The Books of S. D. Perry

A novelisation of the computer game 'Resident Evil Zero' and a prequel to the Resident Evil novels. In case you're a newcomer to RE then the overall story is that the ruthless Umbrella Corporation has bioengineered a virus which mutates animals and turns people into zombies. Naturally, the virus escapes and it's down to a few dedicated (and well armed) individuals to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. The novelisation of computer games isn't always a good idea, but if there's one game series that's suited to it, then it's the tension-filled, story-driven Resident Evil games. Here, whilst out on her first mission, Rebecca Chambers, a member of the elite STARS police team, finds herself trapped aboard a speeding train with the convicted killer Billy Coen. However, Rebecca and Billy have far bigger problems than each other to worry about as they soon find themselves trapped within an Umbrella facility which is filled with mutated monsters and zombies. It all sounds pretty shallow, right? Well, in a broad sense I guess it is. However, Perry manages to draw us into the minds of both main characters as they're driven by fear and adrenaline. There's plenty of tension here and I enjoyed the concept of one of Umbrella's own monstrosities dedicating itself to collapsing the corporation. If I have one criticism, it is simply that the author decides to include the tedious going back and forth to collect keys and solve puzzles that sometimes became annoying in the games and is unnecesary here. I was definitely pleasantly surprised and look forward to reading the other books of this series