Customer Reviews

City of the Dead (Resident Evil #3)

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

City of the Dead, the third book in S.D. Perry's series of Resident Evil novels, more than covers all the ground from the video game it is based and adapted from (Resident Evil 2), but it is all the more compelling, scary, and suspenseful and is the true definition of a "page turner". The story begins a few months after the incident at the mansion in Raccoon City when rookie cop Leon Kennedy arrives for his first day on the job. When he arrives in the town; he finds it desserted minus the re-animated corpses with a taste for human flesh strolling around. He soon meets up with Claire Redfield who is searching for her brother Chris (the hero from the first game and novel); and the two encounter a host of other characters human and non-human alike. Perry's knack for developing her characters is in full effect here, and the reader never feels left out when the action goes full throttle. City of the Dead flows nearly identical to the game it is adapted from, which fans of the game will no doubt be pleased with. All in all, City of the Dead is one of, if not the, best books in Perry's Resident Evil series, and even if your not a fan of the games but are a fan of horror and zombie films than you should definitely give this a look.

Resident Evil City of the Dead

This is the best book that I have read in my whole life. I recommend this book to everyone who has either played the game or likes horror books. Leon Kennedy is a rookie cop. He lives for the need to protect, serve, and help the innocent. While reckless Leon is highly skilled and quilified enough to serve as a cop for the Raccoon Police Department. Claire Redfield is a light-hearted modern women. She can be a bit Tomboy at times and she is somewhat wild. Self-confident, she is the first person to try something many others would not. This book is about a secret company called Umbrella. They have created a virus called the T-Virus and it turns anybody and anything into flesh-eating monsters if taken.

As with every book there is a theme to the book I think that the author's theme to this story is that good will always win. Well at least in a video game. This book has so much detail that you can get a detailed picture of the book in your head. If you enjoy horror books, or suspense then read this book. Also play the game it is the best game for Playstation and the best game out of all systems.

For anyone who has played Resident Evil 2 whether the PlayStation version or the N64 version then this book may be worth only a couple of read throughs. For people who haven't played the game but love horror movies, or books then this is definitely worth the money. The reason that even those who have played the game to the bitter end and know the plot, it's nice to read the novel and be able to understand exactly how everything fits together. The only problem that I had with the book is that the author has side stepped the majority of the puzzles that are in the game, but this is understandable considering how long the book would be otherwise. Overall this book is worth the purchase and there shouldn't be a person out there that claims to be a Resident Evil fan and doesn't have this book.

This book had plenty of action and suspence but didn't really tie in with the story as the game did. If they were following the story Jill wouldn't have gone with chris and barry out of the city she would have stayed in the city and when she was just about to leave the city would be full of zombies like in RE3 over all it was okay but like i said doesn't tie in with the story that much. i never really got how in like one shot a zombie would die?

I am normally one of the worst people at reading novels, but when I finished this book, I looked back and discovered that I had read about 120 pages in only 3 hours! That blew me away! It's just that Resident Evil 2 the game was so unbelievably great, and I could now see it in an even more movie like format! Leon Kennedy was always in my eyes much more of a hero than Chris Redfield, being more courageous and selfless. It's mainly because Leon took a bullet for Ada, went back for her even though there were zombies in the way, and tries to save her after she was going to shoot him if he didn't give her the super G-Virus.

This book shows his endurance with more detail, like where he lands on his bullet wound several times, takes it each time, and always continues. Wow, what a guy! Not that I don't like Claire Redfield, I do, and not just because she was the first video game character that I got dirty thoughts of. She also endures a lot, but it wasn't until this book that I really understood. In this book, Claire hesitates to shoot the first zombie she is cornered by, because it is a living target. Detail like that is all over the book, and it is really amazing. The gore is explained in gut-wrenching clarity too, and some tortured thoughts of Annette Birkin and Chief Irons are also presented wonderfully.

One of the only gripes I had with this book is that you always know that Ada is a spy, unlike in the game where you don't find out until the end. Even worse, the most dramatic scene in the game (actually, I can only think of a few Hollywood scenes more powerful) is when Ada dies, and the novel's version is almost unbelievably un-dramatic. However, apart from those, this is an easy read for those bad at reading, and this book is not only for fans of the game/series, but of anyone who enjoys a thrilling read. I wish that S. D. Perry was a twenty-two or so year old and not married, for I like the way she thinks, and I would most likely ask her out! Oh well. This book is still a sensation! Get it!

Resident Evil: City of the Dead by S.D. Perry is a compelling mix of scifi-horror and survival. This book has all the simulation and entertainment of a horror movie.
The story starts as Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop, is headed to Racoon City for his first day on the force. He's driving down the street and a dozen silent crows fly from the middle of the road revealing a dead woman. When he investigates to see if the woman is ok, he realizes that the woman has chew marks on her half eaten away stomach and that her spin is hanging out. She comes alive suddenly, moaning and try to bite his leg. Leon shoots her, then realizes that more of the zombie creatures are coming from the streets as if hunting for him. Could this be the city's residences? What happened to them? Leon heads to the police station, hoping that somebody has some answers. The trail ahead for Leon is filled with frightened survivors and creatures worse than zombies. Of all the terror, the worst is what Leon learns about "Umberella Corp." and what their planning to do to the city now that people know that their responsible for the zombie infested virus that was let loose in Racoon.
The vivid description of events in the story is very compelling to the reader's senses. One memorable event was when Leon was in a gun store and killed a nearby zombie. It says," He jerked the magnum up and leveled it at the creatures face. With a tremendous, thundering kick, the gurgling pulpy skull blew apart, thick fluids splattering the shops walls and display cases in a wet splat.
Resident Evil is definitely a must have book for a horror collection. Once a popular videogame and movie, now a popular novel. Reading this has convinced me to get the rest of the novels.

I am a new fan to the 'Resident Evil' saga. The first RE game I played was RE2, and I found it very interesting. Just the other week I was looking through a Walden Books store and I found that the RE saga was also in novel form.

I picked up the book and read only a couple pages when I was hooked. I bought 'City of the Dead' and finished it in one week. The book was excellent! I liked the way the author carefully detailed the zombies, the Re3 (the Licker) and Mr.X, the genetically enhanced creature that stalked Sherry Birkin and Claire Redfield. Shortly after reading the book I struck up a strong interest in the saga. By the way, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield are my favorite characters.

Overall I fully enjoyed 'Resident Evil 2: City of the Dead'. The detail really outstanded me and I get the full effect when I read it at midnight! Great stuff...now I get to collect the entire novel series!

Hello fans. Sorry I haven't written my latest reveiw but I've been busy. Enough about me. S.D. Perry has written another shocking masterpeice! 2 new charactors are introduced to the Resident Evil series. Zombies once again are the problem, yet they have not invaded 1 small facility. They have invaded the entire city of Raccoon! Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, (sister of Chris Redfeild) Are coming to Raccoon for entirely different reasons. Yet they are leaving for the same. Zombies, Spiders, And even some new critters! Run through the RPD in terror from Umbrella's new family of horror will invade. I just hope you aren't afraid of...

... Everything!

This book is the best it was better than the game i enjoyed it very much and i recament that all residnt evil fans read it.

I have greatly enjoyed reading the paltry handful of negative reviews about this book, and will now assure you that they are, in the end, just that: paltry.

"City of the Dead" is what I have always considered to be the magnum opus of the series, and considering Perry's strong writing style, that's actually quite a feat. Usually this brand of novel is considered a "cheap sci-fi novel" and that's certainly what I expected when I first picked up these books. Thanks to Perry, I now take the addage about books and their covers more seriously. Perhaps more than that, I have a better grasp of what storytelling, prose, and character mean thanks to her. She could have let this become glorified fanfiction, the campy and laughable plots of the games tied up into a pretty gift basket with a little chocolate to disguise the cheese. She didn't stop there.

Normally I would be bothered that Perry's style tends to cycle through prose and internal monologue, but it's actually varied enough to make it enjoyable to reread over and over (as I do). It's a versatile style that has a fair hand- at least- in everything from stream-of-consciousness to POV. She also tends to hyphenate in jarring, interrupted spurts- perfect for a series with an atmosphere broken by gunfire and the cries of the "hungry damned." Often subtle and knowing just when to slip in that extra note to make the characters or the story more compelling, Perry is able to say so much in so little, a challenge normally reserved for our screenwriters and one she should be lauded for in meeting. The criticisms that she is "shallow" and "predictable" are small complaints from small minds, nurtured by nose-puckering pretention. What others call "shallow", I call "readable." It is an art so long forgotten in our present age.

"City of the Dead" details the events of Resident Evil 2, and even those unfamiliar with the game should find this approachable. I could comment on Perry's largely faithful attention to the plot and her clever integration of actual in-game details (Leon actually has to find the Desert Eagle in the game, but here, it's a graduation present from his father and uncle, both cops, and I mention it as a taste of that subtly telling style of Perry's), but I would rather praise her for the vibrant explosion of character that she's so good at. Leon and Claire became my favorite heroes of Resident Evil because of this book. How Perry is able to understand the mindsets of a policeman and a teenager, among the many other mentalities she explores in this book, without confining them to stereotypes is worth a standing ovation. She transforms so many trivial moments into heartfelt sentiments that allow the characters to speak to the reader without driving in some ten-cent moral.

Some have said her protagonists are too good and her antagonists too evil. To that I have two simple words: "Annette Birkin." Or we could ramp it to four and try "Ada Wong." The cast is taken from polygons to humanity in a heartbeat, and we come to understand why the heroes are the heroes and why the villains are the villains and why those in-between have trouble with both archetypes. Again, it's an accomplishment so rare and precious in writing that I am shocked to have found it in a book based on Resident Evil.

Admittedly, Leon's narrative is more engaging than Claire's, possibly because that fun fact that he's a cop on his first day in a city infested with the undead is naturally more interesting than Claire's story of a civilian trying to survive- that's the premise of the game, however. That said, Claire's is not an inferior read by any means. Her brother Chris is only featured in a brief appearance in the prologue, yet through Claire's perspective he becomes a warm and commanding presence because of his absence. It develops him, and it develops her. Once again, a sorely-missed talent that Perry seems able to effortlessly command. Rest assured, while I praise these characters for being the best in the story (and some of the best in the series), the rest of the lives they encounter in this book are also compelling, and all have a common stain, in some way, from Umbrella's "accident."

At more than one point, the gamers who ran through RE2 should be chuckling. While Perry's action scenes are above-average and appropriately tense, she does have time for an in-joke here and there, and those in-jokes are strong enough to stand on their own to new RE-ers while entertaining the old (e.g., Leon and his solution to one of the many baddies he encounters).

Even masterpieces have weaknesses, admittedly, and the only significant one that occurs to me is the ending. It follows the game's extremely well, but the focus needed to remain on Leon, Claire, and Sherry to end on a strong note. I understand why Perry chose to switch to a new POV at the end, but her stars of "City of the Dead" had already proven by the halfway point of the novel that they were worth every ray of spotlight that fell on them. It's still a tight ending that allows for a segue into "Underworld", but I would have taken any of their POVs (Sherry's especially) to have ended the story on a stronger note.

Even that isn't able to ruin the novel, however. It's a wonderful thing when a book's virtues utterly negate its vices. "City of the Dead" is one such example, and a book I immediately recommend to fans of the game and those who are just in search of a great story. As ridiculously campy as Resident Evil 4 is, I can think of no better author than S.D. Perry to give it the warm, human life and the cold, unknown fear that is the grim ballet of Resident Evil, and which she exemplifies and typifies in "City of the Dead."

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