Lord Samper's Library

My mental health is being gnawed at and my reading has taken a little hit, as a result, so I thought it would be a good time to avoid being bogged down by a longer read and go for the shorter reads instead. I’ve got a day off tomorrow and that might be the time to tackle something longer, we’ll see. In the meantime… I have finished a couple of comic books so let me tell you about them :o) ‘Uber: Volume 2’ – Gillen, White (Avatar Press) The first blow in the battle between English and German Ubers has been wrought and neither nation walks away whole. The war rages on in the Pacific Theatre as Japanese Kamikaze pilots attempt to drive the US forces out while delivering devastating losses to the enemy naval fleet. But the tides of war change as the Japanese deploy their own enhanced soldiers and the Germans deliver their devastating secret attack. Uber Volume 2 collects issues #6-11 of the comic book series. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how the Japanese are suddenly able to deploy their o...

‘Cimmerian September’ has got me over another ‘reading slump’; I’m really excited to see what I can read this month as far as ‘Conan’ tales go. The plan is to write about at least a couple of Howard’s original tales but I’ve also been having fun just looking through my bookshelves to see which books I’d forgotten that I owned. Any excuse for a ‘bookshelf browse’ and a re-read ;o) All of which led me to Conan’s team-up with one Elric of Melnibone… Conan first met Elric back in #14 ( A Sword Called Stormbringer ) of ‘Conan the Barbarian’ back in 1972. It was a short-lived team-up, concluding in #15 ( The Green Empress of Melnibone ) and then they both went on their merry (well, ‘doom-laden’ in the case of Elric) ways. Moorcock, and James Cawthorn, supplied the plot; Roy Thomas and Barry Smith adapted it. I first came across the story in the early 2000s, working in a psychiatric hospital where one of the patients had an extensive collection of Moorcock books. It took me a little while lon...

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on leave, I took my girls into Forbidden Planet as part of a little trip into London. I’m not feeling too guilty by the way ;o) My eldest loves a bit of Manga (loads of that in FP) while youngest found a shelf full of ‘Greek Myth’ books. True to form, we ended up having a little conversation about why ‘The Palace of Eros’ might not be the most appropriate book for a ten year old… You should have seen how quickly she put the book down after I let her read the blurb… Anyway, I’m digressing… While they were off doing their thing, I had a little mooch along the shelves and found a couple of comic books that I liked the look of. It took me a while to get round to reading them but in the end, a weekend of house sitting ended up being exactly right time to do just that. Quick thoughts then on the following… ‘Elric the Necromancer #2’ – Blondel, Cano, Secher (Titan Comics) It’s funny how things work… I wasn’t too keen on the last instalment and its focus on t...

One day, I will stop buying single issues and just concentrate on the trades instead. One day... But not today :o) I picked these two books up when I was in Bromley the other week, the 'Time Trek' store is long gone now (which is still a horrible shame) but 'Piranha Comics' is still about and is worth a look if you're passing by. We were passing by and popped in while we were waiting for a bus to turn up; here are some quick thoughts on what I bought while we were there... The cover looks absolutely gorgeous and the good news is that the artwork inside more than matches up to it. Secher just seems to naturally get Elric's world and this comic is a comic that is happy for you to just sit and look at how good it looks. The story though... It's taken me a while to put into words but across the 'Elric' books as a whole, I've always had an issue with the decision to base these books around themes rather than plot and that's definitely an issue her...

I'm not sure what happened yesterday (it's all a bit of a blur...) but I was wiped out by the end of it and didn't read anything last night. I did have a mid-evening nap though which isn't a good thing, I really need to stop doing that and actually sleep when I'm supposed to. Anyway...  I thought I'd see if 'Past Me' had anything that he wouldn't mind me borrowing for the blog and, as it happened... He did and I'm very grateful (gives me a chance to catch my breath a little). There I was, thinking that my 'Elric Re-Read' was done and dusted, there are a few more books to go. I never read 'Destiny's Brother', or 'Son of the Wolf', so will have to dig them out and add them to the TBR Pile. In the meantime, have some thoughts on 'Daughter of Dreams' (my original review can be found Here )... Dark forces are behind the rise of Hitler and imprisoned Count Ulric von Bek must fight to keep his family's black sword...

So I'm coming off the back of a 'heavy work day' and looking straight down the barrel of another one... Erm... Yay? It won't surprise you then that I haven't had a lot of time for reading and no time at all for coming up with an original blog post. Story of my life these days... ;o) It's not all bad though. While I'm using today's commute to catch up with my reading ('Litany of the Destroyer' is really something special), my past self has a little something to keep the blog ticking over. It's a little 'Elric' for your reading pleasure ;o) You can find the original post Here but all the important bits can be found below... It's a fact long established, on blogs other than this one, that I will read pretty much anything 'Eternal Champion' related that Michael Moorcock has written. Which means pretty much everything he has written doesn't it? I mean, from what I've seen it all ties together at one level or another. I...

It has taken far too long (the 'Elric Re-Read' kicked off way back in May 2020...) and that is why I had a bit of a brain snap, the other day, and told myself that I had to finish 'Stormbringer!' before I could read anything else. A deckchair in the sun turned out to be the missing ingredient and once I was there, gently crisping in the heat, the book more or less finished itself. I've still got a few more 'Elric' books that I've never read but the 'Re-Read' part of my 'Elric' reading is done. Well, not quite. I need to tell you all about it ;o) Lets go... The epic tale of Elric moves towards it's inevitable conclusion as the lonely albino discovers the true power of his magical blade, Stormbringer, and must return to the shattered ruins of his homeland before facing his greatest test. The massed ranks of Law and Chaos are coming together for their final battle, and Elric will be faced with a decision only he can make – will he ushe...

Well, it has been one of those weeks this week; what with work kicking things up a gear and having to field Twitter messages from someone whom I suspect is trying to scam me. Don't get me wrong, he's very polite but he's also persistent (I have a feeling that a blocking may well be imminent)... It hasn't been the best week for reading then which is a real shame as 'Brothers of the Wind' is just amazing, hopefully I'll be able to get back into it over the weekend. Short stories always come in handy at times like these as they're basically nice bite sized chunks of story that you can fit into that one hour you have free where you just want to clear your head a bit before jumping back into it. That's why I have short story collections placed strategically round my flat; so that when I need one of those bite sized chunks, there's always one close to hand ;o) I needed some of that last night and 'Tales of the White Wolf' was the collection t...

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself with this one... :o) The number of times that I've tried to read this book and then crashed and burned... Well, lets just say it was more than a few times and leave it at that. Not this time though, 'Revenge of the Rose' has been well and truly read and not only that, I also did 'The Stealer of Souls', 'Kings in Darkness' and 'The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams' (also known as 'The Flame Bringers') for good measure. Go me :o) I didn't read 'The Last Enchantment' (because I've already reviewed it over Here ) and 'To Rescue Tanelorn' will wait for another day as Elric doesn't make an appearance here. In the meantime, lets take a look at what I did manage to read... Searching the world for a civilisation that will remind him of his lost home, Elric – last emperor of Melnibone, wielder of the black sword Stormbringer – decides that he must return to the ruined place of his birth. T...

I haven’t had the best of days today, turns out that your mouth can hurt just as much after the offending tooth has been extracted as it did beforehand… Oh well, nothing that repeated doses of paracetamol won’t eventually fix 😊 In the meantime though, I haven’t really been up to much as far as reading goes but luckily, I had a couple of comics on hand for a situation just like this… ‘The White Wolf’ did take an unexpected turn at the end (that had me wondering if I’d strayed into ‘What If…?’ territory) but there was still enough there that when I saw that ‘The Dreaming City’ was going to be a thing, I knew I had to pick up the first couple of issues. And me being me (and never getting round to picking individual issues up on time…), I was able to pick up the first couple of issues when I was in Forbidden Planet the other day. I love fantasy comics (there really need to be more though) and Moorcock adaptations tend to be a lot of fun more often than not so I was keen to see where th...

Reading the, much slimmer, Grafton editions has actually really helped me power along a little bit with my long running re-read of the 'Elric' series. While I do like how the 'new' (they're not that new now but, you know what I mean...) Gollancz look on my shelves, they're also just chunky enough to make me think, 'I'm only after a quick read, maybe I'll choose something else...' Nope, I'll stick with the Grafton editions for now ;o) So, on to 'The Weird of the White Wolf' and a book that had me a little puzzled to begin with... Imrryr, the dreaming city; Yrkoon, the hated usurper; Cymoril, the beloved – all had fallen to the fury and unearthly power of the albino prince and his terrible sword. And Elric faced at last the fate that was to be his in this haunted era: that he must go forth, sword and man as one, and havoc and horror would be forever at his forefront until he found the Purpose that was yet obscured to him... There is ...

No, not the whole book; just the short story of the same name. Nothing against ‘Sojan the Swordsman’ (which I may look at another time) or Catharz (just a little bit embarrassed that I didn’t get all the little jokes last time I read it); they’re cool but they’re not Elric. And I’ve already reviewed ‘The Last Enchantment’ ( over Here if you’re interested). Nope, we’re all about Elric’s adventures at the End of Time today albeit in a slightly shorter post than normal, the story is only a very slender fifty three pages long. I’m using the Grafton edition as this was the first ‘Elric’ book that I picked up all those years ago in my first year at high school, which I think makes ‘Elric at the End of Time’ the second ‘Elric’ story that I read after ‘The Last Enchantment’. Wikipedia told me that this story is next, in the reading order, and I’m never one to argue with Wikipedia so here we are. But enough of me leaving these not very subtle notes to myself in the event that my memory goes ...

Welcome back to what must already be the longest 'Elric' re-read on record (started with 'Master of Chaos' back in May last year, progress has been... slow...) Basically, we're on 'Graeme Time' here which always means that work or my daughters (or even just a particular book that's difficult to get into) will invariably throw a spanner in the works, just when I think I have a few free moments for reading... Oh well, I'll keep slowly moving forwards and we'll get there when we get there. So, 'Fortress of the Pearl'... I last read this more than several years ago as part of a read through of the old Orion edition of 'Elric of Melnibone' so once again, I had no idea of what to expect other than the fact that with more stories to follow, it would be a fairly safe bet that Elric made it through in one piece. As we've learned from 'Elric of Melnibone' though, Elric is perhaps a little too naïve and idealistic to be allowe...

Another cover art post courtesy of Tor.com , you can read their post over here ... This time, a subject a little closer to my heart with some absolutely gorgeous looking 'Elric of Melnibone' Omnibus covers. I like the way they've stayed close to the original cover art but changed the poses a little bit, just to freshen it up a little. The results look amazing, check it out... Don't they look amazing? The collector in me wants to get his hands on these as they come out ( Saga will publish one book per month, beginning September 28 with the first volume,  Elric of Melniboné , followed by  Stormbringer  on October 26, and  The White Wolf  on November 30) but my wallet has already started making disapproving noises and pointing at the perfectly fine Gollancz editions (and the rest) that are already on my shelves. We'll see who wins...

Even though I have grand plans about what I want to read this month, I thought I'd go a little easier on myself and kick March off with a short story that I've been wanting to read for a long time. I've been a fan of Moorcock's 'Elric' since high school (even though I don't find his books the easiest to read...) and a fan of Karl Edward Wagner's 'Kane' for almost as long. 'The Gothic Touch' is Wagner taking the chance to combine the two in a story of his own. You'll find 'The Gothic Touch' in both 'Tales of the White Wolf' (the 'Elric' Anthology) and the Karl Edward Wagner collection 'Exorcisms and Ecstasies'. Actually, having said that, given how much a second hand copy of 'Exorcisms and Ecstasies' goes for (if Amazon is anything to go by), you're more likely to find it in a copy of 'Tales of the White Wolf' which is a lot more affordable. Either way, I finally got to read 'The...