Lord Samper's Library

  Page Count: 126 Pages If you were to look up the word ‘prolific’ in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Adrian Tchaikovsky next to it, presumably of him writing a book. Now, that may not be quite true (although it has been a while since I looked up the word ‘prolific’ in the dictionary…) but there’s no doubt that Tchaikovsky is one of the harder working genre authors at the moment. His output is not to be sniffed at :o) It was a bit of a treat then to see Tchaikovsky carve out his own little spot in the Warhammer 40K universe but, as a fantasy fan first and foremost, it was even more of a treat to see him finally set foot in the Mortal Realms. Especially as I’ve always seen him as an author who is more than willing to deep dive into a Race/Species and really look at what makes them tick. And there isn’t that much to work with when it comes to Ogors, is there…? It took me a little while to get round to it (no surprises there…) but I finally read ‘On the Shoulders of Gian...

  It doesn’t happen often but, it happens. As much as I want to finish everything I read, it doesn’t happen every time. Well, most of the time it does but every so often… And I’ll tell you what happens even less often. You can normally count on me finishing a book if it’s a ‘Black Library’ book. This time round though… Here we are. As the Empire’s mighty armies clash against the rampaging hordes of evil, they leave in their wake the detritus of war, including the dead and the dying. Resourceful Angelika Fleischer ekes a living by looting the bloody battlefields, searching for the trinkets and gold carried by soldiers of all sides. But an encounter with the mysterious Kopf brothers leaves Angelika desperate to discover the dark truth behind their quest to find their missing brother before the sweeping tide of battle overtakes them all. What I love about the Warhammer Fantasy books set in the Old World is that you really feel like you’re there. The best writers here, get that setting...

  Page Count: 42 Pages I’ve had a good run, finishing full length novels, but I think it’s time to take a little breather and make this week all about short stories instead. I’m pushed for time at the moment, and I have plenty of anthologies to choose from. Lets see where the journey takes me. Well, the first stop is pretty obvious, not only because you’ve already read the title but also because ‘Warhammer’ has become a real ‘go to’ for me these days, the Old World most of all. I’ve travelled a fair way through the Old World but I’ve never made it to the outskirts of Mordheim, let alone behind its walls. That changed last night though with a tale of friendships lost and found, a horde of rat-men and possibly the best dog ever… Captain Heinrich Gogol is a man on a mission, a mission that will take him into the cursed heart of Mordheim to locate the Heart of Sigmar. The only problem is that the Skaven already have the Heart and they’re not interested in giving it up. And who is the m...

  Page Count: 406 Pages I told you that my ‘Horus Heresy’ reading is all over the place… While I’ve been reading the last book of ‘The Siege of Terra’, I’ve also been going back to the very beginning of the series for a little re-reading. Because as much as reading speculative fiction is about new adventures, it’s also about revisiting those old favourites. Go on, tell me that it isn’t ;o) Anyway… We’ve seen the seeds of Heresy sown , lets see them take root and grow… Far from Terra, the XVIth Legion continue in the Great Crusade as the 'Sons of Horus'. Putting the debacle with the Interex behind him, the Warmaster has become more withdrawn as he struggles to deal with the jealousy of his brother primarchs, and increasingly relies on the council of his advisors as he plans each new campaign. Noble captain Garviel Loken harbors misgivings about the clandestine ways adopted by many of his brethren, but when the Legion is sent to reconquer the moon of Davin, it is clear that Horus...

  Page Count: 348 Pages There is nothing quite like starting the week off with some ‘Age of Sigmar’ cover art; it’s almost the equivalent of a strong coffee, just when you need it (and I think I’m going to need that today). Anyway… :o) Since I’ve been blogging here, I’ve been lucky enough to read a few of Evan Dicken’s ‘Age of Sigmar’ short stories (links at the bottom of the post) and my thought has always been that I’d love to see how Dicken did with a whole novels worth of story to play with. Well, it turns out I blinked and now I’ve got a few to choose from :o) I went for ‘Lioness of the Parch’ as while I have nothing against any of the factions in the setting, I do have a bit of a soft spot for the regular humans just doing their best to make it through, no matter what side they stand on. And that’s what I read over the weekend :o) Let me tell you about it... Rogue. Mercenary. Champion. Tahlia Vedra is all these things and more. But overcoming the new threat facing Hammerhal ...

  Page Count: 244 Pages (give or take a page or two, I read it in the ‘First Omnibus’ and my maths is never entirely trustworthy) I went through a phase of collecting the ‘Gotrek and Felix’ novels, a few years ago, and then, true to form, I popped a large number of them on the shelf and never picked them up. I can tell you’re surprised ;o) Well, Christmas is looming, and that is traditionally the time of relatively easy-going comfort reads, so I thought I’d dig out those books and add them into what currently passes for my TBR pile (lets just say that it’s in a constant state of flux…) I’ll read the first three in order, I have the ‘First Omnibus’ edition, and after that, it will go by the books that I was able to collect. Lets see how it goes :o) On that note, lets talk a little about ‘Trollslayer’… Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between and depends entirely upon who you ask… Afte...

  A little bit of a 'cheats post' today as I had my oldest daughter over last night, to watch 'Stranger Things', and today I've got my youngest daughter for a chunk of the morning... until my oldest joins us. The bare minimum of reading happened last night; I'd be very surprised if any reading at all happened today. We shall see... So that's why you have a 'recycled' review today (just to give me a chance to breathe) and just also so I don't come across too much like the 'Laziest of Bloggers'. I also like bringing old posts out of retirement and giving books a last shot at centre stage. You can see the original post Here but to be honest, I've left it more or less unchanged here so, it's up to you which one you read ;o) And that's enough of that, lets head back to the Old World and see what kicked things off for Archaon... In the north of the world the forces of Chaos gather, awaiting their moment to strike. At their head is ...

  Page Count: 665 Pages It took me a little (okay, a lot) longer than I’d planned but I’ve now got ‘The End and the Death: Volume 1’ under my belt and I’m ready to keep going with the next two. Well, maybe I’ll read something else first… This book was one heck of a slog to get through but if you’ve made it this far in the series, there’s no way that you’re jumping ship now, not three books from the end of the whole thing. You knew what you were getting into ;o) And yep, I’m still reading ‘The Siege of Terra’ out of order; I’m going for the ‘time has stopped and reality is breaking down’ reading order, that’s my excuse anyway ;o) I’ll get to the others at some point. There is no way out. The walls have fallen, the gates are breached, and the defenders are slain. It is the end and the death. After seven brutal years of civil war, the Warmaster stands on the verge of victory. Horus Lupercal, once beloved son, has come to murder his father. The Emperor, a shining beacon of hope to ma...

  Page Count: 293 Pages Now here’s a book that I would have read sooner (a lot sooner) but thanks to Amazon, I thought it was ‘ebook only’ and, apart from Warhammer/Conan short stories, I’m very much a paperback person. Sometimes hardbacks as well ;o) Then a month or so ago, I was browsing Wayland Games and came across ‘Callis & Toll’, along with a couple of other books, in paperback. I don’t need telling twice, One order later and I had my own copy to add to the teetering TBR towers in my living room. It has taken me a little while to get round to reading ‘Callis & Toll’ (plus a little longer to actually read it) but I got there in the end and here we are, lets have a quick chat about it. Cinderfall district, Hammerhal Aqsha. The Twin-Tailed City belches fire day and night, smoke chokes the skies, and ash lines the streets like so much filthy snow. Life is brutal in Cinderfall – crime is rife, and death is cheap. But even here, the ritualistic murder of a supremely powerfu...

Back to work tomorrow and right now, I'm not sure if I'm really dreading it or just dreading it at the normal level I would dread a looming Monday... Either way, dread is in the air so while I try and deal with that (possibly by reading but my kids might be over so Playstation is also a possibility), I thought I'd round off the weekend with the final post for C.L. Werner's 'Black Plague' trilogy; part of the old 'Time of Legends' series from Black Library. And yes, I am swiping another old post from an older blog, fingers crossed normal service should resume tomorrow. Anyway... The original review can be found Here but all the important stuff is below. Have a nice Sunday ;o)  It’s always a funny feeling to finish a series isn’t it? Something that you’ve invested a lot of your time in is suddenly gone and you’re left thinking, ‘oh, what now?’ There’s also that wrench where you have to leave that fictional setting for the last time (I know you can re-read...

I am swiping old reviews, from older blogs, left, right and centre at the moment; not the content I really want to be posting but needs must and all that :o) Like I said yesterday, it's been a busy week and my reading time took a hammering as a result. The plan is to try and claw back a little time, over this weekend, and catch up with some reading; we'll see how that goes... In the meantime then. I thought now would be a good time to continue posting about C.L. Werner's 'Black Plague' trilogy. Well. borrowing old posts but... You know what I mean ;o) The original review can be found over Here ; all the relevant bits (i.e. me not going off on tangent for no good reason) can be found below. Have a great weekend! The Black Plague spreads across the Empire, followed by a tide of monsters from legend: the skaven. In Altdorf, Emperor Boris’s troops valiantly hold off the ratmen while the corrupt Emperor escapes to safety. In Middenheim, Graf Gunthar and his son Mandred d...

It has been a great few days off work but next Monday has appeared on the horizon and my thoughts are starting to turn in that direction. Oh well, just a couple of weeks and I'll be headed into another weeks worth of leave; and that's the great thing about having daughters who are off school for the summer ;o) A great few days, with my girls, then but as ever, my reading has taken a hit and I'm horribly behind all over again. With other stuff going on, my energy has gone on my girls and I haven't been good for much come the end of the day. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to catch up over the weekend. In the meantime then, I thought I'd start drawing a little attention to the old 'Warhammer' fantasy books that the Black Library seem perfectly happy to let slide out of print and into the realm of obscenely priced second hand books. Which is ok if you have these books in your collection but not so great if you don't. No worries, both 'past' and ...

  I was up against it yesterday (just work this time) so I thought I’d have a little ‘Horus Heresy’ happening in my ears, just to take the edge off everything else ;o) And it worked, to a degree, it turns out that I work better with music in the background rather than an audiobook… Oh well, I’ll know better for next time ;o) I’ve been getting into John French’s ‘Horus Heresy’ work, for a little while now, so when I saw ‘Dark Compliance’ was there to spend my free Audible credit on, it wasn’t a hard choice to make. Let me tell you about it... For more than 200 years, the armies of the Emperor of Mankind fought to reconquer the galaxy - led by the superhuman primarchs, the Space Marine Legions brought countless worlds back under the rule of ancient Terra. Now Horus, once honoured Warmaster and favoured son of the Emperor, has been corrupted by the whispered promises of Chaos. At his command the Imperium is torn apart by a terrible and bloody civil war, the likes of which the galaxy...

Just a fairly quick post today… I took yesterday as leave and although I got stuff done, I would have had a quieter day if I’d stayed in the office. Today is looking like a busy one too. Oh well, just a few more hours and then it’s the weekend :o) So not a lot of reading happened yesterday but I did take a little time out, in the evening, to sit and listen to a Black Library audiobook that I’d kept to one side, just for this sort of situation. In the real world, the ‘Horus Heresy’ series is done and dusted; even the ‘Siege of Terra’ series has more or less concluded now. My reading is all over the place though, jumping backwards and forwards over the timeline as the fancy takes me, and this time round, we’re looking at a pivotal event taking place within the Imperial Palace while the galaxy burns… Even as the Imperium faces the renegade Legions of the Warmaster, the ruling Council of Terra is becoming paralysed from within by increasingly petty bureaucracy. Fabricator General Kane has ...

I actually managed to finish Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Illustrated Man’ last night (look at me, finishing books that I’ve bought) but there was a lot to wrap my head around there, and there was no way I was going to get all that in a post last night, so… I thought I’d clear my head a little with a couple of Black Library short stories that I found on my Kindle. One exercise in filling in the gaps in the ‘Horus Heresy’ and a ‘Warhammer Horror’ tale that, erm… wasn’t, not from where I was sat anyway. That sounds a little more harsh than was meant. These weren’t particularly bad tales, they just don’t rank highly amongst those that I’ve enjoyed. Still, not a bad way to round off an evening. Here goes… ‘ Massacre’ (Aaron Dembski-Bowden) Shunned by the rest of the Legions after the destruction of their home world, the Night Lords have fought without their disgraced primarch Konrad Curze for many years. But now the self-proclaimed ‘Night Haunter’ has returned and will lead them to the backwater ...

I thought I’d already posted about this book but… apparently not. I couldn’t tell you exactly when but I have read ‘Riders of the Dead’ (since I bought my copy a couple of years ago ), it just looks like once again, life got in the way and before I knew it, I’ve just come across my copy and thought ‘damn, I owe the blog a post’… So, I’ve taken the long way round (again) but here we are :o) Regular visitors to the blog will know that I’ve got a real soft spot for the Old World setting and also, I firmly believe that Dan Abnett is incapable of writing a bad book. So, an Old World book written by Dan Abnett is pretty much the perfect storm. Well, it should be… I’m messing with you ;o) ‘Riders of the Dead’ was a great read. It’s going to be a shorter post than normal (it has been a while since I read the book and there’s so much to catch up with at work…) but let me tell you about it. In the Chaos-infested wastes, the strongest of friendships can easily be manipulated into the deadliest of...

Page Count: 228 Pages When I’m not buying more books (look, its been a rotten month and a bit…), I’m trying to work my way through the books that have been on my shelves for, well… Long enough that I’d completely forgotten how they ended up on said shelves in the first place. ‘Konrad’ was definitely one of those books but it could have been worse; it was only sat on the shelf for around three years (give or take a little bit) before I finally got round to picking it up. And… It wasn’t bad but I’ve definitely read better ‘Warhammer Fantasy’ novels. And I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a bit of a victim of the approach it chose to take. Let me see if I can explain… His past lost...His future uncertain...Konrad must face his destiny alone. Orphaned at an early age, Konrad's tempestuous life is further upheaved when his adoptive village is destroyed by the vile bestial servants of Chaos, leaving him cast adrift in a world of danger and adventure. Alone and hunted, the fierce young ...

I haven’t been getting a lot of reading done, just recently, but I have got a couple more audiobooks under my belt so all is not lost yet :o) I really enjoy Black Library’s output here so it’s no surprise then that one of those listens was in the universe of the far future whilst the other was a welcome return to the Old World. Let me tell you about them… Quick thoughts though, yesterday was a tough one and I’m still regrouping. Enough of that though, lets talk audiobooks :o) ‘Perpetual (The Horus Heresy)’ – Dan Abnett Run Time: 26 Minutes Oll Persson stands apart from the rest of mankind. He is one of the old ones, one of the undying. One of the Perpetuals., Now, fleeing from the ruins of Calth with his band of fellow refugees, the vagaries of the warp have brought him through the backways of time and space to a city that rests on the edge of oblivion...and no further. The path has ended abruptly, and Oll's enemies are finally closing in. Will his immortality be enough to s...

  Page Count: 14 Pages 'The Sleep of the Dead' can be found in the 'Tales of the Old World' collection but... You'd probably already figured that out. I have started this post with a pretty big clue ;o) Anyway... All my good intentions, of reading loads over the weekend, met a poor end when, well... If I wasn't asleep, I just couldn't focus on whatever was in front of me. It happens, hopefully things will pick up over the rest of the week. I really wanted the first post of the week to be about something I'd actually read though and I'd been meaning to get back into 'Tales of the Old World' so that's just what I did. Whatever Warhammer setting he's writing in, Darius Hinks is always a good bet for a tale well told so 'The Sleep of the Dead' pretty much chose itself. Let me tell you about it... ;o) The drawing room of Count Rothenburg has seen many tall tales told, the tale of Gustav Insel may be the only one that actually happe...