Mike Futcher (Author of Void Station One)

Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it The Scaled Tartan (Quest of the Five Clans #5) 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
While I confess that I've never quite had a handle on this series, I finished The Scaled Tartan, the fifth and final book of the Quest of the Five Clans, with a sense of satisfaction and warmth. Amidst the warped mayhem and outsized, flamboyant warpr ...more
Apr 16, 2026 02:24PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it Runnin' Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers by Tom Petty	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 wonderful coffee-table companion to the excellent 2007 Tom Petty documentary Runnin' Down a Dream. Unlike Conversations with Tom Petty by Paul Zollo and Petty, written by this same book's editor Warren Zanes, the Runnin' Down a Dream book can't rea ...more
Apr 06, 2026 02:05PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing The Best of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle	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 collection of the 'best' Sherlock Holmes is, by its very existence, a self-evident delight. Anyone who has read Arthur Conan Doyle's creation knows its charm, and it will not surprise you to learn that I bought my copy of The Best of Sherlock Holme ...more
Apr 02, 2026 04:03PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens	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
To say that, bar the occasional collaboration or piece of miscellany out there, Christopher Hitchens' first published book is my last is to utter the sort of superficial kismet that the man himself would no doubt dislike. Hostage to History, an essay ...more
Mar 24, 2026 04:38PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it Journal of the Gun Years by Richard Matheson	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
Journal of the Gun Years, which is otherwise a passable Western potboiler, is made slightly brittle by author Richard Matheson's attempts to stretch it into a more ambitious form without ever really committing to it. It tells the story of a rather cl ...more
Mar 19, 2026 03:32PM · 2 likes · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth	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
"Remain human despite it all." (pg. 318) The main strength of Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth's recent cultured jeremiad against modern technological civilisation, is that while the arguments and opinions will be broadly familiar and will strike ...more
Mar 10, 2026 03:59PM · 1 like · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok The Castle in the Forest: A Novel by Norman Mailer	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
In The Castle in the Forest, author Norman Mailer stumbles across some murky and potentially interesting terrain, but doesn't seem to know what to do with the discovery. The novel – for that is what it is, scarcely – is set in the childhood of one Ad ...more
Feb 27, 2026 03:09PM · 2 likes · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare by Chris Smith	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've been on a bit of a Lord of the Rings kick recently, instigated by watching the extended trilogy once again on their 25th anniversary re-release in cinemas last month. To that end, I remembered a book I still had somewhere from around the time of ...more
Feb 18, 2026 02:01PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (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
Honestly, I make it hard for myself sometimes. I'm always on the lookout for hidden gems, obscure literary books of forgotten worth, and while this sometimes pays off I can never escape the reality that some of my most enjoyable reading experiences o ...more
Feb 12, 2026 02:33PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it The Airman and the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptmann by Ludovic Kennedy	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 meticulous and well-written book, Ludovic Kennedy's The Airman and the Carpenter is a fine introduction for those wishing to learn more about the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping of 1932. Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous men in the world at th ...more
Jan 30, 2026 04:21PM · 1 like · like · see review

Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it

The Scaled Tartan (Quest of the Five Clans #5)
by Raymond St. Elmo (Goodreads Author)

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While I confess that I've never quite had a handle on this series, I finished The Scaled Tartan, the fifth and final book of the Quest of the Five Clans, with a sense of satisfaction and warmth. Amidst the warped mayhem and outsized, flamboyant warpr ...more

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Runnin' Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
by Tom Petty

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A wonderful coffee-table companion to the excellent 2007 Tom Petty documentary Runnin' Down a Dream. Unlike Conversations with Tom Petty by Paul Zollo and Petty, written by this same book's editor Warren Zanes, the Runnin' Down a Dream book can't rea ...more

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The Best of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle

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A collection of the 'best' Sherlock Holmes is, by its very existence, a self-evident delight. Anyone who has read Arthur Conan Doyle's creation knows its charm, and it will not surprise you to learn that I bought my copy of The Best of Sherlock Holme A collection of the 'best' Sherlock Holmes is, by its very existence, a self-evident delight. Anyone who has read Arthur Conan Doyle's creation knows its charm, and it will not surprise you to learn that I bought my copy of The Best of Sherlock Holmes from the museum gift shop at 221b Baker Street itself, on a trip to London last summer. There's just something about these adventures that inspires warmth and adoration from even the most jaded reader; an ease and excitement where even the formula itself becomes rather moreish. They are the very definition of comfort-reading and, as Watson remarks in 'The Man with the Twisted Lip', included in this book, "I could not wish anything better than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular adventures which were the normal condition of his existence" (pg. 126).

The only question with such a collection then becomes whether it has truly provided the 'best' of Sherlock Holmes. This will always be disputed, as David Stuart Davies notes in his Afterword to this Macmillan Collector's Library edition, but there are few quibbles to be had. Davies states that he chose the stories which he believes best example Sherlock Holmes' abilities as a detective (pg. 532), and while this means there's no 'Final Problem' or 'Empty House' (and therefore no Moriarty), the decision is an understandable one.

If the goal were to abridge all of the mythos of Sherlock Holmes, then The Best of Sherlock Holmes would need to do more; it would be impossible to cover all the best parts of the Sherlock Holmes mythos without including the novel A Study in Scarlet, in which Holmes and Watson first meet, nor, The Hound of the Baskervilles and the afore-mentioned 'Final Problem' and 'Empty House'. But when the stated goal is to focus exclusively on the short stories, and selectively on those which show the best displays of crime detection, there's no quarrel to be had with this collection, for it carries it off well. You'll be left wanting more, but then again perhaps that's just the nature of the Sherlock Holmes stories. We always want more: the next line, the next page, the next story. ...more

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Hostage to History by Christopher Hitchens

Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger
by Christopher Hitchens

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To say that, bar the occasional collaboration or piece of miscellany out there, Christopher Hitchens' first published book is my last is to utter the sort of superficial kismet that the man himself would no doubt dislike. Hostage to History, an essay To say that, bar the occasional collaboration or piece of miscellany out there, Christopher Hitchens' first published book is my last is to utter the sort of superficial kismet that the man himself would no doubt dislike. Hostage to History, an essayistic commentary on the crisis occurring in Cyprus at the time it was published in 1984, possesses for me not only the sadness of learning about the sorry lot of the Cypriot people as Greece, Turkey, Britain and the United States treat their island as a "strategic pawn rather than as a country with a complex individuality" (pg. 163), but also the sadness of knowing that after more than a decade of enjoying his various books, my experience of reading Hitchens (at least for the first time) is at an end.

And Hostage to History is a good book to end it on. Hitchens is on fine form from the start, beginning in his very first line by pointing out how Cyprus, a European island and member of NATO, had been attacked by two other NATO countries (pg. 9). Hitchens has never been shy of casting light on hypocrisy and cant, and this is in evidence in this debut effort, with some fine turns of phrase, some principled and emphatic condemnation of political behaviour, and some well-chosen and judiciously-deployed hard evidence.

What is even more commendable is that Hitchens' astuteness, beyond his mere writing skill, is also on display. One of his stated goals in Hostage to History is in refuting the lazy claim that Cyprus has problems because of intercommunal tensions between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Hitchens instead shows how the crises, particularly the 1974 invasion, arose out of the policies and designs of Greece, Turkey, Britain and the USA, with any "weaknesses or errors of Cypriots… exploited and compounded by external intervention" (pg. 159). Hitchens' always-charming way of calling a spade a spade would be fine enough, but he also makes some pertinent conclusions; the most compelling of which is to call on Cypriots to remember "the blows [Cyprus] has been dealt" by "distant, uncaring enemies" and to use this common memory to work together to overcome whatever sectarian grievances do indeed remain (pg. 164). In Hitchens' first work we find the Hitchens we love already fully formed.

If I had read Hostage to History at any other point over my Hitchens journey of the last decade or so, it might have registered only as a curiosity. But that kismet I mentioned at the start of this review has also conspired to ensure Cyprus is in the news as I write, with the frankly strange spectacle of a British Prime Minister awkwardly negotiating the use of British military bases on this distant island for the American bull's latest foray into the geopolitical china shop that is its (and Israel's) assault on Iran. And, as President Johnson's foul-mouthed retort quoted on page 61 of Hitchens' book tells us, American crudity on such matters is nothing new. Empathy for the Cypriots is deepened by the uncomfortable realisation that perhaps we are all hostages of history. ...more

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Journal of the Gun Years
by Richard Matheson

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Journal of the Gun Years, which is otherwise a passable Western potboiler, is made slightly brittle by author Richard Matheson's attempts to stretch it into a more ambitious form without ever really committing to it. It tells the story of a rather cl ...more

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Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity
by Paul Kingsnorth

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"Remain human despite it all." (pg. 318)

The main strength of Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth's recent cultured jeremiad against modern technological civilisation, is that while the arguments and opinions will be broadly familiar and will strike "Remain human despite it all." (pg. 318)

The main strength of Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth's recent cultured jeremiad against modern technological civilisation, is that while the arguments and opinions will be broadly familiar and will strike a chord with the sort of readers who are already drawn to this book (and consequently, to this review), the book itself remain bracing and original.

One can readily identify many of the main topics Kingsnorth laments: the prevalence of smartphones and algorithms and social media and relentless technological interconnectivity in general; the decline of organic human connections and authentic local culture; the breakdown of norms and standards under what is more commonly ringfenced as 'late stage capitalism' (although Kingsnorth isn't dogmatic enough to use that term) – all of which can be diagnosed as aspects of the insatiable 'Machine' which has comprehensively uprooted all that was good in our culture.

Kingsnorth's approach to all of this is never as tired or as hackneyed as one might expect; this is no idle rant or lament for the 'good old days'. The author is inquisitive, searching out alternate angles to all of the above topics, making his Against the Machine both a compelling synthesis of the current aversions to the zeitgeist and, in itself, a fresh contribution to the debate. But its real value is that it is the work of an independent mind. Kingsnorth is not a sly Marxist trying to slip his ideology in by the back door, nor is he a militant Green blocking traffic on motorways – though he was, interestingly, one of the latter in his youth.

Nowadays he describes himself as a "former green" (pg. 181) and a current Orthodox Christian; his book is no regurgitated two-minute-hate against all the ready-made targets you recognise from mainstream discourse, but is instead nuanced and unique to his own intellectual journey. Technological culture and 'the West', which birthed and cultivates the 'Machine', are his targets, which might lead you to label him as just another 'leftie', but then he criticises – in no uncertain terms – leftie shibboleths like identity politics, the trans agenda and Covid lockdowns. When Kingsnorth gives his opinions, you know they are his own.

Because of this, the reader gains a confidence in the author. The topics are made fresh and interesting through the lens of an author who is treating them honestly rather than with a ready-made ideological lens; even when they are political (and, rest assured, they are not always political) they do not repel. Because of this honesty and originality, I found myself enjoying the book even when I disagreed with some (though certainly not all) of Kingsnorth's points. Contrary to the author, I think Western civilisation contains within itself the seeds to save itself from its decline, and what's more it will do so. I am also not as dismissive of space travel, which I think provides the opportunity and impetus to reinvent our culture that Kingsnorth (elsewhere in the book) explicitly says we need.

Even when you disagree with some of the particulars – and Kingsnorth can get pretty out there sometimes – the book is never less than rewarding for those readers who want something intelligent and different to chew on. It is very well-written, even if Kingsnorth is more of a steady hand than an engrossing polemicist, and regardless of how far you agree with his comprehensive, almost doom-laden and yet hopeful diagnosis of the world we live in, one must respect the achievement here. It will always be interesting and worthwhile for a reader to roam amongst words of integrity. And, pleasingly, in writing them and disseminating them Paul Kingsnorth has made his own small victory against the Machine. ...more

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The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer

The Castle in the Forest: A Novel
by Norman Mailer

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In The Castle in the Forest, author Norman Mailer stumbles across some murky and potentially interesting terrain, but doesn't seem to know what to do with the discovery. The novel – for that is what it is, scarcely – is set in the childhood of one Ad In The Castle in the Forest, author Norman Mailer stumbles across some murky and potentially interesting terrain, but doesn't seem to know what to do with the discovery. The novel – for that is what it is, scarcely – is set in the childhood of one Adolf Hitler, bringing his hard-headed father and submissive mother to life and seemingly attempting to show us how the boy was set on his dark path. It is quite well-researched – almost to a fault, in fact, because often Mailer just seems to be recreating the family rather than providing them with a narrative, or even compelling drama.

When he does provide individual scenes rather than docudrama regurgitation of what you could find in a history book, his choices are strange: not least a fixation on sex. For a reader, it's always uncomfortable to find a writer fixated on this as they drag us reluctantly through cringeworthy, overly-descriptive scenes of mounting entries and gasping breaths and spurting fluids, but this skin-crawling reader experience is even more unbearable when its Hitler and his family. To be frank, I don't want to be a fly on the wall as Hitler's dad goes down on his mum, nor in a pubescent Adolf's mind as he conjures up fantasies for a bout of masturbation. Nor, I would hope, do you.

Mailer's other deployments of artistic licence are more palatable, but still failures. The narrator of the novel is a demon tasked by Satan (called the 'Maestro' here) to watch over the promising young Hitler and his family, corrupting and subtly manipulating the boy towards a darker path. This can be interesting as Mailer shows us how small moments can compound into big diversions in the development of a young life: an abrupt criticism here, a lack of encouragement there, a sense of isolation or unexamined ego allowed to fester. Nothing big or dramatic, just mundane daily omissions and choices, and one day the boy is not what he was.

However, the frame of the demon narrator leaves the reader scratching their head, for it's never clear what purpose Mailer intends this to serve. There does not seem to be any deeper theme being attempted consistently, whether nature vs. nurture, fate vs. free will, or even the various forking paths of evil, but nor does the author really seem to be investing in character-based storytelling to compensate. To be honest, I struggled to pull much of real worth out of Mailer's morass, even though I could see the author wouldn't be knee-deep in it all if there wasn't some worth to be found. The Castle in the Forest is a peculiar book: it reads quite well and there's clearly a writer of some capability there. It's just that he's slurring his thoughts rather than his words. ...more

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The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare
by Chris Smith

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I've been on a bit of a Lord of the Rings kick recently, instigated by watching the extended trilogy once again on their 25th anniversary re-release in cinemas last month. To that end, I remembered a book I still had somewhere from around the time of ...more

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Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir (Goodreads Author)

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Honestly, I make it hard for myself sometimes. I'm always on the lookout for hidden gems, obscure literary books of forgotten worth, and while this sometimes pays off I can never escape the reality that some of my most enjoyable reading experiences o Honestly, I make it hard for myself sometimes. I'm always on the lookout for hidden gems, obscure literary books of forgotten worth, and while this sometimes pays off I can never escape the reality that some of my most enjoyable reading experiences over the years have been the obvious, well-known books of entertainment (The Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, Lonesome Dove, Jurassic Park and A Game of Thrones, to name a few). So when Project Hail Mary was published and quickly became known by word-of-mouth as a great, fast, entertaining read I added it to my list. Later, I bought it. I then immediately shelved it, and left it there unread as I continued my pursuit of the obscure.

It was only because I went to see the 25th anniversary re-release of The Lord of the Rings in cinemas a few weeks ago that I finally pulled it down from the shelf. One of the trailers before the Extended Editions was for the new film adaptation of Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling, due out next month. I decided it was now-or-never to read the book with a clean slate.

And, of course, it's great. Just as everyone said it was. In many ways it's even better than The Martian, author Andy Weir's breakout crowd-pleaser. He's toned down some of the chipper know-it-all narration from that book, while still retaining the robust hard science that gave it its authenticity. Project Hail Mary is more outlandish than The Martian, taking in a dying sun, alien germs, unexpected character meetings and interstellar travel, but all of it is reasoned out cleverly. Weir earns your trust, and it's very rewarding to see his characters face original, well-thought-out challenges, respond to them scientifically, and reach logical solutions and face logical setbacks.

On top of this, it's a great piece of entertainment. The narration is friendly without being grating and the characters – surprisingly, given the nature of one of them – are quite convincing and endearing. The twists are interesting and the result of logical progression rather than the pursuit of shallow thrills, while still zipping along with the pace of a good thriller. It's an excellent example of reading as entertainment. Don't dismiss that praise as I almost did. When they say it's great – well, it is. Just because it's an obvious conclusion doesn't mean it's an inaccurate one. ...more

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The Airman and the Carpenter by Ludovic Kennedy

The Airman and the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptmann
by Ludovic Kennedy

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A meticulous and well-written book, Ludovic Kennedy's The Airman and the Carpenter is a fine introduction for those wishing to learn more about the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping of 1932. Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous men in the world at th A meticulous and well-written book, Ludovic Kennedy's The Airman and the Carpenter is a fine introduction for those wishing to learn more about the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping of 1932. Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous men in the world at the time and the kidnapping of his son from his crib generated a media circus, a headline-grabbing ransom demand and, eventually, the tragic discovery of the body of poor young Charlie Jr. not far from where he went missing.

All this is well-told by Kennedy, but the raison d'être of his true-crime book is what followed: the arrest of one Richard Hauptmann and his trial for what was dubbed the 'Crime of the Century'. Kennedy's conviction, for which he brings receipts, is that Hauptmann was completely innocent of the crime and was railroaded by a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances. Much of what is low in America is on display in these events: the media circus and the preening, grasping fame of even the case's bit-part players, the greed, pigheadedness and unreflective ruthlessness of both law enforcement and the lawyers, and the same sort of public thirst for celebrity, blood and mob outrage that has made 'true-crime' an often unedifying genre and the justice system an insular self-mockery, with the courtroom a bloodsport between two implacable 'sides', a game to be won at all costs rather than a process by which truth is arrived at.

Kennedy is an ideal guide through this shoddy terrain, for being a British journalist he stands apart from some of the American craziness on display and shows restraint even when some of the behaviour on display is unforgivably contemptible. I knew a bit of surface-level knowledge of the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping prior to reading Kennedy's book, but I had never got into the weeds of it. I had never known that it was so shamefully inept.

One much acknowledge, of course, that this is Kennedy's take on it, and no doubt I could read other books which reach a different conclusion, or present the same evidence with a different emphasis. But the interpretation Kennedy builds is compelling, convincing and detailed. In fact, if there is a drawback in reading the book it's that Kennedy is almost too earnest, too sober in his depiction of the case. There's little to nothing on who might have committed the crime if not Hauptmann, for Kennedy deals in facts, and his estimation of the facts, rather than speculation. Whatever evidence and leads there might have been were squandered – and sometimes actively extinguished – by the ineptitude and corruption of the police at the time, and cannot be revived decades later. Who killed the baby will almost certainly never be known, and because of the lack of any solid knowledge Kennedy does not indulge hypotheticals.

Those looking for such titillating speculations will have to look elsewhere. (I believe there's a non-zero chance that Lindbergh Senior – a deeply shady character behind his mask – did it himself, perhaps one of his cruel pranks gone wrong, and was arrogantly willing to let an innocent stranger get the chair to cover it up. It fits the known facts, survives an encounter with Occam's Razor, and the fact that the family dog did not bark on the night-time of the 'intrusion' (pg. 113) is surely a 'curious incident' that would've made Sherlock Holmes raise an eyebrow.)

Instead, the conspiracies Kennedy relates here are not those of the unknown kidnapping gang or of any inside-job cover-up, but the very real and provable ones that saw law enforcement, reporters and prosecuting lawyers plant fake evidence, hide exculpatory evidence, beat and intimidate Hauptmann and witnesses, and just all around make a mockery of 'justice' under that extremely dangerous logical fallacy that they 'knew' Hauptmann was guilty and were therefore willing to do anything and everything to ensure he was executed for it, never once stopping to consider they might be wrong and being too prideful to admit it when others stopped them and asked them to reconsider. One hopes that when they too eventually passed from this life and found themselves facing Judgement, that St. Peter stood aside and allowed Hauptmann to be the face that greeted them at heaven's gate, their entry to be weighed by his hands.

While it is long and detailed and takes a good while to get going, Ludovic Kennedy's The Airman and the Carpenter is a great introduction to a case that proved even more tragic than I had thought it was. As Governor Hoffman recognises at the time (he was one of the few to believe in Hauptmann's innocence, and did what he could to temporarily grant the man a reprieve – for which the mob tried to impeach him), the injustice is not only in the taking of the life of the child and the anguish of his mother, and not even in adding the injustice of condemning an innocent man, but in allowing those who actually did commit the crime to escape punishment (pg. 383). The real killer, or killers, got away with it. All that was achieved in the Crime of the Century, aside from some false catharsis for the mob and some base copy for the media, was unnecessary misery. As Hauptmann himself said while on Death Row (pg. 394), the case is not solved; all they did was add one more dead. ...more

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