I’ve got a lot of time for survival horror. Sweaty palms, tense atmosphere, bleak outlook based on what you know is likely to be an imminent and grisly death…ah, what’s not to love? These are just some of the reasons why I was so excited about Techland’s upcoming release, Dying Light, but now that they’ve just announced a tie-in book…well, I’m in Heaven (for some reason, a place I tend to end up in a lot when playing survival horror).

Titled Dying Light: Nightmare Row, this literary companion will apparently be a prequel to the events depicted in the game, allowing the player/reader to find out what exactly happened in those days prior to the outbreak that decimated the city of Harran.

“Writing the origin story for DYING LIGHT was an exciting adventure for me,” says Raymond Benson. “I’d always wanted to try my hand at a zombie-genre tale and this gave me the perfect opportunity. The folks at Techland created a rich and intriguingly bleak setting for the game, so that gave me a wonderful and creepy world in which to play around. All fans of zombie fiction, gamers and readers alike, are in for a real treat.”

Benson, by the way, was the author of the latest follow-up James Bond novels, and has over thirty published titles to his name. Dying Light: Nightmare Row, however, will be slightly different to the 007 novels he’s become accustomed to writing as of late…

Charting the survival story of Mel Wyatt, an 18-year-old American athlete, and her little brother Paul, the book starts just after the initial Infected attacks on the stadium in which Mel was competing. The Harran 2015 Global Athletic Games were meant to be a joyous affair, but after their parents are killed on the first day of the competition, Mel and her brother suddenly find themselves alone, scared, and having to fend for themselves in a terrifying new world.

As someone who loved the additional story material in EA/Visceral Games’ Dead Space series (I have the accompanying books and DVDs!), I can’t wait to see what Techland’s version of survival horror looks like. If it’s anything like it’s sounding – which is very good – I’ll most likely die of dehydration due to Sweaty-Hand-Syndrome.

More details regarding a price and release date for Dying Light: Nightmare Row will undoubtedly be announced soon. Until then, keep your eyes on the release date for Dying Light: January 27th in the Americas, January 28th in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and January 30th in Europe.

(NOTE: Sweaty-Hand-Syndrome is not a real disease…unless you’re a survival horror fan).