I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
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Book Reviews of I Am Legend
Book Review: I AM LEGEND
Summary: 5 Stars
The premise of this story is very simple. A man named Robert Neville is the last man alive on Earth. Everyone else have become vampires and this story is about Robert's life being alone in a world full of hideous beings. It is a very simple and basic premise and yet Richard Matheson has taken it and spun a really deep and complex tale out of it.
All throughout the book, there are instances where we truly feel for Robert, the pain and frustration he goes through on a daily basis. He struggles with the isolation of being alone, the defeat of not able to find a cure for vampirism, the mysteries surrounding vampirism, and ultimately the seeming 'betrayal' of a woman named Ruth, the only living being he knows after the plaque. Mr. Matheson describes all of this in beautiful, beautiful prose. Not only that, he also has a knack for creating believable characters; all of these characters, even his animal ones, behave the way they should, and it is a delight to read about them.
There were some highly technical parts of the book which I felt dragged the pace down, but not too badly as to make the book feel too long-winded. For the most part, the story chugs along nicely.
One more thing I've noticed about I AM LEGEND was that it felt very allegorical of the problems we have in our world today. Man is a very territorial and violent species and we see that even in a post-apocalytic context, wars and conflicts of interest can still happen, and will happen.
I am Legend is truly a triumph of story telling, Mr. Matheson was clearly at the top of his game when he wrote it.
Book Review: Vampires are much prejudiced against
Summary: 5 Stars
Including by me. I did not think the genre has a right to exist. I thought Stoker said all that needs to be said.
Then came this book, some 50 years ago, and combined the vampire theme with the 'end of the world' genre and created a strong story in its own right. In its simplicity and clarity it has a chance to be a long-term survivor. Well, typical vampire.
I had watched the recent movie and liked it, and this way I learned about the book, which an AF recommended to me. I picked it up for a long distance flight and started reading early in the flight. Then I noticed it was on offer in the video system (one of Lufthansa Business Class strong features), both in the new version with Smith, which I knew already, and in the older one with Charlton Heston. Since the man just died, I was tempted to try the movie, but found it not worth the effort. It is a wooden pointless aged product without merits. (While the Will Smith version is likeable.)
So back to the book. Its hero Neville is a soulmate of mine, a hermit. He also calls himself a Robinson (this for my critic who blamed me for that comparison im my film review.)
Neville is not a scientist, but tries to understand what happened, why mankind has been seemingly eradicated by a plague and why the dead have become vampires unless burned. His fight against despair, lonelyness, alcohol, suicide, vampires, cluelessness makes it a very strong piece of storytelling.
Book Review: The Title Says it All!
Summary: 5 Stars
I still haven't seen the movie, and from what I've heard about it's departure from the book that inspired it, I'm not in a particular rush, either. However, as a lifetime fan of horror as well as a writer and editor of dark fiction, I've felt like somewhat of an outsider when my colleagues mentioned this book. I was able to remedy this condition by picking up a copy of the book at a Dallas Target store while distracting myself from the financial pain of a mother-daughter shopping event.
I took as much joy in reading this 50's horror story as I do when reading classic sci-fi and fantasy; I've read bits and pieces of classic horror, but while I've had to strain to get through a few other famous notables, I ripped through I Am Legend as readily as the latest King or Koontz. I can see why it's so commonly listed a favorite and influential vampire novel. It's also refreshing to finally read this as a fan of Vincent Price's movie, Last Man on Earth, which was inspired by I Am Legend.
I feel fortunate to have stumbled across the edition I did; it contains a clutch of Matheson's short stories as well as the title story. As good as the novella itself was, I like the short stories even better. I won't discuss them at length, as I can't discuss them in a useful manner without spoiling them. But they're good. I'll definitely be reading more Matheson, and I'm sorry I didn't get into him before.
Book Review: Mystical Science
Summary: 5 Stars
"If one vampire was scary, a world filled with them would be really scary." This is what Richard Matheson himself said in an interview about his book "I Am Legend." He takes the stuff of fantasy and brings it to light once again. These days we can hear the word "vampire" and dismiss it as magic phenomena during an age of ignorance. But Matheson does away with the medieval whimsy and applies (albeit crude) science to the legend. And what do we get? Something that could be possible in the land of reason. The dark, hidden fears that we humans have pushed to the back of our minds can resurface somewhat when the magic is explained in a way that makes the logical mind pause and consider. Matheson's repackaging of these ancient, inborn fears seems to have lent a hand in its continued fascination and popularity many years after it's first publication.
In the book, we follow Robert Neville as he goes through the phases of forced solitude and loneliness. He treads the precarious line between sanity and insanity as he tries to re-establish himself in this new world he finds himself in. As the last man on earth, what is his purpose? Where can he belong? To keep from going mad he fights (physically and mentally) to find a reason to continue living. It's not until the very end that he finds out what his new place has become.
Book Review: One of the original post-apocalyptic vampire novels
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is a short story about a man named Robert Neville, the last living human on the planet. To complicate things, due to a bacteria there are now vampires running amok who know where he lives. By day he hunts the vampires and kills them while they sleep, by night he inebriates himself and holes up in his house. He finds a dog, and another survivor, but both feed the fire of despair, loneliness and inebriation. And by day the legend grows.
Matheson weaves a compelling and frightening tale, and the emotions of Robert Neville are felt by the reader. The ending offers a wonderful twist, and the original story is far better than the recent Will Smith film of the same name. I Am Legend is such an influential story that it almost single-handedly invented the vampire/zombie apocalypse genre that is so prevalent in modern cinema.
This specific omnibus also features ten other short stories. A reader unfamiliar with Matheson may pass over them, or read them expecting very little compared to the titular story, but reading them will quickly change the readers mind. Several of the short stories are wonderfully frightening, and they all offer a horrific twist at the end. Highlights include Prey, Madhouse, and Person to Person, although each story is well written and highly entertaining.