The Walking Dead Book 1 (Walking Dead)

Ich habe nicht das Buch gelesen, sondern das entsprechende Hörspiel auf spotify dazu gehört (The Walking Dead, Folge 01-04). Das Hörspiel war genial produziert. Dadurch entstand ein eindrückliches Bild dieser postapokalyptischen Welt. Ich habe definitiv 3 Stunden voller Spannung mit dem Hörspiel verbracht.

Leider hat mich das veraltete Rollenbild gestört, das Männer zu Machern und Beschützern stilisierte, während Frauen sich hauptsächlich um den Haushalt kümmern. So als ob die weibliche Emanzipation nur in einer zivilisierten Welt möglich wäre, aber Frauen ihren "wahren" Platz unmittelbar nach dem Weltuntergang ohne Murren wieder einnehmen. Außerdem war es für mich unverständlich, dass alle ständig ungeschützten Sex hatten. Wenn man eines in einer Welt voller Zombies nicht gebrauchen kann, dann ist es eine Schwangerschaft/ein Baby...

Abgesehen davon fand ich die Geschichte aber sehr fesselnd und empfehlenswert.

The hardest part of reading this first volume was not comparing it too much to the television series. The series really did change a lot of details along the way, even as it preserved "the basic" feel of the comics. I was glad to have read the comic and get a sense; it is usually better to read the source material anyways. So, how was the book? It was pretty good overall. It was not as much soap opera as I thought it might be, and the characters do have a bit more depth. In the end, it is a zombie story, and as nice as this series it, well, it is a zombie series; there is nothing here terribly new in terms of the zombie story genre. The strength of this series is in the character development and the story of those characters. If the author can keep us interested in those characters, the series will work. From what I read so far, I am certainly interested to keep reading a bit more. The series is also strong in looking at what happens when people are at their worst conditions. How will they react? Who will rise to be decent and who will become evil or just an asshole? Compared to other zombie stories where it is mostly the group of survivors shooting and killing zombies with little else, this one is definitely better as it explores more of the humanity of the survivors. As I said, if the author continues keeping up the strong parts I have mentioned, I think he will have a good thing going. We'll see when I get to the next volume.

By the way, this hardcover edition is a pretty good set. The only serious drawback is that the pages are not numbered. Also, individual issues are not separated, so you may not be able to tell where one comic issue started and the other ended. For some, that may be a good thing since you can read the story as one long continuous narrative, and I can see the appeal in that. I leave readers to decide if it is a good thing or not. That aside, the hardcover volume makes a good book, and I think collectors will prefer this over the trade paperbacks even if it means paying a bit more.

While the art work is a little too "clean" for my taste, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A little too much dialogue, but I understand it. This book is more about how interactions break down between people in a crisis than it is about killing zombies.