Publisher: Pocket Books

Author: S.D. Perry

Release Date: 10/3/2000

MSRP: $7.99

Pages: 288

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

The fifth book of the RE series from S.D. Perry is tense and exciting as you would expect. If you have been keeping up with the series you know that Trent is the mysterious character Perry has planted in the storyline. He’s back and gets his hands into another character’s mind; Carlos Oliveira. He is sent to Raccoon City with a bunch of other Umbrella goons to investigate the outbreak and “rescue” survivors. In the meantime, several agents are part of Operation Watchdog which is to gather all incriminating evidence and destroy it. However, one greedy Russian man named Nikolai wants all the info for himself to gain a profit. You follow Carlos, Jill Valentine, and Nikolai through Raccoon City and it is very intense and fun to read.

Nikolai is a sick and twisted individual and you grow to really hate this guy but are also fascinated by him. He enjoys killing people and watching them die, Perry really lets you get into the mind of this sicko. Carlos is probably my least favorite character because he just seems average, but Jill is brave and clever as always. She’s actually running from the Nemesis monster Umbrella created while trying to escape Raccoon. She runs into a few people, but this book is filled with the same puzzles you run into in the game. It is interesting how this would work out in real life, but honestly wouldn’t you just climb the fence or gate? Climb over the roadblocks? Seems silly, but those annoying puzzles are nicely integrated here.

What keeps you going is the desperation all the characters are in. They are in this zombie-infested town that is completely abandoned and they just want to get out. Umbrella blocked all outgoing communications, they need ammo, and Nikolai is a sick and twisted human hunter. The book is nicely paced with a lot of action and intense fights with the giant monsters Umbrella created, it just makes you hate them even more. There is some sexual tension between Jill and Carlos and I’m not sure if I’m glad that Perry held off on that or she should have let them go at it. It happens quite a lot with internal dialog between the two, but knowing you will never hear of Carlos again after this novel just makes you not care.

Overall, Nemesis is a great novelization of the third game in the series. Nikolai is probably my favorite character with his sick and twisted personality. The book is full of monsters, zombies, gore, blood, guts, shooting, explosions, and conspiracies; everything a RE fan loves.