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Let me preface by saying that I've read a lot of books. Beyond that, I've read a lot of genre books, including many that are based on series television. Very few manage to capture the feel of the vehicle they originated from and still retain an identity of their own.

See No Evil by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld has managed to separate itself from the herd.

Perhaps aided by having an inside track (Bennett and Gottesfeld wrote the first-season Smallville episode Jitters), See No Evil reads like a weekly episode committed to paper. It's fast paced and contains some lovely fleshed-out character moments that an episodic television installment simply would not have the time -- or ability -- to present.

See No Evil is a fun, engaging read that introduces an original character (the book's very own "Freak of the Week") named Dawn, who wants, more than anything, to be an actress. We are not meant to like her, and we don't -- from her very first scene, in fact, she seems crankier than Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Cordelia Chase in the height of her Bi-ach Princess Persona.

The main thrust of the story is told through Clark Kent, who has been roped into working on the Smallville High production of Cyrano because Lana Lang, the girl he's in love with, asked him to. One of my favorite things about See No Evil is how its authors have really brought Clark's sense of isolation and responsibility to a head in small, simple ways. He is already showing signs of being every bit the superhero he will one day become, and, like the series itself, Superman winks at the reader abound.

No character is neglected, and there are some lovely moments for each of the regular players, from Chloe Sullivan to Whitney Fordman to Lex Luthor himself. The little touches in Lex and Clark's friendship -- including the feeling one gets that Lex may be the only person who doesn't want Clark to behave a certain way, or be a certain person -- is especially touching when Lex reveals his own inner-Cyrano.

The character of Jonathan Kent seems as narrow-minded-yet-salt-of-the-earthy as ever -- he's a platitude-spouting, Luthor-hating farmer who loves his son as best he can. Jonathan has never been a favorite of mine, but I find the character even more irksome without the delightful John Schneider breathing life into him.

An interesting factoid I noticed was found in the timeline of See No Evil -- from the way each of the characters interacted with one another (and witnessed by Lana and Whitney being a fairly stable couple) this novel seems to be set during the first season. And yet the book mentions that Lex is five years older than Clark -- which means Clark is no younger than sixteen. But in season one, aren't Clark, Lana, et al freshmen? I don't know about Smallville, but at my high school, freshmen were between the ages of fourteen and fifteen. Maybe this one belongs on Chloe's Wall of Weird.