Just because we “know how it ends” hasn’t detracted from audiences’ enjoyment of diversions like Robert Harris’ novel POMPEII or James Cameron’s film TITANIC. The same should be said for Kevin J. Anderson’s THE LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON, an enormously entertaining Superman prequel told with proper epic sci-fi scope.
Jor-El enjoys a reputation as the planet Krypton’s most revered scientist. He’s attempting to construct a passageway to other dimensions when he accidentally invents a dangerous, prison-like void he dubs The Phantom Zone.
Krypton’s governing council – mostly stodgy old white guys, with the exception of science commander Zod – declares The Phantom Zone a threat, so they order it destroyed, much as they do most of Jor-El’s work. This may be why they ignore his warnings that their planet is headed for disaster as the rumblings of a paranoid crackpot, despite otherwise inexplicable tidal waves and earthquakes of late.
Jor-El almost gets trapped in The Phantom Zone himself, but is saved by a comely young artist named Lara, with whom he falls in love. Their ultimate marriage is presided over by Zod, using it as a mere machination in his insidious plot to manipulate Jor-El for his own greedy goals.
Along the way toward a finale of doom we know is coming – and the escape of an infant who will fall to Earth – Anderson weaves in several other characters and facets of the Superman mythos, including Brainiac, Martian Manhunter, the Fortress of Solitude and the city of Kandor (here – at least for a while – pre-bottled). In doing so, he explores Krypton in further detail than we’ve been party to before, and it makes for an active, ever-busy narrative.
It’s hard to read the novel and not think of Marlon Brando, Terence Stamp, Susannah York, et. al. filling these roles yet ago, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Richard Donner’s 1978 SUPERMAN film is revered today, and Anderson’s work fits right in line with it. (He even pokes fun at one of the film’s oft-questioned scenes by having a character talk about rotating the world the opposite direction in order to reverse time.)
At first, I feared a treacherous read, given that the book opens with a three-page list of characters, all with such similar names – Gur-Va, Bur-Al, Kol-Ar – that it reads like a Chinese phone book. No worries, as Anderson introduces each one with care and ample space, so any names you won’t remember ultimately matter not to the big picture.
In fact, LAST DAYS only bogs down a bit in its last quarter, when Zod has grown so stock evil, one practically can envision him twirling his mustache. That aside, this space-set tale of politics and tragedy hits all the right notes of drama, action and intrigue.
It’s not the strongest novel to play in the Supes universe – for that, look no further than Tom De Haven’s still-stellar IT’S SUPERMAN! – but as Anderson has demonstrated in the past – most notably with THE MARTIAN WAR – he has a knack for playing with characters not of his own design and making the results a pop-lit delight. –Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson
• THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN by Kevin J. Anderson
• THE MARTIAN WAR: A THRILLING EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE RECENT INVASION AS REPORTED BY MR. H.G. WELLS by Kevin J. Anderson
