Not really part of Casey's year-in-review series.

It's Superman!
Tom De Haven

Needless to say I really mean it when I say I would have liked to have written this book myself. De Haven was hired by DC to write a novelization of Superman's origin -- come on. But despite my envy I can admit that De Haven does a fantastic job of capturing the iconic feel of the Golden Age Superman while still leaving a human, complex Clark Kent the reader can hold on to.

Of course I would have done a few things differently. Though I understand why he does it, I wouldn't have made Clark quite so stupid. (Superman's not just strong, he's smart. He never gets credit for that.) I don't know that I would have gone with a robot scifi sideplot, and I probably would have put Lois and Clark in the same state before the last hundred pages, and there's a little too much focus on De Haven's original characters while some of the more classic characters get short shrift.

But it wasn't my book, it was De Haven's -- and you can't argue with results.

Check it out. You'll believe a man can fly.