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...