Absynthe - Brendan Bellecourt

Written by Brendan Bellecourt
Read by Simon Vance
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 14h 36m

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.

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GOODREADS: Liam Mulcahey, a reclusive, shell-shocked veteran, remembers little of the Great War. 10 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.

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FANTASTIC FICTION: The Great War has been over for years, and a brave new world forged. Technology has delivered the future promised at the turn of the century: automata provide, monorail trains flash between mega-cities, medicine is nothing short of magical. Liam grew up poor, but now working for one of the richest families in Chicago, he reaps the benefits of his friendship with the family’s son and heir. That’s why he’s at Club Artemis. It’s a palace of art-deco delights and debauchery, filled to bursting with the rich and beautiful — and tonight they’re all drinking one thing. Absynthe. The green liquor rumored to cause hallucinations, madness, even death. While the gilded youth sip the viridescent liquid, their brave new world is crumbling beneath its perfect surface. Their absynthe is no mere folly. Some it kills, others it transforms. But in Liam something different has taken place. A veil has lifted and he can see the world without its illusion — and it isn’t the perfect world the government want the people to believe.

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WATERSTONES: ‘Inception’ meets ‘Metropolis’, by way of ‘The Great Gatsby’, in a deco-punk tale of unchecked technology, and the unforeseen costs of utopia. The Great War has been over for years, and a brave new world forged. Technology has delivered the future promised at the turn of the century: automata provide, monorail trains flash between mega-cities, medicine is nothing short of magical…

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‘Absynthe’ drew me in with impeccable world-building and nuanced characters, but it’s the exquisite pacing that kept me completely engrossed in this richly imagined yarn. —Jason M. Hough

Set in a lushly depicted alternate roaring 1920s distinguished by futuristic technology… Bellecourt’s sci-fi debut is complex, ambitious, and sweeping in scope. —Publishers Weekly

A heady, addictive cocktail of retro-futurism and high-stakes thriller, Absynthe is fantastical sci-fi at its very best. —Adam Christopher

‘A complex feat of world-building that raises evergreen questions of truth and power with dizzying verve’ —Daily Mail

Jazz age speakeasies and biological warfare makes this a fresh and original addition to the alternate history sci-fi space. Pacific Rim meets Captain America, in magnificent art deco steampunk style.” —Lauren James