Mike Futcher (Author of Void Station One)

Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain	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 opened Vintage 1954 knowing it would be a harmless bit of fluff, but I was still disappointed that it didn't have more to it. I didn't mind the shallowness of the concept, in which a group of Parisians drink a bottle of 1954 vintage wine and find t ...more
Sep 03, 2025 05:06AM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok The Ghost From The Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke	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
The great Arthur C. Clarke writing about the Titanic, and more particularly about that once-fashionable idea of "raising the Titanic", should be a winning combination, allowing for Clarke's fondness for nautical technology, credible futurism and inte ...more
Aug 25, 2025 11:11AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Ghost From The Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Ghost From The Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book it was amazing Napoleon's Pyramids: An Ethan Gage Adventure (Ethan Gage Adventures, 1) 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
Sometimes a book just fits you well and, as you read it, it carries all its minor flaws before it and makes them insignificant. Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich was, for me, such a book – though it won't be that way for everyone. My interest wa ...more
Aug 19, 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 Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry	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
Aside from the peerless, inescapable Lonesome Dove, that exemplar of the genre, it seems Larry McMurtry only really wrote one Western. While I've not read all of them so far, of the ones I have I can say they are much the same at their core, whether ...more
Aug 10, 2025 04:25PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple: The Master of the Temple by Robin Griffith-Jones	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
Earlier this week, during a business trip to London, I was able to duck out of my office on my lunch break and walk down the street to visit Temple Church. You turn off Fleet Street down an easy-to-miss alleyway and find yourself in a calm and gentle ...more
Aug 02, 2025 07:33AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple by Robin Griffith-Jones. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple by Robin Griffith-Jones <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it The Clockwork Tartan (Quest of the Five Clans #4) 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
"Rubicon's bridge in flames, I tread further." (pg. 4) Four books in to author Raymond St. Elmo's Five Clans series, I'm still not entirely sure what it is I'm reading. A sort of bizarre, erudite, shape-shifting adventure that is simultaneously verbos ...more
Jul 27, 2025 01:58PM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Clockwork Tartan by Raymond St. Elmo. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Clockwork Tartan by Raymond St. Elmo <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it Eifelheim by Michael Flynn	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 fine idea for a story that I deeply regret to say is less than the sum of its parts. The concept is that in the 14th century, during the Black Death, an alien spaceship crash-lands outside a German village and, in the months that follow, its occupa ...more
Jul 19, 2025 04:47PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Eifelheim by Michael Flynn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes	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 capable in what it does, Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica remains a slightly disappointing read. I was not one of those who went into the book expecting a fun pirate adventure with children à la Treasure Island and consequently came out d ...more
Jul 05, 2025 02:20PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Mike Futcher rated a book liked it Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas	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
Some poets have a way with words, but Dylan Thomas had a way with the rhythm of words. Many of his poems are lyrical ciphers, hard to parse on a line-by-line basis but which have a roll to them which carries you along. When Thomas matched that roll w ...more
Jun 29, 2025 03:50PM · like · see review
Mike Futcher rated a book really liked it Adiós, Hemingway (Mario Conde, #5) by Leonardo Padura	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
As a thriller, Adiós Hemingway is moderately diverting, if a tad under-par. It's my first introduction to the author's Mario Conde detective novels and not a wholly convincing one. Leonardo Padura Fuentes is a capable enough writer, but there was not ...more
Jun 22, 2025 10:13AM · like · see review

Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok

Vintage 1954
by Antoine Laurain

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I opened Vintage 1954 knowing it would be a harmless bit of fluff, but I was still disappointed that it didn't have more to it. I didn't mind the shallowness of the concept, in which a group of Parisians drink a bottle of 1954 vintage wine and find t ...more

Mike Futcher rated a book it was ok

The Ghost From The Grand Banks
by Arthur C. Clarke

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The great Arthur C. Clarke writing about the Titanic, and more particularly about that once-fashionable idea of "raising the Titanic", should be a winning combination, allowing for Clarke's fondness for nautical technology, credible futurism and inte ...more

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Napoleon's Pyramids: An Ethan Gage Adventure (Ethan Gage Adventures, 1)
by William Dietrich (Goodreads Author)

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Sometimes a book just fits you well and, as you read it, it carries all its minor flaws before it and makes them insignificant. Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich was, for me, such a book – though it won't be that way for everyone.

My interest wa Sometimes a book just fits you well and, as you read it, it carries all its minor flaws before it and makes them insignificant. Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich was, for me, such a book – though it won't be that way for everyone.

My interest was piqued by the novel's resemblance to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels, which hold probably the strongest claim to being my favourite books. And while Dietrich's protagonist Ethan Gage can't hold a candle to Harry Flashman (Dietrich does try, bless him, but doesn't have Fraser's genius or devilry), there's nothing wrong with a hearty imitator when you've already worn out your copies of the masters. Dietrich provides a game mix of exotic adventure, historical mischief and a sober heart that, if not filling the void left by the Flashman Papers, at least makes its yawning dimensions seem less forbidding. Napoleon's Pyramids was thoroughly enjoyable.

The book also satisfied one of my other regular cravings: treasure quests, lost artefacts and historical mysteries – even adding a bit of Indiana Jones-style dungeon-delving and puzzle-solving to really flutter its eyelids at me. Indeed, the protagonist Ethan Gage is more Robert Langdon than Harry Flashman, and I found myself impressed by the depth of thought and research Dietrich put into creating a plausible artefact mystery and treasure hunt around the Great Pyramid in Napoleon's time. I couldn't help but get carried along.

I realise this isn't a great or useful review, focusing as it does solely on my own predilections when it comes to casual fiction. Love of this book will be completely subjective: it is capably written, solidly plotted and with some winsome scenes of action and pathos, but in truth that assessment is only reassurance to a reader who is already interested in the book's makeup and wants to know if it's worth it. If you like those stellar, mischievous historical adventures à la Flashman, and/or the Indiana Jones/Da Vinci Code-style artefact-hunting and treasure-questing, Dietrich's novel is worth being on your list – and maybe even near the top. The other books in this series will soon be finding their way onto mine. ...more

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Anything for Billy
by Larry McMurtry

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Aside from the peerless, inescapable Lonesome Dove, that exemplar of the genre, it seems Larry McMurtry only really wrote one Western. While I've not read all of them so far, of the ones I have I can say they are much the same at their core, whether Aside from the peerless, inescapable Lonesome Dove, that exemplar of the genre, it seems Larry McMurtry only really wrote one Western. While I've not read all of them so far, of the ones I have I can say they are much the same at their core, whether it's Boone's Lick, Buffalo Girls, the four Berrybender Narratives or this offering from the years of Lonesome Dove's immediate afterglow: Anything for Billy.

Ostensibly telling the story of Billy the Kid (who I assume needs no introduction here), Anything for Billy is a typical McMurtry Western offering: agreeable and well-written and hard to criticise, or at least to land a solid punch on; but also slightly frivolous, trotting rather than galloping, a disorienting mix of quixotic comic adventure and stomach-churning moments of violence stuffed with passing nods to real, minor historical figures from the Old West. McMurtry's fans always seemed more interested in recapturing Lonesome Dove's magic than he did, and Anything for Billy shares that lack of ambition his Western offerings often possessed.

McMurtry seemed to position himself as a 'demythologiser' of the American West, not in the modern dogmatic sense of harrowing and shaming it according to political ideology, but in a general sort of antipathy towards it: a rewriting of its stories and legends so that they wilfully lose a bit of their lustre in the transition. Why, I don't know, but – Lonesome Dove, as ever, aside – you read one of his Western stories feeling the whole place was a bit shabby, that you're imbibing something that feels a little bit unnatural.

Some readers might see this contrarianism as a push for realism, but I would argue that McMurtry's ersatz Westerns play as fast and loose with the real characters of the West as the hacks and pop-culture storytellers ever have, only in the opposite direction. Nowhere is this starker than in Anything for Billy. The most obvious omission is that of Pat Garrett (without spoilers, Billy in this novel is killed by someone completely different, in a completely different place, for completely different reasons). Some of Garrett's function in the legend is fulfilled by another (fictional) character, but anyone with knowledge of the "real" story will be left scratching their heads at all the real people omitted, the fictional people included in their stead, and the events that are changed to a lesser purpose. It's a sandbox that throws out all the ready-made toys while still at play: a sort of fever-dream version of the Billy the Kid legend, neither pure, welcome truth nor easy, entertaining myth.

Indeed, you could take the story and change the name of its subject and have a perfectly serviceable Western fiction (indeed, McMurtry almost does this as a half-measure, calling his incarnation 'Billy Bone' rather than William Bonney). The one reason I expect McMurtry hitched this novel more explicitly to the 'Billy the Kid' name was to explore Billy's disconcertingly casual murderousness. Billy is personally charming, in a runtish sort of way, but "a blank domino when it came to conscience" (pg. 303), and this fits in well with the author's penchant for comic opera laced with hyperviolence. (For example, McMurtry invents one character, perhaps the only appealing one in the novel, for no real purpose, and then kills them off in a lethargic and humiliating way.)

But while the author conveys Billy's psychosis passably well, ultimately the book falls short as a character exploration. For all his interest in demythologising the West, McMurtry makes no effort to account for how Billy acquired his reputation nor how he developed it in the rumour mills of the Old West; in short, how this unremarkable, hapless thug became a Western legend, a notorious outlaw to rank with the most feared villains, without really doing much of anything beyond a few grubby homicides. It leaves the reader with that reliable, passing enjoyment of another McMurtry Western but, as ever, also more than a little bemused at what could have been and what was left unclaimed. ...more

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The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple by Robin Griffith-Jones

The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple: The Master of the Temple
by Robin Griffith-Jones

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Earlier this week, during a business trip to London, I was able to duck out of my office on my lunch break and walk down the street to visit Temple Church. You turn off Fleet Street down an easy-to-miss alleyway and find yourself in a calm and gentle Earlier this week, during a business trip to London, I was able to duck out of my office on my lunch break and walk down the street to visit Temple Church. You turn off Fleet Street down an easy-to-miss alleyway and find yourself in a calm and gentle stone courtyard. Enter the Temple Church itself by pulling the black iron ring on its wooden door and you're in another world, a serene piece of architecture that, considering it's only a stone's throw away from the hustle and bustle of one of London's busiest streets, is remarkably silent.

It's a place I've always wanted to visit; long before The Da Vinci Code introduced some of its features to a wider audience, I had a long-standing interest in its builders, the Knights Templar, due to Broken Sword, one of my favourite video games when I was younger. The building itself is impressive, as is the experience of being there, but this review is written to address a book I bought at a gift stall just inside the exit, The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple, written by the current 'Master of the Temple', Robin Griffith-Jones.

The book is a short, simple read with a target audience of those sightseers who visit the church because of its Da Vinci Code connection. It seeks to redress some of the misconceptions about the religious conspiracies and historical fantasies Dan Brown's novel plays with, giving a brief overview of some of the main controversies the novel generated, some mythbusting on the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei and Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper', and an abridged history of the Knights Templar. It ends with a discussion of the connection between Jesus and Mary Magdalene that The Da Vinci Code exploits.

It's all interesting stuff – Dan Brown tilled worthy soil – but prospective readers should bear in mind the book is an introduction rather than an exploration. Still less is it a book that titillates with those exciting conspiracies and religious mysteries; Griffith-Jones is even-handed, neutral and patiently tolerant. He knows the readers are here for the mystery and when he throws cold water over some of those mysteries he does so gently and without scorn.

I would have liked more on the Temple Church itself, but then again there were other books on the church's history I could have picked up at the stall if I had wished. Griffith-Jones' book does retain some value even to those of us who've already heard of Jacques de Molay and the orb-less knight's tomb, not least when he points out that Dan Brown's book, and those like it, thrive in no small part because the church and its various orders and sects are often secretive and have often sought power, making religious conspiracies completely plausible in principle. When Griffith-Jones points out that the conspiracies and the suspicion of religious power "still appeal today to those of us who refuse to submit to the arrogance of churches that have simply lost all sight of their founder, his life and ideals" (pg. 12), he makes a very pertinent point, one worthy of being housed in this impressive Templar church. ...more

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The Clockwork Tartan by Raymond St. Elmo

The Clockwork Tartan (Quest of the Five Clans #4)
by Raymond St. Elmo (Goodreads Author)

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"Rubicon's bridge in flames, I tread further." (pg. 4)

Four books in to author Raymond St. Elmo's Five Clans series, I'm still not entirely sure what it is I'm reading. A sort of bizarre, erudite, shape-shifting adventure that is simultaneously verbos ...more

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Eifelheim
by Michael Flynn

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A fine idea for a story that I deeply regret to say is less than the sum of its parts. The concept is that in the 14th century, during the Black Death, an alien spaceship crash-lands outside a German village and, in the months that follow, its occupa A fine idea for a story that I deeply regret to say is less than the sum of its parts. The concept is that in the 14th century, during the Black Death, an alien spaceship crash-lands outside a German village and, in the months that follow, its occupants interact with the God-fearing people there. Eifelheim sees the majority of its pages devoted to this story of 'Then', with author Michael Flynn providing a dense and detail-rich account of this compelling First Contact, mostly from the point-of-view of Pastor Dietrich, the village priest. Interspersed between these chapters are those of 'Now', as a modern-day historian and scientist duo seek to penetrate the mystery of this village of 'Eifelheim', which German folk legend says was possessed by 'demons' and was never resettled.

This separation between 'Then' and 'Now' is useful in diagnosing why I found Eifelheim compelling but was also left frustrated and disappointed. The 'Now' chapters are in effect an Eifelheim novella that Flynn published twenty years earlier, in which the two modern-day scholars theorise on the cursed village and dig up its mysteries. Its ending is prime novella territory, affecting and profound as the culmination of the original short novella, but which somewhat under-serves a reader who has endured through the much larger novel.

In light of this, the 'Then' chapters are a sort of world-building expansion of that original novella. In some ways, this is excellent: Flynn has clearly done his research and his vivid depiction of 14th-century life and the social mores of medieval Christendom show that, to a modern reader, perhaps the extra-terrestrials are not the only 'aliens'. How the villagers think and react to the actual aliens, who they call the Krenkel, is quite realistic. I deeply enjoyed this portrayal of First Contact; how the medieval villagers try to understand or conceptualise the advanced alien technology, but also how the aliens try to understand the humans' Christian worldview and adapt to it. These chapters have a great wealth of cerebral reward and verisimilitude; you can readily believe that a First Contact would play out like this.

That said, verisimilitude and world-building ought to be a means to an end, not an end in itself. It should be there to serve a wider story and, to be frank, I spent a lot of Eifelheim's dense 500 pages waiting for something to just, well, happen. There are affecting moments – the aliens' awe at the harmony and counterpoint of the church music (pp217-20) was quite striking, as was their embrace of Christian notions of self-sacrifice – but it's easy to lose track; not only of characters (only Dietrich and Hans stood apart) but also motivations (when some of the aliens left but others stayed, I felt I didn't really know why).

While the 'Then' chapters were better-written, I found myself grateful whenever there was one of the brief 'Now' chapters, because at least there was bit of movement, a bit of dynamism there. Not enough, I grant: when towards the end, the scholars head to Eifelheim to literally attempt to dig up the mystery, I felt both anticipation but also disappointment. Because this was happening in the final few pages, whereas I had expected this – the mystery, the investigation, the discovery, and the fallout as mankind grapples with its proof of First Contact – to have been what Eifelheim was about in its entirety, not just in its final pages. This was the story I expected to read when I first heard of the concept of the book.

But even if my preconceptions were misguided, I would have been happy so long as something else had been put in their place. But there's a real dearth of plot: I expected some grand things to happen, some jeopardy, some mystery or betrayal, some larger purpose or exposure to the wider world outside the village. Not melodrama or soap-opera, and not even a clichéd government conspiracy or majestic inter-worlds cataclysm, but for something.

Instead, neither the 'Then' or 'Now' stories seem to have an end-goal, and the story peters out. It never really finds that extra gear to really grip the reader and elevate the story. And considering the fantastic concept and the success in making its world convincing, it's a real shame it doesn't find that gear. Eifelheim is a fulfilling cerebral exercise, to be sure, but one performed on a treadmill. The reader by the end finds they have been merely running in place. ...more

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A High Wind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes

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While capable in what it does, Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica remains a slightly disappointing read. I was not one of those who went into the book expecting a fun pirate adventure with children à la Treasure Island and consequently came out d While capable in what it does, Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica remains a slightly disappointing read. I was not one of those who went into the book expecting a fun pirate adventure with children à la Treasure Island and consequently came out disillusioned; I knew the makeup of the book from the start. Set in an indeterminate point in the early-to-mid 1800s, a group of children aged between three years old and thirteen are sent by their parents in the Jamaica colony back to England. Mid-voyage, they are waylaid and kidnapped by pirates. What follows is a subtle exploration of the dynamics between the children and their captors, and their increasingly disturbing innocence as they are exposed to this cruel and unusual world.

It's akin to Lord of the Flies, then; William Golding's classic about the innocent brutality of children when thrown into a savage environment is an easy and yet appropriate analogue to A High Wind in Jamaica. Appropriate because Hughes achieves that same disturbing effect as Golding, making the reader uncomfortable at the depiction of violence, trauma and paedophilia through the children's eyes. Its detached, neutral tone in implying the, ahem, attention the sailors pay to the eldest girl child, from the point of view of the other children, is disorienting. It's so alien to the children they don't even notice it, and so subtle that many readers will miss it. As Meg Rosoff writes in her Afterword to the Vintage edition of the book, "an adult mind is required to fill in the blanks" (pg. 180).

That said, the book is subtle almost to a fault. So much can get missed, to the point that the reader is left studying the book and re-reading lines, just in case they missed anything, rather than reading it. And, by the end, it's rather less than the sum of its parts; these are the least exciting and – aside from the pawing of Margaret and, arguably, Emily – the least threatening pirates that ever existed, a toothless sack of drunks and lechers who drift through the story without dynamism and whose comeuppance feels almost hapless. And the way the children are written, you feel they are older than they actually are.

I'm a big fan of subtlety in writing, but by the end of the book I was a bit perplexed at what the point of it all was. The story lacks the iconography or reading-group themes that have kept Lord of the Flies in circulation, and while it would generate discussion among readers it would be mostly along the lines of figuring out what happened and what was missed, rather than the more interesting debate of why and to what effect. Literary exercises in subtlety are great in small doses (Hemingway's short stories, such as 'Hills Like White Elephants' and 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber', are quite rightly considered exemplars of this) but begin to wear in longer fiction. A High Wind in Jamaica loses the wind in its sails as it throws up heavy canvas to achieve its single effect. It achieves it, but at what cost? ...more

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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
by Dylan Thomas

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Some poets have a way with words, but Dylan Thomas had a way with the rhythm of words. Many of his poems are lyrical ciphers, hard to parse on a line-by-line basis but which have a roll to them which carries you along. When Thomas matched that roll w ...more

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Adiós, Hemingway (Mario Conde, #5)
by Leonardo Padura

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As a thriller, Adiós Hemingway is moderately diverting, if a tad under-par. It's my first introduction to the author's Mario Conde detective novels and not a wholly convincing one. Leonardo Padura Fuentes is a capable enough writer, but there was not ...more

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