SENTINELS 9 : Vendetta

SENTINELS 9 : VENDETTA

By Van Allen Plexico

White Rocket Books

290 pages

More years ago than we care to remember, a budding new pulp writer sent us a book called “When Strikes The Warlord.” It was a prose superhero adventure featuring a team called the Sentinels and clearly inspired by Marvel Comics’ own Avengers. The author of that book was Van Allen Plexico and with that one book he launched a series that grew in scope and grandeur with each new chapter.

Initially the stories centered on the earthbound heroes; Ultraa, the powerful team leader, Esro Brachis, the millionaire genius inventor and Wendy Lee, a beautiful young woman with amazing powers. Oh, there were others, but these three made up the core of the group and as time went on their personalities began to take shape with each additional adventure. It was immediately obvious that Plexico’s grand scheme would take these heroes far beyond the boundaries of one lonely planet as a plethora of alien beings began popping up to either threaten the Earth or save it.  From Star Knights to a thousand year old space warrior suffering from amnesia, the scope of the Sentinels broadened quickly.

Eventually we encountered the space faring Kur-bai from the planet Kurizon and their heroes known as the Elites. Soon both teams were fighting side by side against living stars and other fantastical galactic beings, all seeking to rule the universe. And that was all within the confines of the first six books. With the seventh, Plexico set about taking his now mega-cast on an amazing journey to Kurizon itself. The Sentinels and Elites mission  was to rescue the Empire from a tyrant.  What they did not know was shortly after their departure, one of their greatest foes, an immortal known as the Black Terror,  assembled a human space fleet and flew off after them to invade Kurizon and conquer the Kur-bai Empire.

“Sentinels : Vendetta,” opens with almost a dozen plot lines and constantly shifts from one character to another at such a rapid pace, this reviewer began thinking of installing a seat belt on our reading recliner. The action in this epic finale moves at breakneck speed and in such a grandiose fashion, especially for the diehard fans who have been along this ride from the beginning.  Side note – of all the entries in this saga, this one, as brilliantly written as it is, is nothing but one battle after another, each more powerful and dramatic than the previous featuring most of the cast. Ergo, a new reader would most likely give up after the few chapters. Knowing these heroes and villains is crucial to enjoying what a true climatic masterpiece this book becomes. It is the grand payoff all of us have been waiting for and Plexico doesn’t disappoint. All his wonderful and amazing characters get their time on the stage and in the most logical and satisfying ways possible.

In the end an powerful empire’s history is redirected for the betterment of all its people, two heroes wed and the Earth is once again safe thanks to the courage of a handful of heroes, both human and alien.  “Sentinels 9 : Vendetta,” is simply a gift to we readers from a writer who never once lost sight of his goal; to write the ultimate space opera of all time. Well done, Van Allen Plexico, mission accomplished.