I read a lot, (yes I know this doesn’t come as a shock to anyone). I also tend to have more than one book on the go at any given time. There is a system, there has to be a system because if there weren’t, I would probably lose track of what I am reading at any given point very quickly. But also it is a system that is enforced by technology, to an extent. That and my desire as an insomniac not to make matters worse with late night blue light pollution…

The system is this, there is always a book being read on my old kindle that sits in my drawer at work. For those times I have to do jobs that involve a lot of waiting around with nothing productive I could be doing. This is the Kindle book.

Then there is the book on my new Kindle, that sits next to the sofa at home for those chill on the sofa and read hours. This is the Other Kindle book…

Then there is the book on my phone kindle app that is for reading, well where ever and whenever I have a bit of time to kill, it tends to be lighter reading as I dip in and out of it a lot. This is the Other Other Kindle book…

And yes, before you ask I know my three Kindle devices ( not including the pc, the big tablet and oh whatever other devices I can find, all will sync and find my page for anything I was reading on the others but it sort of makes sense at times to keep them separate. I read each in different ways…)

Then there are books, lovely old fashioned, never go out of date because they are sharks, books. (and don’t blame me for the shark’s thing, that’s what Douglas Adams calls them, and you don’t argue with a Douglas Adams analogy…) I tend to pile them high on the nightstand, and I could be reading one, or several at once, they end up all over the house as well, but when they are being read actively, they tend to live mostly on the bedside table. I read in bed a lot, it’s my way to chill down, but blue light is bad for people with normal sleep patterns, and all devices kick out lots of blue light. I don’t have a normal sleep pattern, the very last thing I should ever do is read a device in bed and flood myself with blue light. That’s a night without sleep right there…

So, lots of devices, lots of paper, and lost of different books on the go at any given time. And its good, its great in fact, juggling all these books, these different idea’s, different worlds, different concepts, fiction, none fiction, weird stuff, smart stuff,  you name it I am probably reading it at some point in some way, some time.

It is rare that any book crosses these frontiers, very rare for them to cross several frontiers and with a few exceptions almost unheard of for them to cross into the night time reading. As I am perfectly serious about blue light pollution and the effect, late night blue light has on my already torrid ability to sleep. In fact, aside from the habits of a lifetime, one of the reasons I also have an hour or so to read when I hit the sack is the effect of all the blue light I routinely dose myself with the rest of the time. I can’t sleep after a night on the PC writing, or gaming or whatever, and the tv is no better for blue light. Pick up a shark and read for a while and let it all ease away, the best solution I know of… So the kindles never get in the bedroom…

But there are exceptions to every rule and last week after I finished ‘The Adventures of Alan Shaw’ by Craig Hallam and posted a review, I bought the sequel. ‘Old Haunt’s’. Originally I planned it to be the ‘Other Other Kindle book’ and to read it on the sofa with a pot of tea and some nice biscuits… But as with the first in the series ‘Old haunts’ swiftly crossed between devices. It got read on all of them, at work, at home, on the park bench, on other sofa’s, in the queue at the post office… because it was just too damn good to put down, and I wanted to know what happened next… then it did the unthinkable and crossed the threshold of the bedroom door and damn the blue light to hell… Which is, as I said, a rare thing indeed. As reviews go, ‘it was so good I read it in bed’  may seem a little light. Indeed it may appear scant recommendation. But it was, it is, and even if you have not read the first novel, you should read the second ( but seriously read the first one first.)

I don’t normally review two books by the same author so close together. Hell, I am supposed to try and sell my own books, not other peoples… But having finished Old Haunts so quickly after the first book I don’t see much point in not reviewing it right now… So here goes…

Old Haunts, It’s just as pulpy in all the best ways as the first Alan Shaw novel. It is also just as much unpretentious rollicking good fun. Everything I said about the first book is just as valid about the second. It doesn’t up the high bar the first novel set, but it doesn’t have to, when you are on a plateau you just need to keep on running, which is what it does. It remains an echo of those bygone Strand magazine, weird tales of yesteryear, Pulp period sci-fi with everything you can imagine thrown in the pot and brought to the boil. Egyptian tombs, American gangsters, A great train robbery, old gods, dark forces, steam-powered contraptions of death and destruction, brave heroines, slimy tentacles, monsters, mayhem,  lady ninja’s, love, hate, jealousy, madness, dark villains, foul murders on the streets of old London town and a lead character at war with his own history. Its pulp, but glorious unrepentant beautifully written pulp that drags you on with its willful abandon. Bravo Mr Hallam Bravo…

Now, will someone chain Craig to a keyboard, supply him with intravenous tea on a drip and give him six of the best if he stops typing… I want to read the next instalment…  And so will you…

To use my old Lovecraft rating system. As Amazon stars are so last week…

You might also want to read the steampunk offerings of another writer. Who gets a mention right at the end of this post because it’s my damn blog. So sue me, and use the money to buy a copy of A Scar of Avarice…