X-men the Legacy Quest Trilogy

Marvel BP Books Prose Novels

by Steve Lyons

"The devastating Legacy Virus is sweeping through the mutant population, striking its victim's DNA , rendering the mutant powerless - or dead. The very existence of the mutant population is in danger..."
(Inside flap.)

Collects volumes 1-3 in hardcover.

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

662 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Steve Lyons is a science fiction writer, best known for writing television tie-ins of Doctor Who for BBC Books, and previously, Virgin. The earliest of these was Conundrum in 1994, and his most recent was 2005's The Stealers of Dreams. He has also written material for Star Trek tie-ins, as well as original work.

Reviews

[Kaotic · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Legacy in Itself

I am really happy that I've started using my local library again, it makes it harder to finish reading the books that I have sitting around my house, but it exposes me to even more books.

Now on to the book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've always followed the X-Men and loved the symbolism and stories that surround the characters.

This trilogy follows the Legacy Virus that targets mutants DNA and kills them slowly and painfully. While working on finding a cure, the Beast sides himself with the Hellfire Club and travels down a long path that leads to pain and a war between the X-Men, Hellfire Club, and Magneto.

The books were incredibly well written, filled with constant action, and accurate to the characters. There really weren't any slow points while reading this - there was always something going on. The story was intricate and took a lot of twists and turns without being difficult to follow or overwhelming like some books.

One point that I really, truly loved is the relationship between Wolverine and Nightcrawler. So many people overlook Wolverine's relationships with Nightcrawler and Jublee, even though they really add so much the characters and the story. (Not to mention that they are three of my favorite characters.

All in all it was a great trilogy, and even though I spent longer reading it than I meant to, I am glad I read it.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved the x-men from childhood. Saturday mornings were constructed around Magneto's trouble making and running around the house wearing gloves like Rouge. I never could get into comic books so when i ran across these ( trio) of legacy books at a thrift store I grabbed them up. They are worth reading if you like the x-men, the style of writing for me is different from what I am used to, a bit slow, but still I'd say worth it for a fan.

[Dan Schwartz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book so many tries. I really wanted to like it and get into it, but sadly I just could not finish it. The story drags, but it was just not for me. Perhaps someone more powerful than I may enjoy it.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun series to read; I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. It moves at a good pace. Some of it felt a bit predictable, but it still surprised me throughout. It has some strong points, some weak points, and better character development than I expected. The second book takes a "darker turn" for the X-Men but since it involves time travel and an "alternate future," what happens in the future really doesn't matter, anyway, and one of the consequences was a bit of a welcome relief (considering some of my frustrations with that book).

In terms of character development, I felt that Storm had the most development over the course of the series (especially the first two books). It was a nice "surprise" that she had a bigger part to play in the books as opposed to where she usually is a "background character" because nobody really knows how to write her very well (or so it seems). Hank McCoy probably shared "having the most character development" based on some of the decisions he makes and the consequences of those decisions.

In some respects, the entire story line was more of a "Hellfire Club" story and the X-Men were just players in the "Great Game" the upper echelon mutant members of the Club tend to play. Sebastian Shaw was playing his own game and playing it close to the chest. It was interesting how much he actually relied upon Tessa; I never realized that (granted, it all could have been just a giant ret-con, too; Marvel seems to like doing that a lot now, these days). His machinations did not allow him to regain control as the Black King of the New York branch, but he still was able to obtain that which he had "secretly" been desiring as well - he had the only surviving sample of the cure for the Legacy Virus (until Colossus would sacrifice his life to save the world from the Virus at a later point in Marvel's "history"). It was interesting; it felt like Sebastian was also getting some kind of "character development," except that the author would then seem to discount that development with some kind of statement by making it seem like it was all part of an "inner game" that Sebastian Shaw was playing to keep others off-balance. I'm not sure how believable that was; I think I would have liked it better if Shaw had had "more development" as a character than he did. But, perhaps he did development more than I realized (again, going back to Tessa - his sojourn one year into the future showed him he really did not know he and he could not rely upon her forever, which was a bit of a shock to him. He had no idea how much he'd come to rely upon her).

One of the "saving graces" was that Xavier was not a significant part of this story line. I used to like his character quite a bit, but as I got older, I started liking him less and less until I reached the point of almost despising him. So, yeah, it was really nice that he was not in much of the story. At the same time, I did find myself wishing more of the X-Men were in this story. I think I would have liked to have seen Psylocke and Colossus for sure, and maybe Archangel and Gambit; heck, I'd've liked to have seen Polaris and Havok, too!

I did review each story individually, so this review is more of an "overall" review. I did like the "format" of having all three stories collected in one volume, and it being a "hardback" copy to boot was pretty nice (even if it was a BCE). I have had "bad" (disappointing) experiences reading other X-Men books, so I don't know if my "bar" was "too low" for this one or if it truly was one of the "better X-Men stories" in a written format. In any case, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would or expected, which truly was a pleasant surprise. It was a fun read and I am glad that I (finally!) took a chance to read it.

Here are the links to my individual reviews of each book:
Book 01: my link text
Book 02: my link text
Book 03: my link text

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book but the continuing mind games placing the X-Men into different scenarios started to drag on because after the first few I stopped caring knowing that it was just fake again. Some parts of the book was great, I always like the fights using teamwork and even the time travel stuff, I would have to say, this was a good read.

[Sana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. Especially as the plot started to develop, I found it very hard to put down. I got to the point where I was staying up until 2 in the morning, fighting sleep, just to read another gripping chapter.
It starts off pretty slow, but picks up fairly quickly. I wasn't bored for one second, and this was the first time I felt almost sad that I finished a book. I wanted more.
I think, out of all three stories, the third one was my favorite. It kept me on the edge of my seat, especially because Wolverine is my favorite character and I genuinely had no idea what was going to happen to him. The relationship explored between him and Kurt also left me satisfied. You don't really know from other media that they're best friends.
But yeah! I'm definitely going to give this another read very soon. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.