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5.0étoiles sur 5
A Vivid and Visionary new Science-Fiction Novel, Oct. 20 2009
"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 hilarious political satire. Published at the tail end of the Bush 43 era, it predicts that things will get even worse in the U.S. over the next twenty years, resulting in in a "post-American" outcome. Some twenty years from now, political polarization has split the United States into a handful of politically themed new countries, including liberal Pacifica (the West Coast) and the country's theocratic heartland, known as New America. The latter, not surprisingly, is run by a president obsessed with the Christian rapture.
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. Alas, 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 and colleague Takeshi can keep the Channel from falling into the wrong hands and threatening Pacifica's existence (Pacifica is a close ally of Canada).
"The Big God Network" is rich with cultural and tech references, often worked into sly satire. The Altair, the first personal computer, is referenced, as are Afro-Brazilian religions, SETI, Wiccan witches, the Yakuza, John Muir, gamelan music, Saturn's moons, Amazonian hallucinatory vines, and the Kama Sutra, as just a few examples. The weaving of these 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.
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