Lord Samper's Library

  I’ll be honest, I have no idea how ‘Cimmerian September’ works… Is it REH stories only or does any tale, featuring Conan, count regardless of author? And am I putting far too much thought into something that is only meant to be a bit of fun? The answer to the second question is, more than likely, yes ;o) As ever on this blog, I will tackle things in my own way. I’ll find time for some original REH ‘Conan’ tales, later this month, but for now, lets kick things off with the latest ‘Conan the Barbarian’ trade from Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures. Jim Zub has done a superb job of adapting REH’s work while filling in the gaps with original pieces; lets see how he fares in ‘Twisting Loyalties’. Conan the Cimmerian and Bêlit, Pirate Queen of the Black Coast, are in their prime, enjoying a life of decadence and debauchery, but a flagrant flash of wealth brings unwelcome attention from thieves with a taste for danger and agents from Stygia on a dark mission for their serpent god! In ...

  Please excuse the ‘slightly shorter than normal’ post. Not only is it my first day back in the office, after a week off (spoiler alert, I’m not enjoying it…), I’m also coming off the back of a weekend that involved a lot of watching ‘The Walking Dead’, with my eldest daughter, and not a lot of reading at all. Despite all my best ‘reading intentions’, that’s the way it went and I’ve got no regrets :o) I did manage to get a little reading done though, just a little… We were in Forbidden Planet the other day and while the girls were off looking for Manga, I pored over the shelves and found a lonely looking copy of ‘Conan the Barbarian #22’. I wasn’t expecting to find a copy quite so soon, after enjoying ‘Conan #21’ , but there it was so I made sure that it came home with me. Lets talk about it a bit… The cage may be beautifully gilded but Conan is still a slave and his barbarian soul chafes under this imprisonment. Conan is patient though and knows that if he bides his time, a cha...

It really is the wrong end of the week for me to try and get ‘creative’ with post titles but… Here I am :o) I really should make a decision and stick with either collecting trades or single issues but every time I find myself in Forbidden Planet, I end up walking out with whatever ‘Conan the Barbarian’ comic happens to be on the shelf. Last week’s ‘Forbidden Planet Trip’ saw me leave with two comics; ‘Conan the Barbarian’ #21 and ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’ #9. I’ve had a bit of a nightmare getting into the first ‘Savage Sword’ collection, no idea why but I didn’t want to miss out so I thought I’d see how I got on with what looked like a fairly self contained single issue. Let me tell you what I thought, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ first… ‘Conan the Barbarian #21’ – Zub, Dagnino, Rodriguez (Titan/Heroic Signatures) Fresh from an eldritch confrontation in the Vale of Lost Women, Conan and his companions chance upon something far stranger, a Stygian village where the inhabitants are overjoyed...

  Page Count: 179 Pages It has been a rough couple of months, for reasons that I’ve touched upon (in a recent post) and a few that I’ve deliberately left unsaid; because books are far more interesting to people who stop by here (and that’s the way it should be). That’s the main reason it has taken me a while to get round to books that I really should have picked up a lot earlier. That and the fact that it’s far too easy to distract me at the moment, another book usually does the trick ;o) I’ve had a hankering for a little Sword & Sorcery, just recently, and I’ll never say no to a book with zombies in it. It seemed like the best thing to do then was combine the two and read Brian Keene’s latest foray into zombie fiction, with an added ‘Fantasy Twist’. Or is that the other way round? Either way, I’m glad I finally got round to reading ‘Island of the Dead’. Einar, an enslaved barbarian, plots his escape from a war galley transporting troops and a mysterious weapon to far enemy sho...

‘The Stronger Spell’ was first published in the November 1953 edition of ‘Fantasy Fiction’ and also appeared as part of the ‘Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales’ collection, also published in 1953 (thanks for the save Wikipedia, appreciate it). I found it in my copy of ‘The Mighty Barbarians’ collection, a book that had been sat on my shelf (without being read) for far too long. Last night, I thought I’d finally do something about that and read something by L. Sprague de Camp that wasn’t a ‘Conan’ book… After ‘singer of sweet songs’ Suar Peial rescues the druid Gleokh from a murderous affray, the two celebrate the latter's deliverance in a local tavern. Gleokh holds forth on his revolutionary new weapon, an experimental gun, but by the end of the evening, Peial and his friends will learn that even the concept of a gun is dangerous; especially when they are sharing a tavern table with a wizard… ‘Tavern conversation’ isn’t something I normally look for in my fantasy reading but...

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...

It’s starting to look like this could be the week where I make a half decent dent in my ‘Comics TBR Pile’, lets see how we do... I’ve really been struggling with the ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ collection just recently (more than one reason but I want to finish the collection first before I talk about it) and I thought that I’d have to take a little step back from ‘Conan’ comics and come back when I was in a better mood for it. Until I realized that there was another ‘Conan’ comic lurking in the TBR pile and maybe I could give that a go instead. So that’s what I did. I’ve caught little glimpses of the ‘Black Stone’ storyline, in other ‘Conan’ comics, but I can’t help but feel that the event has kind of passed me by a little. That’s on me though to be fair, I’ve got the attention span of a goldfish right now and there are so many books that I just haven’t been able to focus on; I suspect a couple of them talk about a Black Stone… Oh well, I’m here now. Where better a place to catch up on ‘B...

Short posts this week I’m afraid… I’ve done my round of being ‘on call’ but it’s the Easter Holidays for my girls so I’ve been off doing stuff with them, and very nice it has been too :o) I’ll be honest, there has been a lot of browsing in bookshops… and then buying books while we were there. I can’t think of a better way to spend a week off work :o) But anyway… We were in Forbidden Planet, the other day, and that’s where I saw this copy of ‘Conan the Barbarian #19’ and picked it up. I’m collecting the trades but am always partial to a single issue when I see them. I knew what this week was going to be like so took the opportunity to grab a quick read. And… In the days following Bêlit’s tragic demise, Conan travels through jungles of the southern kingdoms but there’s no time for grief – a deadly hunter stalks the Cimmerian, bent on bloody vengeance. Who is this strange foe and what do they know about the ancient power rising in Stygia? There’s something in the jungle to be faced down ...

After leaving Cimmeria filled with wanderlust, a young Conan heads north in search of glory. What he finds in that cold climate will change his outlook forever, setting him on the path that will make him a legend. It’s taken me a little longer than planned to pick this book up (blame ‘Into the Narrowdark’ but in a good way, that book absolutely grabbed my attention) but I’m thoroughly enjoying Zub’s ‘Conan’ so reading ‘Frozen Faith’ was always going to be a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. And at the risk of repeating myself. It was well worth the read. I’m definitely repeating myself but at this point, I don’t care :o) ‘Conan’ really is in the best of hands with Jim Zub who instinctively gets the character, both in terms of adapting Howard’s stories and in letting Conan search out further new adventures. And Doug Braithwaite’s artwork continues to be just superb, really capturing the essence of Conan himself as well as the wider world that he strides through. I’ll be honest… I’ve go...

I’m on call today so am making the most of it (I can’t be too far away from my work laptop and wi-fi connection) by staying indoors, even though it’s lovely outside, and trying to catch up on some reading. Okay, catching up on some telly as well :o) Who knows, today may even be the day when I finish ‘Into the Narrowdark’ but for now, lets talk a little bit about ‘Conan the Barbarian #18’ which I picked up during a brief stop in Forbidden Planet the other day. I’m still very much about collecting the trades (try as I might, I always forget to pick up single issues) but I needed some reading for the train home so, here we are :o) On the road of Kings… While resupplying in the Shemite coastal city of Kyros, Conan of Cimmeria and Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast, sought refuge and respite at an inn known as the Hidden Haven. There, the duo indulged in drink and nostalgia, recalling their charged first meeting before retiring to the privacy of their room. But their presence was noted by a ...

A quick post to kick off the week :o) If you were reading the blog in November last year, you’d have seen me say that ‘The Age Unconquered’ was a book that I’d be reading while I got over my surgery. Well, it took a little longer than expected (nothing to do with the book, more with my not being in any fit state to concentrate on reading anything…) but I got there in the end. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Jim Zub’s take on ‘Conan’ and given how ‘Thrice Marked For Death’ ended, I was really keen to see where it went next. Not going to give the game away but there are some things even Conan can’t come back from, aren’t there…? Of course there aren’t, this is Conan we’re talking about ;o) Sent back in time to the Thurian Age, Conan battles terrifying creatures and meets Kull the Conqueror, a barbarian-king as strong as himself. Although these two legends begin at odds, they quickly realize they must quest together to stop the dark machinations of Thulsa Doom, an ancient necromancer wh...

When I was in Forbidden Planet the other day, spending some of my hard earned bonus, I saw some 'Conan' comics on the shelves and thought I'd pick them up. No 'Elric' this time, I was too late or too early, not sure which... Either way, waiting for the trade now ;o) Anyway, three 'Conan' comics is more than enough to be going on with and last night, I finally got the chance to sit down and read them, Quick thoughts follow below (you're going to hear that a lot this week, I just want it to be the weekend already...) 'Conan: Battle of the Black Stone' - Zub, Scharf, Canola (Titan Comics) So, all that early talk of a Black Stone has expanded into a broader tale, taking in other characters from Robert E. Howard's writings (I really want to call it the 'Howard-verse' but I'm not going to...) I have a passing awareness of these other characters (I really need to read more of Howard's short stories) so it was good not only to see the...

If I’d got my act together, this would have been the final entry for #CimmerianSeptember but, well… I clearly didn’t :o) Last month was crazy (again) and something had to give. I wasn’t that far off though! If you squint your eyes and think really hard… You can still pretend it’s September? Nope, forget all that, lets talk some Conan. I read ‘Bound in Black Stone’ back in February, this year , and the final two sentences of my review read, You won’t see me collecting single issues but I will definitely be around for the next trade. Conan is in safe hands here and I’m excited to see where his story goes next. Reader, I’m back on the single issues (couldn’t help myself) but I’m still just as excited as I was about where Conan is headed under Jim Zub, probably even more excited now that I’ve read ‘Thrice Marked for Death’, here’s the blurb… Now 27 and mourning the death of his beloved Bêlit, when Conan is approached by the Thieves Guild to act as muscle for a heist in Shadizar they’re p...

‘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...

Page Count: 20 Pages I didn’t realize this until the other but September isn’t just the month of my birthday… Nope. Presumably for alliterative purposes (but also to celebrate great stories), September is also the month where fans celebrate ‘Cimmerian September’ by either reading Howard’s original tales or the pastiche novels and comics that continue the tales of that most famous barbarian. Or both, you don’t have to read one or the other ;o) I thought I’d get involved this year so you can absolutely expect to see a little more Conan here before the month is out. L.Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter helped keep Conan’s tales alive, either by completing some of Howard’s unfinished tales or by filling in gaps, in the timeline, with stories entirely their own. Again, I’m no scholar of Robert E. Howard but his name is next to the title so I’m assuming that ‘The Bloodstained God’ was taken on and completed by De Camp. I found this tale in an old copy of ‘Conan of Cimmeria’; I’m not sure where e...

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...

Page Count: 218 Pages It took me a little while to get round to it but I did say I’d read it and… Here we are :o) I’m not a hundred percent certain (near as dammit though) but I think this was the first ‘Conan’ story I ever read, way back in the days of family caravanning holidays and markets where what was left of your pocket money could get you a book like… Well, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ ;o) I lost my original copy years ago, replaced it via eBay and then bought this copy because… Frankly, the size of the font is a lot easier on my eyes. Maybe I should start using my Kindle more… Anyway :o) Lets talk about ‘Conan the Barbarian’. The official adaptation of CONAN THE BARBARIAN, the seminal film written by John Milius and Oliver Stone, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones. In the novel by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, the Cimmerian youth Conan witnesses the death of his parents at the hands of Thulsa Doom, a priest of Set. Enslaved, he is trained as a gladiator. Gaining...

I think I've done pretty well to get through this week, mixing work and blogging, but work has finally got the better of me... Oh well, it's a good job that I'm on leave next week isn't it? ;o) To cut myself a little slack then (something I'm trying to do a little more of here), I've enlisted the aid of my past self who very kindly agreed to let me use a review from an older blog today, just while I catch up with myself here. A little bit of 'Arabian Nights Sword & Sorcery' then ;o) The full review can be found over Here , all the important follow below... THE CHRONICLE OF SWORD & SAND: Baghdad, AD 790. Caliph Harun al-Rashid presides over the greatest metropolis on Earth, ruler of an empire that stretches from China to Byzantium. His exploits will be recorded in Alf Layla or, as we know it, The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. But The Thousand and One Nights are silent on the deeds and adventures that befell two of the Caliph's subjects:...

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...

  Page Count: 453 Pages. It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote a book post so I’m a little rusty right now, bear with me and I’ll try and get back up to speed ;o) I really need to stop buying hardbacks unless I’m absolutely certain that I’m going to read them. I’ve had a hardback copy of ‘Blood of the Serpent’ sat on a shelf for far too long so I thought I’d see what happened if I had a paperback copy in front of me (more money than sense, I know…) What happened? ‘Blood of the Serpent’ wasn’t a ‘one sitting read’ but I polished it off in fairly short order. For all the fun that I had though, I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced. Let me try and explain a little better… As sword for hire for a mercenary troop, Conan finds himself in Sukhmet, a filthy backwater town south of the River Styx considered “the arse-end of Stygia.” Serving in the company known as Zarallo’s Free Companions, he fights alongside soldiers of fortune from Zingara, Koth, Shem, and other lands―a hard-handed ...