Book Recommendation: Ronald Reagan's Brilliant Bullet by Frederick Gero Heimbach
Put a whole bunch of awesome things into a blender, and out comes this charming book.
Ronald Reagan’s Brilliant Bullet by Frederick Gero Heimbach is an alternate history-slash-political thriller-slash-sci-fi/fantasy-slash-action adventure novel published in 2020. It is a quirky, fun read, and highly recommended.
I believe the best way for me to summarize this work is first to break it down into two parts. This novel is a blend of two different aesthetics or genres, each with its own expectations and payoffs.
The first is an alternate history/political thriller story. It is, as you would imagine with “Ronald Reagan” in the title, set in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan has just been elected to office, and the milieu of the Cold War with its tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States informs the motivations for the principal characters of the novel. Most of these characters are top government officials from the era including Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Secretary of State Al Haig, and (perhaps surprisingly) Reverend Billy Graham. A fictional US Representative from South Dakota serves as one of Reagan’s antagonists throughout as well.
Within the narrative you have everything you’d expect from a Cold War-era political thriller: secret Soviet machinations, political conspiracy and backstabbing within the US government, the ever-looming threat of a nuclear holocaust. Not only does this novel expertly weave various political storylines together in thrilling and often unexpected ways, it never gets too bogged down in the minutiae of 1980s politics and history. It has enough to excite and delight the history nerd (like me) but is straightforward enough that even someone unfamiliar with the people and time period will not miss anything and be able to fully follow along with the plot.
The second aspect of this novel is its action sci-fi/fantasy adventure nature. This story includes strange and advanced technologies, occult magic, cryptic religious societies, secret government facilities in unexpected places, and hidden double-lives of intrigue. I won’t get more specific than that because a good amount of the charm of this book is being surprised by the sundry fantasy and sci-fi elements as they are revealed throughout the story. I constantly found myself surprised and charmed by the weird and wonderful directions this work takes, and I would not want to deny this same thrill of discovery to a new reader. If those various sci-fi/fantasy elements mentioned earlier intrigue you rather than repel you, you’ll find much to enjoy in this book.
Perhaps more important than the premise is how this text reads. It is well-paced and comprises chapters on the shorter side. I tend to prefer shorter chapters as a reader because I often have the “well I’ll just read one more chapter” effect three or four times before I finally put the book down. As stated earlier, the novel has plenty of surprises, both in terms of its sci-fi/fantasy elements, but also in terms of its characters and plot. I certainly did not know where the story was going most of the time, and that kept me thoroughly engaged up until the end. Each figure, both the historical and fictional ones, is distinct and memorable. I could often hear Ronald Reagan’s distinctive voice in my head as I read.
Certainly, this is a book that is right down my lane: an alternate history featuring a US president with an odd-ball genre twist. I can only speculate as to why that may interest me. While I’m biased in that regard, I unabashedly say this novel was an excellent read, and I heartily recommend it.
The author intimates he could continue the book into a series if there is enough demand, and so this is my small contribution to try and garner the groundswell for such an endeavor. I would love to continue my journey through this crazy alternate 80s world of Ronald Reagan’s Brilliant Bullet. So I recommend you buy and review this book so I can selfishly have more!