Despite the mixed reviews, I thought Kevin J. Anderson did a good job portraying life on Krypton. I have often wondered, if Krypton were so much more advanced than Earth, why didn't they explore new worlds? Why when the planet exploded, there were no Kryptonians around except those that barely escaped? Anderson answers these and more in a thick book about the rise and fall of Krypton.

Krypton is like Rome was in its waning days of the Empire. Fat from its long, proud history, there is little creativity amongst the people. There are a few who stand out but their potential is squashed. The civilization on Krypton is old, decadent and very conservative.

Jor-El, his brother Zor-El and Jor-El's wife, Lara, are the triangle that keeps the story flowing. Zod, who wants Jor-El's technology for himself, is playing like he is following Council's orders to suppress all "dangerous" tech. The Council represents Krypton's ruling class and they're not about to repeat history and let their planet again go to war or fight the alien threat that may come from space, or from their own backyard. Keep the status quo very status'd and very 'quo'd.

It's a story about taking chances, about doing what you think is right and about fighting back against suppression. It's also about learning and taking advantage of what you could know (Jor-El's adventure with an alien who lands on Krypton and tells him marvels is such an event).

Overall, I was happy with the book. A bit over-long in going over Zod's megalomanic plans. The Braniac scene where Kandor gets sucked out of the planet and what's left is a black scar on the surface and how Zod takes advantage is great. You just want to strangle the old Council for being so backward and stupid. And you want to kick people for letting Zod take control.

Clearly the book takes a lot of its material of crystal technology from the original Superman film -- there are many allusions to it throughout the novel. Recommended for the Superman fan.
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I suppose most of the shortcomings of this book are really due to the source material; maybe some comics just don't lend themselves to novelization. It's not ideal for the bad guy to share two of the three letters of his name with one of the good guys. It's also not ideal for the two good guys to have names that are 80% identical. But beyond those superficial irritants that make it an awkward read (and might be solved by listening to it in audiobook form), the real problem here is that all of the characters are ridiculously flat. I could summarize them each character in one phrase, and not one single character deviates from their type throughout the book. The good guys are going to do the right thing no matter what, the bad guys are going to do the bad thing no matter what, and the in-betweens are just going to be stupid and ineffectual no matter what. So, even though there are a lot of big scary threats to the survival of Krypton (aliens and tsunamis and nova javelins, oh my!), the book actually ends up being pretty boring. ( )

Despite the mixed reviews, I thought Kevin J. Anderson did a good job portraying life on Krypton. I have often wondered, if Krypton were so much more advanced than Earth, why didn't they explore new worlds? Why when the planet exploded, there were no Kryptonians around except those that barely escaped? Anderson answers these and more in a thick book about the rise and fall of Krypton.

Krypton is like Rome was in its waning days of the Empire. Fat from its long, proud history, there is little creativity amongst the people. There are a few who stand out but their potential is squashed. The civilization on Krypton is old, decadent and very conservative.

Jor-El, his brother Zor-El and Jor-El's wife, Lara, are the triangle that keeps the story flowing. Zod, who wants Jor-El's technology for himself, is playing like he is following Council's orders to suppress all "dangerous" tech. The Council represents Krypton's ruling class and they're not about to repeat history and let their planet again go to war or fight the alien threat that may come from space, or from their own backyard. Keep the status quo very status'd and very 'quo'd.

It's a story about taking chances, about doing what you think is right and about fighting back against suppression. It's also about learning and taking advantage of what you could know (Jor-El's adventure with an alien who lands on Krypton and tells him marvels is such an event).

Overall, I was happy with the book. A bit over-long in going over Zod's megalomanic plans. The Braniac scene where Kandor gets sucked out of the planet and what's left is a black scar on the surface and how Zod takes advantage is great. You just want to strangle the old Council for being so backward and stupid. And you want to kick people for letting Zod take control.

Clearly the book takes a lot of its material of crystal technology from the original Superman film -- there are many allusions to it throughout the novel. Recommended for the Superman fan.
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The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson was disappointing and lame - so lame that I only got about 130 pages into it before returning it to the library.

Okay, I'm being a little harsh here. Actually, as modern SF goes, I've certainly seen worse (see the execrable Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, which was co-authored by Anderson. Or rather, DON'T see it if you value your sanity, as it may be the worst book ever written. But reading it gave me an insight into why I hate the vast majority of modern science fiction so passionately: it's stupid.

It seems to me that the current generation of SF editors and publishers came into the field after the Golden Age - in most cases, post-1970s. Lots of people working in the business now wouldn't know Roger Zelazny or Fredric Brown if they leaped out of their graves and bit them on the ass.

And I believe they think of science fiction as "childish" literature, for immature, adolescent minds.

Which, of course, it has often been from the very first. But there were always exceptional authors - the cream that rose to the top - who wrote truly intelligent, imaginative, and adult science fiction (and fantasy, of course; I'm not making a distinction between the two right now).

The problem is that back then, there were at least some editors and publishers who could recognize greatness. Now, those perceptive and mature people in the SF publishing industry seem to be gone - probably, I suspect, because the whole industry is far more commercialized than it used to be, far more integrated into the craptastic Hollywood culture that dominates American society. They're all looking so hard for the next Harry Potter that they would not only MISS the next Cordwainer Smith - he wouldn't even be able to get in their door.

I fear that the same must be said for fans. It may be that the vast majority of younger fans simply don't know what good writing is, because they've never seen it.

There are still a few good writers out there, of course, but they're the exception rather than the rule.

Like Hercule Poirot, I'm not going to pretend that I'm stupid. I'm more intelligent than the average reader (I have other flaws, but I'm not stupid). So maybe that makes me more sensitive to having my intelligence insulted. I can tell when I'm reading something written by someone who is dumber than I am, to put it crudely, and I'd say that 97% of everything new being published these days is either written by a relatively dim person, or deliberately slanted for an audience that the producers of the product consider to be - there's no other word for it - idiots.

And even so, the people producing this crap are not bright. If they were, even their dumbed-down writing would show it - and it doesn't. Typos, logical failures, unbelievable characters, the same tired old cliches again and again and again...lord! I'm so sick of it!

Anderson is a really awful writer, and should never be allowed near a keyboard again. Perhaps he could take up some useful trade, like shovelling raw sewage.

Okay, that's not fair. He's not quite that bad. He'd probably be a very adequate ditch-digger. ( )

The “Last Days of Krypton” was an awesome telling of the events leading up to baby Superman’s journey to earth. I was never a diehard comic book person and only read a few here or there, so up until I read this book, I really only had glimpses of what happened to Superman’s home planet thru little bits of comic books, or movies, and even TV shows. This really gave me a whole complete picture.

The characters were portrayed loyal to what I’ve read and seen in the DC universe, identifying with them was easy. I hope someone picks this story up for a movie, because if it is done right, it would be a great addition to all the other superman movies and shows out there. ( )