X-Men: Smoke and Mirrors

Marvel Berkley/Byron Preiss Productions Prose Novels

by Eluki bes Shahar

Vintage paperback

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

341 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

An earlier pen name of Rosemary Edghill.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better X-Men standalone prose novels I've consumed, particularly given that it was written and set in the odd times when they had firmly become something of a pop culture phenomenon, at least as comic books and a well-received Saturday morning cartoon, but still a few years short of Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellan and co. showing up on the big screen and more or less permanently impacting the zeitgeist.


More or less the X-Lineup you get, minus most of "Team Gold" and Jubilee

It was by no means perfect. The somewhat uneven balance between known X-characters like Scott and Jean, Storm, Wolverine and even Psylocke among others and the author's original creations "The Ohio Mutant Conspiracy", a group of highschoolers out of Cleveland caught up in the fictional political games surrounding mutant rights in light of a purported new "cure" is one drawback, as well as unnecessarily dragging out the "Big Villain Reveal" of Mr. Sinister until 80% into the book when it is very obvious that there is a mastermind mad scientist pulling the strings from the early going is another. Nonetheless I found myself more than willing to forgive these minor sins in favour of the big narrative payoff at the end, which wasn't exactly what I would declare a happy ending.

“We were just kids. That’s all we were.”

DEVASTATING.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good enough X-outing (particularly Psylocke), but not really one of the better Marvel prose books from its era. Sinister is the Big Bad, never one of my favorites. There was an attempt to parody the Great Lakes Avengers (I think) with "The Ohio Mutant Conspiracy," which I didn't think worked very well. Hardcore members of the Merry Marvel Marching Society will want to run it down, but it's not essential.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book really pissed me off, as both a man, and a human being. There are a lot of great characters in the X-Men world to choose from if you're writing a book, and the selection here is fine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Professor X, Wolverine, Rogue, and Gambit. The problem is that the writer takes the needless and offensive liberty of creating her own little team of suburban teenage mutants who call themselves "The Ohio Mutant Conspiracy," with horrible names like Pipedream, Rewind, and Slapshot. It would've been fine if they were just bit players in peril for the real team to rescue, but they were used way too much, as major characters, and overshadowed the people who the book is titled for. I got so annoyed that I just started skipping over the many long chapters with them, until I got near the end and realized most of them had been killed off. Then I had to go back and read the parts I missed just because I wanted to see them die. The villain of the book is Mr. Sinister, who is manipulating things from behind the scenes most of the way, which is fine because that's his style, but when he actually shows up at the climax, it's pretty underwhelming. Anyway, I'm starting to sound like Pierre from Conan O'Brien, but I read another X-Men novel before this called "The Return" by Chris Roberson which was actually pretty cool, especially compared to this dud.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-Men: Smoke And Mirrors By Eluki Bes Shahar, is a original superhero prose novel based off Marvel comic’s X-Men.

The main villain is Mr. Sinister and the featured X-men are Wolverine, Psylocke, Phoenix, Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit and Storm with Beast and Prof. Xavier as supporting characters. The plot is a continuation from the comics about normal humans' paranoia of the perceived mutant menace. Mr. Sinister, under the disguise as Arnold Brocklin offers a medical procedure to cure human mutation and thereby remove the mutant menace. The US government quickly moved to pass a bill declaration human mutation as a medical emergency and all mutants must under go the procedure. Unknown to the public is that the procedure has a 50% mortality rate. Thus the X-men are out to discover Brocklin's real identity and expose the deadly procedure to the public.

I have to admit this book was a mixed bag. It was interesting and the characters were well portrayed. I'm a big Gambit & Rogue fan so for me it's especially nice to see a book with them as major contributing characters. I have fallen in love with the Ohio Mutant Conspiracy! I don't want to give the book away so i won't say anything else about them. This book kept me guessing the end up until it! Very few books have pulled that one on me. Obviously we all know who the villian is in this book, so that was a dead giveaway but i mean other than that i have no issues with this book. In fact it's one of my favs! I'd like to see another book dedicated just to the Ohio Mutant Conspiracy, they are amazing characters.

While I did enjoy the good portion of Smoke and Mirrors it’s definitely the final chapters that kinda ruin it. The climatic battle between the X-men and Mr. Sinister's forces was a let down in the sense that Sinister's role in the battle was confusing and he just literally disappeared to "fight another day." The ending was kind like a cliff hanger in that the story does not end conclusively. Maybe it was done that way to make room for a sequel but it does leave the reader with a feeling of unfinished business.

Overall, While I enjoyed a good portion of X-Men: Smoke and Mirrors, and it features some great original characters. The cliffhanger ending pretty much ruined it for me. While it’s not the best Marvel prose novel I’ve read recently. I would still recommend it to anyone looking for a decent X-Men adventure.

[Rosaria Battiloro]

I listened to the english audiobook for this.

[PMoslice · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-Men Smoke and Mirrors is a action packed thrill ride with the Mutant X-Men taking on a villainous group who are experimenting on mutants to remove and reestablish the X-gene. All the the story had some surprises, it was the same old x-men versus the humans story. Which I realized at this point I don't really care for. How can people be so against mutants in a world where they've created their own..."Capitan America". Or other accidental mutants.. Spiderman, Fantastic Four. If you don't like mutants, you have to be against all of these superhumans.

[Aaron Jefferys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read X-Men novelizations before, so I went in as normal with this one. Fun storylines, sure, but it’s all a little bloated with 3 separate major plots that can feel a little jumbled at times. I wished Sinister had a bit more of a direct antagonism going on rather than the few eugenics-adjacent monologues he gave, and the ending also felt rushed and unfinished.

I found my copy at a used book store, so I think I got what value that had out of it. It was occasionally a little difficult to follow, but all-in-all it was an enjoyable average read.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I greatly enjoyed the politics, the action did get a bit tiring and repetitive after a while. I did like the perspective of the teenage friend group and seeing how they handled being caught in the crosshairs. It was a great one to include because we don't often see that kind of thing in X-Men books.

[Zombie_Phreak · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a life long X-Men fan, and as much as it pains me to say it. This book was very boring. The main X-Men were there but they took a backseat to this group of nameless teenagers from Ohio that honestly had pretty lame super powers.

The times the X-Men were in the book, they were pretty much just guest stars. They would show up in a chapter, get the info they needed, or advanced the plot in some way, then a fight would break out, they would end the fight, and the chapter ended. Lather, rinse, repeat.

About 3/4 through I started mostly skimming the book and just caught the highlights. Look, if you are an X-Men fan, give this one a pass.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember reading this book when I was in middle school, and it took me forever to finish it. Reading it again, 20 years later, I remembered why: I’m not a fan of the writing style, there were too many plot threads, some chapters were as long as 50 pages, and the whole thing felt really disjointed during the reading experience. Not to mention the oddly emphasized (and terribly designed) original teen mutant group called The Ohio Mutant Conspiracy that took up half of the book… Having just read the well-written Mutant Empire trilogy, I felt this book was a step back in terms of quality.

[Anthony Henson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge x-men fan I’m torn. This concept could be amazing but the author falls flat too many times. The ending ruined all the action that brings you there. If you want a serious x-men story read god loves man kills.

[Derrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a different take with appearances by Mr. Sinister and Bishop. So, I'm in.

[TJ Pool · Rating 1 out of 5]

So incredibly boring.

[Randy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Same old same old X-men story. OMG a cure! The government is going to make it mandatory! Overall boring and forgetable.

[Amy (I'd Rather Be Sleeping) · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I would like to say that I love the X-MEN. They are my second favorite superhero/team and I've had this book on my to-buy list for a very long time - mostly because I heard that a lot of the focus was on two of my favorites: Rouge and Gambit. I mean, just look at the front cover. Those two and throwing Wolverine in for good measure (another favorite of mine) and it's a recipe for success. Right?

Let's talk about what was done well. Shahar obviously understands the characters. The author managed to get inside their heads with ease. While I really wished a couple of the characters hadn't the attention that they did, (I've never liked Scott or Jean) I grew attached to each of them. Honestly, I even liked the 'new' mutant group - much more than I thought I would when they were first introduced.

Now, what wasn't done so well. First (as in the first thing that jarringly caught my attention) was the fact that I do not believe Shahar knows how to storyboard a timeline. This book was all over the place. And not in the form of flashbacks, either. You would be following on person or group, being told at least once what time it was, and then you would jump to the next group or person. The problem with that? The first segment took place at eight am - the next at four am. Of the same morning! Someone left the storyline before page one hundred…but it took until after page two hundred before the timeline for everyone else had caught up to that event. Flashbacks are fine. But what was going on here defies explanation. It was as though Shahar was just throwing things into the book as they were thought of.

Or, what brings be to another fault in the book, Shahar was unable to focus on any character for a length of time. Usually, there were little line breaks every page or two - and more often than not, those would signify a shift in character point of view. The only time that didn't happen much was in the first three chapters (which, combined, were shorter than a later chapter) - and a couple of times with Wolverine. Quite often, this shift in the point of view character would only shift from one to the next in a group that was already together. The scenes didn't change, only the viewpoint character did (like too many people were fighting over the camera).

A couple of smaller issues for me were as follows. This is only the second X-MEN written media that I've ever been exposed to. (The first was a comic book that dealt with some alternate reality where Gambit was some sort of master thief.) Honestly, I wish there had been a few less references to a story that I never read and most likely never will. At the beginning of the book there's an author's note that states: 'This novel takes place three-and-a-half months after the events[…]'. I really wish that the events hadn't been mentioned as much, or that they had been more fully explained. For someone that didn't read the story that they came from, some of the motivation seemed a little off.

The other small problem was the plot. I know, considering I bought the story anyway, I have no room to complain about that. But, as it says on the front cover of the book, Sinister is involved. That really should have not been the big reveal it was in the story as I imagine most readers could easily figure out where he was long before his character was revealed. Also, the government/mutant thing has been done to death and - in my personal opinion - this story added nothing new.

Finally, I was all set to give this book a three star review. For all my problems, I really did enjoy it. Then I reached the ending. The last two chapters were easily the worst of the whole story. Some of the point of view characters only stuck around for a sentence or three and occasionally you couldn't even tell whose eyes you were looking through. And the ending itself was a major cop-out. When I read a book, I expect resolution - unless it is the first two books of a trilogy. This book was supposedly a stand-alone novel. However, very little was actually resolved. Naturally, Sinister was not defeated. That's not a spoiler. Sinister is never defeated. It was a mistake how much of a role the author gave Sinister. The ending itself - as in the last three or so pages - resolved nothing of the main storyline. We didn't even get to look back at the main characters, to see how they were holding up after the events. It was like Shahar had a certain number of pages to fill and once the author reached that number, the story just ended.

Besides the aforementioned X-MEN that showed up, Beast and Storm as well were involved. (Not to sound like a broken record but: two more of my favorites. In fact, before I watched the animated series, when my only X-MEN exposure had been the movies, Storm was my favorite female.) Also a woman by the name of Psylock was in the story. I have never even heard of her before so… And of course, Professor X was there.

[Lori S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars Well written and full of tension that builds from the ground up, this book kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book based on the Marvel characters. In this one, a drug is developed that "cures" mutants and it looks like it is going to be mandatory that every mutant must have this treatment. This plot is similar to the movie "X-Men: The Last Stand". The only similarity is the drug as everything else behind it is vastly different.

I didn't think this was the best book that takes place in the universe. The author understands the characters as one reads about their favorite mutants. The problem with this book is this book isn't totally about our favorite mutant team. Instead, the author introduces a teenage mutant group and devotes many pages to them. The problem is what reader is going to care for them when the reader wants to read about Wolverine, Cyclops, and the other X-Men. The other problem was the ending. The ending fell flat and didn't really accomplish much. I spent my time reading the majority of this novel to get nowhere.

A good reason to read this book is the author uses Psylocke and her scenes were terrific. It was nice to see her receive some time on the written page. This book has all the favorites including Sinister but just not enough time devoted to them and as a result not the best book based on these heroes.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first X-men book I have read, and I wasn't overly impressed. While I have been a comic book geek in my youth, and still enjoy the stories and movies, this book leaves alot to be desired. I was glad that it had a gritty realism where "Good Guys" can die, the story was a bit too vague overall.

[Seloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so I read all these X-men books in high school and they probably aren't as great as I remember them being... but we'll pretend.

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 3 out of 5]

How can I not like the x-men? Enjoyable book and I liked reading about Sinister coming back. Is it wrong that I find Sinister kind of hawt in a Dom sort of way?

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so disappointed with this book. It was one of the first to be sold at a rummage sale.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needed more Gambit and Rogue action but otherwise it was an entertaining read