So, the walking dead novels have switched hands from Jay Bonansinga to science fiction author Wesley Chu, which is as much of a relief as a post Thanksgiving enema, and I finally got around to starting this new book a couple nights ago.

When I ordered the book online I was refreshed to see that the book was close to 400 pages long, compared to the 250 to 280 average of Jay's previous books. Made me optimistic that this was a more thoughtful enterprise and less of a minimalist cash grab. Upon receiving the book in the mail, I realized the font was a big larger than in the other books, as well as the line count per page. A quick mental calculation revealed that the total word count of the novel was on par with Jay's books. This was slightly disappointing but not a huge upset.

I've been reading it the last two evenings, and I'm about a third of the way into the book. In short, so far, it is a very welcome change. Wesley's writing style is a delight sitting next to Jay's forced mind splitting overuse of complex metaphors, and the story itself is a thoughtful and much larger one than typical Jay fare. After Jay's 4th book, Kirkman took Jay off his leash and gave him almost full creative power. The result was TWD's answer to Scooby Doo, where superficial good guys fight cartoonish and pointless villains, with little thought given to logic.

Wesley's story on the other hand is deeper and more encompassing , involving social commentary on how a post apocalyptic 'government' in a country such as China might handle the survivors in a devastating apocalypse. The book is not without its flaws, such as a child and adult walker walking down the street holding hands [I think it would have worked much better if they were holding hands due to simple rigor mortis] and I've still got 250 pages to go. But for now, this book is a worthwhile addition to the TWD universe.

 

Just finished it. Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed this book and found it a worthwhile addition to the franchise. Chu's writing style was like fresh air compared to Jay's stale basement, and the story was a thoughtful one, perhaps thoughtful enough that Kang and others should take note of it for future ideas. If one goes into this book looking for errors and logical stretchings they will find them, but I'm not going to concentrate on that here, as my overall impression is pretty positive, other than to mention one more glaring absurdity: an elderly walker....still holding onto his cane!!!...ugh....this isn't Shawn of the Dead.

 

And as far as I'm aware, no announcement has been made for future Chu TWD books.