Robert Kirkman has created the comic The Walking Dead. In it there is villain called The Governor. He is extremely cruel and was even voted “Villain of the Year” by Wizard magazine the year he debuted in the comic and I it’s not that surprising. He really is very cruel. However in the comic we meet him as The Governor of the town Woodbury and we really don’t know much about him. We know nothing about his past or his life before he became The Governor except that his name is Philip Blake. But with the book The Rise of the Governor we get to know more about him and how he ended up in Woodbury.

When the book starts Philip, his older brother Brian, his daughter Penny and two friends Nick Parsons and Bobby Marsh are heading towards the refugee center in Atlanta. During the book we get to follow the gang as they travel and meet new people and eventually end up in Woodbury where The Governor is born.

The book is written by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga and it’s a great book. If you know the comic it’s a bonus but you really don’t need to know the comic to enjoy the book. It manages to stand on its own really well. I don’t know how much Robert and Jay has written but the book is really well written and the story blends together so much you could never guess there are two authors involved. And it’s not one of these books done just to cash in on a success. This is a well written book about the end of the world as we know it and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s announced that it’s being turned into a movie.

The story itself isn’t that different from the comic, just in a different format. It’s still the same dooms feeling about it. Maybe even more so in fact since here it’s left to the reader’s imagination to determine just how gory it all is. There are new characters compared to the comic but they are all in the same situation. And there are some rather big twists in the book as well that I was very surprised by. What they are you have to find out for yourself by reading the book though...

I really liked Rise of the Governor and am very happy that there will be (at least) two more books revealing the history of yet two characters. I can’t wait for them to be released.

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