| Author | Van Allen Plexico |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Chris Kohler |
| Cover artist | Jim Jiminez, Rowell Roque, Danny Wall, Mitch Foust |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Superhero fiction, space opera |
| Published | 2006-2011 |
The Sentinels novels by Van Allen Plexico comprise a sequence of superhero fiction works in prose format with occasional interior illustrations. They are set primarily in the present-day United States. The first novel was published in 2006.
The novels follow the adventures of a group of paranormal agents loosely affiliated with the United States government and the US Defense Department. The central character, Lyn Li (codenamed "Pulsar"), is a Chinese-American college student and self-proclaimed "nerd" who discovers she possesses electromagnetic-based super powers. She is pursued by both good and villainous agents wishing to recruit her onto their teams. Thus far the series includes six novels and one anthology.
The first trilogy of novels, The Grand Design, centers around the schemes of an over-the-top villain called the Warlord and his assistant, Francisco, to unify the Multiverse into a single realm that the Warlord can rule. The second trilogy, The Rivals, takes on a more "cosmic" aspect, with vastly powerful entities from space coming to Earth and possibly destroying it as a consequence of their ancient conflicts.
Plexico has spoken in interviews (see below) and in panel discussions at conventions of planning a total of twenty or twenty-one novels in the series. He has said that the main themes he seeks to address in the series are the concepts of identity, memory and loyalty.
The first three novels in the series were published in 2006 and 2007 by WhiteRocketBooks and then, beginning in 2008, were reprinted by Swarm Press, an imprint of horror/apocalyptic fiction publishers Permuted Press. Subsequent volumes have been published by White Rocket Books. A paperback omnibus of the first three volumes, as well as a limited edition hardcover containing the first three books plus additional art and features, were published in 2007 but are now both out of print. Sentinels short stories have been published by A Thousand Faces magazine.
The seventh volume overall and sixth novel, Stellarax, completing the "Rivals" trilogy, was published by White Rocket Books in June 2011.