Editing Resident Evil (section)

=== Novels ===
The first ''Resident Evil'' novel was Hiroyuki Ariga's novella ''Biohazard: The Beginning'', published in 1997 as a portion of the book ''The True Story of Biohazard'', which was given away as a pre-order bonus with the Sega Saturn version of ''Biohazard''. The story serves as a prelude to the original ''Resident Evil'', in which Chris investigates the disappearance of his missing friend, Billy Rabbitson.

[[S. D. Perry]] has written novelizations of the first five games, as well as two original novels taking place between games. The novels often take liberties with the games' plot by exploring events occurring outside and beyond the games. This often meant that the games would later contradict the books on a few occasions.<ref>For example, the novel ''Underworld'' suggested that Raccoon City was destroyed during an accidental fire after the events of ''City of the Dead'', whereas in ''Resident Evil 3'' it is revealed that the city was destroyed by a nuclear missile launched by the government.</ref> One notable addition from the novels is the original character Trent, who often served as a mysterious behind-the-scenes string-puller who aided the main characters. Perry's novels were translated and released in Japan with new cover arts by Wolfina.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wolfina.com/snake-heart/ |title=Snake Heart |language=ja |access-date=July 2, 2009 |archive-date=February 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215011439/http://wolfina.com/snake-heart/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Perry's novels, particularly ''The Umbrella Conspiracy'', also alluded to events in ''Biohazard: The Beginning'', such as the disappearance of Billy Rabbitson and Brian Irons' bid to run for Mayor.  A reprinting of Perry's novels with new cover artwork began in 2012 to coincide with the release of ''[[Resident Evil: Retribution]]'' and its respective novelization.

There are a trilogy of original ''Biohazard'' novels in Japan. {{Nihongo|'' Hokkai no Yōjū''|北海の妖獣||lit. "The Strange Beast of the North Sea"}} was published in 1998 and was written by Kyū Asakura and the staff of Flagship. Two additional novels were published in 2002, ''To the Liberty'' by Sudan Kimura and ''Rose Blank'' by Tadashi Aizawa. While no official English translation of these novels has been published yet, the last two books were translated into German and published in 2006.

Novelizations of the films ''Genesis'', ''Apocalypse'', and ''Extinction'' were written by [[Keith DeCandido]]. ''Afterlife'' did not receive a novelization due to Capcom's decision to discontinue working with [[Pocket Books]], who had been their primary source of publishing books up to that point, Capcom would later make [[Titan Books]] their primary publisher going forth. ''Retribution'' was written by [[John Shirley]], while ''The Final Chapter'' was written by [[Tim Waggoner]]. ''Genesis'' was published over two years after that film's release and coincided with the publication of ''Apocalypse'', ''Genesis'' being marketed as a prequel to ''Apocalypse'', while the ''Extinction'' novel was released in late July 2007, two months before the film's release. ''The Final Chapter'' was published in December 2016 alongside the film's theatrical release. There was also a Japanese novelization of the first film, unrelated to DeCandido's version, written by Osamu Makino. Makino also wrote two novels based on the game ''Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles''. The books are a two-part direct novelization of the game and are published in Japanese and German only. The first novel, titled ''Biohazard: The Umbrella Chronicles Side A'' in Japan and ''Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles 1'' in Germany, was released on December 22, 2007. The second novel, titled ''Biohazard: The Umbrella Chronicles Side B'' in Japan and ''Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles 2'' in Germany, was published in January 2008.