Absynthe follows Liam Mulcahey, a veteran who saw little action during the war since his primary responsibility was as a mechanic that maintained the mechanized armored battle suits the fighting boys used. That being said, he knows he did see some kind of combat since he occasionally has flashes of memory of making a last stand in a trench. The problem is, much of his memory from the war was lost due to a head injury, so he isn't exactly sure how he ended up in the thick of combat. He knows it must have been one hell of a fight though if the brass decided to put the grease monkeys on the front lines.
When Absynthe opens up, Liam and his friend Morgan are headed to a celebration with enough notoriety that President Leland De Pere himself, a highly decorated war hero, will be attending. It's through De Pere's speech that the reader gets some interesting insights into the difference between Liam's world and our own. For one, the opposing forces had England and Canada joining Germany's side against the United States. On top of that, the US itself seems to have been the primary theater in that war.
Readers are also treated to some interesting technological differences between our worlds. In an almost steampunk style, robotic servants called mechanika exist for the wealthy. These assistants aren't so popular that there is one in every home, but they are ubiquitous enough that they don't cause a scene when they are seen. Similar to the mechanika, there is also the technology behind the armored battle suits that were popularized in the war. Both of these technologies, as well as a few other key differences found in Liam's world, are more than enough to explain the radically different political landscape we see in Absynthe.
Liam's story takes a quick and sudden change when he and Morgan are out drinking with some friends and Morgan starts to get sick. When Liam takes Morgan to see a doctor, he quickly finds the government taking Morgan into custody. In an attempt to find answers, Liam ends up locating and joining the Uprising, an underground group who feels the US government has committed some kind of evil that must be exposed. At first, Liam wants to use the Uprising in order to find and free Morgan, but he quickly learns that there is more going on than he understands. To make matters worse, it seems he also has some kind of strange ability, and the Uprising intends to take advantage of him as much as he wants to take advantage of them.
Absynthe explores some interesting concepts involving perception and psychic abilities. As Liam learns more about the Uprising and what the government appears to be doing in secret, he also learns more about himself and his own confused wartime history. As Liam regains his memories, he starts to learn what actually happened on the front lines, but when those memories start to go in an unexpected direction, he has to wonder if he can even trust what is coming to the surface. Without going too far into spoiler territory, it can be said that Liam's world and those he thinks he knows are not what they seem to be, and those revelations end up happening several times throughout the story as a whole, not just when the Uprising initially opens his eyes.
Bellecourt has done an excellent job of crafting an interesting story in Absynthe. I can see this being a one-off story as it has a nice solid ending, but if Bellecourt wants to continue to explore the world described here, I will gladly follow along.
