About me: "The Big God Network," a novel by J.C. McGowan
"Finally a new satirical post-cyberpunk SF voice with elements of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and the likes but with the added dimensions of Tom Robbins...and spiritual elements that this genre sadly lacks." --Grant Garden, Amazon U.K.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: J.C. McGowan's science-fiction debut The Big God Network blends the wry humor of Kurt Vonnegut with the cosmic scope of Carl Sagan and the edgy near-future scenarios of William Gibson. The novel explores the clash of culture and religion in cyberspace and post-America; the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and higher powers; and, the socio-cultural impact of "virtual life" on our existence, as it takes us on an imaginative, breathless ride through Bali, Tokyo, California, and exotic virtual worlds that range from the fantasy realm of Nigh Errant to the erotic Yabyum Palace to the evangelical Church of the Good Citizen.
THE SETTING: 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. A dystopic New America ruled by evangelicals hopes 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.
REVIEWS:
Author Nomi Prins ("Jacked: How 'Conservatives' Are Picking Your Pocket"): "A masterpiece tale of techno sci-fi [and] political-cultural-economic commentary...incredibly funny, sardonic, visionary, and well-written."
Astrophysicist and science-fiction author Mike Brotherton: "Interesting and entertaining...Insightful political commentary."
Rex Allen of Curled Up With A Good Book: "[McGowan's] extrapolation of current technological and societal trends is highly believable."
J. Emilio Rondeau, The Mars Quarterly: "Funny, political and visionary...the novel references ideas familiar to readers of scientist-authors like Michio Kaku. It is downright rhapsodic about the universe."
Author Patrick Barrett ("Shakespeare’s Cuthbert"): “One of the most original things I have read.”
Gwendolyn Toynton of the online journal Primordial Traditions: "The Big God Network reveals a unique alternative vision of the future, with richly portrayed characters and well thought out scenarios that are both creative and intelligent....Anyone who enjoys William Gibson and knows even a little about religion or mythology will enjoy reading this book."
Author Marc Ladewig ("Odysseus: The Epic Myth of the Hero"): "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."
Media-Studies professor Reeves Medaglia-Miller at George Brown College/Ryerson University: "As in any great work by Vonnegut, Heinlein, or Leven…multiple plotlines gradually merge up until the stunning conclusion, when the characters come together in a grand Fellini-style finale of both mayhem and resolution. The author must have used a complex flowchart in order to make sense of his many narrative threads, and yet, for the reader, the flow is smooth and effortless."
Baz at Amazon.com: "J.C. McGowan takes the cultural wars going on in the USA today to their logical conclusion...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."
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."
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."
Celtoid9 at Amazon.com: "Fans of the cyberpunk masters, such as William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, will be right at home here."
Praise from Robert Winters:
"Loved THE BIG GOD NETWORK
Viva Pacifica!
Let the secession begin!"
Author J.C. McGowan has published non-fiction books with Temple University Press and Random House. This is his first novel and is available here:
The moment that we have all dreaded is finally here: dangerous politico rocker RE-VO's CD "XII" will be pressed by tomorrow (at 12:00... merely coincidence? I think not). This, of course, as I predicted, is yet another sign of the impending apocalypse. Not surprisingly, strange things are already occurring. We obtained advance copies of the work through RE-VO's disgusting, orgiastic "dreamland11" website. During our "XII blasphemies" research sessions, which included allowing our devout test subjects to listen to the obscene album on their home stereos and in their cars, numerous listeners reported hearing the words "Baba Ed is dead" buried in the final epic song's colossal climax. Is this some sick attempt to create a Beatles-style frenzy for his obvious Liberal Cosmogaian sentiments? Even stranger and more disgraceful is the report, mostly by former hardcore RE-VO geeks (who are now blessed members of the ACC), of the backward-masked soundbite "Sally Simkin lusts for RE-VO" embedded in the opening number's (ironically entitled "Eliminate Desire") extended sound effects sequence. Our researchers (particularly those of anti-Freudian evangelistic persuasion) have theorized that this is merely wishful thinking and projective identification on the part of the fans, but, needless to say, we are concerned about this. I encourage all BGN followers to boycott RE-VO products, to write nasty letters to dreamland@myspace.com, and to pray for the demise of the evil Cosmogaians and their unholy Pacifica. Oh, yes... and send me $10 million or God will come to claim my soul.
STARRY NIGHT BY VINCENT VAN GOGH The painting Starry Night is one of the most famous icons of the night sky ever created. The scene was painted by Vincent van Gogh in southern France in 1889. The swirling style of Starry Night appears, to many, to make the night sky come alive. Although van Gogh frequently portrayed real settings in his paintings, art historians do not agree on precisely what stars and planets are being depicted in Starry Night. The style of Starry Night is post-impressionism, a popular painting style at the end of the nineteenth century.
MAGICAL DREAMS MY DEARLY FRIEND ~★~ ~GALACTIC KISS~ Sam
Thank you, dear space-brothers and sisters, for staying tuned to the arduous saga of the creation of "XII." Anything worth doing takes titanic effort (as you, at BGN, well know), and thus, we have labored to make "XII" be worthy of the expectations of all Cosmogaians everywhere. In fact, probably as a direct result of our two-year creative journey, our marketing research indicates that, about midway through track 12, listeners actually see and hear something like a BG (big god).... mission accomplished! However, perhaps due to our recent blurring of the brand identification at the past two Galactus celebrations, some listeners report envisioning a BE or Big E (big Elvis). We are still working on this visionary error, and plan to have the situation corrected in a matter of days. As the stars will have it, RE-VO
From Sagittarius to Scorpius, the central Milky Way is a truly beautiful part of planet Earth's night sky. The gorgeous region is captured here, an expansive gigapixel mosaic of 52 fields spanning 34 by 20 degrees in 1200 individual images and 200 hours of exposure time. Part of ESO's Gigagalaxy Zoom Project, the images were collected over 29 nights with a small telescope under the exceptionally clear, dark skies of the ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile. The breathtaking cosmic vista shows off intricate dust lanes, bright nebulae, and star clusters scattered through our galaxy's rich central starfields. Starting on the left, look for the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae, the Cat's Paw, the Pipe dark nebula, and the colorful clouds of Rho Ophiuchi and Antares.
Enjoy your weekend my Dear friend. Nice to Welcome you in my Universe. ★GALACTIC LOVE★ ~Sam~
Emily: I am very distressed that there is a Big Bod network. I am tired of seeing late night infomercials that make fun of large people, always stressing the need to be thin, in this shamelessly looksist culture. Ab-crunch this and Thigh-master that... it's a darn shame. Large people go through life thinking that they are too ample and too abundant in the midrift and in the derriere, if you'll pardon my French. Why, I am myself am somewhat large in the booty, and do I go around talking about it or showing it on TV? Why does there have to be a network that... RE-VO: Excuse me, Emily... Emily: ... calls attention to people's allegedly big bods... RE-VO: Emily! Emily: Yes? RE-VO: That's "Big GOD." The book is called "Big GOD Network," not "Big BOD Network." It is called a "Big GOD" Network because Mr. McGowan's ingenious science-fiction magnum opus tells of a not-so-distant future when America will be governed by backward, theocratic right-wing fundamentalists and mad preachers who suppress and control their constituents. It's "Big GOD Network," not "Big BOD Network." Emily: Ohhh... well, that's a very different thing altogether......... Never mind.
In the East for thousands of years, disciples have been sitting by the side of the master, just doing nothing. It looks strange to the Western mind: what is the point of sitting there? If you go to a Sufi gathering, the master is sitting in the middle, and all around his disciples are sitting silently, nothing is happening, the master is not even saying anything. hours pass...
Well, it IS starting to happen, just as I predicted:
COSMOGAIAN HIPPIES SWARM WHITE MOUNTAIN Bertold Montebianco (United Press), Andromeda Station California, August 13, 2009
"Yesterday, over 50,000 people, young and old, dressed like their favourite Offworld celebrities, gathered at a place about 12,400 feet in the air, at the site of the old Barcroft Station where former rugby star "Baba Ed" built the lavish Andromeda Station, the headquarters of his "Offworld" religion. Explained in the non-fiction book, The Big God Network, by journalist J.C. (Chris) McGowan, the Offworld cult believes that humanity finds its origins in outer space, and that spacemen may be contacted through a multi-billion dollar telecommunication device, built by entrepreneur Baba Ed. The celebration was star-studded, featuring Celine Dion, who appeared with the world-renowned cosmic beat-poets Lucid Screaming. McGowan and his friend Scott Osgood delighted the crowd with their hilarious political poetry, accompanied by the incongruous strains of Dion singing "My Heart will Go On." Later, Dion commented that she felt the collaboration was the high point in her career. Phish, fronted by Vegas legend Tom Jones, were a big hit with their grunge-ska rendition of "She's a Lady." After debuting their new album in its entirety, headliner, RE-VO, ended the colossal concert beneath the stunning Perseids meteor shower, with a metal version of "MacArthur Park" (see Baba Ed's site for lyrics) as over 1,000 Flying Elvises descended on the mountain. In related news, yesterday, there were over 500 UFO sitings in California."
Congratulations, my space-brothers and sisters.
As the stars will have it, Peace, love, and space-brotherhood, RE-VO
Planets orbit stars in the same direction that the stars rotate. They all do. Except one. A newfound planet orbits the wrong way, backward compared to the rotation of its host star. Its discoverers think a near-collision may have created the retrograde orbit, as it is called. The star and its planet, WASP-17, are about 1,000 light-years away. The setup was found by the UK's Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) project in collaboration with Geneva Observatory. The discovery was announced today but has not yet been published in a journal. "I would have to say this is one of the strangest planets we know about," said Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT who was not involved in the discovery. What's going on FULL STORY ON CNN AND YAHOO
Hello, Big God Network (if that is your real name)....
I am strongly urging all who read this comment to attend a legal protest of Mr. McGowan's Liberal orgy, the Galactus celebration, to be held on August 12 at White Mountain, California. I will be organizing bus services out of Los Angeles (meet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 11:00 in the morning). There will be prayer sessions conducted both on the buses and once we have arrived at Satan's (aka Stalin's) lair. Liberals like Mr. McGowan need to know that their Communist, long-haired, hippie shenanigans and their wild sex orgies will not be tolerated by decent, wholesome, patriotic Americans like us. McGowan and his Cosmogaian (note: the word "gay" is carefully concealed in this misleading nomenclature) doofuses and their obscene ecological, anti-consumerist ideology fly in the face of all that is great about America. They are constantly wiping their Commie butts with the Constitution and blowing their noses with the Stars and Stripes. I am shocked and appalled by the Marxist tome entitled "The Big God Network" (featuring an openly Lesbian feminist character) and urge all who read this comment to read his pornographic book in order to understand the antithesis of what it means to be an American. Thank you for your support.
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