Mike Futcher (Author of Void Station One)

Mike Futcher rated a book liked it As I Was on My Way to Strawberry Fair (Texas Pentagraph #1) by Raymond St. Elmo (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Since picking up my first Raymond St. Elmo book a few years ago, I've steadily worked my way through nearly a dozen of the self-published writer's weird, literary, idiosyncratic novels. Odd, really, because I usually have no truck with magical realis ...more
Jan 17, 2026 04:31PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing The Rosetta Key (Ethan Gage, #2) by William Dietrich (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
While The Rosetta Key lacked the novelty that I encountered with the previous Ethan Gage book, Napoleon's Pyramids, it is at least heartening to know that the first book wasn't a flash in the pan, and that it likely won't be a mistake for me to inves ...more
Jan 06, 2026 03:09PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki, #1) by Baek Se-hee	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
"I still remain someone who is unable to love herself. But as I had that thought, I had another: light and darkness are part of the same thing. Happiness and unhappiness alternate throughout life, as in a dance. So as long as I keep going and don't g ...more
Dec 31, 2025 02:10PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok Maskerade (Discworld, #18) by Terry Pratchett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A disappointingly bland entry into the Discworld after my flagging interest in the series had been restored by the easy joys of Interesting Times, the previous book. Maskerade is one of those iterations of the Discworld that I've never really enjoyed ...more
Dec 28, 2025 10:57AM · 6 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Maskerade by Terry Pratchett. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Maskerade by Terry Pratchett <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Small Things Like These is a tolerable, well-written short novella, but it is nevertheless hard to shake the feeling that author Claire Keegan has mishandled her topic. Not mishandled it badly, for the book does move the reader slightly, but the topi ...more
Dec 24, 2025 02:41PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok A Better Paradise — Volume One: An Aftermath by Dan Houser	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A Better Paradise was bleeping on my radar because Dan Houser was the lead writer on Red Dead Redemption 2, which I consider one of the finest novels of the last decade – even though it was a video game. Perhaps then my expectations were a tad high f ...more
Dec 23, 2025 03:56PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Better Paradise — Volume One by Dan Houser. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Better Paradise — Volume One by Dan Houser <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing Asterix Gift Collection: Albums 6-10 by René Goscinny	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This might be the most redundant review I ever write. Anyone who's in the market for a luxury "Gift Collection" of Asterix albums will need no convincing as to the quality of this book, and the sequence from albums 6 to 10 is perhaps the single fines ...more
Dec 11, 2025 04:11PM · 1 like · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it Ingram by Louis C.K.	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
When it comes to novels written by people who can be labelled, with the broadest brush, as 'celebrities', there is always an element of doubt: whether their talent in other spheres can carry across to novel-writing, which is harder than it looks; whe ...more
Dec 08, 2025 03:50PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Ingram by Louis C.K.. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Ingram by Louis C.K. <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it Asterix in Lusitania (Asterix #41) by Fabcaro	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A fun, sturdy new Asterix adventure, Asterix in Lusitania only feels a bit of a letdown because of the surprising vitality of the previous instalment, 2023's Asterix and the White Iris. White Iris was everything an Asterix adventure can achieve at it ...more
Dec 01, 2025 04:11PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Asterix in Lusitania by Fabcaro. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Asterix in Lusitania by Fabcaro <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure: Top Gear, Grand Tour, Clarkson and Me by Andy Wilman	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
"… we really missed the simple days, and we knew there was no way we could ever get them back." (pg. 382) While it lacks the comedic flair and writing skill of And on That Bombshell, the memoir of Top Gear scriptwriter Richard Porter, Mr Wilman's Moto ...more
Nov 30, 2025 03:03PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure by Andy Wilman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure by Andy Wilman <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Mike Futcher rated a book liked it

As I Was on My Way to Strawberry Fair by Raymond St. Elmo

As I Was on My Way to Strawberry Fair (Texas Pentagraph #1)
by Raymond St. Elmo (Goodreads Author)

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Since picking up my first Raymond St. Elmo book a few years ago, I've steadily worked my way through nearly a dozen of the self-published writer's weird, literary, idiosyncratic novels. Odd, really, because I usually have no truck with magical realis Since picking up my first Raymond St. Elmo book a few years ago, I've steadily worked my way through nearly a dozen of the self-published writer's weird, literary, idiosyncratic novels. Odd, really, because I usually have no truck with magical realism, but the simple truth is that I'm yet to find another writer today writing as well as him, let alone so prolifically – and so here I stand.

That said, As I Was on My Way to Strawberry Fair was the first St. Elmo book I've read that I didn't warm to, even though it is the first in a loosely-connected Texas Pentagraph series that I've already read a few instalments of. (One, Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts , I found particularly remarkable.) It tells the story of a man and a woman who meet at a Renaissance Fair, though told in a richly-baked, shapeshifting magical realist structure that I struggled with. It's all engineered with an astute intelligence and a gift for language and wordplay – like all St. Elmo books – but I quickly lost the thread and never regained it. Perhaps I should have stopped and turned back, worked harder to find it again, but having lost the thread in the current I remembered that they say you never step into the same river twice.

But while this meant Strawberry Fair and I were never likely to fall into step, I did find a lot of worth and enjoyment in just surrendering to it. I decided to just get lost in the delirious phantasm of its language and its mechanics, like a spinning fairground ride. And while, like such rides, I felt a bit queasy at times, I could still enjoy the whirligig nature of it all.

"We came to the balcony of the chapel and stared down at the dancers, and if you had asked me what is real? I must have stumbled, because all I could have answered was beauty was real, fire was real. Music, magic, the heart's desire and the turning of the dancers. Which is no answer; just shards of colored words tumbled randomly to make a pretty pattern." (pg. 340)

It reminded me in some ways of Shakespeare's comedies, and while it is of course not of their calibre, I did find myself, as a reader, navigating through Strawberry Fair with the same technique and muscle-memory that I used to successfully make my way through A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It . Whether his characters are engaged in a mundane fantasy role-play or something more genuinely fantastical, St. Elmo's titular Strawberry Fair stands in place of Shakespeare's Forest of Arden, with the same approach of clever wordplay, disguised identities and bonny confusion, and star-crossed lovers and cosplay rather than cross-dressing. It says a lot that even in a book that I didn't fully connect with, I still end up garlanding the author with praise by considering his work analogous to Shakespeare.

That said, St. Elmo fails to provide the reader with the key to the maze he has created – something which Shakespeare was so great at doing with a single phrase in his comedies – although St. Elmo's "you shall become what you pretend" (pp131-2) comes closest to unlocking the story for the reader. If Strawberry Fair had been able to really get its hooks into me, it would have been magnificent. It was inevitable that I would eventually come across a book by Raymond St. Elmo that I didn't jive with. The impressive thing is that it took until the eleventh title I read to encounter it, with – at time of writing – five more still to go. ...more

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The Rosetta Key (Ethan Gage, #2)
by William Dietrich (Goodreads Author)

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While The Rosetta Key lacked the novelty that I encountered with the previous Ethan Gage book, Napoleon's Pyramids, it is at least heartening to know that the first book wasn't a flash in the pan, and that it likely won't be a mistake for me to inves ...more

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I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki, #1)
by Baek Se-hee

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"I still remain someone who is unable to love herself. But as I had that thought, I had another: light and darkness are part of the same thing. Happiness and unhappiness alternate throughout life, as in a dance. So as long as I keep going and don't g "I still remain someone who is unable to love herself. But as I had that thought, I had another: light and darkness are part of the same thing. Happiness and unhappiness alternate throughout life, as in a dance. So as long as I keep going and don't give up, surely I will keep having moments of tears and laughter." (pp153-4)

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book that becomes much more difficult to assess in light of its young author's death just a couple of months ago, in what we can reasonably assume was suicide. Baek Sehee's memoir, transcribing conversations she had with her psychiatrist about depression, suicide ideation and her various self-perceived character flaws, is rightly lauded for its bracing emotional bravery and for sparking a more open conversation, particularly in her native South Korea, about mental health.

While I did not love the book, I think if I had read it before the news about the author in October I would still have spoken well of it. While not a great feat of writing, it is a compelling insight into its author's mind – Sehee writes honestly and with clarity, and reaches some astute insights into her own psychology and way of living. The most compelling of these inspired her book title, namely recognising that light and darkness, happiness and sadness, good moments and bad, are not opposites with one to be 'cured' in favour of the other, but things that must exist alongside one another, and our ability to reason this out and make peace with it is the most promising pathway forward. Sehee wants to die, but she also wants to enjoy life, such as eating tteokbokki, her favourite food. Coming to this realisation is emotionally mature, and a cut above the usual unreflective commentaries on suicide and mental health which seek to 'cure' or right what is 'wrong' in the person feeling depressed. I suspect that often people in those situations are seeing more clearly than we are, seeing past the defences and fictions that we blithely place around us.

And it's because of this astuteness, this open-hearted honesty which Sehee expresses throughout the short book, that it's even more tinged with sadness now that she decided, for however long she held the thought in her mind, that the effort to maintain the balance between dark and light, to keep the ever-shifting plates aligned, was too much – and decided to leave. Whereas those who read the book until October 2025 would have rooted for the author to pull through and thanked her for sharing her continuing journey, those of us who read it since her death do so with regret, and a sincere, deeply human pity, knowing that the journey ended at a destination none of us would have willed. The fact that both sets of readers would be reading the same words from the same person only shows how that perception can shift, how intimidatingly complex such feelings can become, and how we struggle to even know ourselves, let alone those around us. Writing this review on New Year's Eve, I will let the final words of the year 2025 be those of an unfairly troubled soul who did not see its end:

"We are so far, and yet so near to so many people." (pg. 179) ...more

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Maskerade (Discworld, #18)
by Terry Pratchett

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A disappointingly bland entry into the Discworld after my flagging interest in the series had been restored by the easy joys of Interesting Times, the previous book. Maskerade is one of those iterations of the Discworld that I've never really enjoyed ...more

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Small Things Like These
by Claire Keegan

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Small Things Like These is a tolerable, well-written short novella, but it is nevertheless hard to shake the feeling that author Claire Keegan has mishandled her topic. Not mishandled it badly, for the book does move the reader slightly, but the topi Small Things Like These is a tolerable, well-written short novella, but it is nevertheless hard to shake the feeling that author Claire Keegan has mishandled her topic. Not mishandled it badly, for the book does move the reader slightly, but the topic of the depraved, abuse-riddled 'Magdalene laundries' which existed in Ireland until the 1990s has much more to it than Keegan delivers – and deserved something more substantial.

Her short novella is told from the perspective of an unassuming man who encounters an abused young girl at one of these convents, and then must wrestle with his conscience as he encounters implicit social pressure to forget what he has seen. Keegan traces this rather well, in a subtle, understated way that is rather effective, and also draws analogues to the man's own struggles to be recognised and accepted by his community.

Nevertheless, one is left with a slightly bitter taste when the book's end quickly arrives (it can be read in a single sitting). We are left with no knowledge or insight into what the Magdalene laundries were, and the dynamics between the abuses there and the complicity of the wider society is barely even hinted at, let alone explored. The topic demanded a full novel, unpacking the story and leaving the society uncomfortable and the perpetrators skewered and with nowhere to hide. Instead Keegan provides a misdirected fancy, a sketch rather than a story, that turns this massive, multi-generational suffering into a slight – and slightly twee – Christmas fable that keeps the victims hidden and unheard, its perpetrators unnamed and in the shadows, while seeking to absolve Irish society for its long complicity by giving them a rough Atticus Finch copy who does in the story what they did not do in reality.

The book relies on a reader's foreknowledge of the controversy (which no one outside of Ireland will have) and records none for posterity. And with its story of a quietly courageous citizen speaking up, it provides a comforting fiction for Irish society to draw a line under the atrocities while keeping them at a safe, sanitised distance. It is a book insubstantial enough that it will be forgotten in time, but with its false narrative catharsis and absolution having performed the sin of short-circuiting a true cultural reckoning in favour of its own few underwhelming sparks. ...more

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A Better Paradise — Volume One by Dan Houser

A Better Paradise — Volume One: An Aftermath
by Dan Houser

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A Better Paradise was bleeping on my radar because Dan Houser was the lead writer on Red Dead Redemption 2, which I consider one of the finest novels of the last decade – even though it was a video game. Perhaps then my expectations were a tad high f ...more

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Asterix Gift Collection by René Goscinny

Asterix Gift Collection: Albums 6-10
by René Goscinny

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This might be the most redundant review I ever write. Anyone who's in the market for a luxury "Gift Collection" of Asterix albums will need no convincing as to the quality of this book, and the sequence from albums 6 to 10 is perhaps the single fines ...more

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Ingram
by Louis C.K.

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When it comes to novels written by people who can be labelled, with the broadest brush, as 'celebrities', there is always an element of doubt: whether their talent in other spheres can carry across to novel-writing, which is harder than it looks; whe When it comes to novels written by people who can be labelled, with the broadest brush, as 'celebrities', there is always an element of doubt: whether their talent in other spheres can carry across to novel-writing, which is harder than it looks; whether they have been sufficiently challenged by an editor or publisher who may be starstruck or, worse, lazy because they know the name alone will shift copies; and whether it is, when all is said and done, merely a vanity project while real authors starve.

But in the face of these default concerns whenever a 'celebrity' writer says howdy and here's my book, Ingram comes out surprisingly well. This is really a rather impressive literary debut from Louis C.K., and worth your time. There are some flaws: the first half strays a bit too close to his inspirations, aping the likes of Mark Twain and, perhaps, Cormac McCarthy without doing enough of its own thing, whereas the second half hints that this is actually a near-future world where racial segregation and civil war rage (with our protagonist, the titular Ingram, oblivious to it all), without building that world or using it to any real narrative or thematic purpose. Ingram himself, while largely well-drawn, also strains our credulity at how little he knows about some basic things.

That said, flaws are to be expected in any debut novel and there's no reason we shouldn't grant Louie the same grace we would any other promising first-time author. Because when you ride over these bumps in the road, the whole vehicle's been built so well you'll barely notice them. While Louie occasionally leans a bit too heavily into Ingram's podunk naivety, the voice of the character is, in general, quite well-honed. The reader enjoys his company and roots for him. Likewise, the various characters Ingram meets along the way are well-drawn, even if they're only there for a single scene – the sign of a capable and confident writer, for a lesser writer would guard what achievements they have jealously and spread them thin.

There's little plot in Ingram, and that may frustrate more casual readers who have come to the book solely because they are fans of the name on the cover, but it's a perfectly legitimate approach in literary circles to orient what is essentially a character study in this way. It bodes well for any novel-writing Louie might do in the future, though I do confess that I had hoped the creator of Louie and Horace and Pete and Fourth of July had written something closer in spirit to those fine experiences, for there is little to no comedy in Ingram, the dialogue is homespun and authentic rather than razor-sharp and witty, and the nature of the book – a Huckleberry Finn-esque odyssey told through the eyes of a child – does not easily fit into the mold of what we imagine Louis C.K. to be or seek to take from him. Nevertheless, if this is one string Louie is adding to his bow, I for one won't mind at all if he shoots me in the ass. ...more

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Asterix in Lusitania (Asterix #41)
by Fabcaro

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A fun, sturdy new Asterix adventure, Asterix in Lusitania only feels a bit of a letdown because of the surprising vitality of the previous instalment, 2023's Asterix and the White Iris. White Iris was everything an Asterix adventure can achieve at it ...more

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Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure by Andy Wilman

Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure: Top Gear, Grand Tour, Clarkson and Me
by Andy Wilman

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"… we really missed the simple days, and we knew there was no way we could ever get them back." (pg. 382)

While it lacks the comedic flair and writing skill of And on That Bombshell, the memoir of Top Gear scriptwriter Richard Porter, Mr Wilman's Moto ...more

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