Lord Samper's Library

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...