Resident Evil Zero Hour, A Wonderful Book by S.D. Perry

Resident Evil: Zero Hour was written by S.D. Perry in 2004, and is a novelization of the video game Resident Evil 0. I’m starting with this one to get it out of the way, since it messes with the continuity of the book and video game series. Perry acknowledges this at the beginning of the book, as if she’s saying, “Don’t blame me for this!”

It is a little sad that she had to do this, because I doubt that anyone would’ve been upset with her adaptation of the video game. She was hired to write a book, and it isn’t her fault that Capcom chose to make this game. It isn’t like the Doom books where the authors went off in their own direction; this book is fairly close to what happens in the game.

I’ve read two of these books so far, and I think they’re pretty good. Perry doesn’t change too much, and I like how she handles the story. We don’t follow one of the playable characters; we get perspectives from both of them. Some of the more “video game” moments have been toned down, which makes the story better. Let’s go over the book, and I’ll explain what I like and don’t like.

Set Up

This is supposed to be a prequel to the first game. Capcom decided that Rebecca Chambers would be one of the main characters, and the other is Billy, a military officer who has been condemned to death. This is Rebecca’s first mission, and takes place a day before she ends up at the Mansion from the first game.

This would be fine if there weren’t all of the references to the first game. Just putting it a week before the events of the first game might have smoothed out some of the issues. Anyway, Rebecca is a part of Bravo Team, and their helicopter crashes in the forest around the mansion. They find a military jeep that has been attacked, and the guards are dead. We also hear about Billy, and since his body is unaccounted for, Bravo Team goes off to find him and continue with their mission.

Wesker is also in the book, and he’s in an observation room. He has a few conversations with one of the Doctors and watches Bravo team’s progress for a while. The two of them are also monitoring outbreaks in two laboratories.

Wesker isn’t in the book for long. He is just here to try to connect this game with the first one. It is a little unconvincing, and he exits after seeing the main protagonist. Once he views the guy on a monitor, he takes off and advises the doctor to do the same. It’s Dr. Birken, and the two of them play some role in the game’s backstory.

The Train, Another Lab, and Leeches

Eventually, Rebecca finds her way to a train and finds Billy. She also locates a few dead Bravo members, not sure how they ended up on the train, but whatever. This is a good time to mention that each chapter alternates between three points of view. Billy and Rebecca cover their respective parts of the story, and the plot is moved along by Wesker and Birken at first, and then by Marcus in the last half of the book.

Rebecca and Billy explore the train. They don’t trust each other at first, but eventually realize that they need each other to survive. This is where some of the puzzles from the game show up. The two of them need to stop the train, or at least survive it when it crashes into the “training facility” that has been abandoned by Umbrella.

On the train, they have a run in with a leech guy, who ends up being Marcus. He decides to manipulate the two of them into finding evidence of Umbrella’s wrongdoing and releasing it to the public. Why doesn’t he just do it? Don’t worry about that yet!

Rebecca and Billy split up and check out the training facility, which happens to be another lab. They’re unknowingly led through the facility, find evidence, and slowly anger Marcus as they keep finding things he didn’t want them to find. It is a little strange, and I’m not sure if this is the same as the video game. It does feel strange that he suddenly decides that Rebecca and Billy have to die.

At first, he guides them to the bio weapons that have been released in the facility. As our two protagonists continue to not die like they’re supposed to, Marcus gets angrier. Eventually, he sends some leeches after them, but this doesn’t work either. He also sends out a Tyrant, but that doesn’t play a big role in the story.

All of this leads up to a fight with Marcus, who takes on a few forms. This part of the book moves quickly, and we wrap things up just like the video games. By the way, this all happened in one night, and I’m guessing that Rebecca spends a day traveling to the Mansion so she can arrive there at night. It doesn’t really make much sense.

Likes and Dislikes

As a standalone story set in the Resident Evil universe, I think the story is fine. It isn’t out of place with all the other craziness that happens in the video games, and it follows the overall plot of Resident Evil 0. It is a nice novelization of a video game.

If you’re trying to connect this story to the overall plot of the series, then things get a little rough. Bravo members show up at random, and it doesn’t make much sense as to how they got to where they are. The story can feel random at times. I don’t think this is Perry’s fault; she did the best she could with what she had.

This is a fun book that does a good job of taking the video game’s story and turning it into a book. The story is exciting, and I like how it switches from points of view. I never felt confused about who was talking or what was going on. It is a fun book overall.

Wrap Up

I went back and forth on whether I should read this one first or save it for the end. It is the seventh book in the series, but chronologically it is the first. You can also view it as being out of continuity because it doesn’t fit in with the overarching story in the other six books.

You can read this book, or you can simply ignore it. I did like the book, even if I hadn’t played the video game that it is based on. There are quite a few games that I haven’t played in the Resident Evil series. The last game I played was the remake of the first game on the GameCube.

I have read the book based on the first game, and I’m looking forward to the other books in the series. If they all follow the same pattern, then I’m interested in seeing what the other books will be like. I know a few of them take some liberties with the source material because there are only seven, and Nemesis is the fifth in the series. It will be fun to see how Perry handled the series.  

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts on horror games, such as Blue Stinger and Friday the 13th.