With SENTINELS: WHEN STRIKES THE WARLORD — the first of a trilogy — it’s crystal-clear that author Van Allen Plexico so reveres the superhero teams of The Avengers and Justice League of America that he was spurred to create one of his own. I don’t know if he intended to do so for comics or fiction (or perhaps both), but it probably would work better in the format in which it is currently not.
The novel finds the Sentinels forming under the auspices of the brilliant scientist Dr. Esro Brachis. There’s Ultraa, a fast-moving, all-American Superman type; The Cavalier, a hotheaded stuntman; and Pulsar, a female Asian college student who’s put her studies on hold to become the new blood of the eclectic group.
High above the desert, there’s a floating city full of slaves for the Warlord, who spells out his evil intentions as such, while clasping gloved hands: “The unification of the multiverse into a single, continuous realm. One Warlord, one universe. Yes. A worthy scheme. Surely it meets all the requirements of the Grand Design. Of course, it will by necessity result in the instantaneous annihilation of most of the life forms in all of the various realities, as they are crushed down into one single cosmos. But this cannot be helped.”
Yes, the Sentinels will need all the help they can get. Luckily for them, a jaunt to Dr. Brachis’ energy research facility on the moon reveals a fresh recruit: an alien metal man named Vanadium.
Plexico’s planet-hopping adventure dishes out one action-packed situation after another, but the combat is tough to follow, not being well-described. Dialogue is also a sore spot, unrealistic and silly. Chris Kohler’s periodic illustrations give the reader a better idea of the characters than the text does, which fails to flesh them out to where one gets a sense of who they are, rather than the stock slots each is supposed to fill.
WHEN STRIKES marks the first novel out of the gate from Swarm Press, a newly formed arm of Permuted Press. Whereas its parent concentrates on zombie-centric and apocalyptic fiction, Swarm promises to cast a wider net among the waters of multiple genres. That idea is welcome, but its initial offering is perhaps not the best greeter. —Rod Lott
