The Parrish Plessis series is a Cyberpunk trilogy by Marianne de Pierres. The series consists of Nylon Angel (2004), Code Noir (2004), and Crash Deluxe (2005).
Parrish Plessis lives in the Tert, a Wretched Hive on a poisoned stretch of the coast of Australia. She works, against her will, as a bodyguard for the sadistic gang leader Jamon Mondo. Her one ambition in life is to break free from his control and join the enigmatic Cabal Coomera. She thinks she's found her chance when popular newscaster Razz Retribution is murdered and rumor has it the Cabal is responsible. Parrish thinks she can track them down with the help of the two patsies who were set up to take the fall: a naive country boy named Sto and a man with a dangerous passion for racial purity named Loyl-me-Daac. At the same time, the sinister Io Lang comes to her with an offer she can't refuse: do him a little favor, and he'll get Mondo sent to death row. But what looked like her big break goes horribly awry, and Parrish finds herself taking the heat for Razz's murder. What's worse, she ends up infected by a parasite that begins slowly corrupting her body and mind. The Corruption is spreading, and Parrish has to find a way to stop it from destroying humanity even as the whole world starts hunting for her head.
This series provides examples of:
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Parrish's Eskaalim takes the form of an angel
- Artificial Limbs: Dark has a prosthetic hand; Bras ends up with two
- The Casanova: Every woman who lays eyes on Loyl-me-Daac instantly falls in love with him. He seems to genuinely care about some of them, such as Anna Schaum, but is also willing to remorselessly manipulate and discard others such as Kiora Bass.
- Chemically-Induced Insanity: In Crash Deluxe, Parrish Plessis is nearly driven insane by Glorious and her powerful pheromone blends.
- The Chosen One: Parrish is hailed by the Muenos as the prophesized savior "Oya". She wants no part of it.
- Demonic Possession: Mei Sheong and the shamans describe infection by the Eskaalim in these terms
- Doom Magnet: Anyone Parrish befriends stands a high chance of ending up dead, or at the very least worse off than they were before
- Evilutionary Biologist: Loyl-me-Daac occasionally skirts this, with his belief in racial superiority and experiments with genetic engineering.
- Feel No Pain: In the late stages of The Corruption
- Glamour Failure: Io Lang can disguise himself pretty effectively by shapeshifting, but Parrish is able to identify him by his distinctive caustic smell
- Heroic Willpower: Allows Parrish to resist the Eskaalim
- Horrible Hollywood: Taken to extremes — the Media is quite possibly the most evil force on the planet
- How Unscientific!: Anything involving the shamans
- I Owe You My Life: Taken to dark extremes by Cabal Coomera's notion of goma. If the Cabal saves your life, you're in their debt — forever.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Sex and violence are the two major things that fuel the Eskaalim
- Jizzed in My Pants: A security guard, when Parrish's Show Some Leg works a little too well.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The media Prier that keeps getting in her business? It's pilot is Parrish's sister.
- Mad Doctor: Dr. Del Morte. Dr. Anna Schaum also skirts this trope, being well-intentioned but utterly devoid of ethics.
- The Metaverse: Called vreal, presumably a contraction of virtual reality
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Loyl-me-Daac's attempts to find a cure for heavy metal poisoning end up releasing the Eskaalim, who had previously been suppressed by the human immune system. Parrish also has the misfortune to combine Chronic Hero Syndrome with Doom Magnet.
- No Transhumanism Allowed: Averted; cyborging and genetic engineering are widespread
- Razor Floss: Parrish's garrote wires
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Canrats, dog-rodent hybrids with moderate intelligence and a taste for human flesh
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Eskaalim first infected humanity long ago, but were suppressed by the human immune system
- Time Abyss: Brilliance, a Homo erectus who suppressed the Eskaalim within her and used it to become immortal
- Urban Segregation: The Tert is an isolated slum of Vivacity. It also contains its own segregated area, which not even the poorest squatters dare enter: the rotten heart of the Tert, the dark city of Dis.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Granted by The Corruption after it has completely taken hold
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Frequently used in slang; tech is "tek", girl is "grrl", etc...
