At some (unspecified) point in the future, society (in Australia, at least - we aren't told about the rest of the world) has become stratified to the extent that the 'haves' live in gigantic conurbations like Vivacity, while everyone else is stuck in slums like the Tert (Tertiary Sector).
Parrish Plessis was born in the suburbs of Viva, but left for the Tert, ending up as a bodyguard for a crime-lord named Jamon Mondo. Having been abused at the hands of Mondo and his goons, Parrish wants out; easier said than done, however. But two opportunities become apparent: one, to trace the killers of newsreader Razz Retribution, who may have links with a rival gang that Parrish wishes to join; the other, to retrieve data for another gangster, Io Lang, that would bring Mondo down. Parrish takes her chances with both these possibilities - and there her troubles begin...
Nylon Angel is dedicated to an ancestor of the author's 'who loved adventure stories'. Presumably, then, that's what Marianne de Pierres intended her novel to be; so it's only fair to judge it as such. As you've probably gathered from the brief summary above, the setting is inspired by the worlds of cyberpunk, albeit slightly diluted. The language gives the game away: Nylon Angel is full of typical cyberpunk buzz words - biz, tek, stim - but the author makes everything crystal clear. There's no attempt to make the reader struggle to comprehend the world, as is the case in many cyberpunk stories. Nylon Angel is welcoming and familiar where so many cyberpunk texts are alienating, which is both a strength and a weakness. It's a strength because it puts the plot in the foreground, just where it should be in an adventure story. But it can also be distracting, when you notice that the setting has been built from a set of conventions, rather than hand-crafted. Not that it scuppers the story; it just impedes the flow.
Parrish Plessis herself is an example of the Feisty Series Heroine, an ideal kind of protagonist for this kind of story; especially since, at nearly two metres tall, she is not designed to fade into the background. The trouble is, the Feisty Series Heroine is a figure always in danger of lapsing into cliché, which does tend to happen in Nylon Angel, as on the occasion when she beats up a (male) character for calling her a 'girlie'.
And there are worse problems: there are far too many times when Parrish does fade into the background. De Pierres's prose is snappy enough, but Parrish's first-person narration lacks the vital spark that a story like this really needs. What's more, she spends much of the novel being tricked, rescued, or otherwise controlled by other characters; which is enough to make one question whether Parrish really is so streetwise after all. And that's a shame, because the best parts of Nylon Angel are those where Parrish takes control of the situation and finds her own solutions to problems. It is a pity that more of the novel isn't like that.
A good 80% of Nylon Angel is watered-down cyberpunk crossed with standard Feisty Series Heroine elements (gang rivalry, deceptions, a guy who can't be trusted but who's just so damn' sexy). The remaining 20%, however, is... still pretty much watered-down cyberpunk; but there are a few signs that there could eventually be more to this series than at first meets the eye. And, by the novel's end, Parrish is in a position to take charge of events herself. It seems that things may start to get interesting in book two.
But where does that leave book one? On finishing Nylon Angel, I was left with the feeling that I'd read what amounted to a 330-page prologue. There is certainly evidence here that Marianne de Pierres could go on to write an entertaining series of SF thrillers starring Parrish Plessis. Whether or not that makes Nylon Angel a worthwhile read is a matter of personal choice.
This review first appeared in The Alien Online.
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