Absinth & The Song of Synth

A Double Novel
Introduction for Song of Synth by Lucius Shepard
Introduction for Absinth by Paul Witcover
Cover Art: Chris Roberts

Markus Olsen is a former anarchist who several years before, acting as part of a group called the Potemkin Crew, hacked into military systems and succeeded in bringing down five war satellites, costing the government billions of dollars. Sentenced to thirty years in prison, Markus has cut a deal with the government that allows him to live free in return for his service in ferreting out other criminally inclined hackers. Free, that is, except for the wearing of an ankle monitor and the assorted complexes that have arisen from his betrayal of his principles and his compatriots—this betrayal has led to his addiction to Synth, a drug of infinite consolation that seeks to temporize the addict’s every thought and feeling, outfitting them in a more pleasing contextual dress, protecting him from the visceral truth by recasting his experiences as drama and hallucination. Synth, you might say, is narrative, a more functional, efficient and effulgent version of the story with which we caption our lives—it’s as though you were to hire a talented professional to handle the work normally given over to your subconscious.

As well, you’ll meet Iris, a fortune-teller able to see not the future but weirdly anachronistic versions of the past. Sid Saperstein, a shameless huckster chosen to publish a sacred manuscript whose message will shake heaven and earth alike. Hermes, the Greek messenger god, dispatched by Zeus to sound out his fellow deities, still smarting from the licking they took two thousand years ago, on how best to take advantage of the coming changes, whatever they may be. And God Himself, whose enigmatic voice addresses us throughout the novel in the contemporary koans of advertising lingo.

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