I have had a renewed interest in all things Superman ever since my wife and I started watching the Smallville television series last year. That show is about the teenage years of Kal-El, also known as Superman. In this book, The Last Days of Krypton, it goes back even further to show the period right before Superman was born, and it describes the catastrophic series of events that resulted in the baby Kal-El being sent to Earth. In many ways, this book also serves as a prequel to the movie Superman II.

The story begins showing how Superman's parents, Jor-El and Lara, first meet. There is a brief romance between them, but they basically fell in love at first sight. Jor-El is a scientist so wrapped up in his work that he had hardly ever made time for a relationship, and Lara is an artist who had never found quite the right person, so they made an interesting couple. Jor-El is a very well-respected scientist on Krypton who researches various technologies that could be quite helpful, but the local governing council almost always shoots down his developments for fear of them being turned into weapons. Zod, who sits at the head of the council, had been confiscating Jor-El's work and secretly hording it up for himself.

When an alien called Brainiac comes to the planet and literally captures the entire capitol city of Kandor by sweeping it up and miniaturizing the whole thing for display on its ship, it sets some events in motion that ultimately lead to the downfall of the whole planet. Zod, who was the only surviving member of the council, takes control and starts to set up an authoritative government in which he uses many of Jor-El's confiscated works to terrorize the people into control. As you might expect, there is a rebellion that arises and the whole planet ends up doomed because of it.

Zod is the main villain in the novel, and like many villains, he never thinks that he is doing wrong. As another reviewer pointed out, Zod is portrayed very much like Hitler in the way that he seizes power and starts killing off his detractors, all the while claiming it is for the good of Krypton. His big mute friend, Nam-Ek (called Non in Superman II) is portrayed as a brutal simpleton who Zod had taken under his wing and treated like a child, or maybe just a very loyal dog. Either way, Nam-Ek would do anything for Zod, and that included murder. Zod's female companion, Aethyr (called Ursa in Superman II) was actually a college friend of Lara who was the type of person that enjoyed making others uneasy, and her allegiance to Zod made her even more dangerous.

I think the only real complaint I had about this book is that the nature of the story doesn't leave much in the way of surprises. For this reason, I am usually not a big fan of prequels because I don't like reading books or watching movies where I already know how things will end. While it is interesting to read about what life was like on Krypton, the fun is generally spoiled by the fact that no matter what kind of tension the author introduces, I already know exactly where things are heading.

This is not really an action-packed novel, but more one of political intrigue. It does have some action scenes and a lot of physical destruction, but don't read this expecting to see Jor-El be like some kind of superhero who runs around beating up bad guys. The author broke down the story into over 80 different chapters, with each chapter being an average of just four or five pages long, so it makes for a quick read.

This novel was written by Kevin J. Anderson, who has written a great many science fiction novels set in familiar universes, most notably Star Wars. I've read several of his books in the past and really liked them, so I decided to give this one a chance. I actually found the hardcover version of it on the bargain shelf at my local Books-a-Million for less than six bucks. He currently has another book out right now, called Enemies & Allies, in which Superman and Batman both appear.

Although the story suffers from being a prequel, as do all prequels, The Last Days of Krypton is still a worthy read for Superman fans. The fact that it sets up so much of what happened in Superman II, which I've always thought was the best movie so far, should make it worth your while.

Recommended: Yes