Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson (4/5 stars)

I got an ARC of this book through the Amazon Vine program and was really excited to read it. I mean how can you go wrong with Batman, Superman and Lex Luther all together in one book? Actually this book could have gone very wrong, I suppose...but it doesn't it was a great book. It stays true to the characters and the type of storyline you would expect to find in a comic.

Bruce Wayne realizes that his board of directors has gone bad and he suspects Lex Luther is at the heart of it all. Superman is curious about the spaceships being spotted around Area 51; could there be other aliens besides him on earth? Lois Lane is determined to uncover all of the dirt on Lex Luther; but the dirt goes deeper than she could ever imagine. The Cold War is on and the Russians are threatening to attack in full force...can Batman, Superman, and Lois Lane figure out what Lex is up to before things go beyond the point of no return?

This book was very well done. Anderson stays true to the characters original voices and blends the events in perfectly with most of the previous incarnations of Batman/Superman that I am aware of (I haven't read a ton of the original comics, so there may be some inaccuracies I am not aware of). The book is done in a very comic-book like style. The chapters are headed with the location the chapter takes place in and are, in general, very short. As I read through the book I easily imagined each chapter being a weekly comic installment. The tone is also in very keeping with the characters. Batman is all dark mystery and Superman in all innocent solid belief in the law. I loved the interactions between Superman and Batman and enjoyed how they worked together to stop crime!

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that the super-short chapters made the book come off a bit choppy and at times I found my attention wandering. After thinking about it I am not sure how you could stick to a comic-book type format for a novel and not run into this problem. I also wish we had gotten to see Batman in more action scenes...he is one of my favorite super heroes.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and hope there are more installments of these. According to an interview I read with Anderson it looks like he wants to do more of these types of book and I for one am all for it!