I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.25 You Save: $10.70 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.00 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of I Am Legend
Book Review: I won't stay long in this world so wrong
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Neville is he who strives for perfection, he whose goal is to soar among the stars with the angels on high; Neville is the man who, despite everything, has fallen into the eternal charnel pit of the soul. The bleakest and farthest regions of the dismal are his and his alone. How then did Neville come to this winter of discontent? How then did he, who sought the beautiful, become the ugly? His lustrous silver wings melted in the shining sun that he blindly mistook for redemption and when it was too late to save himself he fell like a beautiful yet poignantly destructive shooting star plummeting to earth in a ball of unquenchable fire.
In the latter days of the latter years hidden in the home of his oblivion, he has come full circle pondering over the joys and the discontents of a "normal" life that like the best of fiction is so believable yet so totally alien. Yes, truly he is Icarus dying, the embodiment of dead hopes and dreams and the paragon of destruction. Yes, truly he is the aching longing that will never be fulfilled, the imagined sound of a loved one calling in the midst of a dream. He, and he alone, is the bright and shining hope that failed. He is alive in body only for the soul has fled. Is he any better than the living dead that haunt him so, the mythical vampires who, sadly, turned out to be so real? Those miserable souls of legend that were tortured into an eternity desiring to be with their brethren yet destroying all those who were near. In a dead and howling world, Neville is all that survives to remember what civilization was once like before the virus came, the mysterious virus that turned the world into a legend. In this sea of pain, Neville must make his way alone embracing the eternal solitude amongst the wailings of the damned, but the vampires have a little surprise for Neville that might just change everything. Fly Neville, fly on your beautiful wings and touch the sun before you fall to earth, incinerated and desolate. Goodbye Neville. . .
I Am Legend is a poignant narrative conducted by the forlorn Neville, the only man left standing among the charred ruins of a formerly grand civilization . . . our civilization. All those that have gone before him have returned only they are not the same. They want blood for sustenance and in the deepest pits of the night they await Neville, their eternal hunger gnawing away at their humanity. And so, Neville's long journey through the bleak passages of the heart begins and we, the public of readers, join Neville wishing that we could reach out and grant him comfort because Neville's forced loneliness, his desire to see another human, his desire for his dead wife, is truly heart wrenching making the desolate, apocalyptic aura of the book come alive filling the reader's heart and soul with Neville's undying pain. Neville is a narrator that demands sympathy. The author's emulation of a classical, gothic horror style requires the audience to understand Neville's mental degeneration as he seeks solace in whisky and music as the damned howl outside his door. We love him because in him humanity is portrayed at both its best and its worst and his continual flashbacks remind the audience how temporarily life can be and how easily everything that is good, that is noble, can be suddenly ripped away from our grasp. While the tale echoes science fiction, the real story of one man's pining for a life that will never return is what makes the tragedy so forceful, and so believable. Yes Neville, we shed a tear for you because in your bleak existence we see our own moments of pain and loneliness and because of your humanity we are overcome with compassion.
Likewise, the drama of the plot echoes Neville's degeneration as his slow, bleak days and lonely black nights plod by and he gives himself away to contemplation, flashbacks, and the false hope promised in the bottom of a bottle. However, everything is about to change as our hopeless hero is overcome with one life mission: he must finally understand the reason behind his enforced agony, he must understand the gruesome plague, he must teach himself the mysteries of medicine and perhaps, in his quest for knowledge, redemption from loneliness will be found. As Neville finally finds a mission in life, a reason to live again, the world starts to shift and his lonely days are suddenly interrupted by an enigmatic woman. What could this mean? Is it salvation, a mirage from a dying mind, or a sinister prelude? Neville cannot decided and so the plot spirals eternally downward, dragging Neville into a shocking climax where the truth of the legend is finally revealed, leaving the reader breathless and tearful. Yes Neville, we hear the pain in your grim requiem.
Richard Matheson, the author, has a wonderfully poetic and metaphoric style that combine to bring Neville's bleak world into a shocking, surrealistic picture before the reader's mind. Originally penned in the s, I Am Legend echoes the literary style of the classics allowing the readers to care deeply for Neville due to the concentration on characterization and the exquisitely beautiful manipulation of the English language. Matheson's eloquent, descriptive language and his evocation of emotion combine to entrance the reader.
A note to those who have seen the movie:
Although, I Am Legend: The Movie was "based" on this novel, the movie was not even remotely similar. The plot and some of the characters (including the woman and the dog) are not the same in the book as in the movie. Also, the deaths of both Neville's wife and his daughter are very different in the novel. Once the novel gets rolling, it becomes instantly obvious that the movie deviated massively from the original storyline, so don't expect the same plot. The novel, while very different, was still equally as enjoyable as the movie. I highly recommend both. The movie and the novel are both classics in the horror genre.
Extras:
This addition of I Am Legend includes several short stories from Richard Matheson including the following:
Buried Talents
The Near Departed
Prey
Witch War
Dance of the Dead
Dress of White Silk
Mad House
The Funeral
From Shadowed Places
Person to Person
I Am Legend concludes at the half way mark of the novel on page 159 and the short stories begin, unannounced on page 160, at first causing the reader to falsely believe that they pick up Robert Neville's saga. For the most part the stories are rather unspectacular, possessing none of the author's insight into human nature and knack for implementing stunning literary phrases. The best stories are Mad House, The Funeral, and Person to Person. These three stand above the rest and break the general mold of boredom. Other than these three short stories, I would recommend that potential readers skip the other stories. They were only added to this addition to make the novel look fuller and thus attract more potential buyers.
Conclusion:
I Am Legend is a bleak testament to one man's isolation and his eternal longing for those who have gone before him. Thought provoking and highly emotional, this is not a novel to be missed. Days after Neville's last word has fallen neatly onto the last page, the readers are still casting their minds back to visit their forlorn friend. Yes Neville, although you thought you were no longer wanted in a dead world, you live on in our memory's museum. Emotional, descriptive, and highly imaginative, I Am Legend is a story that everyone can relate to. Unequivocally recommended.
- Ravenova
Book Review: not as much for the sci fi fan
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book based on the enthusiastically positive reviews here on Amazon, but I'm a bit disappointed. Some of the reviews said the book was far better than the Will Smith movie, so I was expecting something really deep and engaging. Instead, I felt the story "I Am Legend" had plot weaknesses and didn't hold my interest like I expected. There were a number of times when I thought, "But what if...?" or "Why didn't this happen...?" Some Amazon reviews even said the story's ending was far superior to the ending of the Will Smith movie, but I feel like I must have read the wrong book. The end of the story was anticlimactic and didn't seem to wrap up the meaning of the title at all for me.
I picked up the book because I enjoy sci fi, but I didn't feel this book was sci fi. It feels more like horror, and not just because of the vampires. Nearly everything about the story made it feel more like a horror story, and I'm not a fan of horror so I didn't enjoy it much. There are also several short stories following "I Am Legend" in this book (which aren't mentioned anywhere on the covers) and they are all horror genre stories. I read most of them but they just aren't my cup of tea.
One thing I noticed is that all the stories, including "I Am Legend," remind me of Stephen King's works. Obviously Matheson influenced King. If you enjoy Stephen King, then you'll probably really like this collection of Matheson's stories. But if you're mostly a sci fi fan like me, you may not enjoy it so much. I suspect the glowing reviews of this book are from fans of horror who maybe would have liked the movie "I Am Legend" to more closely resemble a horror movie than a sci fi flick.
Book Review: Outstanding Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
Classic vampire/zombie/end of civilization book. Matheson influenced many of today's horror authors. A simply outstanding story and fun to read. I recommend you add this to your collection. Book Review: I read it when I was 19 and didn't do it for me even as a kid
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, so this is one of books that originated survival thriller/horror genre, but for me it wasn't so big. I guess it was writing style that I disliked.
Lord knows I read every novel or story by real writers who wrote horror (Edgar Allan Poe , Ambrose Bierce) and writer-entertainers like Clive Barker, Stephen King, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. I loved everything when I was 18-19 , fiction, science fiction, epic fiction, horror and read even the worst books to the end, including James Herbert's 'Survivor' . OMG, was THAT one bad!
Book Review: A story of it's own
Summary: 5 Stars
I had seen the recent movie adaption to this book and I must say, I love both just the way they are. The book made the movie a lot clearer in ways for me, actually trying to put science behind exactly what the monsters were. This book is extremely well written for the time it came from, and the imagination is boundless. I love monster stories and this one is not one to pass up!
This book, however, comes with more than just I Am Legend. It also comes with assorted stories from Richard Matheson. Although his other stories aren't quite as long as I Am Legend, they follow a similar style and are definitely worth reading once you're done with the book itself. All in all this is an extremely great buy. I love it.