The Parrish Plessis series by Marianne de Pierres:
Nylon Angel, 2005, ROC Pub, 297 pp., $6.99
Code Noir, 2006, ROC Pub, 308 pp., $6.99

Two cover blurbs describe this series perfectly: “blend of Mad Max and Dark Angel” and “a kick-ass cyberpunk heroine.” The scene is future Australia, an outlaw zone called The Tert, as in tertiary, a toxic outskirts connected by train line to the less polluted Vivacity. While super-city governments still exist, with their law and order, the net media dominates the world. Their own helicopter gunships and killer robots support journalists, making the news to get higher ratings. The Tert is perfect cannon fodder for this, especially when a celebrity anchorwoman is killed and the suspects flee there. Enter the bodyguard Parrish Plessis, who sees it as an opportunity to free herself from a Tert crime boss.

In Code Noir, she is trying to free herself of an alien virus that infected her in Nylon Angel. A cabal of shamans, deformed mutant children, and spirit guide animals help her in a war against an evil voodoo woman and various human-machine monsters. The story continues to an amazing battle as part of the polluted Tert grows out of control, biowaste and nanotech combining into a lethal mix of blob and glass spires. At story’s end, Parrish is still not cured of her infection. She has a deeper mission, to stop media factions that are secretly working The Tert. Part three will surely follow.

If you like Dark Angel, Aeon Flux, Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil, here’s another action babe for you, with story told in the first person. You know, I’ve watched all of those shows but had no interest in reading their books or playing their games. In contrast, I want to read about Parrish, and would follow her in other media, too. - M.L. Fringe