X-Men: Empire's End

Marvel Berkley/Byron Preiss Productions Prose Novels

by Diane Duane

A cosmic adventure with the fate of the galaxy at stake! Shi'ar scientists have learned of a creature that devours galaxies and is heading towards Shi'ar space. Beset by panicked people and several assassination attempts, Empress Lilandra must call upon the X-Men for their assistance -- for the galaxy eater will target Earth next. But the price for stopping the creature may be higher than the X-Men expect. They must use a device that increases their powers a thousand-fold to drive the creature back. A process that could destroy them... or make them insane with power! Based on the Marvel characters the X-Men

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Comics, Fantasy

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.

Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.

She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

(From her official website)

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very good X-novel, centering on an X-pedition to Shi'ar to resolve an interstellar problem. It's a well written book with lots of fun interplay between the familiar characters (Logan and Gambit and Beast, oh my!), and a touch of a romantic conundrum for Charles. It fits well into the continuity of the comics of the time, back when they tried a lot harder to have things make sense. Fans of the cinematic iteration should like one, too. Go forth, true believers...

[Jeremiah Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

You ever watch a movie in a movie theater and you’re the only person there? That’s what reading this book feels like.

I was really rooting for it but parts of the plot were really repetitive, like after page 240 or so, I was wondering if anyone had read past that page. It became kind of exciting—in a reading a book no one has read before kind of way. But that feeling was ruined by the same thing happening over and over. And over.

Things I liked:

The ridiculousness of the premise. Something threatens the life of galaxies, maybe Wolverine can pop his claws through a star. I love it.

I like how Duane writes the Shi’ar. These characters were interesting and the gifts Duane has in fleshing out alien civilizations, from her Trek books, worked here and kept me reading.

I liked the exploration of Charles and Lilandra’s romance and the dilemmas it presents.

The novel gave room to hear characters conversations but this leads to

Things I didn’t like:

The characters talk about the same things over and over.

Bishop? I was excited he was in the book, I thought I’d get to know him better. He speaks like 5 times. The book reads like... after it was finished, someone said “put Bishop in there” and then someone added his name randomly through the book.

I’m repeating myself but, to emphasize ,the same thing happens over and over again in the last half to third of the book. This could have been a decent 200 pager.

[Lori S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diane Duane did some real homework with the way stars actually work and what makes them go nova before adding in a critter which would make Cthulhu pause in his tracks. Charles and his X-Men all shine here, but with the help of Shi'ar technology, they walk close to the edge of madness in their attempts to stop the star eater. Happily, all of them figure out pretty quickly this isn't the way to go and pull back, but there are a few hairy moments.

The only downside to this story is the romance between Charles and Lilandra, the Shi'ar Empress. Not that it's intrusive or anything, in fact it's understated nicely. However, there's also a romantic "rival" as chosen by Lilandra's ruling council who is an honorable Shi'ar and a self sacrificing one he save Lilandra's ship from a massive black hole at the end because reasons (he can't compete with Charles, of course, and knows it) 🙄 . I could have lived happily without the m/f troping, thank you very much.

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 2 out of 5]

snooze fest. more science and math than action. this was just useless.

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes place in the Marvel universe. In this one, something is destroying a neighboring galaxy and the X-Men travel to this galaxy to put a stop to this destruction.

This was a decent adventure with our favorite mutant team. I had no problem with the portrayal of the characters or the setting of this adventure. While I was looking for a fun action adventure in this universe, this book was a little too philosophical at times. Also, the antagonist of the story wasn't your usual antagonist and this aspect took away some enjoyment of the story. I will say the author does a fantastic job painting a picture of the action and what is going on at the moment. While reading this book I had no problem visualizing the scenes.

This kept my interest throughout and I am glad I read this book. I have read better books in this universe and I was hoping for a little more fun and action like the days when I read these comics as a child.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diane Duane is one of my favorite authors, mostly because of her amazing Star Trek fiction. Although X-Men: Empire's End didn't match up to Spock's World in terms of quality, it was still a good, fun novel. It wasn't anything too special, but I would think that fans of Professor X and company who are looking for a quick, easy read might find it enjoyable.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deep space action with intergalactic politics tossed in for good measure. While not a horrible read I could not give it more than three stars. I can't put my finger on it..but at times the "voices" of the characters seems a little off.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had it, hated it, sold it. A dry and boring X-Men story that lacked imagination.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad story, but lots of bad science and bad math and so-so writing

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the audio book. This is a surprisingly solid story with heavy teachno babble straight out of Star Trek. This reads very much like a star trek story with x-men thrown in.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 2 out of 5]

X-Men: Empire’s End By Diane Duane, is a original superhero prose novel based on Marvel Comic’s X-Men franchise.

In this novel the X-Men are summoned to outer space to help the Shi'ar Empire and Empress Lilandra from a devestating cosmic space creature. That threatens both their galaxies.

Most of this book seems to be about the love between Xavier and the ruler of the Shi'ar empire, Lilandra, and how they cannot be together. The book seems to almost be fluffed by this simple fact, repeated many times, enough to where it seems like instead of being a subplot, this is the main story, and the actual problem the X-Men are called in for is the subplot, yet very little develops in their relationship for the majority of the book.

The characters are mostly under developed, and sometimes misrepresented. The X-Men's primary goal has always been to show the world that mutants and humans can live together, but in this story they use a plot device that gives them exponentially more power, and all of them become corrupted, and basically decide they want to go back to earth to rule as gods. Seeing this come from Storm, or Iceman, is just very strange, if you know their personalities at all. It is never truly explained why this happens to them, and the resolution is something akin to "Eh, nevermind."

Early on in the book, Xavier is picking the team to go on the mission, which is all in space, and at that point as far as they know, they are going to be studying a natural disaster. Xavier picks Wolverine to go, and Wolverine flat out states that he is the last person that should go on such a mission, which is a very good point for him to make. It is never answered, never explained what the rational behind bringing him was, or why he accepted the mission, and throughout the entire book, all he really does is walk around being grumpy. This can only be a case of an author being afraid to write about the X-Men and not include the most popular character, regardless of the subject matter.

It is worth mentioning that Beast was done very well, perfectly spot on, but he really is the only one that is done any justice, and he has a fairly small role.

All in all, X-Men: Empire End is a disappointing Marvel prose novel. The book progresses slowly, with very little development, and the plot was generic enough where you could replace the X-Men with the cast of Star Trek, or any number of other things, and hardly notice a difference.

[Scratch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to read this two years ago, but I kept letting the library book expire before I even cracked it open. Finally, I was able to tackle this in its new form as an audiobook. And I must say, I'm disappointed.

The fact the X-Men use some nifty, miraculous machine that increases their powers to god-like levels? Not too big a deal. That sort of thing does happen in comics sometimes, and all of the X-Men have had their powers upgraded in some form at some point over the years. This did feel a tad *too* powerful and too easy, but perhaps I could forgive that. More, I had issue with the impossibility of how that would actually look. For some reason the X-Men became godlike, standing thousands of miles tall, and Gambit's throwing cards were "ghosts," but Wolverine's elongated claws really were adamantium?

There were other writing issues. The X-Men are using this supercharging device so that they can kill a massive space locust that eats stars. Along the way, they *let* the giant locust eat a few stars as a way of drawing it out or studying the creature. Jean is part of this team, fighting the creature. To help out Lilandra, and the rest of the Shi'Ar empire. ... The empire that ordered Jean executed, for ... eating a star, as Phoenix.

For the first few chapters I just assumed Diane Duane knew nothing about comics, or had decided not to draw attention to this discrepancy. But maybe 3/4 of the way through the book suddenly the book did address Jean's past as Phoenix and the order for her execution. Just... no one pointed out how awkward this mission must have been for everyone, or the logical incongruity of the X-Men doing the exact same thing that got Jean executed before.

You don't get too much detail about anyone's personality other than maybe Xavier's, Lilandra's, and their romantic love-triangle. Iceman, Beast, Cyclops, and Wolverine are cardboard cutouts. Storm inexplicably is given an anti-suicide speech from Wolverine, though she was not technically contemplating suicide, and the whole thing came flying out of nowhere.

There are suggestions that this device is going to be compared to performance-enhancing drugs. But the analogy is dropped, and never properly resolved.

More, the writing is confounding in that the X-Men keep using this supercharging device repeatedly, even though for most of the book it appears to have almost NO effect on the creature they're trying to kill. It was frustrating for the reader, even if not for the X-Men themselves.

[P D MacMillan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reminded me in plot of Star Trek The Motion Picture, except more abstract. The being the X-Men are fighting is of limitless power but primitive in its intentions and impossible to communicate with. Your choices with such an adversary or obstacle are VERY limited. Strategy must be developed through knowledge of the being, which is very difficult indeed to acquire. Jean Grey has a big role to play in developing this strategy through her telepathy. The ongoing subplot is the romance between Charles Xavier and the ruler of the Shi’ar, Lilandra, whose galaxy is threatened with extinction by this being. I was disappointed that this relationship had to squeeze its rare moments between the mission to destroy the "star eater." I also could have wished for more character development and interaction between the other X-Men in the story (Beast, Gambit, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman) I admit I skipped through many of the battles cause I didn't want to read about what didn't work, I wanted to read about what DID work. I doubt I will want to re-read this book.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I might; the first time I read it I was not too impressed with it. The X-Men do not show up until three or four chapters into the book; it starts off in the Shi'ar Empire with two crises rearing their "ugly" heads to stare at Lilandra in the face. The action is so-so; fortunately, the Imperial Guard do not have much of a part to play in the book. The characterization was decent; it was definitely geared more towards "regular" fans of the X-Men as opposed to somebody unfamiliar with the team and its characters. It was a fun book to read, and, in some respects, reminded me of some of her Star Trek books [but not as well written]. This novel seems to take place "shortly" after the end of the Kree-Shi'ar War that ran through the various Avengers-related books in the 90s [as the Kree being conquered by the Shi'ar after the War was over was mentioned more than once].

In regards to developing the characters further, I do not know how much character development could have taken place based on how the book is written. There is a lot that has to happen in the book, but there is not much action, to be honest. Well, it did not feel like it. The "action" that takes place shows the futility of the plans of the X-Men and Shi'ar, forcing them to find another alternative to defeating the creature that threatens both the Shi'ar Empire and the Milky Way Galaxy. However, some aspects of the book could probably have been shortened or cut-out in hopes of further developing the characters; be that as it may, there is a smidge of development that does occur.

In terms of the team members that went on the mission, they were forgettable, to be honest. I was unsure of who had actually gone on the mission, initially, and would have forgotten if the author had not kept reminding me over the course of the novel. It seemed to focus almost exclusively on Xavier and Storm for much of the book before Wolverine, Beast, and Jean Grey became more prevalent. Scott, Gambit, Bishop, and Ice Man seemed like they were afterthoughts until later in the novel, as well.

It felt like the author was trying to 'create' some kind of discussion about mere mortals gaining the power of gods and how it might affect them. I am not sure how well it worked, how believable it was. I mean, in some respects, it was probably quite believable, especially the desire to 'be more' than their normal selves. The conversations and inner struggles just felt flat to me. I did appreciate Wolverine's discussion with Storm as they were talking about the "pros and cons" of their temporary 'godhood' and if it could become a permanent state of existence for them. However, the various conversations about their 'godhood' felt forced and out-0f-place, though, for some reason. They did not match the flow of the rest of the book.

There are some humorous moments that occur in the book; it occurs primarily amidst the X-Men [I especially enjoyed some of the banter between Gambit and Beast as I do not remember Gambit normally being presented as a man of any "higher education" or philosophical bent in the comics, yet he is familiar with some classical works in the story and bickers with Beast about them.

I have very mixed feelings about the Shi'ar. While I enjoy reading about their technology and the whole "science fiction" aspect they bring to the X-Men comics, I have always hated their assumed superiority to the X-Men, specifically, and humans, in general. I will not go any further, because my dislike of the Shi'ar extends more into the comic book universe than it does this novel. I actually enjoyed the Shi'ar more in this novel than I usually do when reading the comics. At the same time, Xavier's insufferable arrogance and assumption that he always knows better than his "students" has always bugged me as well. So, in many respects, it would seem he and Lilandra are perfect for each other. hahahah

In some respects, the creature reminded me of the "monster" in the Star Trek novel Prime Directive, except the creature in Prime Directive consumed planets that were suffering from a thermonuclear exchange and essentially terraformed by the inhabitants to create a food source for the creature. I do not know why, but the creatures did seem very familiar.

I would have loved to have seen Galactus show up and eat this naughty creature! The amount of energy it absorbed to survive would have made a nice meal [snack] for this universal force for balance. It would have been a pleasant surprise to have Galactus show up, to be honest; completely unexpected and might have added something to the story. Some kind of "irony" in that the bests efforts of the X-Men and Shi'ar were for naught whereas Galactus ate the beastie like a midnight snack or something. hahahah! I would have enjoyed it.

It was an all right book; it was "safe" because the heroes were never in any real danger of dying or being seriously incapacitated. There was no real sense of 'impending doom' or suspense in the book, which is unfortunate. Well, there was one moment of suspense, at the end when Orien uses his star cruiser to slingshot around and save Lilandra's vessel in the process; he sacrifices himself and his crew so that his "Queen/Empress" might live. I had forgotten that this happened, so it was about the only "tense" moment in the book as I could not remember if he was going to live or die. Overall, it was a fun book to read and I am glad that I read it [again].

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book, got about 50% through it, set it down and I could not bring myself to read more…it wasn’t very engaging. I finally picked this back up a few days ago to finish, and it just felt like chore. Ms. Duane just isn’t good at writing the X-Men, in my opinion. Plus the lack of an actual villain and instead a sort of faceless entity (a galactic force) just makes it hard to get into. It’s not a badly written book, it just failed to capture my interest.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compared to my other X-Men read, Empire’s End by Diane Duane had be hooked from the beginning with how fast-paced it was. The plot was straightforward with the X-Men in space saving the Shi’ar Empire from a star-eating bug (I guess you can call it that). There was also some additional subplots involving Charles and Lilandra’s relationship and the teams’ discourse over the pros/cons of power enhancers, but they did not drown out the main story. Overall, this is must read for any X-Men fan.

[Kore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this story, I love the X-Men and I try to read everything I can. However, it was a little slow in some parts but, Diane Duane, I feel portrayed the characters very well in this novel. The action sequences were very well written. As I was reading it I was picturing the story laid out as if it were a comic book. Brilliant! :D I look forward to reading more from this author.

[Shanereads · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-Men: Empire's end was a fun book to read. I'm a huge X-men fan, and I spotted this in our local goodwill. Really you could only enjoy it if you are an X-men fan. As with most fan fiction the writing is spotty. However, it made for for a really fun read at the airport on our way to vacation last week.

[Derrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was super hyped because Bishop was a part of the team this time around, but honestly, he wasn't there much. This was a story about Charles and his love Lalandra and her race. It was ok, but not really that deep.

[Kota · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt SO lucky to find this for under $10 on ebay! So here’s the thing, is it the best x-men novel I’ve read? No. But it was still pretty great! Worth a once over. I only wish I could’ve read it faster.

[Michael P.]

The X-Men film opens soon, so I tried this novel to relearn the X-world. Xers do not appear until p. 33. First 5 pages are so boring that I did not get that far.

[Desta Hailu]

I found this story to be quite interesting between the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, to the balance that each member of the X-men played in their teamwork.