Lord Samper's Library

It feels like I can't move an inch online without being bombarded by adverts for 'Creepshow' on Shudder. To be fair, that's not a bad thing; I was late to the movies but they're fun and I will probably check out the show at some point. Those clips of the disembodied head in the doll's house are really creepy... A little look over the Wikipedia page told me that, in the spirit of the movies, the new 'Creepshow' has adapted at least one Stephen King short story and it's a favourite of mine, 'Grey Matter'. As much as I love meandering through one of King's rambling epics, I think he does some of his best work in his short stories and tonight seemed like as good a time as any to dig out my old copy of 'Night Shift' and read through it again. 'He was Richie Grenadine's kid and he looked like he'd just kissed the wrong end of the baby. His Adam's apple was going up and down and his face was the color of old ...

Do you remember a while ago now when I was talking about my habit of picking up books in town, to read on the way home, and then promptly forgetting about them for years? Well, a lazy perusal of the shelves, last night, reminded me that I picked up ‘Part 1’ of ‘The Book of Swords’ a long time ago and… you know the rest. I’m making steady, although by no means spectacular, progress on my other reads so today was going to be a ‘Short Story Post’ day anyway, discovering this book pretty much sealed the deal. I’m feeling pretty low at the moment so figured a bit of swordplay would be just the thing to get me out of myself and perk me up a bit. As is the case with Daniel Abraham’s books, it didn’t work out quite the way I was hoping but I still ended up having a good read so… I’m ahead of the game. A thief has come to the Mocking Tower, to brave the might of the Imagi Vert and steal a very special sword… Or has he? I should have known really, the payoff is always worth it bu...

Because sometimes I need a little comfort reading and I like zombies in my comfort reading... Dude, that's a bit weird, I hear you say. Well, now I've got your attention, let me try and explain it a little better... Some people comfort read to escape from the stresses of their life and that's cool, I get it and sometimes I'll do just that. Because I'm a little contrary though, sometimes I'll pick up something horribly apocalyptic because what better way to feel better about your situation than to read about something far worse? And we all know that the best way to do that is to pick up a horror novel about zombies, don't we? Of course we do. The danger with this is that zombie novels can get a little repetitive, which is why I hit the 'buy' button the second I saw that Jeff Strand had written a novel about zombie animals. For a start, I don't think I've seen zombie animals in a book since Brian Keene's 'Rising' novels...

It's Monday and that means, at least for another few weeks, alliteration demands that I do another post on 'The Mandalorian'. It's also that time of the week where I've got to ask, you guys know what the 'Asset' is by now, don't you...? I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers, this is possibly the last place on the internet where there will be no 'Mandalorian' spoilers, but surely everyone knows by now? And if everyone does know, am I wasting my time assuming that there's at least one person reading this who doesn't want to know just yet? Sorry, rant over! I'll carry on as normal... ;o) The Mandalorian defeats a pursuing bounty hunter in a dogfight, but his ship is damaged and he lands at a repair facility on Tatooine . While seeking work to pay for the repairs in a local cantina, he meets a young bounty hunter looking to join the guild by capturing Fennec Shand , a well-trained mercenary. Despite having misgivings, the Ma...

Yep, one of the slightly more odd ways that I've opened one of these posts but bear with me... I'm not one for cooking, it makes me anxious for all sorts of reasons that you're really not that bothered about. Today though was different. It was a cheat's roast (the roast potatoes were frozen and the gravy was just 'add boiling water') but I don't care, I sorted the important bit (a nice bit of chicken) so it counts, at least as far as I'm concerned. I know it sounds silly but I'm feeling a little tiny bit proud of myself right now :o) But the books, the books... I've tried to be good about ordering books this week, in a 'they're not essential so I don't want someone putting themselves in harms way delivering my stuff' kind of way. It was Easter today though so that kind of went out of the window a little bit... Yes, I rediscovered my Kindle and treated myself to a couple of books :o) Do you want to see what they are...? ...

So you're probably wondering what happened to the 'Doctor Who' post for today. Or maybe you're not wondering that at all, maybe that's the worst thing about this blog for you, I don't know... ;o) Either way, the bottom line is that I'm running low on classic Doctor Who DVDs (I've got maybe two left...) and I don't know when I'll be able to get any more so I've got to make what I have last for a bit longer. What's a chap to do in the meantime though...? Well, I do watch other stuff :o) One of my favourite shows, of the last few years, has been 'The Strain' and last year I treated myself to the complete box set (only after a thorough search on eBay though, for some reason getting hold of 'The Strain' on DVD can be hellishly expensive). Now seemed like as a good a time as any to do a rewatch so that's what I've been up to these last few days. Well, for Season One anyway. There will be more posts to foll...

Where does the time go? It only feels like last week that I read and reviewed Volume One of 'Monstress' but a sneaky look on the blog told me that I did it way back in February . So much has happened since then... Anyway, you know by now that I really enjoyed Volume One and was keen to read the rest of the series. You'll also know by now that this blog is full of good intentions that are rarely followed up in good time. So... My copy of Volume Two has been languishing on one of my shelves for just over a month. When my broadband died yesterday though (killing off all hope of getting any work done) I thought I'd pick it up and have a read while I was waiting for EE to pick up the phone and sort me out. EE were really good by the way but that has absolutely nothing to do with this book... So lets have a post about 'Monstress Volume Two' then... Maika Halfwolf is on the run from a coalition of forces determined to control or destroy the powerful Mons...