Lord Samper's Library

There's a lot of stress and anxiety happening right now (work and other things...) and something has got to give, at least for a little bit, just so I can get some sleep! As ever, the blog is the one (and only) thing that I can afford to drop for a bit, and I'm not enjoying it that much at the moment anyway, so that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take that break, definitely for a week but maybe for two or three; however long it takes to get my head straight. There's plenty here to read in the meantime so feel free to have a browse, that's what the blog is there for ;o) Me? I'm going to read some stuff and watch some stuff, try and find a little joy in it. See you on the other side ;o)

Only a couple of films to talk about today, mostly because work took up a larger chunk of the day, than normal, but also because I'm doing a spot of pet sitting while my ex-wife is away with my daughters. What's that? Oh yes, one cat and one rabbit; both of whom normally get on but they're both in heat right now and have decided to stay away from each other until all that dies down. Very sensible of them, the cat in particular learned lessons that no cat should ever have to learn... Anyway. Sorry, had to get that off my chest ;o) This post is meant to be about films so lets talk films! One 'first time viewing' and one 're-watch' coming up... 'Lord of Misrule' (2023) A priest begins a desperate search when her daughter goes missing during the village harvest festival. Secrets surface and lead to more questions about this seemingly perfect village, the answers lie within the black barn... Jim Reddy (definitely check out his blog if you haven't alr...

Page Count: Four Pages I found this story in L. Sprague De Camp’s ‘Swords & Sorcery’ collection, which I was lucky enough to pick up for a couple of quid in Halcyon Books. Given what copies of this book go for at the moment (I had a quick look and, damn…), your best chance of reading ‘Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller’ is to either find it in a Lord Dunsany collection or to click Here . Either way, it’s a ten minute read (if that). I’d never really thought of Lord Dunsany as a writer of ‘Sword & Sorcery’ so seeing this tale nestled cosily in a ‘Sword & Sorcery’ collection piqued my interest right away. And at only four pages long, I couldn’t really say no, not with a couple of longer books on the go as well. So… was ‘Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller’ a ‘Sword & Sorcery’ tale? And just how distressing was it? Let me tell you… When Thangobrind the jeweller heard the ominous cough, he turned at once upon that narrow way. A thief was he, of very high ...

Page Count: 298 Pages. If you’re after reading ‘The Lord of the End Times’ then you’ll need to find yourself a copy of ‘The End Times: Doom of the Old World’ collection. I missed the ‘End Times’ series, last time round, and those books are now very expensive to get hold of (although I was lucky enough to find a copy of ‘The Lords of the Dead’ collection at a decent price and promptly reviewed ‘The Fall of Altdorf’ ) so when Black Library (re)released ‘The End Times: Doom of the Old World’, I was all over it. Nothing against the other factions of the Old World but I’ve always been most interested in how the men of the Empire and Bretonnia fared against, well… everything else. So it was then that I skipped every other story and went straight to ‘The Lord of the End Times’ for a pivotal battle and what came next… As the dread armies of the Everchosen march unabated across the desolation of the Empire, the mighty lords of distant lands look to take advantage of the growing crisis. In Nagga...

I'm fully aware of how old this is going to make me sound but damn my arthritis was giving me some grief yesterday, today as well :o( I'm mostly quite lucky with it, it only pops in once or twice a year to say hello, but when it does turn up, damn it hurts... I did have vague plans for yesterday but they were all cancelled and replaced with painkillers and a comfort read instead. 'What comfort read was that?' I hear you ask ;o)  Well... 'Ladyhawke' of course.  I've already reviewed the film over Here  and because this was a comfort read (and my mind was never going to change on it), I'm enlisting the help of 'Past Me' who wrote a post, on the book, about ten(ish) years ago. Don't judge me, my arthritic knee hurts... ;o) If you want the original post, it's Here . I've made a couple of small changes, nothing that you'd notice though (I'm just being fussy). Here goes... Captain Etienne Navarre is a man on whose shoulders lie a cr...

Page Count: 162 Pages Life really isn’t about finishing as many books as you can but after the week I’ve had at work… It’s really nice to be able to finish something that I’ve started. I’m celebrating this one ;o) ‘The Great White Space’ has been sat on various TBR piles for far too long and after a couple of ‘Paperbacks from Hell’ that really hit the spot, I figured that it was time to finally sit down and see what ‘The Great White Space’ was all about. What I wasn’t expecting was to finish it as quickly as I did. Seriously… I was so into the plot that I even skipped my regular ‘nap on the bus home’ to get a few more pages read. That should tell you all you need to know but stick around for a little longer, I’m going to keep going ;o) Frederick Plowright, a well-known scientific photographer, is recruited by Professor Clark Ashton Scarsdale to accompany his research team in search of "The Great White Space," described in ancient and arcane texts as a portal leading to the ex...

  Page Count: 29 Pages. A short post today because I’ve got a hell of a lot on at work and… Well, the page count for ‘The Abyssal Edge’ is a big hint… When an archivist uncovers an unthinkable truth, he comes to the attention of the First Captain of the Night Lords, the dreaded ""Prince of Crows"" himself. Terrified yet enrapt, Ulatal listens as Sevatar tells him a tale that cannot exist in any Imperial archive. It is a tale from the world of Zoah, of the moment when Konrad Curze and Magnus the Red almost went to war... The plan was to have ‘The Abyssal Edge’ on hand for the commute into work but I had a couple of beers last night and an Aaron Dembski-Bowden short story felt like it would complement the drinks nicely. And… So it did. For someone who you’re led to believe had it all worked out, the Emperor of Mankind really wasn’t much of a father to his sons. While they all had a purpose to fulfil, they were ultimately too human to really get that job done,...