The plot of "Plutarch Stick" is special, since it is chronologically place before "The Secret of the Swordfish", the original story of the series.
The action takes place in spring 1944. Blake is stationed on an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, which seems patrol near the British coast. An urgent message informing command of the ship in a suicide attack on the British Parliament. While it is still unclear what form will this attack, radar detects a high-speed aircraft that seems darken from Berlin to London. Realizing that the available fighters, Spitfires, will be exceeded, Blake will use the Golden Rocket prototype attempt to intercept the aircraft of the Luftwaffe.
Following an aerial joust where he must give everything, Blake shot down the German jet fighter, a Horten H IX. By far down, the Major Benson attended the fight. Having lost one of his men in the attack, Benson ordered Blake, who had to bail out, and replace it with him to the Cabinet of War.
Blake will soon be offered to join the British intelligence services. After he accepted the Gray Admiral and Major Benson reveal to him the existence of the empire of Basam-Damdu dictator and announced to him that a third world war seems inevitable!
Blake immediately ordered to get to the secret base Scaw Fell to assist engineers working on a new type of weapons and train drivers. It is still a far cry from imagining that the chief engineer was none other than his friend Philip Mortimer. After the reunion, Blake and Mortimer travel to Bletchley, decryption center MI 6. Once there, they realize they are spied on. But before we can seriously investigate, they are sent on a secret mission in the Mediterranean ...
A new "Blake and Mortimer" for longtime fans, it's always a sense combining impatience, hope and apprehension, but "stick Plutarch" have pleased me. The plot is full of action, conducted smoothly and eventful. It is true that one guesses pretty quickly which is the traitor, but Sente managed to spare us surprises. Juillard's illustrations are in line with the work already done on the series ("The Machination Voronov," "The sarcophagi of the 6th continent", "The Shrine of Gondwana" and "The Oath of the five Lords"). The action is perfectly readable (you have to pay attention to all small details), clear and cleverly cut.
The whole mythology of the "Secret of the Swordfish" is set up: the Golden Rocket, Gray Admiral, secret bases Scaw-Fell and the Strait of Hormuz, the ZH22 agent and, of course, Olrik.
While it is unrealistic to see the Allies and the Axis "manipulated" by Basam-Damdu, whose empire, during the conflict, was
developed and prepared in the Himalayas. Also, if the plot aims to find and give its "origins" in "Secret of the Swordfish", in the end, we do not learn more about said Basam-Damdu nor where it came from , or where its resources come from, or how he came to power; nothing is said about it.
Anyway, "The Stick of Plutarch" is an adventure full of action, twists and references to the "Secret of the Swordfish"; reading has been enjoyable. The next book due out in December 2015 or the current 2016 - to be confirmed.