Jimmy Stu Lives! [Kindle Edition]

Kent McDaniel (Author)

Book Description

Jimmy Stu Sloan has lost his faith. He's a pastor facing old age and eventual death, trying to hold things together for the sake of his burgeoning congregation, The Church of the Living Lord. Inspiration strikes on Easter Sunday morning, just as he's about to give his televised sermon. And, instead of speaking only of the resurrection of Christ, he makes a bid for his own resurrection in the future, vowing to move forward with plans for cryogenic preservation of his body. But when he awakens in the future, he discovers not everyone's happy to see him back from the dead. Will he live long enough to find out why?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kent McDaniel lives in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, where he spends a lot of time playing music, writing prose, and walking around. He grew up down in the Ohio River Valley, but likes Chicago – except for the winters and the traffic. The music and the pizza are great. Sometimes the sports teams are okay, too. (Go Bulls!) The prologue for Jimmy Stu Lives! appeared in the January 2011 issue of Rambunctious Review as a short story. Kent’s short stories have also appeared in Downstate Story, Chaffin Journal, Palo Alto Review, Iconoclast, Allegory, M-Brane SF, and Wild Violet. He publishes the zine Dumbfounding Stories for Southern Fandom Press Alliance, a venerable bastion of southern science-fiction fandom. He’s a member of The Writers, a critique group in Glencoe, Illinois, and belongs to The Chicago Writers Association, for which he reviews books at their Windy City Reviews site. Look for Kent on Facebook and visit his blog at... http://kentmcdanielwrites.wordpress.com/

Product Details

• File Size: 511 KB
• Print Length: 176 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Penumbra Publishing (April 28, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007YMGAAQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720,181 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Science Fiction with a Side of Grits July 9, 2012

By Ophelia Julien

Format:Kindle Edition

Reverend James Stuart Sloan, or Jimmy Stu as he prefers, is the founder of Nashville, Tennessee's Church of the Living Lord, a three-thousand member congregation complete with a church on an acre-sized lawn and a televised service. As an inspirational preacher, Jimmy Stu looks to be at the top of his game. Except that he isn't. During the latter part of his life, Jimmy Stu has begun to lose his connection with the Almighty, a deep slide into despair accelerated by the death of his beloved wife, Debbi. He is haunted by the idea that Debbi has not gone on to eternal life, but instead has disappeared into oblivion. Aware that his television ratings are starting to slip, prodded by a devout follower who understands that Jimmy Stu's sermons of late have been phoned in, nudged along by an ambitious self-elected advisor, Jimmy Stu goes from the apathy of having no Easter sermon planned to the wild inspiration of starting a fundraiser to have his head preserved through cryonics so that he may carry out his mission in the future. In a scientific twist on that most venerated Christian holiday, Jimmy Stu Sloan sets up his very own resurrection and convinces his congregation to pay for it.

The story really starts when Jimmy Stu is awakened 140 years into the future, where he learns that not only did his congregation facilitate his preservation, but that his church has grown into a powerful entity with its own police force and complete control over seven states in the South, as well as having heavy influence through parts of the Midwest. The formidable prime minister of the Church of the Living Lord is a direct descendant of Jimmy Stu's once-upon-a-time self-elected advisor, Carl Windhorst.... And to make matters even worse, Jimmy Stu has been awakened, or resurrected, by his great-great-great-great-nephew, Peter Alvarez, in direct defiance of said Prime Minister, Carl Windhorst III. With no time to get his bearings, Jimmy Stu becomes a fugitive along with nephew Peter and Peter's companion, Shama Besic.

Fleeing into rural Tennessee with the Church of the Living Lord's best agent in pursuit, Jimmy Stu must come to terms with his new life, the mission he is expected to carry out, and survival in the woods outside suburban Nashville - complete with a beautiful moonshiner's daughter named Connie Lee, who totes a rifle and is not afraid to use it.

Author Kent McDaniel has incorporated teleportation, laser guns, air vans, and other technological devices to satisfy all sci-fi requirements, but he has also layered his book with more than just futuristic action and adventure. Protagonist Jimmy Stu has the opportunity to right the wrongs he set in motion with his last cynical and self-serving act. How many of us wouldn't love a chance to go back into the past and correct one act, one omission, even one hastily-uttered sentence, if we could change the regretted outcome? And who better to make things right than Jimmy Stu, since it was his own quest for life beyond his natural span of years that made such a hash of the future?

Additionally, this story takes a pointed, albeit tongue in cheek, look at what can happen when a country allows a church to insert itself into the governmental seat of power. The picture the author paints is far from pretty, disturbingly realistic, and perhaps just a touch allegorical at this time in U.S. history.

Fans of the subgenre Southern Science Fiction will have a good time following Jimmy Stu as he literally stumbles from one mishap to the next, all while trying to figure out his own place in this confusing future time and win the heart of self-sufficient, self-defensive Connie Lee. Jimmy Stu is the proverbial Everyman: just that this Everyman has a body newly generated from DNA scans of his cryonically preserved head. Enjoy. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, and Light On Its Feet August 30, 2012

By SeanPen

Format:Paperback

The new book by Kent McDaniel, "Jimmy Stu Lives," is fast-paced science fiction and lots of fun. Waking from a long, frozen sleep to meet his great-great-great-great nephew, Peter, Jimmy Stu sets off running from high-tech baddies in post-two-party America -- a land where sumo wrestling has become as popular as baseball, and with greatly altered church-state relationships. Take it on a plane. Take it to the beach. Take it to your favorite easy chair and enjoy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Read and A Thought Provoking Book August 26, 2012

By Richard Dengrove

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I found this a quick read, as I said. It had enough action, enough world building and enough personalities to keep my interest. It had ideas that were thought provoking too. The novel adds to the answer for what happens when we lose faith; what happens when faith gets corrupted; and what happens when God works in mysterious ways, even among the faithless.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Jimmy Stu Lives July 26, 2012

By Liz

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Jimmy Stu Lives evokes our nightmares of where the United States could be in those one hundred plus years in the future, the technology, the mindset, but most of all a government functioning without separation of church and state. It is the Tea Party gone crazy, a society following a blind path of the Church of the Living Lord. Despite this oppressive premise, McDaniel incorporates humor, romance, action, and heroism into his plot, as well as a scenic tour of Tennessee of the future. Makes one wonder how accurate this portrait will turn out to be.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting read! June 23, 2012

By MacSchu

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I found this book to be both entertaining and thought-provoking with engaging well-developed characters. Author Kent McDaniel gives us a look over one hundred years in the future where Jimmy Stu finds himself reanimated from a cryogenically preserved state and in a struggle with opposing forces in a society where religions have become more involved in the political system. This future society is brought to life for the reader by the descriptions of clothing, transportation, buildings, advertising, etc. An exciting read!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Religiosity takes over the future September 1, 2012

By Ruthie

Format:Paperback

In this fun sci-fi story, the religious institutions of today completely take over the government of tomorrow. There's a fast-paced story with plenty of chase scenes and twists and turns, but the essence of this book for me was the scary dominance of religion over all governmental bodies and decision-making. Though the future depicted in this book was somewhat bleak, I found hope in the central character's "re-birth" into a brave and independent thinker. Hence, Jimmy Stu lives!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Read August 27, 2012

By William J. Plott

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

JIMMY STU LIVES! by Kent McDaniel (Penumbra Publishing, 2012) - Ah, the uneasiness of picking up a book by a friend, self-published on line at that. Not to worry. Friend Kent McDaniel has given us a good read here. Ten minutes before his televised Easter Sunday service, Nashville mega church pastor Jimmy Stuart Sloan finds himself without a sermon and faith, too. He still grieves for his late wife and his faith is tenuous, at best. He asks his followers to help fund his cryogenic preservation so he can continue God's work in the future. The future comes a century or so later with the church embroiled integrally in national politics and intrigue. Jimmy Stu finds himself part of mess with - literally and figuratively - a price on his head. He doesn't know which of his followers to trust, especially some appear to be more interested in his possible demise or incarceration than his relgion. McDaniel paints some interesting future geographic and political boundaries to help the story along.

More About the Author

Kent McDaniel lives in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, where he spends a lot of time playing music, writing prose, and walking around. He, his wife, and friends perform at music venues in around Chicago, and video from their shows is up at www.youtube.com/kentmcdanielband. He grew up down in the Ohio River Valley, but likes Chicago--except for the winters and the traffic. The music and pizza rock. Sometimes the sports teams are okay, too. (Go Bulls!)

The prologue for Jimmy Stu Lives! appeared in the January, 2011 issue of Rambunctious Review as a short story. Kent's short stories have also appeared in Downstate Story, Chaffin Journal, Palo Alto Review, Iconoclast, Allegory, M-Brane SF, Wild Violet, and Blue Lake Review. He publishes the zine Dumbfounding Stories for Southern Fandom Press Alliance, a venerable bastion of southern science-fiction fandom. He's a member of The Writers, a critique group in Glencoe, Illinois, and belongs The Chicago Writers Association, for which he reviews books at their Windy City Reviews site.