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In that volume, British civilisation was overthrown by environmental 'Green Nazis' and a surprising man defeated them to become king...flamboyant rock star Ax Preston aided by his lovers, Sage Pender - the infamous music programmer Aoxomoxoa - and folk singer Fiorinda.

In the second novel in the series, 'Castles Made Of Sand', the trio rallied together to defeat Fiorinda's father, a twisted mage in the body of an Irishman.

In 'Midnight Lamp', another title taken from a Jimi Hendrix song, Ax, Sage and Fiorinda are invited to Hollywood by the president of the United States, supposedly to make a film of their exploits during the British revolution.

But it turns out that the president needs them to help stop another super-powerful mage, a 'Fat Boy' amped up by government weapon research and brutal sacrifice. At least, I think that's what it was about.

There's a lot of backstory to this series, which is dragged into 'Midnight Lamp' a lot like excess baggage.

Having not read the previous parts of Ax's saga, I struggled to get into the setting for long periods at the beginning. There's a lot of meandering in the plot-line and none of it feels all that essential to the overall series, except the twist at the very end, which seems quite tacked-on, despite its importance.

That said, there's a lot of nice stuff here, too, and the quirky threesome's characters are explored expansively. Ax feels very much like the late Jimi Hendrix, a misunderstood genius given more respect than he thinks he deserves. Sage, recovering from near death is humble, and Zen and Fiorinda is the spark that ignites them when she goes missing half-way through the book.

The adventure through Hollywood, where 'virtuals' have replaced live-action movies, often throws up a cool idea or technique and the cameo appearance by an ancient Robert Redford is an inspired touch that made me laugh out loud. The timid AI car given to the characters by the movie studio is another deft touch.

Great ideas and neat passages dot this book liberally but the story skeleton behind it is sorely lacking. I got the feeling there was a good story in here but that still didn't help me know what was going on half the time. Jones spends the first half trying to help first time readers get into the characters and in doing so loses track of the story.

By the time the important events actually start, there's not enough time to fill it all in satisfactorily, leaving this as not much more than set-up for the next book in the series.

Tomas L. Martin