Lord Samper's Library

It's that time of the month where my bank account starts to look really sorry for itself and I'm counting down the days until payday (this Friday, you won't be surprised to learn that I'm really looking forward to it). Book hunting never stops though, not even at the wrong end of the month. I just have to be a little creative about where I look is all :o) I generally can't pass a charity shop without looking in it and there is always a bargain or two to be had. Sometimes, someone else will go looking for books for me (which was unexpected but very welcome). Let me show you what came my way this week...  Normally, it's just me on the hunt for books and, well... That's just the way it should be really. But sometimes... My ex-partner, and the kids, were in Plymouth (for half term) and I got a video call asking if I fancied any books from a box of books outside a shop on the Barbican. I'm looking for new reads, that I wouldn't normally read, more and mor...

 It's been a bit of a shitty day and I need a hero... Oh look! Here's one... ;o) I was a bit too old for 'He-Man', back in the day, but it didn't stop me watching it though. As for these days... It's got Mark Hamill as Skeletor (albeit sounding a bit like the Joker...), I'll be watching it whether I'm too old or not :o)

It hasn't been the best week for my mental health (nothing major, just loads of little things all ganging up together...) so I figured it was time to put down the books I was trying to read and have a crack at something a little easier on the brain instead. More often than not that means reading some Guy N. Smith; a bit of pulp horror keeps my reading ticking over and I don't have to think too hard about what I'm reading. Can't ask for more than that sometimes... ;o) Given my mental health was affecting my reading, it was more than a little ironic that 'Mania' was my choice of horror read. It did help me realise where some of my limits are though. While the forces of nature create a white hell outside, a satanic force from beyond the grave is at work inside … Into this world step three unwitting travellers, driven by the blizzard to seek refuge at a country house hotel. A hotel where the guests live in a diabolical world of lunacy and madness, where demented cr...

Nothing against 'WandaVision ' or 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' , both were brilliant shows for totally different reasons, but 'Loki' is the show that I had in mind when I first took out a Disney+ subscription. Not only do I have a little bit (okay, maybe a lot) of a 'man crush' on the god of mischief but this show looked like it promised a bit of a 're-set' for the character and with mention of a 'Time Variance Authority', it looked like we might get a little more multiverse ahead of whenever the next 'Doctor Strange' movie comes out. I have no idea, by the way, and I really feel like I should... Did I wait patiently? Not really but anyway... We got here in the end and here we are. I know it aired yesterday but let's talk about 'Glorious Purpose'... Following the events of 'Endgame', Loki is on the loose again... for all of about five minutes before agents of the 'Time Variance Authority' (...

It's just occurred to me that while I've had a few copies of this book over the years (and read it more than a few times...); I've never had, read or even seen a copy of the book that comes before it, 'Ghost King'. Finding a copy isn't strictly necessary, for reasons I'll go into shortly, but I rather think I'll have to now. Wait until I get paid (in about a week and a half...) You know what it's like, you have a couple of books on the go but you're not feeling it and want to go back to something a little more familiar and comfortable. I had a funny feeling that this month might be like that so I put 'Lost Sword of Power' in the 'June TBR Pile', just on the off chance. My suspicions were correct and the last couple of days were spent reading 'Last Sword of Power'. Lets take a look at it, shall we? The soul of Uther Pendragon is chained in hell. The sword of power is lost in swirling chaos. The realm is under threat from ...

I’m not going to bang on too much about reading ‘Scream’ as a kid, I did that over here so there’s no need to go into it again ;o) One of the stories, in the comic, that really freaked me out though was the ‘The Dracula File’ and it’s antagonist (the clue is in the name of the story…) who literally could not be killed and would drain you of blood while you were trying to figure out what to do next. When I realised that ‘The Dracula File’ had been collected into a single book, by Rebellion, I knew that I had to have some of that and although it took me a while, I grabbed a copy in the end. It took me a little longer to actually read it (there are too many piles of books, in my flat, and it got lost in one of them…) I’ve finally read it though and am here to tell you about it. This will be a shorter post than normal but you’ll get why as we go on… Fleeing vampire hunters from behind the Iron Curtain, Count Dracula returns to Great Britain with an unquenchable thirst for blood! Unable ...

It doesn't take a lot to convince me to check a film out, usually just the title will do. If it has 'zombies' or 'of the dead' in the title then it's a safe bet I'll be watching it (if I haven't already) but it doesn't have to. Anything that's just a little bit mad and comes across as not really caring what it calls itself, that will get my attention every time. A film called something like 'Psycho Goreman' for instance... A title that promises exactly what it says it is. I didn't even bother checking out what it was about, just got on with the serious business of watching it. And then I got on with the even more serious business of watching it again because I can't remember having so much fun with a movie in a long time :o) The alien Arch-Duke of Nightmares was the scourge of the universe until an alliance, led by the Templars, removed the source of his powers and imprisoned him on a distant world where his allies would never fi...