Lord Samper's Library

It's been another one of those weeks so I'm officially declaring today, a day to watch 'House of Ninjas' (three episodes in and looking good so far), read 'Sharpe's Tiger' (also looking good) and maybe, just maybe, catch up on some 'Conan' reading too. We'll see ;o) For now though, I didn't want the blog to go another day without a post so I thought I'd enlist the help of 'past me' to fill the gap ;o) 'Past me' has very kindly supplied a David Gemmell review for your reading pleasure. 'Sword in the Storm' is as awesome a read today as it was when I reviewed it back in 2014; if you haven't read it already, I'd do something about that if I were you. Anyway, my 'Sword in the Storm' review was originally posted over Here but right now, here it is for you... Born in the storm that doomed his father, Connavar grows to manhood among the mist-covered mountains of Caer Druagh, where the Rigante tribe dwell ...

Thousands of years ago the evil city of Kuan Hador was defeated by a vast army of mystic warriors, the Enemy banished beyond the Gateway between Worlds. Spells of enormous power sealed the Gateway. Now icy mists begin to form around the ruins of Kuan Hador. Awesome beasts stalk the hills and forests. The spells are fading. Beyond the Gateway the vengeful armies of Kuan Hador await. And where years before a host stood against the Enemy, now only a handful of warriors prepare to face it once more: Kysumu the Swordsman, last of a dying breed, Yu Yu Liang, the ditch digger, Ustarte, the Beast-Priestess, and the mysterious Waylander. Together they must solve an ancient mystery, which will bring the dead to life for a final battle outside Time. But first Waylander must find a way to kill a man who cannot die... Before we get into the book itself… I used to try and come up with my own blurbs, when writing a review, but now I’m all old and tired so just swipe an online blurb instead. A...

I’ve been struggling to settle on a book to read recently (I can see the pile of books that only lasted a few pages…) and then I realised that the answer had been on the bookshelf the whole time… I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read of ‘Waylander’, back in October , and the next two books were right there waiting to be picked up so… I’ve spent the last few days getting reacquainted with Waylander and what happened next for him and his newly found family. And you know what…? I read the book the whole way through, again, and it was glorious. High in the wooded mountains of Skeln, the woodsman, Dakeyras, and his daughter Miriel, live a life of solitude. Unbeknown to them, a group of bloodthirsty warriors stalk the mountains. Men who have never known defeat, to whom revenge and torture are meat and drink. For ten thousand in gold they are eager to kill the woodsman. Battle-hardened warriors all, they have no fear of this task - but they should have. For Miriel is a woman of fire and iron, s...

I actually have another copy of ‘Waylander’, somewhere, but I saw this cover (while doing a bit of ‘birthday book shopping’) and had to get it. It makes me all nostalgic for those seemingly long ago times when cover art wasn’t afraid to just yell out what the actual book was all about. In this case, a guy with a cool looking crossbow fighting monsters. There’s more to it than just that though… Daylight is hitting that mountain top but it’s shadowy and dangerous underneath the trees where the action is, which is pretty much this book as well. I’ll warn you in advance, David Gemmell’s books are real comfort reads for me and I’ve been in need of that recently so… Don’t expect me to be too balanced here. I love all of his books and that’s all there is to it. And it’s another ‘quick thoughts’ kind of post as well. Maybe I’ll write longer posts in the future but that’s a little beyond my reach at the moment, hope you don’t mind… 😉 Anyway, enough of that. Lets talk about the book… The ...

The way things have been the last week or so, I've been seeking out comfort reads where I can get the story but not have to pay too much attention at the same time. You know what I mean? Old favourites are good for when your brain needs a break to recharge 😉 I've got any number of books that I'd class as a 'comfort read' but it was Gemmell's 'Legend' that drew me back in for a very welcome re-read. I mustn't leave it so long next time 😊 Daily demands being what they are though, I haven't got the time to get my thoughts down in a post so I thought I'd recycle what are essentially the same thoughts and feelings from a blog post elsewhere and elsewhen 😉 I've trimmed it a little bit so you can click Here if you want to see me moaning about caravanning holidays. For everyone else though, here goes... The Legend Druss, Captain of the Axe: the stories of his life were told everywhere. Instead of the wealth and fame he could have claimed, he ...

It’s been another one of those weeks (not really bad, just… intense) and my current read, ‘Shadow of the Gods’ seeing as you asked, is nowhere near being finished so I thought I’d grab a book off the ‘Insurance Pile’ and round off the week in a slightly more relaxed manner 😉 I’ve been slowly working my way through the David Gemmell books on my shelf and a few weeks ago, it was the turn of ‘The King Beyond The Gate’, a book that I hadn’t read for a few years; certainly long enough that I’d forgotten large chunks of what happened. The best kind of read then, a guilty pleasure that you can’t quite remember but you know you’ll enjoy 😉 Let me tell you about it… A century has passed since the heroic defence of Dros Delnoch. But the people of the Drenai face a new terror: a mad emperor kept in power by two forces of unsurpassed evil. The Joinings are werebeasts of awesome power. The Dark Templars are warrior-priests whose fighting skills are without equal. Against them, the Drenai face ce...

Sometimes, all you want is a bit of comfort reading and that’s never a bad thing if it feels like the rest of the world is against you a bit 😊 Sometimes you don’t want to have to think too much about what you’re reading, you want something familiar that will do the heavy lifting for you and all you have to do is sit there and enjoy the ride. That was where I was last week (and if I’m honest, most of this week as well) and in times like these, I will invariably dig out a David Gemmell book, get nice and comfortable, and settle down for a few hours of quality comfort reading. That’s what I did with ‘Winter Warriors’ last week, let me tell you all about it… The prophecy was clear: upon the death of three kings, the world will be plunged into chaos, and all the cast-out demons of history will return to bring blood and horror to the world. Two of the kings are dead.  The third, about to be born, is hunted by  the Demon Riders of the Krayakin, Lords of the Undead. All the terri...

It's just occurred to me that while I've had a few copies of this book over the years (and read it more than a few times...); I've never had, read or even seen a copy of the book that comes before it, 'Ghost King'. Finding a copy isn't strictly necessary, for reasons I'll go into shortly, but I rather think I'll have to now. Wait until I get paid (in about a week and a half...) You know what it's like, you have a couple of books on the go but you're not feeling it and want to go back to something a little more familiar and comfortable. I had a funny feeling that this month might be like that so I put 'Lost Sword of Power' in the 'June TBR Pile', just on the off chance. My suspicions were correct and the last couple of days were spent reading 'Last Sword of Power'. Lets take a look at it, shall we? The soul of Uther Pendragon is chained in hell. The sword of power is lost in swirling chaos. The realm is under threat from ...

I've got this pile of books that I'm trying to work my way through right now but what with everything going on right now (up to and including teaching my eldest daughter to ride her bike, far more important than reading to be fair), I hadn't been doing particularly well in finishing any of them until last night when a sustained burst of 'now or never reading' saw me tick off another book in my 'Druss' mini re-read. Given my life right now, it was going to be another comfort read that was read next. Reading time is at a premium right now so of course I'm going to fill it with escapist yarns rather than stuff that will make me think (I'm doing too much of that at work as it is). I'm still going to be critical about it though (or try anyway) so here goes, lets dip back into the life of Druss the Legend. For centuries the tribes of the Nadir have suffered under the despotic tyranny of their Gothir overlords. Disunited and distrustful of on...

So there I was, thinking that Lockdown would save me money... Ok, I'm not spending quite so much money on Banh Mi's but my book and DVD spending has just shot up over the last couple of months. And I've suddenly found myself with a subscription to Shudder, not quite sure how that happened (of course I am, that'll teach me to pay more attention to free trials...)  I clearly need to be reading a lot faster then but in the meantime... Here's some of the books that have arrived, at mine, over the last couple of days (and a couple of DVDs as well). The common theme, for the books anyway, is 'Replacing books that I had to sell/lost etc during a very bad patch about three years ago'. I'm 'on the up' now, it's all good :o) First of all, huge thanks to @breakfastruins (owner of the rather awesome 'Breakfast In The Ruins' Podcast) for giving a me a copy of 'Wizardy and Wild Romance' to replace the one that I had to sell. It goes...