Lord Samper's Library

Because yesterday was a bit crazy and didn’t leave me with much time for reading in the evening. A couple of short stories and that was about it. Today looks very likely to go in the same direction (hospital appointment and a lot of work to catch up on all at the same time) so while I have a few minutes spare, let me tell you about last night’s reading. One good and one, erm… not so good, lets do the ‘not so good’ first. Here goes… ‘Embers of Extinction (The Horus Heresy Primarchs)’ – Brandon Easton (Black Library) For many long years, Perturabo has harboured a grudge against his primarch brother Rogal Dorn. With the outset of the Horus Heresy, he has a chance to finally avenge himself against Dorn and his Imperial Fists – but the disastrous Battle of Phall has just embittered him further. Determined to slake his thirst for revenge, Perturabo sets his Iron Warriors on a mission to devastate Dorn's sons… at any cost. I’ve only ever come across Perturabo as a supporting character (wh...

Page Count: 120 Pages Twenty years ago, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner and World Horror Grandmaster Brian Keene's The Rising was credited with "revitalizing the horror fiction genre" and "giving zombies an upgrade". In the decades since then, the series has spawned three sequels and earned generations of eager fans from all walks of life– united in the hope that the author would return once again to the franchise. This is that return. The Rising: More Selected Scenes From the End of the World features a splattering of new stories set within the world of Brian Keene's The Rising franchise, complimented with original illustrations by Anthrax's Charlie Benante. Featuring tales set both before and after the events of the previous books, it will appeal to long-time fans and new readers alike. Brian Keene's The Rising: More Selected Scenes From the End of the World– zombies just got another upgrade. Have I really been reading Brian Keene for the las...

I was rooting through my bookshelves last night, trying to find something for the commute in the morning, and came across my old copy of ‘The Rising’ which I’d read a few months ago, popped in a box for the big move, and then promptly forgotten about. To be fair, the last three months have been crazy but, I’m here now and ready to make up for lost time ;o) I’ve been reading my old ‘Leisure Fiction’ edition, if I knew where my Kindle was (there are still boxes that I haven’t unpacked yet…) I’d have gone for the ‘Authors Preferred Edition’ which is what you should look for if you want to give ‘The Rising’ a go. And if you haven’t, you really should. Nothing stays dead for long. The dead are returning to life, intelligent, determined… and very hungry. Escape seems impossible for Jim Thurmond, one of the few left alive in this nightmare world. But Jim’s young son is also alive and grave danger hundreds of miles away. Despite astronomical odds. Jim vows to find him – or die trying. ‘The Ris...

Page Count: 101 Pages I’m not quite sure what happened, this weekend, but it’s Monday and although I managed to buy several books, I didn’t actually read any… I did managed to pack three boxes of DVDs though, so that’s something :o) Today then sees another trip to the HBR Pile (‘Has Been Read’) and another Brian Keene re-read. The original plan was to read ‘The Rising’ first but I was after reading the ‘Author’s Preferred Edition’ and I couldn’t find my Kindle so… ‘Deliverance’ it was. Go back to the beginning of the end of the world... Hell has come to earth as sadistic zombies rampage and massacre the human population. Reverend Thomas Martin has lost his congregation to the chaos but has found two wayward survivors to protect - Becky and John. The three of them have holed up in Martin's church in a desperate attempt for survival. But as supplies run low and civilization crumbles around them, Martin must come to a realization - God has abandoned them. But why? Is there any ch...

So there I was, slightly panicking that I’m not reading quickly enough to post stuff on the blog and then I remembered that there is a literal pile of read books in my loft space, waiting for moments like this. And yep, I shouldn’t be worried about how quickly I’m reading; it’s just that I’m one day into November and it already feels like there isn’t enough month to get everything done that I need to. But anyway… Before I put the blog on hiatus, I was working my way through all of Brian Keene’s books and that continued. I still need to (re)read ‘The Rising’ and ‘City of the Dead’ (I have the revised editions on Kindle but I want to read them in paperback and I don’t have these yet) but the stories from ‘Selected Scenes’ fit in across that timeline so it’s an easy book for me to pick up and get into. If you’re new to the series though, I’d say read the two main books first and get the whole picture. Anyway, let’s talk some ‘Selected Scenes from the End of the World’… Best-selling author...

I'm still not quite ready to tackle another Brian Keene series of books but give it time, there's one series that I haven't tried yet and one that's an old favourite of mine. They're both on the table (and by table, I actually mean the ladder that goes up to my little library) but for now, there are still a few stand-alone books left to read and today, we're talking 'Dead Sea'. No talking zombies, not this time anyway, but the question these shambling husks help to pose is still a bastard to answer. A book that makes you think a little then, at the same time as you're wincing to yourself and begging your favourite character to summon up a little more strength and not get bit... Three guesses what I thought of this book then and the first two guesses don't count ;o) The city streets are no longer safe. They are filled instead with the living dead, rotting predators driven only by a need to kill and eat. Some of the living still struggle to survi...

Page Count: 220 Pages. Content Warning: This review will make mention of rape scenes that take place in the book. I know, it's not Monday and Brian Keene's books are always featured on a Monday... Monday was a complete write off (although I did get a lot of work done), Tuesday saw me wondering whether to quit blogging entirely and the largest chunk of yesterday was spent in bed, trying to get over the latest illness that my kids brought home from school. The sooner this week is done the better ;o) We're here today though, better late than never and all that. I realised that I wasn't quite ready to start another series (so the 'Bastard' books have to wait a little while longer) so opted to make 'Castaways' my next read, a stand-alone book that I hadn't read for a long time, years in fact. Let me tell you about it... They came to the deserted island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one hoped to be the last to leave. Now they...

Welcome to another Monday you lucky, lucky people... ;o) Did you have a good weekend? I hope you did. Mine was pretty busy but you knew that already... There was time for a little reading here and there though and what with it being Monday and all... You get to take another dive, with me, into all the Brian Keene books that I've been reading (and re-reading). I finished the 'Earthworm Gods' series with 'Selected Scenes from the End of the World' but it was a much shorter read than it's predecessors so I thought I'd give you a little something extra to kick Monday off on. You're welcome... ;o) 'The Last Zombie Vol 1: Dead New World' – Brian Keene & Joseph Wright (Antarctic Press) Follow the frantic journey of a man seeking his one ray of hope in a post-apocalyptic nightmare United States. The zombies have come and (mostly) gone, but the disease is still out there, threatening the survivors. The country swarms with roving packs of wild anim...

It's Monday so you know what time it is... ;o) After reading 'Earthworm Gods' last week (you can read the review Here if you haven't already), my next Brian Keene read very much chose itself and that's where I've been for a chunk of this weekend. I'll be honest with you. I've got a bit of a soft spot for 'Earthworm Gods II' as it was one of a number of Keene's books that I loaded onto my Kindle after I split up with my wife and had to move out. Those books got me through a number of lonely nights, still do, and I'll always be grateful for Brian for writing them, they really helped. That said then, I'll try my hardest not to be too effusive in my praise but if you've come here looking for an objective review then you might want to come back tomorrow instead. Enough of that though, it's still raining out there and the water is rising... In Brian Keene's cult-classic, Earthworm Gods, global super-storms decimated the plane...

Yes, it's the book with the better title and the better cover than its 'Leisure Fiction' edition... Okay, I didn't mind the title 'The Conqueror Worms' ('Earthworm Gods' is the clear winner though) but the cover art was just dreadful, nowhere near as good as what we have here). Being almost a little too much into reading series in order, there was no way that I was going to be able to read that copy of 'Earthworm Gods II', I found on eBay, without reading 'Earthworm Gods' first so... here I am kicking off another week of blogging here with one of my favourite Brian Keene books. And yes, I've kind of given the game away a little but let me tell you a little more about 'Earthworm Gods' and hopefully you'll see why I enjoy it so much. Quick thoughts though, I'm afraid. Work is going to be interesting in the morning so should get some sleep at some point... ;o) One day, it starts raining-and never stops. Global super-sto...

I didn't get a lot of reading done over Christmas but I did manage to read a few books so, while I'm reading 'War of the Daleks', it's time to dip into the HBR (Has Been Read) Pile and see what's what. Christmas was all about re-reading old favourites so it'll be no surprise to see another Brian Keene book feature here. This time we're all about a small American town dying a particularly grisly death in 'A Gathering Of Crows'... Brinkley Springs is a quiet little town. Some say the town is dying. They don't know how right they are. Five mysterious figures are about to pay a visit to Brinkley Springs. They have existed for centuries, emerging from the shadows only to destroy. To kill. To feed. They bring terror and carnage, and leave blood and death in their wake. The only person that can prevent their rampage is ex-Amish magus Levi Stoltzfus. As the night wears on, Brinkley Springs will be quiet no longer. Screams will break the silence. Bu...

After a 'great' start back at work (five days of work doesn't go into a four day week, it just doesn't...), I thought I'd give myself a little break yesterday and have a little comfort reading time. And this always sounds a little weird when the next sentence runs along the lines of 'so of course I picked up something by Brian Keene' (who never fails to make my skin crawl and my stomach turn) but bear with me ;o) Basically, I'm a big fan and there aren't many of his books that I haven't read and enjoyed already so... For me, picking up one of Keene's books is like meeting up with an old friend again and hanging out for a bit. I know what I'm in for and I know I'll enjoy it so, here I am again. It had been a long time since I last read 'Entombed' so I figured it was well overdue a re-read and my girls were out with their Mum so I settled down for a read and... I t has been several months since the disease known as Hamelin...

I’m in the office today so my ‘Brian Keene Reading’ took me into the depths of the Kindle App rather than grabbing a book from the shelf. This worked out just fine today as I fancied reading something that I hadn’t read in a long time which, given my preference for reading actual books instead of off a screen, made the Kindle App to hunt through. I settled on ‘Take the Long Way Home’ in the end, mostly for that very reason. It has been so long since I read this book that I could remember the concept but very little else, apart from the fact that a lot of walking is involved… So, just like reading a brand new book for the first time then 😉 Let me tell you about it… All across the world, people suddenly vanish in the blink of an eye. From their cars during the rush hour commute. From the shopping malls. Their homes. Their beds. Even from the arms of their loved ones. Airline pilots. World leaders. Teachers. Parents. Children. Gone. Steve, Charlie and Frank were just trying to get home...

It's looking a lot better than it did but my flat is still full of teetering piles of books and yep, I really need to do something about that; my half-arsed ideas about turning the attic into a tiny library might have to finally become a reality... In the meantime, it's still quite cool to know that wherever I am in my flat, I don't have to go too far to find a book to read ;o) All I have to do is reach a hand out and grab whatever's there. The other day, it was 'Darkness on the Edge of Town', just the read for a Graeme who was after something familiar but also something that he hadn't picked up in a while. And that's the last time, for this post at least, where I'll talk about myself in the third person ;o) Lets talk about ';Darkness on the Edge of Town'... One morning the residents of Walden, Virginia, woke up to find the rest of the world gone. Just . . . gone. Surrounding their town was a wall of inky darkness, plummeting Walden into pe...

I really enjoyed reading along with Brian Keene’s ‘Reader Recession Relief Programme’, a couple of months ago, and instead of hold off and wait for the next one (I hear there may be another one, I hope so), I thought I’d just carry on reading, albeit with some of the older books rather than my ‘go to’ favourites. They’ll get their turn, don’t worry 😉 This time round then, I thought I’d get stuck into another set of short stories and see what things are like… in ‘The Cage’… For the employees of Big Bill's Home Electronics, it's just the end of another long workday-until a gunman bursts into the store and begins shooting. Now, with some of their co-workers dead, the hostages are disappearing one-by-one, and if they want to survive the night, they'll have to escape... THE CAGE. We start off with the novella-sized ‘The Cage’ and damn… Without giving the end away, ‘The Cage’ is a pretty bleak old read but at the same time, one that is very easy to get into, given the ope...

Well, as of tomorrow, I'll be trying to catch up with work from last week as well as all the stuff that is already building up for the week ahead. That'll teach me to take a half day of sick... dammit :o( I think it's fair to say then that we'll be looking at shorter books and a couple of films over the next week then. Lets see how we do. Short reads don't come a lot shorter than Brian Keene's 'Jack's Magic Beans' collection which weighs in at just below the hundred page mark. Don't let that fool you though. This is a book that packs a hell of a punch and ended up being just what I needed (and not just because it felt like the natural 'next book' to read after having a lot of fun with 'The Complex', a great example of an apocalypse not needing a concept to make it work, sometimes shit just happens). There is a lot to be said for short stories that come in, do their job and leave you feeling like you need to check over your shoul...

I've been trying to get into 'The Lost Level' but for whatever reason, it's not working for me and I don't know why. Funnily enough, I don't think it's the book's fault, more that I'm not in the right place to read it at the moment. Sometimes that happens and when it does, you've got to put the book down (and read something else) before you go and spoil it for a 'future you' that will probably get a lot out of it. But anyway... That's why I'm all about 'The Complex' today. I wanted to read something by Brian Keene and it had been a long time since I read 'The Complex', seemed like it was a good time for a re-read. And it was, it really was. That's about all I can say at the moment as I put the book down about an hour ago and my mind is pretty much blown by the experience. Let me try and tell you about it. There was no warning. No chance to escape. They came suddenly. Naked. Bloodthirsty. Sadistic. They descen...

The other week, I took myself off to Ramsgate for a little book shopping but also to grab a little time for myself and read some books that I was desperate to get to but... you know what it's like, life loves to exercise its power of veto over my reading plans (yours too, I reckon). Well, no prizes for guessing which book came with me and kept me in my hotel room until it was finished... ;o) I thoroughly enjoyed 'The Seven', when I read it last year , and have spent the intervening time looking forward to getting back into the Labyrinth and seeing what happened next. And when I finally got round to it, it was like I'd never been away... The Seven have won the first battle against the Thirteen, but it cost them one of their number. Now Frankie, Teddy, LeHorn, Tony, Bloom and the Exit find themselves in the middle of a global super storm on a flooded Earth, reunited with old friends and facing off against familiar threats, including the terrifying titanic might of Behem...