up any of the books. Luckily for me, I’d found a copy of ‘The Witchfinders’ fairly recently (Greenwich Market, always good for Doctor Who books) and that filled in the gap nicely. ‘I am an expert on witchcraft, Doctor, but I wish to learn more. Before you die, I want answers.’ The TARDIS lands in the Lancashire village of Bilehurst Cragg in the 17th century, and the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz soon become embroiled in a witch trial run by the local landowner. Fear stalks the land, and the arrival of King James I only serves to intensify the witch hunt. But the Doctor soon realises there is something more sinister than paranoia and superstiti...

  Page Count: 120 Pages I’ve been picking up the last few issues of ‘White Dwarf’ magazine to read the continuing adventures of Sergeant Elias Bain and his Cadian Shock Troopers. It was a great tale but if ‘Veterans of the Fall’ is anything to go by, I could have saved myself a few quid and waited for those adventures to be collected in book form. Oh well, like I said, it was a good read and there’s still something cool about having to wait a month to find out ‘what happens next’ ;o) At the same time, there’s also something cool about having the whole story in one place and that’s what I had with ‘Tatters of Hope’. All five episodes collected in 'Veterans of the Fall', lined up and ready to go. The ‘Tattershield’ Kasrkin troopers have taken down the Maligner but there are still plenty of Traitor Guard and Heretics who are ready to take his place and carry on the fight for the planet 04-Gavaine. The Tattershields, and supporting Anvil Battalion, are outnumbered and low on suppli...

  Page Count: 192 Pages Just a quick reminder that this blog isn’t just about zombies, Warhammer 40K and Conan. Well, it mostly is but just for today, it’s about demons… And the rooster who fights them :o) My eldest daughter loves her Manga so I thought I’d give some a go too, have something to read and chat about while she’s reading :o) The only problem was, where to start…? As a fifty year old guy (who hadn’t read any Manga since the earliest days of his earliest blog) it felt a little weird to be seen with some of the stuff that my sixteen year old daughter reads. And then I saw the cover for ‘Rooster Fighter Vol.1’ and there was no longer a question about what my next read would be… Giant demonic monsters wreak havoc and level Japanese cities! While the citizens flee in terror, it’s up to one brave rooster to stand his ground! In a world where terrifying monsters walk the earth, one heroic rooster is destined for greatness. When giant demons threaten the innocent, he’s going ...

  Page Count: 243 Pages I was pretty excited to see Titan & Heroic Signatures go all in with their ‘Conan’ line so I’ve been making sure to pick up the new ‘Conan’ novels as they’ve been published. Because it’s me though… It’s now a couple of years (ish) in and I’ve got a lovely stack of fresh ‘Conan’ reading that I haven’t even touched. What? I’m very much the ‘mood reader’ these days and the stars never quite aligned… Until now. I’m having a lot of fun, at the moment, with my new mission to read the actual books on my actual shelves (turns out that bookshops aren’t the only places with loads of unread books, who’d have thought it…?) and the other day, I found myself in the mood for a little Sword & Sorcery. I’d heard a lot of good things about John C. Hocking’s ‘Conan And The Emerald Lotus’ so off I went to Titan’s ‘City of the Dead’ omnibus and got reading. A few days later, here I am. One wizard is bad. Two are a disaster...And a deadly disaster, too. For Conan, after r...

  Well, it took a few days but the Covid jab has (finally) stopped making me feel rough as [insert expletive here] and is, presumably, getting on with its actual job, blunting the effects of real Covid. I hope so, I’ve got a fair bit to get through at work today… Anyway, I was actually in a good place, yesterday, to sit down and get some more reading under my belt; so that’s exactly what I did ;o) I’ve got a couple of collections that I’m working my way through, amongst others, so made those my focus and… A very nice afternoon’s reading was had by this reader, here’s to more afternoons like that ;o) And one of those collections was Ronald Malfi’s ‘Ghostwritten’. ‘The Skin Of Her Teeth’ had already proved to be a fine opener, yesterday was time to see if ‘The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride’ was more of the same and… It was, of course it was, let me tell you a bit about it. Page Count: 110 Pages Is there a job that’s easier than putting a book in your car at Point A and then deliveri...