Cortez on Jupiter

By Ernest Hogan

Book Overview

"Hogan's debut, first published in 1990, introduced the subgenre of Chicano SF to a startled, dazzled American audience. All Pablo Cortez cares about is creating art, whether it's humongous graffiti sprayed across Los Angeles or zero-gravity paint slinging in space. When he confronts the alien Sirens of Jupiter, who have zapped the minds of earlier explorers, he takes their overwhelming flood of bizarre images as subject matter for new masterpieces. A jangling, rambunctious picture of artistic genius ... tons of fun for freethinking readers who appreciate heroes with cojones." Publisher's Weekly "Hard SF, satire, adventure, and some very strange humor combine in this intriguing, inventive, and sometimes disconcerting SF story." -Science Fiction Chronicle A wild young Chicano artist who covers Greater Los Angeles with fantastic graffiti. A beautiful African telepath who opens the door to communications with the deadly Sirens of Jupiter. "An alien first contact story featuring a hyperactive, irreverent, and self-absorbed Chicano artist from East LA. Cortez is recruited to make contact with creatures discovered on Jupiter who "speak" in projected images. It's a dangerous assignment; previous attempts to communicate have ended in insanity and death, but Pablo is always up for a little bit of craziness." - Michael Lichter, Amazon "It grabs you and won't let you go. The best first novel] I've read in science fiction since Neuromancer." - Tom Witmore, Locus Not since Ayn Rand's Howard Roarke has there been an artist as iconoclastic, as idealistic, and as splendidly spectacular as Pablo Cortez. And look out, he's twice as radical Energetic, fast-paced, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable." -Analog Combining hard science fiction with pyrotechnics worthy of "The Stars, My Destination," Ernest Hogan tells the story of the painter who founds the Guerrilla Muralists Of Los Angeles, goes on to make Mankind's first contact with the sentient life-forms of Jupiter. "If Hunter S Thompson and Alfred Bester had a Chicano child, it would be this." Dave Hutchinson It's a roller-coaster ride from vulgarity to the transcendent, as the unforgettable Pablo Cortez struggles, selfishly and selflessly, to expand humanity's consciousness on a journey from the barrio to the stars. "Ernest Hogan is the creator of a Xicano science fiction genre with a crossover readership. ...raw creativity." - Frank S Lechuga *** "All cultures have some acceptable form of human sacrifice. And if you really want to cause trouble, try taking it away." -Pablo Cortez Introductory price $9.99 - regularly $12.99

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1502561697
• ISBN13: 9781502561695
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Reality Snapcracklepopping

Add Ernest Hogan to the "whatever happened to..." list of up and coming young writers who disappeared without getting the widespread recognition they deserved. This book is a minor sci-fi masterpiece that is definitely worthy of rediscovery, and someone should bring it back into print. The story revolves around hyperactive artist Cortez, who goes from guerilla murals in a dreary future metropolis to being the first human to make contact with aliens. His artist's mind makes him perfect for communicating with sentient energy beings around Jupiter, the deep thoughts of which have melted the brains of every other human who made the attempt. Ernest Hogan's writing style perfectly captures the gonzo personality of Cortez, with fascinating philosophical and artistic explorations and a great infusion of Aztec mythology. The narrative zooms along at a rip-roaring pace with Cortez speaking in a hilarious Spanglish hybrid, and Hogan makes great use of language and wordplay. (Let's face it, any book containing the word "cyberpsychoautonomelectromagneticneuroextrasensorywhatchamacallit" has just got to be a riot.) This book is well worth tracking down for fans of fun and offbeat science fiction. [~doomsdayer520~]

Un Libro Fantastico (And Funny)!

Wading through the madness of Ernest Hogan's CORTEZ ON JUPITER is like taking a stroll through the mind of a mad Mexican Hunter S. Thompson--and damn me, that's a GOOD thing.With its narrator and main character, the crazed freefall painter Pablo Cortez, spewing autobiography and Spanglish stream-of-conciousness as he takes you through a future world of painting, stardom, sex, and the exploration of spaces both inner and outer, CORTEZ ON JUPITER grabs hold of your literary huevos and just doesn't let go. Freefall splatterpainting, guerrilla artworks, artpolitik, alienation, alien cultures, a spaceride into Jupiter's Big Red Spot that has become a trip promising certain death to all who attempt it--a spaceride/deathride that has also been turned into a Systemwide televisual phenomenon; the show everyone watches ... CORTEZ ON JUPITER holds wrapped in its pages more ideas than a shelf stacked with books, yet Hogan weaves them all together in a web spun by his unreliable narrator/hero to climax and beyond. A great, rollicking read of a book.