The Lost Machine cover art

The Lost Machine

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The Lost Machine

By: Richard Kirk
Narrated by: Jake Ruddle
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About this listen

In a wasteland ravaged by plague, Lumsden Moss steps out of a decaying prison. Armed with a satchel of yellowed notebooks containing the fragile memories of five murdered children, he is determined to track down and confront their killer. Lumsden, accompanied by a stranger, begins a long journey to the ancient City of Steps where he is forced to confront the horrors of the past and present.

©2010 Richard A. Kirk (P)2019 Encyclopocalypse Publications Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant
Moss, a teacher imprisoned for killings he did not commit, escapes from his confinement, travelling through strange countryside to search out and destroy the one he knew was guilty. For much of his journey, Moss is accompanied by a bizarre stanger who also protects him.The
And the above in no way conveys the visions and colours, the 'taste' of the story. Visual and imaginative, this is an odd, rather gruesome beautiful, tale, as before the gorgeous cover art.
Narration by Jake Ruddle was well performed, c!early bringing the text to the reader in a. Inclusive way.

My thanks to the rights holder of The Lost Machine, who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy. An unusual short story with some loose ends, but well worth reading

Life is a series of nested prisons.

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Listener received this title free

Richard A. Kirk renders an engaging short story about confronting the past. Lumsden Moss undergoes a pilgrimage to find the culprit of the violent crime of his past. Over approximately 2 hours Richard A. Kirk and Jake Ruddle take you on a slow and methodical journey through a dark and mystical world with plenty of interesting characters.

The narrator (Jake Ruddle) does a fantastic job of bringing this story to life with good pacing and rhythm. Characters' voices are distinguishable without being over the top (Something that can very easily ruin a book for me). Ruddle's voice is relaxing allowing you the listener to become fully immersed in the story.

Overall it was a great short listen however I found the ending slightly disappointing thus:
Overall: 4/5
Performance: 5/5
Story: 4/5

Disclaimer: This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Brilliant Short Story

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Lumsden Moss escapes confinement after an outbreak of disease wreaks havoc in Brickscold Prison. He moves across a landscape outside its walls that seems infected with the decayed remains of magic. Along his journey he meets characters who are possessed by strange compulsions, and sometimes even stranger desires. Undeterred he moves onward on his own quest.

Somewhere out there in the broken world is a man Moss seeks. A man Moss blames for the disappearance of children. A man that requires justice to be dealt upon him.


Richard A. Kirk creates an adult fairy tale with The Lost Machine. He weaves a series of strange encounters together as his lead character travels the alien world in his search for his foe. The landscape is littered with peculiar characters, and offbeat encounters. The almost abstract world is eloquently described, but becomes bogged down in its desire to be lyrical. As the story unfolds Lumsden Moss develops no real character, and he doesn’t evolve beyond being an avatar for the audience. In itself this isn’t a problem, but the strange encounters he faces begin to blur and when this happens there’s nothing to anchor the reader and keep the momentum moving.

The Lost Machine is well written, but the overall structure becomes muddled and this weakens the denouement. Ultimately I felt The Lost Machine to be an empty experience despite all the pretty prose. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy it, though this seems a contradiction, but my enjoyment was more academic than entertainment. It was an enjoyment of the moments the novelette presented rather than the story as a whole. I felt an underlying disconnection in The Lost Machine, as if the book was written by a hermit who only had vague impressions concerning social interaction. This does add sadness to the work, a bleak kind of beauty. It also adds a perpetual feeling of disquiet. Unfortunately it also adds the disconnection, and allows the prose to act as much a barrier as a carrier of the story.

It’s an interesting piece, this is certain, and a certain type of reader will probably get a lot out of the tale, but whether this is “entertainment” is questionable to me. But then, entertainment is merely a matter of taste, and your taste probably varies considerably from my own.

An Adult Fairy Tale

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