Retro Rescued Reviews #2 Resident Evil Genesis

Welcome to my Retro Rescued Reviews! This is where I have found a book on Goodreads with no review, where the review has gone missing or not been written, one I didn't review on my blog either for some reason. I have since then either re-read or skimmed the book to get enough notes to write another review to be shared here and at Goodreads, and maybe Amazon.

The Hive: a subterranean genetic research facility owned and operated by Umbrella, an immensely powerful corporation with interests in everything from human longevity to biowarfare. With computerized defenses and heavily armed human backup, the Hive is impregnable and invulnerable. Or so Umbrella believes.But something has gone fatally wrong. The Hive has lost containment of its most lethal and horrific creation: a virus that kills and reanimates human life, reducing the entire facility staff of five hundred men and women to mindless creatures with a single driving force -- hunger. And the key to stopping them rests with one young woman who cannot even remember who she is.

My Review: 
I know that I took notes for this book and reviewed it on Goodreads many years back. I can remember doing it yet when I looked at it recently, the review was gone. Luckily I liked the book enough to keep it and I have skimmed through it to get enough notes to do my review again. As backup, I have decided to put the review on my blog, Goodreads and Amazon.

In Raccoon City, an underground complex called the HIVE contains 500 men and women working on a range of secret projects, including a dangerous set of bioweapon experiments using the recently discovered T-Virus. Hailed as a medical breakthrough, it is now being tested in ways that its creator never imagined. Now a deliberate act of sabotage has unleashed the virus in the HIVE and the AI, aka The Red Queen has sealed the HIVE and killed all of the people inside to prevent the T-Virus escaping. Umbrella want to know what happened and decide to send in their special forces team to investigate and deal with the Red Queen. It is only when they enter the HIVE that they realise the extent of their problems as they are faced with the traps of the Red Queen and the hungry zombie employees.

This book is based on the first Resident Evil film screenplay. It sticks pretty closely to that story, which I liked, as I hate it when the novel writer takes it upon themselves to change the whole essence of the film and do their own film with it. If you have watched the film countless times like I have, it is easy to picture the story from the book in your mind as if you were re-playing the film. What this book seeks to do is go a bit more behind the scenes with the main and supporting characters and give you a bit of their story. We get more about the commando team led by the enigmatic One, we find out about Mark, the man the coffee is spilled on and the sympathetic Ella, we discover why Anna and Mariano, the scientists in the flooded room were bickering just before the room sealed. We get a lot more background on Matt and Lisa, and the relationships that Alice has with Spence and Lisa and how things developed. 

Matt is a retired Federal Marshall and has a plan to bring down the evil Umbrella Corporation from the inside. His sister Lisa, a computer and internet safety expert was once offered a job with the company but turned it down. Since then she has become divorced and is gunning for Umbrella for being responsible for the death of a friend. Mahmoud's simple ulcer operation went wrong, performed by a company connected to Umbrella and as well as medical complications, had to endure bullying and intimidation when he took legal action. Lisa is now eager for a chance to go undercover, telling Umbrella she is ready for a new start if the job offer is still open. Umbrella are pleased to hire her and now she needs to use her time there to start digging for dirt that they can use.

Alice is the head of HIVE security and is now stationed in the mansion that guards the entrance to the underground facility. She is posing as part of a reclusive married couple, along with fellow agent Spence as part of her cover. She discovers that Lisa is not what she seems but instead of turning her in, Alice decides to cut a deal to help her expose Umbrella. Lisa has already stumbled across the T-Virus and is startled to be found out so easily but when Alice offers to assist her in getting past security and getting an actual sample smuggled out, she knows she will have to trust Alice and agree to work with her. But before Alice can do anything, someone else decides to steal the virus and covers his tracks by setting off the T-Virus in the HIVE and condemning everyone to a fate worse than death.   

The book goes in to the main story with Alice waking up with amnesia after the defense system in the mansion is triggered, and how her encounter with Matt who is coming to investigate is interruped by the arrival of One's team. We then follow the team into the HIVE where the amnesiac Spence is found. I enjoyed reading about the attack the Red Queen does on One's team to take them out of the equation and the exploration of the HIVE. Alice is slowly regaining her memory about Lisa but is reluctant to initially admit it to Matt on discovering that is his sister. The action scenes with the zombies are well written and tense, as with the clock slowly ticking away and threatening to trap the survivors underground forever.  

This is one of the better books based on screenplays that I've read because it keeps the bulk of the story and just adds a bit more depth to it rather than destroying the content of the film. I liked finding out a bit more about the people that we see so briefly in the film. I liked having a reason why Matt and Lisa wanted to bring down Umbrella and seeing Alice plotting to help them. This is one of my favourite zombie films and I was pleased to get a good book version to read too.

Read October 2015
4 stars.