THE SETTTING: Twenty years from now, the United States has fragmented into liberal Pacifica (the West Coast), theocratic New America (the heartland), and other new nations. Against this contentious political backdrop, Baba Ed, the leader of a wealthy UFO cult, seeks contact with extraterrestrial civilizations via the Channel, a breakthrough communications interface with a high “AIQ†that renders the most secure system vulnerable, and threatens the new balance of power. McGowan envisions a dystopic New America ruled by evangelicals who hope to bring Pacifica back into the fold, and the Channel may offer the means to subdue the “secular†region. Or to protect it, if the book’s hero Franz Sampaio is successful in his quest.
THE COVER was designed by graphic artist Cristina Portella , who has created album covers for Milton Nascimento, Maria Rita, Gilberto Gil, and other renowned Brazilian musicians.
BOOK REVIEW from Celtoid9 at amazon.com :
"McGowan's narrative is a multicultural melange that maintains its sharpness, humor and edge at every turn, with an occasional romp in the hay thrown in to spice up the narrative. Readers should be ready and willing to travel anywhere at a moment's notice, because Big God Network will take them to far-flung corners of the world at a breakneck pace, from Bali and Tokyo to LA and then back to cyberspace again. Fans of the cyberpunk masters, such as William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, will be right at home here. This book has it all -- virtual reality, New Age spirituality, cybersex, UFOs, extraterrestrials, tele-cyber-evangelists, Yakuza -- and then some. The brisk pacing keeps the pages turning rapidly. I loved this book, and was sorry to see it end. Highly recommended!"
BOOK REVIEW from Brian Keith at amazon.com :
"McGowan's excellent debut sci-fi novel is a good take on the concept of self -awareness on the net, mixed with the depressing specter of End-timers running the government. He keeps it light with very aptly named products and corporate mergers of the future. The line between reality and virtual worlds is convincingly blurred as the story unfolds and the action is well written and fast paced."
BOOK REVIEW from Baz at amazon.com :
"What a good read!. J.C. McGowan takes the cultural wars going on in the USA today to their logical conclusion. In a not-too-distant future the USA has split, literally, into red and blue states. There is the saintly Pacifica, containing California, Oregon etc (think of a country run by the radio network of the same name and you're pretty close) and then there's the sinister Jesus-land of N'Am (New America), a run-down heartland hell-on-earth run by and for cynical televangelist plutocrats. This makes for truly compulsive reading for religion-obsessed conspiracy theorists... (awright, I admit it). But it's also a real page-turner, with a nice sci-fi mystery, and it's very funny. The purple passages of randy (but virtual) sexual encounters had me hooting. Everything is gloriously over the top here, but the author just gleefully glides you along, and his subtle comic barbs just get sharper."
BOOK REVIEW from author Marc Ladewig ("Odysseus: The Epic Myth of the Hero") at amazon.com :
The Big God Network is written in a page turning style. The scenes flow quickly like cuts in an action movie. The story is a romp, jumping back and forth from Bali to Japan to California, and it is fun...But there is an aspect to this first novel of J.C. McGowan which lifts it above the mere level of comedy and elevates it to true social commentary. “Virtual Reality As Obsession†is handled with deep insight and compassion, psychologically and socially. The nausea of artificiality and yearning for real life experience and true love of the character Takeshi ring true not only in the novel but also in our day and age as well among video game addicted thirty-somethings...The Big God Network is an excellent vacation read while sitting on a beach sipping something tall and cool.
PRAISE FROM RE-VO , the Mad Prophet of Rock:
"BGN blew me away. It's exciting, funny, sometimes poignant, and always witty. It uses the powerful medium of sci-fi to make numerous statements about important global transformation issues, from ecology through oppression through fundamentalist dogma....It’s the best sci-fi since Vonnegut."
BGN INTERACTIVE GUIDE at MySpace:
Baba Ed (UFO Guru & Former Rugby Star)
Offworld (Space Cult based atop White Mountain)
Sally Simkin (Alluring Offworld Acolyte)
Sally Simkin Admiration Society (MySpace Group)
Yabyum Palace (Cybersex Realm)
Io & Callisto (Galactus Celebration Coordinators)
Owinda (High Priestess of Pacifican Covens)
Arwin (ex-JPL CosmoGaian)
New America (Red States United)
The Network (Amazon Ayahuasca Secret Society)
BGN EXCERPTS:
The Big God Network (Excerpts) .
The Big God Network (at amazon.com)
The Big God Network (at amazon.co.uk)
The Big God Network (at amazon.ca Canada)
The Big God Network (at amazon.fr France)
The Big God Network (at amazon.de Germany)
The Big God Network (at amazon.jp Japan)
MEDIA INQUIRIES:
[email protected]
(or leave a message here)
^ ^ ^