The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor

(Warning, the following review might have some MINOR spoilers in it.)

The Rise of the Governor is the first in a series of
Walking Dead novels.

The very first thing you should know about this novel is that you DO NOT have to be a fan of The Walking Dead (either the comic or the television series) to enjoy it. If you are a fan of zombie fiction in general and know nothing at all about The Walking Dead you can still easily read it and not be confused at all, other than maybe wondering why it is called "The Rise of the Governor." (The Governor is a character in both the comic and the TV series, and he's a bad bad man.)

It is about Philip Blake, who is traveling with his brother (Brian), his daughter (Penny) and his two best friends (Nick and Bobby) from Waynesboro Georgia all the way to Atlanta.

The apocalypse is still in its early stages and they are headed for a refugee camp that is supposed to be in Atlanta. It hasn't been an easy trip so far, of course, and they are trying to find a place to rest, and maybe wait out the oncoming winter.

The novel opens with them ridding a house of its walking dead occupants so they can spend the night.
For a few days it seems perfect, but you know tragedy has to make them move on, or there wouldn't be much of a novel at all.

Bad luck has attached itself to this small group of people. They seem to run into trouble at ever step. Each time they think they have FINALLY found a safe place to spend the winter, something makes them have to move along again.

Eventually they find themselves in a town called Woodbury. (Again, if you know nothing about the Walking Dead universe, the Governor is the "governor" of Woodbury."

The end of the novel caught me 100% off guard. I can't say much without giving major spoilers, but can say that it was a twist ending and wasn't what I expected AT ALL.

If you are a fan of The Walking Dead, or just zombie fiction in general, I recommend this novel 100%

Book One

I'm developing a pet peeve against books that are a part of a series.

Sometimes I would like to read a novel and have the whole story completed without having to collect 3, 4 or 6 more books before I find out what all happens.

I was loving "The Rise of the Governor" but, of course, it is part of a series.

At the end of the book Philip Blake still isn't really the Governor yet. That doesn't come until book 2.

There are 4 more published books in the series. There is also a kindle short that takes place between book one and book two.  So far I only have the first 2 books, and I did download the kindle short.

(This review was first written for Squidoo, then moved to hubpages.  I've removed it from hubpages to post here.)