Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga have put together something special in their novelization of Rise of the Governor. They have given us the back story of the most iconic ‘villain’ in The Walking Dead to date. He’s been out of the picture for multiple story arcs at this point yet his presence still cast shadows over many of the characters we follow.
They do am amazing job of the character though my only real question is – is this The Governor from the comic, the television series, or a neutral third universe that will exist in novels? (The location in the book matches the TV series, southwest of Atlanta, but not the comic which is always mainly northeast.) This is a book though for fans of the book and fans of the show after next season occurs. You can’t jump into the series with this novel.
If you are a fan of The Walking Dead this will be a quick read. It starts off nearly after the outbreak has already started. Instead of months in where Rick gets thrown into the fray we are a few days past ground zero. Even so, we find out nearly nothing about how it’s spreading. Even closer to the beginning we get a vague feeling of being left out of important key pieces of information which is unfortunate yet still works.
A warning: If you can’t read a highly misogyny view you are going to want to skip this. Anyone who has follows the series knows that one of the major reasons The Governor is so evil falls into the category of rape and the views on women expressed in this book match his views quite well with that. I warn you on this because there was a ‘few’ scenes in here I wasn’t comfortable reading and I can stomach a lot. The thing is though that IS The Governor. It’s what he’s about. A sick man who has come to power and this is his tale.
As the story begins we follow Philip, his brother Brian, his daughter Penny and one of Phlip’s childhood friends. We see how Philip evolves from a man trying to keep his family safe into a hard man that is willing to do unspeakable acts in a way that almost makes sense. We see how exactly The Governor is born in a round about fashion. It has a lot of insight into how The Governor is the way he is as well as an interesting zombie survival tale.
There are a few flaws for those who like everything being technically correct. Information on guns and vehicles are off that most people won’t notice but the devil is in the details and this clearly was missed in the editing phase. I was hoping for a bit more out of the novel but the twist at the end and the background did clear up a few questions I had.
A good read – if you are past his story arc in the comic before you read it.
Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
