I must admit, shamefully, I own all of these books. My entire family loves RE, but none of them own as much of the games as me, and not one of them owns any of the books. They don't see a point in reading about a game they can play, which makes me feel even more looserish. But whether or not its a good thing that I own the books is neither here nor there. What it is good for is this "Expanded Universe" theme.

There are a total of 7 books in SD Perry's Series:
#0: Zero Hour (The only one not pictured)
#1: The Umbrella Conspiracy
#2: Caliban Cove
#3: City of The Dead
#4: Underworld
#5: Nemesis
#6: Code: Veronica

This isn't the only series of books, but I'm pretty sure its the only series in English.

My impressions after reading the books are mixed. On one hand they provide fun back stories to some of the events of the games, they are well written, and they expand on the characters and events. This, however, presents a small problem. the books, being written awhile ago, do not match the modern incarnations of the game, and the revisions made to the story. This makes some of these back stories non-canon.

On the other hand, if you've played the games, then why read them? Why read an account of what you've already done? There is no real reason besides the back stories and mental views of the characters. Unless, that is, you are reading one of the original novels, which are probably non-canon by now, if they were ever canon.

My final take on it is that unless you are a die hard fan, then don't look too far into these. They are well written, but you know the story by now, and if you want new situations then you only need to buy two of them. I enjoyed the back/side stories, Non-canon or not its a good read, but It may or may not be worth your time unless you really love RE.

A quick side note:
I know it doesnt really effect the impact of the book, with the "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover" ideal, but the cover art (in my opinion), is horrible. It makes all the characters look semi-deformed and unattractive. The picture of Jill on the cover of Nemesis is absolutely disgusting compared to the CG Jill in the games. Its ugliness sends chills down my spine. But it proves the above mentioned ideal, because it after all is a good book, just with a bad cover. A very bad cover.

(I know this isnt the greatest blog, but I couldnt come up with anything else to match the theme)

-Spike