Big God Network
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"Immerse And Be Manifest!"
Male
99 years old
Andromeda Station, California
United States
Last Login: 10/3/2008
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http://www.myspace.com/biggodnetwork |
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Big God Network's Interests
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| General | science fiction, fantasy fiction, political satire, cyberspace, virtual reality, cults, UFOs, Roswell, Area 51, Bali, evangelicals, Mormons, Osho, Rajneesh, transcendence, brainwashing, the rapture, post-America, fever dreams | | Music | world music, Brazilian music, bossa nova, jazz, blues, classical, samba, gamelan, mbube, shakuhachi, Afro-Celts, Buddha Bar, Thievery Corporation, St. Germain, Mozart, Enya, Peter Gabriel, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Toure, Marisa Monte, Kate Bush, Tom Jobim | | Movies | Bladerunner, 2001, Total Recall, Minority Report, Tron, The Matrix, Elmer Gantry, The Rapture, The Apostle, Lawnmower Man, Communion, Fire in the Sky | | Television | X-Files, The Lone Gunmen, The 4400, Stargate, Star Trek, Big Love, Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock | | Books | Solaris, Ubik, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, Neuromancer, Roadside Picnic, True Names, Hero With A Thousand Faces, The Masks Of God, Sangoma, Under The Banner of Heaven, Cat's Cradle, The Sirens Of Titan, Crazy For God, Bhagwan: The God That Failed, Take Me For A Ride, The Ghost Dance, Cults In Our Midst, The Peyote Cult |
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Big God Network's Details
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| Status: | Married | | Here for: | Networking, Friends | | Hometown: | Pacifica, Post-America | | Body type: | 0' 0" | | Religion: | Other | | Zodiac Sign: | Aries | | Occupation: | Novelist |
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Big God Network's Networking
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Big God Network is in your extended network
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Big God Network's Latest Blog Entry
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CJBooks.net features The Big God Network
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Author Nomi Prins reviews The Big God Network
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Shadow Forest Authors: Promoting Literacy
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The Perseids: the Meteor Shower of the Year
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Author Chat at Library Thing: J.C. McGowan & The Big God Network
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Big God Network's Blurbs |
About me:
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 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 author Nomi Prins ("Jacked: How 'Conservatives' Are Picking Your Pocket") at amazon.com: "A masterpiece tale of techno sci-fi [and] political-cultural-economic commentary...incredibly funny, sardonic, visionary, and well-written....Moving at page-turning speed, the story has lots of action and well-drawn characters. But, broader than that, The Big God Network's themes are scarily potential outcomes based on the country's current direction. The details, humor and observations are exquisite. Hopefully, McGowan is working on the next installment, because once you put the Big God Network down, you want to pick it up again."
PRAISE from astrophysicist and science-fiction author Mike Brotherton: "Interesting and entertaining...Insightful political commentary."
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.
BOOK REVIEW from Media-Studies professor RHMMM at amazon.com:
"It is written in an extremely tight, quickly intercut cinematic style that is new and refreshing…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."
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 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."
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!"
PRAISE FROM Robert Winters:
"Loved THE BIG GOD NETWORK
Viva Pacifica!
Let the secession begin!"
BGN INTERACTIVE GUIDE at MySpace:
Baba Ed (UFO Guru & Former Rugby Star)
Offworld (Space Cult based atop White Mountain)
Sally Simkin (Alluring Offworld Acolyte)
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).
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:
BOOK SOURCES:
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)
The Big God Network (at barnesandnoble.com)
The Big God Network (featured at cjbooks.net)
MEDIA INQUIRIES:
andromedastation2025@yahoo.com
(or leave a message here)
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Who I'd like to meet:
literary agents, publishers, poets, book critics, science fiction enthusiasts, cyberpunks, satirists, humanitarians, saints, sinners, ETs, astronomers, astronauts, cult members, deprogrammers, gurus, swamis, dakinis, yogis, yetis, fanatics, visionaries
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