Customer Reviews

X-Men: Empire's End

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Diane Duane, in my opinion, did a great job on the Spider-Man novels. But this book was a major letdown. First of all, I have always found the Shi'ar, even in the comics, to be quite boring and dull. Sadly, this is also the case with this book. I read this book, and then I re-read a few issues of Uncanny X-Men, and I have to say that the characterization in the comics is leaps and bounds over that in this book. The characters in this book are undeveloped, and seem just "off" from their normal selves. Some of them don't even have that many lines, which is always a problem with so many characters being sqeezed into one book (at least in the comics, they can alternate character focus each issue).

However, this aside, I found myself not even enjoying the plot. The main villain (that being the galaxy-devouring creature) was completely and utterably uninteresting and static. And the idea of the X-Men fighting it with a "device that increases their powers a thousandfold" is just corny, and even more "comic booky" than the comic itself. It didn't sit right with me from the beginning, and it still doesn't even now.

Another thing that bothered me was Duane's apparent misunderstanding of Gambit's mutant abilities. Throughout the book, she seemed to be operating under the assumption that his abilities involved the charging of EXISTING kinetic energy. However, Gambit's abilities actually deal with converting an objects potential energy INTO explosive kinetic energy. The book never gave any evidence that Duane realized this to be the case. Of course, maybe I was too bored to notice if she did...

One last thing: she really seemed to be writing this the way she would a Star Trek novel. This book was absolutely cluttered with space jargon, from mini blackholes to blue and red shifting to galactic cores going quasar. It just really seemed to take up a lot of space without really saying much at all.

Well, she made an effort. And she raised interesting issues, though she never really resolved them. But I think Diane Duane works better with a smaller cast. Her original novels are fine; they have much smaller casts. Her Spiderman trilogy is fine; it has only three main characters. Even her Star Trek novels are fine; she tends not to use more than five major characters per book. In "Empire's End," she's dealing with Professor X, Beast, Gambit, Wolverine, Storm, Bishop, Iceman, Cyclops, Jean, Lillandra, a Shi'ar lord, etc. There are simply too many characters, and though each gets a few scenes or "moments," they all seem shallow.

The plot is as follows: the Shi'ar discover that a mysterious creature, which destabilizes galaxies by eating their cores, is heading their way. They enlist the X-Men to stop the creature. This totally unequal confrontation is made "plausible" by a strange device that enhances the X-Men's powers. Gosh, how convenient. Meanwhile, Lillandra's council is pressuring her to marry a Shi'ar noble and produce an heir, instead of continuing her relationship with Charles. Ooh, look, a romantic subplot.

There are some interesting discussions about the effects of absolute power, and the enhancement of the X-Men's powers at the expense of the more human aspects of their personalities, but when they finally save the day (you never seriously thought they wouldn't, did you?) those issues vanish like mist, never fully confronted. The power-enhancing device also conveniently disappears; I sense an author avoiding the implications of a bad concept.

Also, I'd really like to know exactly what the huge, ghostly X-Men-shaped constructs are. They are first described as psychic projections, or something along those lines, but later seem to become real. They seem to be a device for avoiding the idiocy of pitting the X-Men against a creature larger than Manhattan. I say, if you're using the X-Men, give them an adversary they can confront as is. But if you lack the foresight to do that, the least you can do is remain honest to your original premise, and keep the relative sizes of the space creature and the X-Men as is. (Actually, the ghost figures aren't needed for the final victory, which makes me wonder even more why they were there in the first place. I sense more bad concepts.)

The story is fast and fun, and Duane's style is quite readable, but "Empire's End" feels like a rush job by an author not quite familiar with her world and characters, who tried to make up for the gap by shoving them into Star Trek.

I can't believe I wasted my time reading this book. It was atrocious! The characters were reduced to 2 dimensional garbage. You knew what was coming chapters ahead. The author tries to draw out the dark temptations each character experiences but it was so bland, so cartoony, and very very unimaginative. She discards characters because their abilities just so happens not to fit in battle, how convenient. Ugh, I don't know why I even read it. I kept giving the author another chance with each chapter, and it was not worth it. Truly, stay away from this book.

I recently picked up this book having recognized Duane's name as the author, I loved her Spiderman books, and I have read a couple other things by her. Being a big X-Men fan, how could I resist?

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.

Overall 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.

While I have only read a few of Duane's books, I recommend people not use this as an example of her writing ability. She is quite good, and from what I have seen, this was just a miss on her part. I advise anyone reading this review to skip this book, but look up other things by her.

Diane Duane is one of my favorite authors. She's intelligent and interesting and given a chance to fully explore a select few characters she can really nail them. For those who didn't like this book (and it isn't one of my favorites) I strongly suggest reading Duane's Spider-man trilogy, which is fabulous.

I agree with Diana Naier - I think this book had too many characters for her to flesh out their backgrounds and motivations fully. I would like to see her get another chance to write an xmen novel with just a few of the main characters.

First of all, let me just say Charles is not supposed to behave like a hormonal teenager. But that's exactly how he comes off in this book. A crisis hits, some new diffuculty in killing this Bug Eyed Monster of the Week, and Charles and Lilandra hop in the bed! Honestly, it got old after the first two chapters. Also, the writer completely forgot Charles IS Lilandra's acknowledged consort, according to the comics. An annoying error to be sure.

She wastes the other characters as well. Beast is only here for snappy one liners. Gambit (without Rogue - BORING!) has powers utterly unlike his in the comics. Even Scott and Jean come across as a generic couple. She could have used the exact same plot and just changed the names to Spock, Kirk and McCoy. I doubt we would have noticed a difference.

I was hoping these books would get better with more established writers. Looks like I still will have to hope.

If you are looking to recapture your youth through X-Men novels, skip this one. You won't like the way this book treats its characters.

If you are looking for an afternoon read; occasionally enjoy a bubblegum-for-the-brain space story; are more interested in plot than characters; and most importantly, didn't put down good money for the book but got it from the library, you might like it.

That's worth two stars.

Diane Duane is one of the best Star Trek writers, and here she once again uses her great talent for bringing well known characters to life. I've read and enjoyed all of the Marvel novels, but I would rank Empire's End at the top of the list. I'd also strongly recommend Diane Duane's three Spider-Man books (The Venom Factor, The Lizard Sanction, and The Octopus Agenda), as well as her Star Trek books, especially Doctor's Orders. Diane Duane brings her readers into the minds of her characters, and therefore brings the characters into her reader's hearts.

This was an excellent book, filled with suspense and surprising plot twists, and an interesting concept that has the X-Men thirsting for more and more power. However, it was slightly confusing also because of the many scientific explanations and references.

I gave this book 5 stars because it had a well done plot