Absynthe by Brendan Bellecourt – Review

Published: December 7, 2021

Publisher: DAW Books

Series: Standalone

Genre: Science Fiction, Alternate History

Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
In his sci-fi debut, Bellecourt explores an alternate roaring 20s where a shell-shocked soldier must uncover latent telepathic abilities to save himself and the people around him.

Liam Mulcahey, a reclusive, shell-shocked veteran, remembers little of the Great War. Ten years later, when he is caught in a brutal attack on a Chicago speakeasy, Liam is saved by Grace, an alluring heiress who’s able to cast illusions. Though the attack appears to have been committed by the hated Uprising, Grace believes it was orchestrated by Leland De Pere–Liam’s former commander and the current President of the United States.

Meeting Grace unearths long-buried memories. Liam’s former squad, the Devil’s Henchmen, was given a serum to allow telepathic communication, transforming them into a unified killing machine. With Grace’s help, Liam begins to regain his abilities, but when De Pere learns of it, he orders his militia to eliminate Liam at any cost.

But Liam’s abilities are expanding quickly. When Liam turns the tables and digs deeper into De Pere’s plans, he discovers a terrible secret. The same experiment that granted Liam’s abilities was bent toward darker purposes. Liam must navigate both his enemies and supposed allies to stop the President’s nefarious plans before they’re unleashed on the world. And Grace is hiding secrets of her own, secrets that could prove every bit as dangerous as the President’s.

I’m sure I’m not the only person to have missed the fact that Absynthe was written by Bradley P. Beaulieu under a pseudonym, which explains why I enjoyed the story so much. He masterfully crafted a whole world in his Song of the Shattered Sands series and though this is leagues different, it is once again a fascinating world. While I personally thought it was great, I can certainly see how this alternate history/sci-fi mashup could be somewhat polarizing in terms of enjoyment.

First off, imagine a steampunk version of the 1920s where technology has advanced a fair bit further than in our own timeline. Lots of robots, flying is much more commonplace, and fancy bullet trains are the new hot topic. BUT, then imagine that the United States was the instigator of World War I and that we were facing off against an alliance consisting of Canada, France, Great Britain, and Germany. Much of the war was fought in the United States around the Great Lakes region and it all started because the United States decided to steal research from Germany, which would ultimately lead to the creation of a mind-altering drug. Initially, during the war the drug was tested on an elite group of soldiers who called themselves the Devil’s Henchmen and it gave them the ability to briefly use telekinesis to communicate which gave them an incredible advantage on the battlefield. By the end of the war, it was developed to the point that it became a permanent state.

Enter our main character – Liam Mulcahey – former member of the Devil’s Henchman and one of the only ones still alive. The kicker is that he remembers none of this because he apparently suffered a traumatic injury that stripped him of many of his wartime memories. When we first meet him, he’s accompanying his longtime friend Morgan to the inauguration of a new bullet train by the President himself. He’s excited because he served with President de Pere during the war and is looking forward to seeing both the new train and de Pere’s speech… until a rebel group attacks the event and Liam sees something he shouldn’t have. He’s then attacked while at a speakeasy, but is saved by a woman named Grace who introduces him to an old friend and clarifies some things about his past. What happens afterward is a wild ride, full of illusion, conspiracies, and trying to save Morgan from a terrible fate.

This was such a cool, creative story and it was not what I expected on many levels. It was a far more alternate history than I was expecting, which I do think will throw some readers for a loop and possibly put them off. The synopsis doesn’t quite expound on how different it is, but I personally enjoyed that surprise after my initial WTF moment. I like the sci-fi/steampunk elements and the supersoldier aspect of the story, PLUS then you get into government mind-control stuff which was pretty wild too. This is hands down one of the craziest stories I’ve read this year and it was GREAT! The plot was unpredictable, mostly because this was very different from my usual reads, but I like throwing in something new and fun for my reading list. If this sounds like your jam, please do check it out!