Big God Network Blog Full Post View | List View
Information about the Big God Network novel
- New Science Fiction: The Big God Network
-
"Huffington Post blogger J.C. McGowan has just published a science fiction novel, The Big God Network, that takes America’s culture wars into cyberspace and embeds multiculture in the multiverse. The book adds politics, spirituality and the search for extraterrestrial life to immersion and virtual reality, themes the author examined in his non-fiction work Entertainment in the Cyber Zone: Exploring the Interactive Universe of Multimedia (Random House).
The Big God Network takes place in near-future Bali, Tokyo, and California, and virtual worlds that range from the “Yabyum Palace” (a cyber Tantric sex parlor) to “the Church of the Good Citizen” (an evangelical virtual church) to “Nigh Errant” (a fantasy realm) to various phantasmagoric settings. This work of satirical speculative fiction blends the wry humor of Kurt Vonnegut with the cosmic scope of Carl Sagan and the edgy near-future scenarios of William Gibson.
In McGowan’s vision, set in the 2020s, the current growth in the power of the Christian Right has continued unabated, resulting in some less-than-desirable changes in the American political landscape. The United States has been carved up into a handful of politically themed new countries, including liberal Pacifica (the West Coast) and the country's theocratic heartland, known as New America (run by a president obsessed with the Christian rapture).
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 Pacifican-Brazilian hero Franz Sampaio is successful in his quest."
Interactive Info here:
The Big God Network at MySpace
The book is available here:
The Big God Network (at Amazon.com)
The Big God Network (at Amazon U.K.)
The Big God Network (at Amazon Canada)
The Big God Network (at Amazon.fr France)
The Big God Network (at Amazon.de Germany)
The Big God Network (at Amazon.co.jp Japan)Tags: sciencefictionnovel2008, newsciencefiction, cyberspacenovel, virtualrealityfiction Thursday February 21, 2008 - 04:22pm (PST) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - Excerpts from The Big God Network
-
For those who would like to sample excerpts from the new science-fiction novel "The Big God Network," here is a link:
The Big God Network: Chapter ExcerptsTags: sciencefiction2007, sciencefiction2008, scifinovel, cyberspacebook, vrnovel, culturewars Thursday February 14, 2008 - 06:00am (PST) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - The Culture Wars in Cyberspace: Visit Post-America
-
America’s culture wars invade cyberspace and collide with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in The Big God Network, satirical speculative fiction that blends the wry humor of Kurt Vonnegut with edgy near-future scenarios that suggest William Gibson. Two decades from now, the Christian Right’s aggression has split the U.S.A. into Pacifica (the West Coast), New America (the theocratic heartland), Dinee (Navajo country) and other new nations. Liberal Pacifica is overjoyed to be on its own, yet N’Am’s rapture-obsessed president seeks to take back its heathen, high-tech neighbor to the West and submit it to theocratic law.
Meanwhile, Baba Ed’s wealthy UFO cult Offworld, seeking ET contact, has developed the Channel, a breakthrough communications interface fusing artificial intelligence and quantum neurology. In pursuit of it are ruthless multinationals, wired Evangelicals with virtual churches, a bionic ex-Yakuza, avatar “manifests,” and redneck mercenaries. If N’Am seizes the Channel, it could result in global domination by Fundamentalist extremists and the end of Pacifica’s freedom. Set in post-America and in Bali, Tokyo and Brazil, The Big God Network is an ambitious work from a first-time novelist who has previously published non-fiction books about world music and interactive media.
The book is available here:
The Big God Network (at Amazon.com)
The Big God Network (at Amazon U.K.)
The Big God Network (at Amazon Canada)
The Big God Network (at Amazon.fr France)
The Big God Network (at Amazon.de Germany)
The Big God Network (at Amazon.co.jp Japan)Tags: newsciencefiction, scifi2007, cyberspacenovel, culturewars, virtualchurches, cybersex, quantumneurology Wednesday January 2, 2008 - 04:08am (PST) Permanent Link | 1 Comment
