Skyfisher: A Novel by Dan Dowhal
Desperately fleeing for his life, Brad Evans escapes Manhattan and hides in a trailer in the country. There he writes an expos of Phasmatia, the world's first great Internet religion, and its megalomaniacal unholy messiah, Sky Fisher. As one of the trio of ad men who schemed to concoct Phasmatia, Evans certainly knows where all the skeletons are buried, and is ready to tellprovided he manages to live long enough. His close friend and co-conspirator, Stan Shiu, whose technical genius helped spark the religion's rapid rise, is already dead. The whistle-blower recounts the religion's genesis and its growth from a get-rich-quick Dot-Com scheme to the Next Big Thing, spreading like wildfire over the web and the planet. He also exposes the corruption and power lust that festers at the top, even while his hope for a potential new era of spirituality and faith burns brightly. The events in this gripping digital-age novel could easily happen tomorrow. Our wired age of social networks, virtual worlds, and media manipulation is examined in the context of humankind's timeless need for spiritual sustenance and divine hope.