Review of Equations of Life – Book 1 of the Metrozone series by Simon Morden

The cool, densely black and white patterned cover implicitly announces that this is science fiction with a difference and the blurb reinforces that declaration. This near-future dystopian romp has a distinctly urban fantasy feel.

You are now entering the London Metrozone. The time is 7:35, two decades after Armageddon. Mind the gap.

Samuil Petrovitch = a survivor. He survived the nuclear fallout in St. Petersburg and hid in the London Metrozone: the last city in England. He’s lived this long because he’s a man of rules and logic.

For example: getting involved = a bad idea. But when he stumbles into a kidnapping in progress, he acts without even thinking. Before he can stop himself, he’s saved the daughter of the most dangerous man in London. And clearly: saving the girl = getting involved. Now the equation of Petrovitch’s life is looking increasingly complex.

The story hinges around Petrovitch and his adventures after his ill advised intervention during the kidnapping attempt and is told in third person POV. Despite the fact that Petrovitch is a scientist and in the middle of trying to survive the unwanted attentions of a variety of powerful people, he is also nursing a failing heart and trying to produce a world-changing equation. Despite the gritty dystopian cloak, this action-packed tale is not the visceral cyber-nightmare I was sort of expecting.

As for the idea that Simon Morden is the next Richard Morgan – hm, I’m not convinced. Morden might get bleaker as the series progresses, but throughout Equations of Life there is just too much rollicking joie de vivre bouncing through the chaos and destruction for any true Morganesque comparisons. Kovacs is capable of flashes of savage humour – but the breathless pace of Morden’s storytelling, with the constant plot twists corkscrewing off in all sorts of unpredictable directions without a pause for any sort of info-dump, or tastelessly graphic sex scene, gives Morden’s work an original charm all of its own. In fact, I think Petrovitch’s adventures have more in common with the early Harry Dresden stories…

In addition to the strong protagonist, there is an entertaining cast of enjoyable supporting characters, such as a fighting nun, a Machiavellian policeman and an entertainingly eccentric genius, some of whom will, no doubt, make further appearances in the next instalment of Petrovitch’s efforts to keep out of trouble. So, does Morden manage to deliver a suitably climactic ending to this action-packed tale? Yes – and there is also a cliff-hanging twist that has me toppling the stack of books piled beside my bed to get to the second in the series, Theories of Flight – and I don’t risk major injury to get to a book all that often…
9/10

Review of Code Noir – Book 2 of the Parrish Plessis series by Marianne de Pierres

It took me a while to get into this cyberpunk thriller, partly because it is the second in the series and I haven’t read the first book. With no ‘Story So Far’, I found it difficult to get my bearings as de Pierres clearly expected those of us reading Code Noir to have already read the first book.

The other issue is that the pace is breathless. So much so, that it took some time before I warmed to Parrish, which is unusual because I’m generally a real sucker for your gutsy, tough-but-misunderstood-heroine. Having for more years than I care to recall, waded through books with female characters either adorning the hero’s arm or providing action in the sex scenes, it’ll be sometime in the next century before I tire of heroines punching/shooting their way into and out of more trouble than you can aim a neuron disrupter at… So I thought, anyway. Parrish came perilously close to exhausting my patience.

I think the problem is that so much is going on, she never stops long enough to allow the reader to get properly acquainted with her until about halfway through the book. Eventually, however, I got drawn into the action, which is set in Australia making an intriguing change both culturally and scenically from the majority of such books.

The Tert War is over and Parrish Plessis had landed a big share of the spoils. Not bad for a girl with a price on her head and an uncanny ability to attract trouble. Problem is, power and territory mean responsibilities. And obligations. Like the small matter of her blood debt to the shadowy and dangerous Cabal Coomera. They need Parrish for a little rescue mission – one that’ll take her into the heart of teckno-darkness, the slum town of Dis. In return they’ll let her keep on living. Assuming she survives.

Once I did bond with the character and catch up with what was going on, I really enjoyed myself. I applaud de Pierres for giving her heroine a major facial injury. Unlike one or two other female protagonists sporting such trophies, I could fully believe that Parrish wouldn’t bother to get any sort of cosmetic surgery done to repair the damage. In these days with increasing pressure on girls to look ‘hot’, it was a shame, I felt, that the girl on the cover didn’t display her crooked nose and caved-in cheekbone. However, I’m not going to hold that against the author. It’s a pity that Orbit didn’t reflect more accurately what was going on between the covers when designing the jacket.

Meantime, I’m definitely going to get hold of the other major series de Pierres has written, Sentients of Orion. This time, though, I’ll take care to start with the first book.
7/10