Parallax Red is the first Outlanders I read during a long ago summer. I bought it with a little trepediation since some of the things I'd seen posted about the series on a couple of Deathlands sites made it seem like I would be commiting the blasphemy of blasphemy against Chairman Laurence.

I started reading it with a kind of sneer on my face, fully pumped to hate it. Funny thing...by the time I came across the MD gun in the prologue which "smeared" a group of Magistrates I was hooked. When I finished reading the knife fight between Kane and Le Loup Garou I was a fan.

Simply put this is a classic sci-fi adventure novel, jumping from DL-like scenes to a space station (the Parallax Red of the title) to a long-forgotten colony on Mars.

Like all the other OL novels up to this point, its rich and vivid, full of fast action and great characterization with the first "on-screen" appearance of the incredibly sexy Beth Li.

But this book is memorable for another reason--the introduction of Sindri, the mastermind dwarf who has fought our heroes three times up to this point--and I hope a lot more.

Mulder and Scully had the Cancer Man, Superman has Lex Luthor, Spider-Man has the Green Goblin, Holmes had Moriarty and the Cerberus warriors have Sindri.

He is a great character, full of life and ego and a sense of humor. He's also vicious and cunning and as Brigid says about him in this book "enough ambition to challenge God." He's also, as Brigid finds out, really horny.

He's actually a fairly sympathetic character beyond the fact he's their adversary. You definately get the impression he would have become a hero in his own right if not for his apartheid upbringing on the Mars colony.

This is a wonderful book and I'm still happy I picked it up five years later in defiance of what some few in DL fandom were saying about the series at the time. It's sort of ironic because those "Some few" don't seem to be around now but Outlanders is still going strong.

The fifth entry in this series takes Kane and his friends to a redoubt in the Washington DC area, then on to a space station, and even to Mars!
They are introduced to some interesting weapons, like the powerfull MD gun, and the cornball "harp gun".

This novel, I can only describe as FUNKY CHICKEN!
Both villains in this book, Baron Sharpe, and the very interesting little man calling himself Sindri, are looney tunes. And some wierd dwarf monkey men as Sindri's helpers.

Scenes taking place in zero gravity are an amusing treat in this novel.

This book really went in some unexpected directions, a very imaginitive story.
This isn't as good a book as the first four novels in the series, in my opinion, but even though it is rather zany, and in some parts not much action, it nevertheless answers the question "Are we having fun yet?", with a resounding "yes!".
Enough entertainment to be worth rating this one as a 9.

I have a lot of affection for this book--not just because it features great sci-fi action and adventure, but it introduces the reader to Sindri, the Mini-menace who has set himself up as the major enemy of the Cerberus warriors!

Parallax Red is a winner on every level, starting out with a knife-fight between Kane and Le Loup Garou, a Roamer chief and ending on a space-station that's imploding.

In between, the reader goes to Washington Hole where we meet the insane Baron Sharpe and his crippled advisor Crawler for the first time, then have our first look at the sexy and scheming (and naked!) Beth-Li, then on to Mars!

But even with all of that going on, Parallax Red is Sindri's book and he dominates almost all the scenes he's in. Ruthless, vain, and even sinister, he's also one of the most entertaining bad guys I've ever read about. Mark Ellis knew what he was doing when he created him and kept him around.

Ironically enough, the last time we saw Sindri in Sea of Plague, he joined forces with Baron Sharpe and Crawler! I'm looking forward to finding out the kind of deviltry those three cook up for our heroes in future books!

Parallax Red is a true classic in the Outlanders series.

Parallax Red was a different read for me. It really took us to the red planet, a place that Ryan and company visited for only a couple of pages in early Deathlands. I think it was SEEDLING.
But Mark Ellis is not afraid to tread here. Oh no, he takes this red planet and makes it home to beleivable beings called transadapts. Sindri soon becomes a main nemesis of the series, and very recognizable in any crowd!
But even though this was an excellently written book, the action and adventure was somewhat missing for me here. But it's still better than a lot of books I've read in the past.
Mark has great ideas and settings here that made this a very fun read nonetheless.