Grail: a novel of resurrection was begun shortly after X-Men 2 came out, in June of 2004, and completed in 2006, a little before X-Men 3 arrived in theatres. While not originally intended as a "replacement" for X-Men 3, merely an alternative, I was so disappointed in the third film that this one became my mental version of what really happened.
Grail belongs to the same continuity as Special: the genesis of Cyclops, and so Scott's comics background (with a dark twist) is used, rather than the background in An Accidental Interception of Fate. It can be loosely regarded as a "sequel" to Special, with the two films (and a few short stories) in between.
Grail pulls on a number of elements from the original comics, including the Dark Phoenix Saga (as did X-Men 3), but also the Hellfire Club and the Legacy theme. Several popular figures from the comics appear, mutated into a their "movieverse" versions.
But Grail also pulls on mythological themes, "The Matter of Britain" and "The Fisher King," hence the title (see endnotes for further explanations).
This is an exceptionally long piece, even for me, clocking in at 221,000 words, but as it weaves together 2 intersecting plots, both complex, perhaps the length is to be expected to do it all proper justice. As with all my X-men novels, Grail is intended for an adult audience.
Grail was the last novel I penned for X-men.
A FEW BASICS (posted with/before all X-Men novels):
In my X-Men fiction, I created TWO basic "worlds," each of which shares a common continuity. I re-use these because it's convenient, but that means things can get a bit confusing if one launches into the novels indiscriminately.
The chief difference between my two worlds involve radically different origins for Cyclops (Scott Summers). Essentially, these two worlds are "movie world" and "comic-based movie world." Or, Scott is not an orphan vs. Scott is an orphan. Each does have a "preliminary" or "prequel" novel that explains how the X-Men came to be in that particular "world."
In the first category (non-orphan), the history of Scott is based (loosely) on the history given in the novelization of the FIRST X-Men movie, or X-Men I (dir. Bryan Singer, please don't confuse it with the recent X-Men: First Class). X-Men I came out in 2000. The second category is much more heavily based on the comics themselves, and utilizes his official comics history as an orphan.
Novels/short stories that utilize the NON-ORPHAN background:
An Accidental Interception of Fate (prequel)
Climb the Wind (set after X1)
[Heyoka & Children of the Middle Waters (not available on FF-net)]
(story series) "Man Behind Red Shades" & "Micky Blue Eyes"
(short stories) "Letters and Papers from Prison," "Mutant Darwin Awards," "Sleepy Dragon," "101(and not Dalmatians)," "Bitch," "Idle Musings of a Woman at Eighty," "Broken," & "Agonia."
Novels/short stories that utilize the comics-based ORPHAN background:
Special: the genesis of Cyclops (prequel)
Grail: a novel of resurrection (set after X2)
(Short stories) "Five Pounds," & "Anahinga,"
(Crossovers) "Case X-1743: Unresolved" (X-Files) & "The Room With a Computer" (Harry Potter)
In terms of sheer wordcount, I probably produced more work for X-Men than any other fandom, especially if one also counts the purely comics-based stories (or "comicverse" vs. "movieverse").