Crash Deluxe

I really liked this cyberpunk/post-apocalyptic series. There is some excellent world building along the lines of extrapolating current trends in communication and tech,human nature and how media and money is gaining more and more political and cultural clout. I can see this future Australia/world coming into being. That's something scary/cool and it made the story more enjoyable for me. Plus, we have the protagonist, Parish Plessis, who is a great kick-butt character who cares about the suffering of the people around her in the slums of the Tert. This is apparently the final volume in the Parish Plessis series, going to be stopped at a trilogy. I liked it well enough except for the actual ending, which implies very strongly a certain choice, but doesn't show it. I prefer to know, not presume. So the book left me with a foul taste in my mouth. If you like cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic style reads, you might enjoy this series a whole lot. And it's a bit more accessible emotionally than William Gibson.

Violent escort media revolution attempt. The final book of this Parrish Pleish series is just as good as the other, and very fast paced. Parrish, in control of the local situation mostly, decides something has to be done about Viva City. Unfortunately for her, this involves going undercover as a high class call girl, something for which she is somewhat unsuited, you could say. She has to get technological help, work out what to do about the parasite alien species, and try to bring down what may or may not be an AI that helps the three powerful media barons that run the place control information. Not an easy task, and some of the usual suspects are to again be found. Frenetic punctuated by occasional lust is how you could describe the tone.

Parrish Plessis a self-styled warlord over Torley's, a section of the worst ghetto imaginable called the Tert, set in a dark, near-future Australia that is completely controlled by the Media Elite. When a media reporter kidnaps a feral child under Plessis' protection and leaves a trail of clues that set her on a trip to the sprawling upper-class metropolis of nearby Vivacity, Parrish decides to get the child back even if she has to take down the entire media structure to do it. If that doesn't sound daunting enough, Parrish must do so while in disguise as a Amorato, a high-tech call girl solicited by the Media royalty for their pleasurable abilities. Shw also has to contend with an Eskaalim parasite that is trying to take over her mind, body, and soul as it feeds off her adrenaline. An internal war which Parrish is losing as she maintains her cover as an Amorato, causes public mayhem and firefights, and still tries to worm her way into the Media upper crust to save the feral child and maybe all of Vivacity and the Tert as well. When the Media dominate everything that the public sees and hears and the truth only matters if it's good for ratings, not even her allies believe Parrish can succeed. But when Parrish Plessis is involved the only thing you can count in is that anyone and everyone in her way is going to be sorry. Crash Deluxe is the third in what will hopefully be a long series of Parrish Plessis adventures. While not essential and not for children, readers will get a lot more out the story if you pick up Nylon Angel and Code Noir first. If you haven't read any of the Parrish Plessis books, you're missing out on some of the best new cyberpunk available. Marianne De Pierres has a real talent for taking a dark gritty vision of the future and making it seem all too real. This series is a tightly written page-turner to lose sleep over. I did.