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The Walking Dead: Novels #3-4
Der Governor
Noch immer werden die USA von den Toten überrannt, einzig das kleine Südstaatenstädtchen Woodbury scheint ein sicherer Hafen für die letzten Menschen zu sein. Der Eindruck täuscht allerdings, denn in Woodbury regiert der Governor mit eiserner Hand und lehrt Lebende wie Tote das Fürchten. Doch dann begeht er einen fatalen Fehler …
Diese Ausgabe enthält die beiden The Walking Dead-Romane:
The Walking Dead 3 (The Fall of the Governor Part 1)
The Walking Dead 4 (The Fall of the Governor Part 2)
Mit Bonusmaterial: Die Lebenden und die Toten – Ein Nachwort zum Phänomen The Walking Dead
Diese Ausgabe enthält die beiden The Walking Dead-Romane:
The Walking Dead 3 (The Fall of the Governor Part 1)
The Walking Dead 4 (The Fall of the Governor Part 2)
Mit Bonusmaterial: Die Lebenden und die Toten – Ein Nachwort zum Phänomen The Walking Dead
752 pages, Paperback
First published November 25, 2014
50 people are currently reading
564 people want to read
About the author
Robert Kirkman
2,741 books6,932 followersRobert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.
Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.
In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.
Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.
In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 25, 2025
Enjoyable book but a little too graphic.
January 30, 2015
As the saying goes (and as I wrote after finishing The Road to Woodbury), fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times? Well, that was definitely my own dang fault. After finishing The Road to Woodbury, I told myself I didn't need to keep reading the series, but I stumbled across this omnibus collection of the last two books in the series (which, to my annoyance, had been released as parts one and two of a single story, like every major studio has done with the last remaining book in their license), and somehow it made it home. I'm not proud of this fact, but it happened.
This story is as much a train wreck as the last two books in the series, and suffers from the same problems. The characterization, at best, is mediocre, where you'll find yourself wondering why you're supposed to be rooting for these people. They make poor decisions, they flip-flop about how they feel about certain things (oftentimes flying in the face of what any reasonable person would think), and their moods will change in an instant. The protagonists are shallow, with their behaviors developing from whatever is necessary to happen in the story at a given time, instead of being driven by their own motivations, so you never really get a sense for who these people are supposed to be. The antagonist -- the Governor, in case you forgot -- almost becomes cartoonish, but avoids it simply by being a character who has already been established in other storylines. At least with the Governor, we can chalk his mood swings down to his psycho- and sociopathy, but with the other characters, it's just confusing.
Bonansinga (I know Kirkman's name is on the book, but I honestly think he just gave Bonansinga an outline and let him flesh it out) is back to his usual tricks, where he tells more than shows, gets caught up too much in gruesome and/or unnecessary descriptions (the introduction of every character involves a lengthy description of what they look like, right down to body type, and sometimes we'll get a reminder of that when they come back on stage after an absence), and simply drags out too much of the story. In a couple of places in the book, one of the characters is hit with a realization that becomes clear to the reader within a few paragraphs, but then Bonansinga draws it out over several pages before finally stating what that realization is. Then there's his habit of having all the characters speak aloud details of the story that no one would ever share, as well as his weird way of telling things through the narrative that a character wouldn't know at that time. He writes a lot about people not seeing walkers shambling along out of their field of vision, or noting things that characters will find out later (which always bugs me, because it takes some of the tension out of live-or-die situations). There's also a lot of repetition of description, with "black" and "oily" describing the random fluids (mostly cerebrospinal, he will constantly remind you after a head shot) that seep out of the walkers. I'm not sure if he's overcompensating for what he takes to be an oblivious audience or not, but it struck me as lazy storytelling.
Rick, Glenn, and Michonne also make appearances in the novel, but until about the second part of the story, Bonansinga doesn't really call them by name. Rick is the sandy-haired guy, Glenn is the Asian guy, and Michonne is the black woman. He also does as little as possible in developing those characters, because he assumes that the reader already knows these characters, and he wants to show us the other characters in Woodbury. I guess that's OK, but when he writes about characters we already know, and still draws them out to be as two-dimensional as a speck of dust, there's something wrong with his characterization skills. Plus, the events in the story that involve the characters from the main story are drawn directly from that story. Fans of the show might find some new bits of information (the story, after all, follows the canon of the graphic novel), but anyone who's read the entire series up through the Governor's end will find little new in this book. In fact, about half of the first novel is just an even more graphic description of what happens in the graphic novel.
There are also a lot of typos and editing errors (at one point, a character driving a truck slams on his "air breaks", while earlier in the story, someone "wretches" after succumbing to nausea), and I'm not sure what kind of product placement contract the writers have with Wal-Mart, because the logo (not just a mention of the store, but the actual logo, complete with slogan) appears twice in the book. I guess this is just what The Walking Dead has become.
I don't see that this novel (or the entire series, really) is worth anyone's time. The story read quickly, but not necessarily because it was compelling; it was just such a light, breezy, easy read that it was easy to fly through it and not think anything of what was happening. I should have resisted the temptation to read this one, as it feels even more worthless than the first two books in the series.
This story is as much a train wreck as the last two books in the series, and suffers from the same problems. The characterization, at best, is mediocre, where you'll find yourself wondering why you're supposed to be rooting for these people. They make poor decisions, they flip-flop about how they feel about certain things (oftentimes flying in the face of what any reasonable person would think), and their moods will change in an instant. The protagonists are shallow, with their behaviors developing from whatever is necessary to happen in the story at a given time, instead of being driven by their own motivations, so you never really get a sense for who these people are supposed to be. The antagonist -- the Governor, in case you forgot -- almost becomes cartoonish, but avoids it simply by being a character who has already been established in other storylines. At least with the Governor, we can chalk his mood swings down to his psycho- and sociopathy, but with the other characters, it's just confusing.
Bonansinga (I know Kirkman's name is on the book, but I honestly think he just gave Bonansinga an outline and let him flesh it out) is back to his usual tricks, where he tells more than shows, gets caught up too much in gruesome and/or unnecessary descriptions (the introduction of every character involves a lengthy description of what they look like, right down to body type, and sometimes we'll get a reminder of that when they come back on stage after an absence), and simply drags out too much of the story. In a couple of places in the book, one of the characters is hit with a realization that becomes clear to the reader within a few paragraphs, but then Bonansinga draws it out over several pages before finally stating what that realization is. Then there's his habit of having all the characters speak aloud details of the story that no one would ever share, as well as his weird way of telling things through the narrative that a character wouldn't know at that time. He writes a lot about people not seeing walkers shambling along out of their field of vision, or noting things that characters will find out later (which always bugs me, because it takes some of the tension out of live-or-die situations). There's also a lot of repetition of description, with "black" and "oily" describing the random fluids (mostly cerebrospinal, he will constantly remind you after a head shot) that seep out of the walkers. I'm not sure if he's overcompensating for what he takes to be an oblivious audience or not, but it struck me as lazy storytelling.
Rick, Glenn, and Michonne also make appearances in the novel, but until about the second part of the story, Bonansinga doesn't really call them by name. Rick is the sandy-haired guy, Glenn is the Asian guy, and Michonne is the black woman. He also does as little as possible in developing those characters, because he assumes that the reader already knows these characters, and he wants to show us the other characters in Woodbury. I guess that's OK, but when he writes about characters we already know, and still draws them out to be as two-dimensional as a speck of dust, there's something wrong with his characterization skills. Plus, the events in the story that involve the characters from the main story are drawn directly from that story. Fans of the show might find some new bits of information (the story, after all, follows the canon of the graphic novel), but anyone who's read the entire series up through the Governor's end will find little new in this book. In fact, about half of the first novel is just an even more graphic description of what happens in the graphic novel.
There are also a lot of typos and editing errors (at one point, a character driving a truck slams on his "air breaks", while earlier in the story, someone "wretches" after succumbing to nausea), and I'm not sure what kind of product placement contract the writers have with Wal-Mart, because the logo (not just a mention of the store, but the actual logo, complete with slogan) appears twice in the book. I guess this is just what The Walking Dead has become.
I don't see that this novel (or the entire series, really) is worth anyone's time. The story read quickly, but not necessarily because it was compelling; it was just such a light, breezy, easy read that it was easy to fly through it and not think anything of what was happening. I should have resisted the temptation to read this one, as it feels even more worthless than the first two books in the series.
November 5, 2017
I liked it, but this really was fan boy fiction only.
March 26, 2021
I am absolutely aware that this isn’t the greatest book ever written nor is it the most entertaining read ever. But if you are a fan of the walking dead ESPECIALLY the comic storyline this is a great add-on to get more of the story from Woodbury’s perspective. There is no drawn out drama scenes of Rick and Carl in the prison and no excessive dialogue and long takes. This book keeps you moving fast, covering the bloodiest most gruelling scenes of the comics, where the boundaries of disturbing are considerably tested. Jay gives us an expansion of Robert Kirkman’s universe and even if it’s not the perfect book, it’s an easy read that delivers all the blood and gore torture-porn horror fans will love. If you can find it in you to fight through the first two books (which are considerably slower) this third book is worth that effort.
February 28, 2022
Better than the TV series and does NOT follow the TV series
December 9, 2022
Good book series. Very graphic
May 30, 2015
I don't think it was all that well written, but I did enjoy learning the story from the comic book angle instead of the TV series - it was much darker and horrible. The Governor was beyond psychotic beating and raping Michonne repeatedly over the course of a couple of days. And what she does to him in return - wow, she definitely paid him back... it's interesting to see where the town of Woodbury seems to be going now... just wish the writing was better, I find myself skimming through paragraphs for the interesting/important bits because I don't like the author's style, but want to know what happens
August 11, 2016
Quite disappointing. The first book was a three star novel. It was interesting to learn about the Governer's behaviour from the perspective of Woodbury. Equally, the evolution of Lily was not bad. However, the second part was far too slow and I struggled to finish it.
That is a shame since I am a massive fan of the comics and TV series. I just don't see anything interesting here beyond Lily. The secondary characters are not explored and mined, and who cares about whether the Governor is schizophrenic.
That is a shame since I am a massive fan of the comics and TV series. I just don't see anything interesting here beyond Lily. The secondary characters are not explored and mined, and who cares about whether the Governor is schizophrenic.
February 11, 2017
I am and have finished all the book look forward to reading more
I choose the rating that is what it derives and I enjoyed everyone hated to see it end. Like I said looking forward to reading more
I choose the rating that is what it derives and I enjoyed everyone hated to see it end. Like I said looking forward to reading more
November 28, 2020
I enjoy the tv show, but these books, alongside the comics, are much better. The events in these books occur to a new set of characters with a few familiar faces appearing. I would say give these a go if you're unsure.
February 27, 2015
Entertaining and easy to read. Experience the walking dead from a new perspective, the Woodbury side.
July 3, 2019
Love how this ties in with the comics and fills in gaps. So interesting to see the story from a different perspective.
November 22, 2021
So so much better then the TV show
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews