Book Description

America's culture wars invade cyberspace and collide with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in a new science-fiction novel, The Big God Network. This speculative work satirizes both digital culture and the Christian Right, blending the wry humor of Kurt Vonnegut with the cosmic scope of Carl Sagan, and adding edgy near-future scenarios suggestive of William Gibson.

In the 2020s, tension between non-evangelical America and the Christian Right has split the United States into a handful of politically themed 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 ETs via the Channel, a breakthrough communications interface that uses AI and quantum neurology, and may hold the key to the new balance of power.

The Channel's fate, and that of Pacifica, lie in the reluctant hands of Franz, host of a Net religion show. He is pursued by a ex-Yakuza evangelical hitman, homicidal redneck freelancers, and avatar assassins. Yet he gets by with a little help from his friends:  a diverse global crew that includes Takeshi (a lovesick Otaku), Antonio (a Brazilian hacker), Fumio and the Tokyo cypherpunks, Arwin (an ex-JPL Gaia worshipper), and Owinda (a Wiccan high priestess). Set in near-future California, Bali, Tokyo and cyberspace, The Big God Network is a heady cocktail of near-future sci-fi and cultural satire.

Author J.C. McGowan has published non-fiction books with Temple University Press and Random House. This is his first novel.