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Gough, Julian

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1966-    ) UK-born singer-songwriter and author, in Ireland from the age of seven; he was a founder of and main writer of the band Toasted Heretic, which released four albums between 1988 and 1993. His first novel, Jude: Level 1 (2007; vt Jude in London 2009), is a nonfantastic though gonzo picaresque featuring an Irish orphan lad's attempts to find it all out. Of sf interest is the Near Future Connect (2018), whose protagonist, a moderately ungovernable teenager with Asperger's syndrome, somewhat resembles the Jude figure of the previous tale, though in this case the world around him is complexly interactive with his gestures of avowal. His Scientist mother has made a breakthrough in Genetic Engineering, an alternative to stem cell therapy that will promote epigenetic renewal of complex body parts, including neural networks. An inimical government agency attempts to suborn this work, but the protagonist, having injected himself, dodges this encroachment, becoming something of a Superman, with a vastly augmented intellect that fits him to dispute autonomy with an AI as the plot thickens. Gough has more than once been compared to Flann O'Brien, an association he may earn. [JC]

Julian Gough

born London: 1966

works (selected)

  • Jude: Level 1 (London: Old Street Publishing, 2007) [hb/]
    • Jude in London (London: Old Street Publishing, 2009) [vt of the above: pb/]
  • Connect (London: Picador, 2018) [hb/Andrew Smith]

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