Lord Samper's Library

I've got a busy weekend ahead of me, what with one thing and another, so I thought I'd take a little of the load off by pinching another post from the dim annals of an old blog of mine. You wouldn't believe it but I really try not to do this too often but like I said, busy weekend and Monday is going to be brutal as I try and clear as much work as possible before going into hospital on Tuesday (nothing serious, just something that really needs to be done). Which kind of leaves me here, with another old 'Doctor Who' post for your reading pleasure ;o) The full review can be found Here but you won't be missing much by not reading it (not unless you really want to hear me wax lyrical about cheese on toast, I love cheese on toast...) And it's also worth mentioning that since this review originally went up, I have finally watched 'The Ark in Space' and you read about that Here if you like ;o) 'Doctor Who' was an absolutely massive part of my chil...

It took me a little while to get round to reading ‘The Last Shield’ but I got there in the end and I’m really glad that I did. I know, I’d normally say something along those lines at the end of the post but sometimes, a book is just so much fun that you have to open the proceedings by saying exactly how you feel. And ‘The Last Shield’ is a hell of a lot of fun, mostly because I’m a bit of a fan of ‘Die Hard’ but there’s a lot more to it than that. Let me try and explain a little better... The ancient forest realm of Sunweald is bordered on two sides by far mightier nations – a precarious situation. At its centre, the Sunweald Palace is home to the Lord Regent and the heir to the throne, together with numerous precious and powerful artefacts. The Palace is protected by the realm's elite Shields, dedicated to guarding the royal line against all foes. A group of vicious brigands called the Wildwood Reivers have been stealing arcane artefacts and smuggling them across the borders, o...

Page Count: 141 Pages I actually managed to get a couple of books read over the weekend, go me :o) I’m going to leave ‘The Last Shield’ a little longer, just to let it percolate in my head, but a ‘Doctor Who’ novelization is always little more straightforward so, here we are. The further back I go with the Doctor’s stories, the less experience I have of them; go right back to the first Doctor and I’ve seen/read ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ and read ‘Doctor Who and the Zarbi’ & ‘Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet’. Not a lot then, considering just how many stories there are. When I saw ‘The Time Meddler’ in the shop then, I had to buy it so I could fill in that gap, just a little bit more. When the TARDIS materialises on an apparently deserted Northumbrian beach, Steven disputes the Doctor’s claim that they have travelled back to the eleventh century. The discovery of a modern wristwatch in a nearby forest merely reinforces his opinion. But it is 1066, the most important date in Engli...

I did get a little reading in yesterday, not loads but the 'Easiest TBR Pile' just got a little easier to complete ;o) I'm saving that post for sometime this coming though; for now, lets just say that 'The Last Shield' was an excellent read and you could do a lot worse than give it read. Especially if you like 'Die Hard'. What does that mean for today though (especially as my youngest daughter is coming over later and no reading will happen at all)? Well, I'm taking the opportunity to 'rescue' an old post from an old blog and let it have its time here. There is a lot more to Glen Cook's output than just 'The Black Company' or 'Garret P.I', as I found out back in 2008 (and damn I feel old just writing that)... The full review is Here but all the important stuff is below ;o) The city of Qushmarrah once shivered in terror under the despotic rule of the evil wizard Nakar, now it grumbles uneasily under the rule of its Herodian co...

Yesterday was 'one of those days' (I seem to be having too many of those at the moment but, anyway) and I'm still sixty eight pages off finishing 'The Last Shield', which is a hell of a lot of fun in case you were wondering. You'll probably see a review for that next week but for now, 'past me' very kindly pointed me in the direction of an old review of the Target novelisation of 'Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster' that I could use, just to get me to the weekend. That was kind of him ;o) The full review is Here , if you want it, but all the important stuff is below so you won't be missing out if you don't click... Doctor Who novelizations are almost pointless these days given that you can have a quick poke around online and just, you know, watch them on iPlayer or Disney+ (I think). If you're me, you just buy the DVDs. Having said that though, for people like me, they will always be a reminder of the days when these books were the ...

If there’s one reading habit of mine that I’ve finally come to terms with, it’s that I will always be the last one to the party. I will be so late, in fact, that the party has long since finished and become the subject of legend; the party you really missed out on if you weren’t there right at the start. If you’re me, reading can be a lonely business… ;o) Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to ‘Blackwing’, a book that had loads of great things said about it back in 2018 (upon its release). Where was I at the time…? Not important *, what’s important is that I finally grabbed a copy of ‘Blackwing’, the other way, and found the time to read it. And it was bloody brilliant, I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it. But you knew how good it was already, didn’t you? Let me tell you about it anyway… ;o) ‘Only three kinds of people willingly enter the Misery: the desperate, the stupid and the greedy…’ The Misery is a wasteland: a dangerous, corrupted frontier between the Rtepublic and th...

Page Count: 37 Pages After the disappointment of 'Starship Traveller', I fancied something completely different and it doesn't get a lot more different than a tale taken from the very first issue of 'Weird Tales' back in March 1923. That and I'd heard that 'Ooze' was an influence on 'The Blob', a favourite film of mine. And so it was settled, last night was all about 'Ooze'... Our narrator visits the ruins of a house in the swamp so that he can hopefully solve the mystery of the death of his friends so that their daughter (whom he has adopted) can know the truth when she is older. What he finds out though is far beyond anything that he ever expected to find... 'Ooze' takes its own sweet time to get going and given that the tale is only 37 pages long, that's a hell of a risk to take. I gave it a chance though and the approach does pay off to an extent, with Rud hiding revelations in plain sight and hopping back and forth, along...

I have many weaknesses as far as books are concerned; probably far too many to be allowed anywhere near a bookshop just after I’ve been paid ;o) And one of those weaknesses is Fighting Fantasy books. Whether they’re the latest editions, sat in Waterstones, or an original copy of ‘Starship Traveller’ sat on a shelf in Brockley Books, those books are inevitably coming home with me. And did I say ‘Starship Traveller’ and Brockley Books? Funnily enough, I found a copy of ‘Starship Traveller’ in Brockley Books, the other day, and true to form, it came home with me ;o) Back in the day, ‘Starship Traveller’ was a Fighting Fantasy book that I only read the once (borrowed it from a friend, I believe) so it was a bit of an odd one to find. Of course I was always going to buy it but it had none of the emotional resonance that I got when I found an original copy of ‘The Forest of Doom’. So I bought it, read it and… Yes, I remembered just why I only read it the once… Sucked through the appaling nig...

This week has been a good week for reading and it’s not over yet :o) I’ve finished one book that I’ve wanted to finish for ages, got another excellent read on the go (not the one I was planning on but I’ll take it) with another couple lined up that look like they’re going to be good reads as well. I really need to take annual leave more often ;o) While all that is in play, I’ve also been reading some ‘Doctor Who’ short stories, just to fill in the gaps between reads. All of these can be found in the ‘Target Storybook’, blurb below… In this exciting collection you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and look forward too, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor. Each story expands in thrilling ways upon aspects of Doctor Who’s e...

I was going to say that original posting will resume tomorrow but the way things are right now, probably safer not to promise anything ;o) In the meantime... I found this old review last night (originally posted Here ) and it feels like it fits in with what this blog is all about right now so, I thought I'd give it another shot here. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be the case today but when I was a child at primary school, the shelves were covered with books that I’m sure a teacher today wouldn’t let an eight or nine year old anywhere near. Maybe it was just my school, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining though; I had a lot of fun trawling my way through some great reads. This time round, I’m talking specifically about the ‘Pan’ and ‘Fontana’ horror series; books with the most lurid covers and stories to match inside. I only had myself to blame but at least three quarters of the nightmares that I had as a child came from reading these books and staring at covers festooned with rot...

Well, this is awkward... My plan for today was to talk about my favourite stories from Stephen King's 'Night Shift' collection and I had a great time reading them yesterday. And then, well... I thought I'd double check the blog and it turns out that all my favourite stories from 'Night Shift' have already featured on the blog. Seriously... 'Graveyard Shift' and 'The Mangler'. 'Grey Matter' 'The Lawnmower Man'. Honestly, I don't know what's going on with me at the moment... Anyway. This wouldn't normally be a huge issue (flat full of books and all that) but I'm house/pet-sitting, at the moment, and I've got nothing with me that I've actually finished. So... Unless I magically come up with something else today (possible but unlikely...). 'Past Me' is stepping in again to help me out. A quick post to kick Halloween off then. Have some thoughts on H.P. Lovecraft's (very) short story 'Nyarlathote...

Page Count: 413 Pages. Thanks are due to Alex, of the excellent ‘Spells & Spaceships’ blog, if it hadn’t been for his glowing review of ‘The Daughters War’ , I probably wouldn’t have taken a chance on ‘The Blacktongue Thief’ (it doesn’t matter which way round you read them and ‘The Blacktongue Thief’ was right in front of me so...) As it turns out, I did and I’m so much the better for it. I probably shouldn’t give away too much so early but… It’s a sneaky contender for my ‘Favourite Read of the Year’. There, I said it. Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path. But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark. Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars...

Sorry to chuck another 'recycled post' at you but yesterday ended up being a work day, It shouldn't have been but it was and that meant no reading for me (and I really needed it as well) If that wasn't bad enough, today looks like it could be fairly brutal so I'm parking the blog, for today, and giving myself back a little energy to tackle everything else. Normal(ish) service should resume tomorrow as I have the rest of the week off and I will be doing nothing but reading ;o) In the meantime, the last few Mondays have ended up being 'Doctor Who' days so I thought I'd continue that a little longer with 'Illegal Alien'; a book where the enthusiasm of 'past me' was so great that my present self is half tempted to seek out another copy for a re-read. Maybe, we'll see. The review was first posted on an older blog of mine ( Here ) but it's worth dusting down and giving it another airing so... Here goes :o)  The Blitz is at its height. A...

  This is officially my all time favourite cover art for a Lovecraft collection and it just so happens to be the collection where I first came across 'The Colour Out Of Space'. I'm 95% sure that I still have this book lying around somewhere, I'm going to have to go on a hunt now. But this post has only just begun and I'm already digressing... ;o) I'm trying not to recycle too many posts, from older blogs, at the moment but I've got a lot of work to catch up with today and I didn't want another 'post-less day' so, here we are. I find myself preferring Clark Ashton Smith's tales these days but 'The Colour Out Of Space' is still a favourite Lovecraft tale of mine so I thought I'd recycle a post of mine (from March 2012, if you want to read the original post) and let it have its time here. Regular posting should resume tomorrow (fingers crossed); for now though, lets revisit 'The Colour Out Of Space'... The narrator has been s...

I didn't have time for a lot of reading yesterday, my youngest daughter's school Harvest Festival only took an hour out of my day but it somehow left me scrabbling to get everything else done on either side... Having said that though, I wouldn't have missed it. It was her last Harvest Festival before she goes to high school next year so definitely a little bittersweet for both of us. But I'm going off on a tangent aren't I...? You're not that bothered and that's ok ;o) You're here for the book talk so let me oblige.  Once I'd got everything, more or less, done for the day, I didn't have a lot of time left so I settled down with a couple of comic books and had a read. One a new read, the other as unsettling as ever, let me tell you about them. 'Abe Sapien: The Drowning' - Mike Mignola & Jason Shawn Alexander (Dark Horse Books) A century ago, paranormal investigator Edward Grey fought and destroyed a powerful warlock off the coast of th...

Page Count: 124 Pages After finally finishing ‘Terrifier 2’ I was after a complete change of scenery. I mean, you would be wouldn’t you? ;o) The great thing about ‘Terrifier’ is that literally anything else is a complete change of scenery and this time round, my eyes fell on the small pile of ‘Doctor Who’ books that I bought the other week. I ended up going with ‘The Keeper of Traken’, mostly because of that page count (I wasn’t after another long read…) but also because I watched it a few years ago and wanted to see how the book held up to the TV serial. Here’s the link if you fancy a read ;o) Anyway, lets talk about ‘The Keeper of Traken’… Under the watchful control of generations of guardians known as Keepers, the harmonious power of the bioelectric Source has enabled the planet of Traken to exist in peace for millennia. The current Keeper’s millennium is about to end but before his powers wan completely, he senses the approach of an all-pervading force of evil about to inhabit the...

I’ve been enjoying the ‘Terrifier’ franchise (which sounds slightly weird if you’ve seen the first ‘Terrifier’ movie but hopefully you know what I mean!) so when I saw that there was a novelization for ‘Terrifier 2’, well… There was no way that I wasn’t going to pick it up. As you already know, I have a soft spot for movie novelizations (it’s a childhood nostalgia thing) and you’ve got to support stuff if you want to see more of it so… That was that. Now, I’m not as quick a reader as I used to be but I can still zip through books fairly quickly. This one though, not so much… Twelve days after picking it up, I finally finished it yesterday afternoon. And now I’ve got my head round it a little bit, let me tell you about it... It has been one year since the sleepy town of Miles County survived the murderous spree of demented killer Art the Clown, but little do they know the nightmare is about to begin anew. Resurrected by a sinister entity, Art is back with an appetite for murder and ma...

Page Count: Four pages and about four lines. I found ‘Sadastor’ in the collection ‘Out of Space & Time: Volume 2’ but if you can’t find a copy, you can always read it over at ‘Eldritch Dark’ ( Link ). It takes barely any time at all to read but is definitely worth the time you put into it. Quick thoughts follow (you’re really not going to get much more than that from a story that’s only a few pages long…) ‘Sadastor’ is ‘the tale that was told to a fair lamia by the demon Charnadis as they sat together on the top of Mophi, above the sources of the Nile, in those years when the sphinx was young’. It’s a lot more than that though, of course it is. We’ve got a beautifully told travelogue through the outer realms of Clark Ashton Smith’s universe and it’s a universe of wonders that you feel privileged to have been shown. The journey may only be a few paragraphs long but Ashton Smith literally fits an entire universe into those few paragraphs, seemingly without any effort at all. And the...