Lord Samper's Library

That’s our lot for Season 2, now we sit back and wait for news about about Season 3. And I’ll be honest, there was a time when I wouldn’t have been waiting with the enthusiasm that I have right now. I’m not going to go into it all again, not in great detail, but I’ve had problems with Season 1 and a chunk of Season 2, up until a couple of weeks ago when things not only started to turn round but for me, shed a new light on a lot of what we’d already seen. As a result, I spent most of the last week looking forward to last night’s Season Finale. Was it any good in the end? Well… There was one bit that felt a little flat (for me anyway) but on the whole, ‘Shadow and Flame’ not only hit every target that it aimed for, it left the target a smouldering pile of splinters on the floor… Yep, I enjoyed it ;o) As always, I’ll try and avoid spoilers, where possible, as not everyone has seen the episode yet. That means no recaps here. If you want one of those, well… Wikipedia is always a good bet a...

I can’t quite believe that there’s only the one episode left, after this, and then Season 2 will be over. Seriously, how can a season that sometimes felt like it was dragging interminably suddenly be one episode away from ending? I’m half joking ;o) On the whole, I’ve enjoyed ‘The Rings of Power’ but it has always come with a slight feeling that the actual story was suffering under the weight of trying to get all the main players into position for what seemed like another round of getting everyone into position. All I’ve ever really wanted was for ‘Rings of Power’ to be actually moving towards something and last week’s episode felt like that was finally happening. I’m really happy to say that this week’s episode carried on in that vein and has made the Season Finale something that I’m really looking forward to. As always, I’ll try not to be spoilery about the content of ‘Doomed to Die’, just in case you haven’t seen it yet. Lets just say that Adar and Sauron’s plans are about to come ...

This post is a little bit later than planned but I’ll be honest, that’s been a running theme for everything this week… ;o) I’m so glad that it’s finally the weekend, how about you? I finally got round to watching ‘Halls of Stone’ last night and really wanted to get my thoughts down before the weekend brushes them all away; especially as last week’s episode really made it look like the show was finally starting to build up a head of steam. That wasn’t the case this week but I think that was all for a very good reason… As always, no episode recaps here. If you’re after one of those then I would go and read the latest post over at Reactor Magazine , I am constantly in awe of how thoroughly they recap and cover each episode. Just quick thoughts here I’m afraid, that’s about all I have the energy for right now. And with that said, lets have a quick chat about ‘Halls of Stone’. I’ll be honest, in the early stages of ‘Halls of Stone’, I was ready to come on here and have a right old moan. ...

I've been house-sitting this weekend and one of the things I've been looking after is an absolutely massive TV; well, far bigger than my plucky little telly. What better time then to get stuck into the first three episodes of the new season of 'The Rings of Power'? Nope, me neither so that's exactly what I did yesterday. In a world where you either hate 'The Rings of Power' or will defend it to the death, I've tried to plant myself firmly in the middle. There was a lot that I didn't enjoy about Season 1 but at the same time, Amazon Prime hasn't killed Middle Earth or anything daft like that. It was a fun show, with potential, that had an unfortunate habit of being a little too verbose at times. Like someone had read 'The Silmarillion' and thought to themselves, ' that's how we tell our story...' ;o) Well, lets see if the show has moved on from that... I'm not going to recap the episodes, this post from Reactor Mag does th...

1. A Shadow of the Past 2. Adrift 3. Adar I've been sat on this post for a little while (well, it feels like it but it has only been a couple of weeks, anyway...), mostly because I wanted to sneak in once all the fuss had died down. Doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon though so I thought I may as well jump in with a post ;o) Before I do though, lets clear up a couple of things. What the heck is all the fuss about? I saw a Tweet today saying that Morfydd Clark doesn't look like a real elf, what? Is this really what we've come to (should a real woman look like a fictional creature, seriously?) or are people just trying to be provocative? Either way, it's pretty clear that a large chunk of the fandom needs to sit on the nearest naughty step and have a good think about their life choices... If my kids kick off, I remind them that their behaviour will lead to them having nice things taken away; seems like a few people could do with learning tha...

A quick post for today as I’ve got so much to do for work… Two things leave me absolutely cold when I'm reading; well... two things as far as this post goes anyway. Poetry and bloody Tom Bombadil... Poetry and I have never got on, possibly because it was something that I had to study at school, rather than discover for myself, and so maybe I haven't discovered the poetry for me? I don't know... Whatever the reason, I generally find poetry to be self indulgent wall paper that delights in showing off, how clever it is, instead of painting a scene or telling a story. I don't have time for that these days, give me something a bit more straightforward instead. And Tom Bombadil... I've never seen the point of Tom Bombadil, an unnecessary interlude in our Hobbit's journey. He is so disconnected from Middle Earth, and it's struggles, that I always end up wondering why he's there, I just want to get on with the good stuff. I'm not going to lie, it's...

I'll come out and admit it... I'm one of those people who have read 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' about as often as you'd expect but outside of those two books, ask me if I've read anything else by Tolkien and... ummm... yeah... I read 'The Silmarillion' once and that was once enough for me (a post for another time maybe) and I've got a vague memory of reading 'Farmer Giles of Ham' back in high school, that's it though. I'd heard of 'Leaf by Niggle' but never touched it until the other day when I found a copy looking all lost and lonely in the 'Cancer Research' shop. That was all the excuse I needed really and I ended up reading 'Leaf by Niggle' over the course of yesterday's lunch break. Let me tell you all about it... Niggle is a painter. Not a very successful one, partly because he has so many other things to do. For some time he has been obsessed with one particular canvas – a curio...

I'm at that point of the week where I'm about halfway through my latest read ('The Living Dead' by George Romero and Daniel Kraus) and there's nothing on Prime, or my DVD shelf, that I want to watch right now. So, how does a chap keep to a half-hearted promise to post something every day? Well, I was shifting bits of furniture around my flat the other day (easier than it sounds, my flat is tiny so all you have to do is give said furniture a little nudge and it's pretty much where you want it to be...) and I found 'The Characters of Tolkien' in a pile of books that were waiting to go back on a shelf. And that's what happens when you run out of things to post about, you come across an old favourite and post about that instead ;o) I loved 'The Hobbit', as a kid, but it was 'The Lord of the Rings' that really blew my mind and I spent a large chunk of my childhood just hanging out in Middle Earth and experiencing it in the way that only a...