Customer Reviews

Sentinels: When Strikes the Warlord

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Sentinels - Book One: When Strikes the Warlord" takes me back to the early days of Marvel Comics, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby started the entire Marvel Universe. Sentinels brings back fond memories of when teams like the Avengers were only published in one book per month and the entire team consisted of only a handful of colorful heroes and fantastic villians. Plexico writes a great story, filled with humor, pathos, and interesting characters. It's obvious he's also setting up hints and plots that will be revealed in greater detail in later stories. I can hardly wait to begin the second story in the series, A Distant Star.

What do you get when you combine pulp-style fiction and superheroes? A tale that doesn't take itself too seriously and yet manages to entertain on the same campy level as a Bruce Campbell film. Think the campiness of Army of Darkness and you'll have a good idea what Plexico's world of super heroes is like. (This is a compliment, because I absolutely love Bruce Campbell).

Sentinels: When Strikes the Warlord starts off in a world very much like our own. Lyn Li is a college student who harbors a special gift, but she doesn't want anyone else to know; she just wants to be normal. But we all know how well that's going to work, right? Her best friend, of course, suspects something is up, though: after three TVs mysteriously explode in Lyn's presence it's hard to argue that she's entirely innocent and normal. Then a strange man tries to kidnap her and all hell breaks loose. Soon she finds herself training with Esro Brachis--a legendary inventor--and Ultraa--the city's biggest superhero--to control her powers and to battle The Warlord, a god-like being who wants to unite all the alternate universes into one and turn everyone into his slaves. And that's not exactly going to work for Esro, Ultraa, and Lyn...not at all.

This is what I would call a good airport book. It's quick, it's relatively simple, and it's fun. It's designed to be action-packed and entertaining and I think it does a good job. Readers of comic books may find this to be a good jump-novel from the visual medium to the more literary medium--meaning one who primarily reads comics might find this a good novel to start with if trying to get into the super hero literature out there. Comic fans will also notice plenty of similarities to Marvel and DC universes here, although the characters in Plexico's work are unique in their own way--mostly personality.

The story moves pretty quick, being a book of only 221 pages. It digs right in and keeps pretty steady throughout: lots of action, lots of superhero battles, explosions, and other goodies. The pulpy feel comes through strongest with The Warlord, who, in typical "bad guy" fashion, likes to monologue here or there and spout campy and rather humorous lines about world domination and the like. You should go into reading this book with the right mindset: this isn't a serious book; as far as I am concerned it's not meant to be taken seriously like a Margaret Atwood book. I imagine the folks who read Mur Lafferty's work or Matthew Wayne Selznick will enjoy Plexico's work too (which makes sense since they're all published by the same publisher: Swarm Press).

I had some minor complaints about the writing. While the style is, in my opinion, more simplistic and pulpy, I get the sense that some of the sentences and what not could have been edited to be more, shall we say, snappy. Certain phrases here or there didn't seem to fit or read somewhat amateur (for lack of a better phrase). Some of the dialogue was also set up a bit strange, but you get used to it after a while. There was also one minor inconsistency in how the author named the Warlord: sometimes it was "Warlord" and other times "the Warlord". I also was a bit iffy on the circular plot: things sort of came back to the starting point, but I suppose I understand the reasoning for this because it does fit well into the circular plots of comic books, where bad guys get recycled over and over--come on, we've all seen X-men and Spiderman and what not.

Leaving the complaints to the side, I think the snappy dialogue will help draw in urban fantasy readers and the comic book feel will draw in all those comic nuts. Those of you who read neither may find the fun, pulpy feel to be a fresh break. For everyone else, consider giving this one a look It's a quick read, fun, and much more entertaining than that crappy Daredevil movie, or Elektra for that matter. In fact, I can almost guarantee that Plexico's novel will not cause seizures due to being a mediocre attempt at a superhero-romp; lightning, explosions, interdimensional travel, evil villains with insane powers, and distinct characters make this a worthy addition to an ever growing field of superhero fiction.

I have been hearing about Plexico's Sentinels books for a long time and figured it was time I checked one out for myself. I was anything but disappointed. Plexico writes very much in the "Mighty Marvel" style of the 70s and, for me, that's a very good thing. The book was a lot of fun, introduced some really cool characters and set up a world that I am anxious to return to.

This book is essential for any fan of superhero prose. I can't wait to read book 2!

When Strikes the Warlord is the first in the Sentinels series and overall a pretty good book. I found that the story was slightly disjointed and often I had to re-read passages to understand the point of view or the character speaking at that moment.

The first in the series brings together the group of characters, that eventually forms the team. Conceptually, the characters are well rounded, fairly original and interesting. He does create a squad of villains that appears mid-way through the book that offered some interesting concepts and who doesn't love Nazi super-villains.

I would like to see the subsequent books appear on the Kindle. Right now, it is book one and then it jumps to like book 6. If available I would continue to invest in the series, but until then, I don't want to jump ahead.

It's hard to capture the energy of a comic book in a prose novel but Van Plexico succeeds for the most part in When Strikes the Warlord. There's just enough description for you to be able to picture it all being drawn by your favorite artist and the dialogue is quite snappy. In fact, I'd say that Plexico's strength lies in the dialogue, which manages to maintain the comic book feel without seeming campy. There were a few times I smiled during the humorous exchanges and the characters really come alive through their dialogue. The characters are intriguing, though a lot of attention is spent on Pulsar, who definitely comes across as the most interesting of the bunch -- I'm assuming future books spend as much time on the others but for this one... well, I found Lyn Li and Esro Brachis so interesting that I almost wanted to rush through the other characters' scenes. While at first I was shocked and disappointed at one of the character's ultimate fate, the revelation that there was far more to him than was originally let on left me quite curious where Plexico is going. My least favorite characters were Vanadium (one amnesiac character too many, given Ultraa's own malady) and the Warlord himself -- though the twist at the end gives him kind of a Kang the Conqueror feel to me and I like that (given that Kang is my favorite Avengers villain). Before that, though, he seemed like a poor man's Doctor Doom and his scenes actually stopped the momentum of the story while the Warlord chewed up the scenery. A small stylistic thing that popped out at me was how often different characters "chewed their nails thoughtfully." One character with that trait is fine but it seemed that most of the folks in this book suffered from this habit. It wasn't a big thing but it happened often enough that I started to notice it.

A very worthy beginning to the saga and I'll definitely check out book two -- and wait patiently for that Pulsar solo series. ;-)

This series of books by Van Allen Plexico is remarkable. I felt as I'd been sent back to the early 1960s when Marvel came into existence. Plexico

captures the enthusiasm and complete sense of wonder in his super characters, both good and evil, and delivers a fast paced tale that is impossible to put down once begun.

Van Allen Plexico's "Sentinels-When Strikes the Warlord" is a great example of heroic fiction that draws the reader in and rivets you to your seat practically from cover to cover. Filled with exotic locals ranging from the surface of the moon to other dimensions, Plexico's rich cast of fledgling super-heroes must seek out clues to an imminent disaster that will destroy their world. Filled with powerful heroes and even more powerful villains "When Strikes the Warlord" is a feast for the Super-Hero connesieur who likes his adventures meaty and heart rate quickening. An absolute joy to read! Highly recomended for fans of the Super-Hero genre.

This is really a fantastic read. This book grabs your attention from the very first page, and absolutely won't let go. The story is entertaining, the characters interesting, and the writing is top-notch. You won't be disappointed with this one, and volume 2 just gets better. Sentinels: A Distant Star

This is one of those small press books that needed an editor to come along with a red pen, cross out every single word on the first 40 pages & write a single line "Rewrite this part & this time make it less bad."

Okay, let me start by saying i really, REALLY wanted to like this book, but i found no matter how hard i tried it was still dreadfully written (an if you are trying to like a book, then thats a sign its either poorly written or just not for you). The technical skill alone nets this one (unfortunately) a 1 star. Even from the start it is scatter brained, with each chapter seemingly narrated by a different character. Yes this technique can work, but not if none of the characters have a unique voice, a different point of view, or a distinct status quo.

Each & ever character without fail was incredibly boring, with a flat monotone "voice," indistinguishable from every other character. Dialogue is used constantly as a way to drop really obvious exposition, while completely ignoring the use of internal narration as a story telling tool. Combine that with the fact that these character-narrator changeovers introduce what seems like, go-no-where characters that are completely unnecessary to the ongoing story, right beside important ones & yet together they seem not to advance the story... Well let's just say it weakens the narrative as a whole. Its a case of to many cooks, spoiling the literary broth.

As for the characters themselves, i felt no punch from any of them. Each one is introduced with exactly the same level of fanfare, but it all dries up by the second paragraph, of any introduction. There's nothing that makes me say "hell yeah, this is the character i'm rooting for." There is just no punch to the writing... Good example of punch, is one line out of Greg Keyes novel Briar King... It had so much punch I've memorised it: "Asper White could smell murder." Now that's the kind of punch this book needed, but was sorely lacking.

As for the plot, it's stale and pointless. What is Warlords master plan? Oh simple, he's going to merge all the multiverse into one world & then take it over... Question I find myself asking is why? Why merge the worlds at all (heck why rule the world, its not like there's any advantage to that), but more then that why merge them to conquer them? To me that's like purchasing a howler monkey, so you can eat M&M's. Maybe I missed some important monologuing at some point that would explain it, but it didn't make sense to me... Maybe Warlord should just change his name to Doctor Non sequitur.

I wanted to like this book, but honestly K.A Applegate did more with less when she was writing Animorphs.