It’s very likely that I had too high expectations, or that Max Brooks just spoiled me. But in the end when I was finished with “Rise of the Governor” I was somewhat underwhelmed. Rather than considering re-reading the book, I merely just closed it and moved on with my life. “Rise of the Governor” proves that even with good writing and a wonderful premise, a prequel isn’t always a good idea. The Governor aka Phillip Blake is surely one of the most notorious and memorable characters from the Walking Dead series, and he’s yet to be topped. And while I think he was a fascinating character with a lot of depth and complexity, I really don’t know if I care who he was before the dead destroyed the world.
Phillip Blake’s story is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things because we know how he will end up, unfortunately. The characters in “Rise of the Governor” lack any impact or real individuality. I had a very hard time discerning which characters were talking most times, and I really wasn’t on the edge of my seat. Granted, there are some truly excellent moments to be mined here. I loved the search for the missing zombie kid in the house, and Blake’s intensity toward protecting his family, but “Rise of the Governor” really has nothing to add to the universe beyond “Here is what happened before he met Rick Grimes and massacred a bunch of people in the prison.” While it is a good idea in theory, I really didn’t feel the need to follow him on his path to evil.
Phillip’s brother is a weak man who has trouble considering the dead as monsters, and that conflict is a recurring plot point in the book that never amounts to much, and the main lure is Penny, Phillip’s daughter who really isn’t an interesting character at all. Penny as a character is not only painfully under developed but also pretty trite. Her function as emotional lure for the audience often fails and she barely gets any focus as a character of depth and complex emotions. And that’s disappointing considering “The Walking Dead” is home to some of the most interesting child characters including Sophia, and Rick Grimes’ son Carl whose experienced a startling transformation over the course over a hundred issues in the original comic book series. Penny is merely just a way to keep readers thinking “Awww!” and her bond with the men in the group trying to find a home for her to live in beyond the reaches of the walking dead is intense and gore soaked, but not all compelling. The first half of “Rise of the Governor” really does set down in a familiar spot and seems all staged just to set up a link to the Rick Grimes world.
It’s almost fifty pages of the group trying to set up a world in this spot, and then when they abandon it, they throw up this link to the comics. And while it’s a nice lip service to one of the more brutal events in the early issues of the comic series, it really never means anything to the overall narrative of the book. As well, there’s implications as to what started the infection and how it’s transferred but that too barely goes anywhere. “Rise of the Governor” doesn’t always feel like wasted paper though. It’s still a strong story with a horrible universe and people trying to survive. Like Rick Grimes and his group, Phillip Blake is a man trying to find a reason to live, and he does so through his daughter Penny and their tragic relationship just doesn’t hold up water, in the end. While “Rise of the Governor” is a solid read, it’s just not a masterpiece. There are billions of stories that can be mined from Robert Kirkman’s zombie universe, I wish we could have waited a while for the Governor’s story. I’ll hold out for the sequel.