Publisher: Pocket Books

Author: S.D. Perry

Release Date: 12/1/2001

Pages: 256

MSRP: $7.99 (Paperback)

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

The last, and final, book in S.D. Perry’s Resident Evil novelizations is about the Dreamcast and PS2 classic Code: Veronica. Claire Redfield is captured by Umbrella and gets stuck on Rockfort Island during a zombie outbreak. She has to find a way off the island, but this is only half the book. The last half is her being stuck on an umbrella research station in Antarctica. She and a fellow Rockfort prisoner named Steve set off through horrible scenarios to find freedom, but the Ashford siblings don’t make it easy.

The novel really lets you know Claire’s personality and her growing attachment to Steve. I also love how Perry puts across just how psychotic Alfred and Alexia Ashford are. These guys think they are above all beings on Earth, and there’s some awkward hinting at incest throughout, which is probably a subject Capcom rarely touches on. Honestly, Veronica is more about a few large carrier zombies than them barreling through a ton of regular ones. These fights are brief but enjoyable to read, but I always loved when the siblings came in because they were just sick and twisted.

Of course, Claire and Steve end up getting separated a lot and having to solve strange puzzles similar to the games. They wind their way through the island, the mansion, and the research facility, but the book doesn’t end on a happy note. What does the Resident Evil story do? With this being the final book, I can’t help but notice that every RE story ends with the bad guys losing and the main characters barely escaping. It’s starting to become cliché at this point. However, Veronica was probably one of the better RE stories due to its darker themes, so this is forgivable in this book.

One thing that drives me nuts about Perry is that she always has this awkward sexual tension between the characters; you just want them to go for it and completely stop. It gets annoying after a while. Her RE novels are also not very sophisticated; they are just fun popcorn novels while they last. These aren’t memorable or something you will talk about for years to come, but they are something to tide RE fans over until the next game comes out. Veronica is no exception and is just as good as all the previous six.