The Big God Network [Hardcover]

Finally a new satirical post-cyberpunk (cypherpunk McGowan terms) SF voice with elements of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and the likes but with the added dimensions of Tom Robbins with entheogenic AND spiritual elements that this genre sadly lacks.
The fundamental notion is very probable, being that higher intelligence beyond our solar system is ALREADY here and has been for a long time, if not from the beginning of time; the problem is simply that WE do not realise it nor recognise it.
But other cultures past and present (especially those using sacred plants and shamanic rituals) have always been communing with and learning from it.
But not necessarily realising what it actually was they were in contact with.
The novel is set in a near future America that has been split into various sovereign states and at the core is the battle between the Christian Creationist Fundamentalists and the rest of the population which rejects its narrow minded bible believing apocalyptic jihadist dogma.
The plot is about a cult of alien searching star gazers which develops the technology that it believes will access this intelligence using an advanced VR system with an AI interface to the web and the ensuing battle between the world's most powerful political forces to gain control of this new epoch making technology.
This book deserves a wide audience and hopefully through Amazon many more will synchronistically pick up on it as I did myself.
G

Humor can be in short supply in cyberfiction, which usually takes itself way too seriously. A notable exception is one of my favorite recent science-fiction novels, "The Big God Network" by J.C. McGowan. Much of the book is set in cyberspace, with many scenes charged with satire, sometimes blatant and other times subtle. The chapter "Halfway There" is a sly send-up of William Gibson and WIRED-ish techno-fetishism, while "The Yabyum Palace" (a Tantric cyber sex realm) is both erotic and quite funny. There is an affectionate slice of "fantasy" fiction in "Nigh Errant," while several notable scenes take place in evangelical virtual churches, putting televangelists into cyberspace with disturbing and hilarious takes on the Christian Right (and the Trinity Broadcasting Network preachers). I recommend "The Big God Network" highly, especially to those who are conversant with Vonnegut.

"The Big God Network" is a brilliant debut novel by author J.C. McGowan that mixes near-future sci-fi scenarios, vivid virtual-reality scenes, and gonzo-ish political satire. I heard about it through friends on the Net; it seems to be slowly gaining a cult following.

Published at the tail end of the Bush 43 era, the book predicts that things will get even worse in the U.S. over the next twenty years, resulting in a "post-American" outcome. Some twenty years from now, political polarization splits the United States into a handful of new countries, including liberal Pacifica (the West Coast) and conservative New America, the country's theocratic heartland. The latter is run by a yokel (and funny) president obsessed with the Christian rapture (hmmmm!).

Part of the narrative takes place in cyberspace, where "the Big God Network" is the name of a group of conservative virtual churches. The culture wars are being waged more fiercely than ever before, especially on the Net, and a dystopic New America hopes to bring Pacifica back into the fold. Meanwhile, a wealthy UFO cult called Offworld has developed an AI-laden communications interface called "The Channel" in its quest to establish interactive contact with extraterrestrials. The Channel may tip the balance of power between the new countries. Only Net journalist Franz Sampaio, his wife Dolores Chang, and their Otaku friend Takeshi can keep the Channel from falling into the wrong hands and threatening Pacifica's existence. I don't think I'll be spoiling things by mentioning that the Channel eventually does make contact with something "out there," but in a totally unexpected way. At that point the phrase "big God network" takes on an entirely new meaning.

For the most part, the book is beautifully written. The narrative sometimes has tinges of cyberpunk or (when most biting) Hunter S. Thompson, while elsewhere it recalls Carl Sagan as it gets poetic about the cosmos. Here is a quote from Franz, musing about life and death: "We aren't alone, ultimately. All the life in the universe originated in a singularity, spouses and siblings and neighbors emanated from the galactic womb, and every man carries the birth of the universe in his bones, the atoms of stars in his blood, and billions of years in his stride. And after we die, we will leave a progeny of matter scattered through this world, in the flora and fauna, its rocks and its rain, and molecules drifting into space, there to be absorbed into new worlds, emerging universes. The matter of all time is what our ashes shall ultimately be, while in the night sky shines a firmament of our far-flung, long-lost cousins."

"The Big God Network" is rich with culture and tech references, often worked into sly satire. The Altair, the first personal computer, is mentioned, as are Afro-Brazilian religions, SETI, Wiccan witches, the Yakuza, computer-pioneer Alan Kay, environmentalist John Muir, gamelan music, Saturn's moons, Amazonian hallucinatory vines, and the Kama Sutra, to give a few examples. The weaving of this into the narrative is one of the great pleasures of the book, along with highly believable near-future scenes in Bali, Tokyo and Los Angeles. And, holding it all together, "The Big God Network" has a fast-paced, suspenseful plot that just roars along. I highly recommend it for both hard-core science-fiction readers and those who seldom dip into the genre.