What do you think?
Rate this book
Sentinels Superhero Novels #2
Sentinels: A Distant Star
Book Two of the Greatest Superhero Novel Saga of All! Having saved the world from the sinister Warlord, Esro Brachis wanted nothing more than to relax and work on his wondrous suit of armor. But then the superpower-adapting robot attacked... And alien soldiers landed in his back yard... And a strange force hurtled him across the galaxy, with only a beautiful alien starship officer at his side. Come to think of it, the whole situation actually might not be so bad--if only she didn't want to kill him! Continuing the saga following the momentous events of Sentinels: When Strikes the Warlord, this new anniversary edition of the second Sentinels volume brings with it more action, more adventure, new enemies and allies, and a cosmic-time-travel leap across the galaxy! "There's a grandness to this book. You NEED to be reading the Sentinels." --Percival Constantine, author of SoulQuest "This kind of fun doesn't come along every day." --Pulp Fiction Reviews The Sentinels saga: One of the best-reviewed superhero novel series on GoodReads; now at 7 volumes and growing!
248 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Van Allen Plexico
75 books46 followersVan Allen Plexico has written a dozen novels and contributed to at least that many anthologies, but is best known for his popular and critically-acclaimed SENTINELS superhero novels, as well as the two-time Novel of the Year Finalist LORDS OF FIRE and its sequels in the "Shattering" space opera series. In the realm of nonfiction, he co-wrote the best-selling DECADES OF DOMINANCE and SEASON OF OUR DREAMS books about Auburn football and created the ASSEMBLED! books, exploring the history of Marvel’s AVENGERS comics. He writes and edits for numerous publishers including Airship 27, Pro Se Press, Permuted/Swarm Press, Maple Street Press, New Babel Books, Adamant, and White Rocket, along with occasional columns for RevolutionSF.com and the War Eagle Reader. He serves as an Associate Professor at Southwestern Illinois College.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 30, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. I listened to book one and wanted to continue the adventure, so got book two and boy does it continue. I do think you need to listen to the first book just because there is so many characters that it helps if you have already been introduced to them. The story contains a number of twists and sneaky underhandedness that I found grabbed my attention and didn't let up but be warned after listening to this book you must be prepared to get the next book to find out how it ends. They was plenty of battles and daring escapes and it is just a fun action adventure that you can get lost in for a few hours.
The team is relaxing at home after there epic battle with the Star Lord when a gaint robot crashes the party and sets there world spinning. The robot absorbs there powers and In a matter of seconds is able to replicate them, then with out so much as a goodbye he is gone. In his place is a space ship with three Red humanoid aliens on a mission to stop the robot in its tracks. The robot returns to strike another deadly blow and zooms of in to out space. Esro and the lady officer jump into the space ship and take of after him, only to disappear leaving behind a broken team. They get sucked into a whole new reality and if earth stands any chance of surviving what it is coming the pair will have to find away home. Back on earth Vanadium missed out on the fight because he froze when the robot turned up and now he seeks help so it won't happen again Pulsar finds out her sister has her own powers and has joined a new team of super hero's leaving her and her remaining teammate Ultraa without a purpose. With the Star Lord back to his old tricks, gaint robots that can't be stopped and three entities on its way, now is the time that earth needs all the help it can get.
I really liked the narrator and thought he did a good job with all the voices, there was so many but somehow he gave them each there own voice. I think he was a good choice and put in an epic performance that this book deserved.
The team is relaxing at home after there epic battle with the Star Lord when a gaint robot crashes the party and sets there world spinning. The robot absorbs there powers and In a matter of seconds is able to replicate them, then with out so much as a goodbye he is gone. In his place is a space ship with three Red humanoid aliens on a mission to stop the robot in its tracks. The robot returns to strike another deadly blow and zooms of in to out space. Esro and the lady officer jump into the space ship and take of after him, only to disappear leaving behind a broken team. They get sucked into a whole new reality and if earth stands any chance of surviving what it is coming the pair will have to find away home. Back on earth Vanadium missed out on the fight because he froze when the robot turned up and now he seeks help so it won't happen again Pulsar finds out her sister has her own powers and has joined a new team of super hero's leaving her and her remaining teammate Ultraa without a purpose. With the Star Lord back to his old tricks, gaint robots that can't be stopped and three entities on its way, now is the time that earth needs all the help it can get.
I really liked the narrator and thought he did a good job with all the voices, there was so many but somehow he gave them each there own voice. I think he was a good choice and put in an epic performance that this book deserved.
February 25, 2019
Very scattered plot. So many threads with no resolution. I guess the next book in the series will help it make sense but I don't know. The ending was bad, because the only apparent solution to the ending situation is time travel. And time travel is always messy and incoherent. Superhero books with time travel is just lazy writing.
March 3, 2020
I received a review copy of this audiobook.
I rather enjoyed the first book in this series, but this was a marked decrease in quality. Inconsistency in characterization, clichéd story beats, and lack of an overall plot are just the most obvious failures.
It’s not the worst book ever. It’s just very disappointing after the first book in the series.
I rather enjoyed the first book in this series, but this was a marked decrease in quality. Inconsistency in characterization, clichéd story beats, and lack of an overall plot are just the most obvious failures.
It’s not the worst book ever. It’s just very disappointing after the first book in the series.
July 8, 2025
I like the cover art for this Kindle eBook. I like the descriptions, the dialogue, most of the characters, the pace, and some of the plot in this novel. Five of the sentences in this novel aren’t grammatically correct. The author misspelled two of the words in this novel. I rate this Kindle eBook four out of five stars.
October 23, 2012
I absolutely loved Van Allen Plexico's first Sentinels book, When Strikes The Warlord. So much, in fact, that once I finished, I immediately bought the second book, A Distant Star. These two books, along with Apocalypse Rising, form the first Sentinels trilogy, "The Grand Design."
In this volume, we see the return of the Sentinels -- Lyn Li/Pulsar, Ultraa, Esro Brachis and Vanadium. We also see the return of the enemy from the first book, the Warlord, albeit in a different form. There are a succession of Warlords, and every time one dies another takes his place, and it's all part of something known as the Grand Design. Where this leads to is still something of a mystery that I assume will be the focus of the third book.
The Sentinels' universe also expands with this book, with the introduction of the Kur-Bai, an alien race coming to Earth in order to eliminate the Xorex, a planet-destroying entity that served as the master of Kabaraak from the previous volume. Upon landing on Earth, one of the Kur-Bai, a warrior named Mondrian, and Esro get swept off on an adventure of their own in space, going up against Mondrian's former shipmate in a Barsoomian setting.
There's a lot of jumping around in this book as the Sentinels are seemingly pulled apart in all directions. Ultraa is injured, Pulsar has family issues, Vanadium appears to be corrupted, and the government is prepared to cut their support for the Sentinels, especially with Esro missing. All the while, the Warlord is scheming, but it's really Esro and Mondrian's story that serve as the most interesting set-pieces here.
Where Plexico succeeds is in his characters, once more. Mondrian is every bit as intriguing and fascinating as the characters introduced in the previous volume. Her interaction with Esro is a joy to read and Esro himself steps up to the plate, becoming a much more central character than he was in the previous book. It could be said that When Strikes The Warlord was more Pulsar's story and in that case, A Distant Star is definitely Esro's. There's a grandness to this book, a sense of a larger universe outside of Earth. I know that there were aliens in the first, but this one feels more like a space opera.
That being said, one of the strengths of A Distant Star, of it feeling like a part of something greater, can also be considered a shortcoming, depending on your point of view. When Strikes The Warlord can easily be viewed as a stand-alone tale, but with A Distant Star, there's a lot of set-up for Apocalypse Rising and you know there's something else coming.
Apocalypse Rising is a book I will be reading in the very near future. So far, Plexico has not disappointed with his superhero epic, and I'm looking forward to an epic conclusion of this trilogy!
In this volume, we see the return of the Sentinels -- Lyn Li/Pulsar, Ultraa, Esro Brachis and Vanadium. We also see the return of the enemy from the first book, the Warlord, albeit in a different form. There are a succession of Warlords, and every time one dies another takes his place, and it's all part of something known as the Grand Design. Where this leads to is still something of a mystery that I assume will be the focus of the third book.
The Sentinels' universe also expands with this book, with the introduction of the Kur-Bai, an alien race coming to Earth in order to eliminate the Xorex, a planet-destroying entity that served as the master of Kabaraak from the previous volume. Upon landing on Earth, one of the Kur-Bai, a warrior named Mondrian, and Esro get swept off on an adventure of their own in space, going up against Mondrian's former shipmate in a Barsoomian setting.
There's a lot of jumping around in this book as the Sentinels are seemingly pulled apart in all directions. Ultraa is injured, Pulsar has family issues, Vanadium appears to be corrupted, and the government is prepared to cut their support for the Sentinels, especially with Esro missing. All the while, the Warlord is scheming, but it's really Esro and Mondrian's story that serve as the most interesting set-pieces here.
Where Plexico succeeds is in his characters, once more. Mondrian is every bit as intriguing and fascinating as the characters introduced in the previous volume. Her interaction with Esro is a joy to read and Esro himself steps up to the plate, becoming a much more central character than he was in the previous book. It could be said that When Strikes The Warlord was more Pulsar's story and in that case, A Distant Star is definitely Esro's. There's a grandness to this book, a sense of a larger universe outside of Earth. I know that there were aliens in the first, but this one feels more like a space opera.
That being said, one of the strengths of A Distant Star, of it feeling like a part of something greater, can also be considered a shortcoming, depending on your point of view. When Strikes The Warlord can easily be viewed as a stand-alone tale, but with A Distant Star, there's a lot of set-up for Apocalypse Rising and you know there's something else coming.
Apocalypse Rising is a book I will be reading in the very near future. So far, Plexico has not disappointed with his superhero epic, and I'm looking forward to an epic conclusion of this trilogy!
February 17, 2017
Plexico continues his superhero series with the second instalment, A Distant Star. I am happy to report that the the wonderful balance he strikes between likeable characters saving the universe, and his tongue-in-cheek writing style that doesn't take itself too seriously yet never fails to entertain, was handsomely met. This story picks up where the last one left off, continuing marvelously with each character's development, as well as introducing us to new ones. If you like superhero stories, or like a fun filled story that is more light hearted, this series is highly recommended.
July 10, 2020
A group of nasty galactic villains are wrestling each other for the right to conquer Earth. To the rescue: The Sentinels! But what's so special about Earth? It is "a world of glorified, jumped up monkeys," says one villain. "The wisest thing would probably be to sterilize the whole planet before its inhabitants get loose into the galaxy and begin causing who knows what kinds of trouble." Amen to that.
September 21, 2012
Picking up the pace, this book gives more life to our heroes. This second book moves us ever closer to the final conflict with our forthcoming invaders. This is a must read for silver-age fans.
February 7, 2013
Better than the first two.
December 16, 2013
Anyone who's enjoyed the Sentinels before will enjoy this too. Takes what was good before and does even more with it. This is what superhero literature should be.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews