A review by paperbackstash
Arrival by Michael Teitelbaum

3.0

There are two smallville-related series that made it to Book form. One was young adult, around a Junior High school age group; the other was also young adult, but for an older teen audience. This is the first book in the earlier YA series, which dished out ten books total.

I'm a major Superman geek and was a Smallville fan - got my dad into the show when it was on it's fourth season run in TV, and ever since then it was also one of his favorite shows. He has the habit of watching the same re-reruns of a show to a ridiculous degree. Since we owned the DVDs, once he'd watch the seasons we owned, he'd turn around and repeat the process all over again. Agh, something I can't do, but let's just say I got to know the show - especially it's superior earlier seasons - pretty well.

Anyway, in reading this book I see it's just a recap of the first episode. I immediately recognize differences, alterations, and additions. There is one questionable thing I'm not sure on, about the necklace on the last page, but I'd have to double check.

Enjoyment wise, it's just okay. Clearly I already know this story, and it was told straight forward and simple. You can write for the young with a talented hand, but it was a bare bones effort in this case. Shame, that, for more could have been done, but I guess it served it's basic purpose here.

While not greatly written, I enjoyed it since I'm a Smallville geek. I read a book, City, in the older series, which I think I'll enjoy more overall - but want to read both series for completion's (dork) sake.

Weird things I noticed:

I know you can be 14 or 15 as a freshman, but I thought the show started with him at 14. The book says 15.

In the cemetary, when Lana goes to talk to her dead parents, and does a fake conversation with Clark (weird sounding, I know), in the TV show she tells him, "Mom wants to know if you're upset about a girl?" When he says no, she then says, "Dad wants to know if it's about a guy." Yes, hardy-har. In the book, however, they omitted the guy part and say instead, "Dad wants to know if it's about school." So, hm. Changed to avoid gay humor? I really don't know, doesn't make sense or seem offensive to leave it in there, but I guess they over-sanitized.

They shortened the scene with Lex at the mansion, but that was probably for length purposes and no hidden meaning, although who knows.

Overall 3 stars - only for fans of the show who want to continue to 'fan out.'