Anyone read "The Rise of The Governor" and "The Road to Woodbury"?

[MinionZombie]

Has anyone read these tie-in books - the stories are by Robert Kirkman, but the actual writing is by Jay Bonansinga. Thoughts? These were my rough thoughts after reading them (the first before Christmas, and the second just this month). RotG: "The Walking Dead: The Rise of The Governor" by Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga - having completed it, I have to say that I enjoyed it, however there is one problem - Bonansinga's prose. At best it was functional and unobtrusive, but at frequent intervals it would get frustrating - stop using character's surnames, stop constantly using character's names generally, they shouldn't be referred to as "zombies" in The Walking Dead universe, numerous similes felt forced or repetitive, the unending obsession with measuring distances, and a lack of efficiency is telegraphing the action (so the reader is a paragraph ahead of the events, waiting for the text itself to catch up with them). It might sound like a harsh review, and while these (and a few more mercurial issues) occur throughout, getting the back story to The Governor (the plot was mapped out by Kirkman) was worth it for a hardcore TWD fan. RtW: "The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury" Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga - some of Bonansinga's annoying habits from "Rise of The Governor" remain (constant use of character's full names, obsession with distances between things/durations of actions, incessant and overblown similes, and so on), and sometimes the structure of scenes can prove irksome, but it does feel less annoying than RotG when all is said and done. The books are decent, but they do carry with them some rather frustrating/annoying/awkward prose at times. For instance, it becomes infuriating when, for the umpteenth time, a bunch of characters fail to notice or hear (let alone smell) a horde of corpses surrounding them (seriously, it happens repeatedly, I've never seen survivors be so ill-tuned to the world around them according to Bonansinga's repetitive way of describing how these people can constantly be snuck up on). This all said, at 30 pages lighter than the previous book, it feels a bit breezier, particularly after the first few chapters which are, it has to be said, a bit of a struggle to slog through. There's a handful of mistakes dotted throughout, and Bonansinga's variety of transgressions make frequent appearances from beginning to end - and yet for die hard fans of The Walking Dead, such as myself, who seek further back story to the town of Woodbury, it's still worth reading.

[bassman]

I listened to ROTG. Entertaining, but not required reading for TWD. They're obviously just another cash-in for Kirkman. He openly admits that he's sold out TWD at every opportunity, so consider that food for thought. They're just another gear in a well-oiled machine.