The Caribbean Gothic Down Under: Caribbean Influences in Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis Novels

It’s always so humbling to have your work critically explored. This was from a couple of years ago. Though not the Sentients of Orion series, thought I’d share it for those interested in deeper connections to science fiction.

Dr Gerry Turcotte, who is the current President & Principal, St Mark’s College & Corpus Christi College, Vancouver, wrote this research paper, which was published in 2018 in the journal Caietele Echinox. Here is the description from the citation.

The Caribbean Gothic Down Under: Caribbean Influences in Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis Novels

Author(s): Gerry Turcotte
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Fundatia Culturala Echinox
Keywords: Caribbean Literature; Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis; Gothic; Science Fiction; Indigenous Identity Politics;

Summary/Abstract: This paper investigates the way voodoo, postcolonial theory, Indigenous spirituality and Caribbean culture are brought together to discuss contemporary and future race politics down under in the novel Nylon Angel, Code Noir and Crash Deluxe. Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis books are edgy, street-smart science fiction novels set in a future Sydney where government has effectively collapsed, media controls its citizenry and gangs vie for control of the streets. In some ways it appears a fairly typical model for SF writing, except that de Pierres has invested great effort in the delineation of racially complex groups. Of these, the encounter between Caribbean (and Voodoo), shamans, and Indigenous Kaidaitcha men, makes for are freshing, but uncomfortable, contemporary negotiation of race politics in Australia.

“Is there a Woman in this Space Opera?”A Gender Analysis of the Aliens of Orion

Delighted to share another scholarly article from Dr Thea Boschoff and Dr Deidre C Byrne that explores the Sentients of Orion world. Below is the publications details and a description from the citation:

“Is there a woman in this space opera?” a gender analysis of the aliens of Orion.

Authors – Dorothea Boshoff, Deirdre C Byrne

Publication date – 2021

Journal – Fafnir–Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

Publisher – The Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

This article provides a textual analysis of The Sentients of Orion, a space-opera series by Australian feminist SF author Marianne de Pierres, with a view to investigating the series’s depiction of aliens as a reflection of contemporary views of human gender. This highlights the question of whether aliens are still used to reflect on the state of human gender roles now that society is moving past the simple black and white of the male/female binary. We undertake a qualitative exploration of selected aliens through the theoretical lenses of Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performative and queer theory. By drawing on these interpretive paradigms, we suggest that de Pierres’s aliens both register and reflect a significant broadening of the gender spectrum.

Sentients of Orion Graphic Novel

I’m very excited to sneak preview this for you. The amazing Wayne Haag (aka Ankaris)is drawing a boutique graphic novel for the Sentients of Orion US release. It will be available free, electronically, for all fans of the series and will centre around a pivotal and dramatic scene in Mirror Space where Mira escapes. I’ve seen the roughs and you are going to love it!

There will be a press release and dedicated web page for it when it’s ready to go but I couldn’t help but share this early pencil of the cover. Excited!!!!!

Cover_GN

Mirror Space Review

It’s always a pleasure to come across people reading the Sentients of Orion series. This review made my day:

When I first started reading this series, I had a hard time getting into it. Now I’m on book three, I can hardly put this book down! Each chapter is written from a different character’s point of view. I get so into the story, that when one of the chapter’s end I can feel myself dying to get through until that character’s next chapter. But then, I get caught up in the next chapter and the cycle repeats. As the reader you just can’t tear yourself away from the story she’s constructed.

Read the rest of it here: http://novel.vintage-blue.net/?p=862