X-Men :Empire's End
By
Diane Duane

This novel was like an episode of "Pigs in Space" from the classic Muppet show, only these muppets/mutants weren't as entertaing. Author Diane Duane follows up her Spider-Man trilogy and unfortunatly this wasn't up to the caliber of her previous novels.
In this novel the X-Men are summoned to outer space to help the Shi'ar and Empress Lilandra from a devestating space creature. The action then has the X-Men taking some sci-fi steroids to boost their superpowers. As if the ability to control weather or mind control weren't enough?
This novel really dragged along at a snails pace. It seemed that the X-Men spent most of their time preparing to fight for this creature. This so called creature was never really explained very well by Duane. All we got was a description that the creature looked like a semi-colon(;)? Hmmm, gotta love freakish punctuation from space! Anyway said creature is eating planets, suns and destroying solar sytems. The Shi'ar's homeworld is next on the menu for the creature. So the endless training session went on and on and the creature was finally destoryed in the final chapter.
Other plot elements included Lilandra finding a mate other than Prof. X. This plot along with another political intrique one really never went anywhere, and just dragged the novel out.
Ok, how do we fix this problem? It's easy to criticise another's work, but it's more helpful to point out what could have been tweeked. So let's do that. First off the idea that the X-Men needed more powers was very dumb. Work with their existing powers and then go from there. Second, give the X-Men more realistic enemies. The very idea of the X-Men fighting a space creature or asteroid is crazy. That a straight up B story from Star Trek. I so expected to see the Enterprise show up at any time in the book. Third, cut down on the training sessions. Who wants to read about Danger room, or danger space training sessions? Make the fights real and that will interest the readers.
All in all, a dissapointing novel from Duane. She is capable of much more. Her novel "The Venom Factor" is a great example of her talent. This book only gets one and a half spider heads out of four.