I Am Legend

Many reviewers have described the greatness of this story and its influence on modern writers. I wanted to offer my viewpoint as a reader who had seen the movie first. I initially avoided the book because I felt that the movie, while entertaining, was shallow with an uninteresting story. However, the positive reviews finally convinced me to give it a shot and I am glad that I did. The character portrayed by Will Smith is a brilliant man who is the cause of the epidemic and also the eventual savior of the human race. The character from the book is a much more interesting and relatable one. He is just an average man who struggles to survive. Not only with the vampires, but also to motivate himself to complete the menial tasks required for his daily survival. The vampires portrayed in the movie are superhuman killing machines completely devoid of any perceivable intelligence. In contrast, the books portrayal of the vampires is much more interesting. They retain many of their human qualities, including their intelligence, personalities, and physical capabilities. This allows for interactions far more interesting than those found in the movie. The conclusion found in the movie is very unsatisfying. It serves as a confirmation of the womans belief that God had directed her actions, portends the rebirth of human civilization, and illustrates the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. All very common themes that deliver a boring result. The books conclusion deviates drastically from the movies. I dont want to ruin the ending, but I will say I found the final realization the main character is forced to accept very interesting and thought provoking. I encourage anyone to read the book regardless of their feelings on the movie. The book provides a deeper story and a much different take on the vampire genre than the one presented in the movie.

Its not very often that I read a book that isnt YA. Its even more infrequent that I read a book that wasnt written in the last 2 years. I Am Legend was first published in 1954... So why did I pick it up? Well, mostly because I really liked the movie, and thats mostly because Will Smith is one of my favorite actors, if not my favorite. I Am Legend was certainly an interesting read. Matheson did an amazing job of getting the reader to feel the emotions the main character is reading, loneliness, craziness, despair, determination. The author has a fantastic understanding of basic human nature. Id heard the book was quite a bit different than the movie, but I wasnt prepared for HOW different it would be! Aside from the main character being on his own most of the time, nothing was the same. I was really surprised when I realized the book was about vampires, not zombie like creepy creatures! Dont even compare the two, just let them be their own separate awesome. For a book that is almost 60 years old, there really wasnt a whole lot that made it feel old. Except for one word that was used... which starts with a N (I wont say more than that, it was offensive)... I wouldnt have guessed it was written so long ago. Highly recommend if you want something with a MC who isnt a teenager, but something still with paranormal elements. 4 out of 5 stars!

When I first saw The Omega Man, I instantly fell in love with the story and the characters. Ive always been a fan of Post Apocalyptic fiction. I could feel The main characters sense of isolation, loneliness and desire to rid the world of Matthiass army. I took a chance and saw Will Smiths version. I didnt like it at all and never will. It didnt have the same feel of a Post Apocalyptic world. Eventually I watched Last Man On Earth with Vincent Price. Not too bad, but Ill always enjoy Charlton Heston. Id love to see a video game based on The Omega Man, but thats just a pipe dream.

Very different from the movie although it did have some similarities. There were a lot of words I didn’t recognize. I think because the book was written in the fifties. It got a little too technical for me but it was definitely an interesting read. Made you think.

I didnt like this book at all. Most probably because I watched the movie first and I am a big Will Smith fan. I realize the book was written first but there are a lot of people like me who bought the book thinking it was an adaptation of the movie, considering the jacket has a big picture of Will Smith on it. Well, since I thought the movie was awesome and I wanted to read what I thought would be an in-depth and detailed version of the movie, I settled down to enjoy, only to be surprisingly disappointed. I quickly realized that the book was almost completely different from the movie. First and foremost, the Neville that Will Smith plays in the movie is worlds apart from the wimpy, out of shape, slob of a guy in the book. Will Smiths character was strong, both physically and mentally and he was a scientist of some renown, doing expert tests and analysis to find a cure for the disease. The Neville in the book was an emotional un-kept wreck who smoked and drank himself into oblivion. Yuck! And its obvious that he doesnt have a clue about the disease because he has to drag himself out of a drunken stupor to go to the library and get books to learn about it. However, one of the biggest differences is that in the movie, Neville has a dog. It wouldnt be so bad but the dog (Sam) plays such a major part in the movie! I mean, a big part of what makes the movie so good is Nevilles relationship with his dog and she (Sam) is not even in the book! And on top of that, the mannequin (Dave) in the movie is actually Nevilles next door neighbor, turned vampire leader in the book. In the book the vampires actually talk and they attacked Nevilles house on a nightly basis. In the movie, they were more creatures than vampires and they didnt even know where Neville lived, at least not until the end. I understand that there are those who read the book first and because the movie was so different, they can justifiably complain about that, but the fact remains that this book was sold with Will Smith on the jacket. That, and the fact that this is nothing but a compilation of short stories that have nothing to do with each other is a gross deception to the consumer. I could go on and on about all the various things I found wrong with this book but why bother. Suffice it to say that the book was just boring. I couldnt even finish it. What a big disappointment...

I bought the book because of the movie. I thought it might have extra detail into the depth of the character Robert Neville, a character I really I liked. However, while the book is quite good as literature, it is quite different from the movie; a fact I knew but I just did not know how different. In the book, our Robert is not a scientist or in the Army and the true origin of the vampire-creating disease is not given. He does however try to figure out as best he can what has happened. He also grapples with his loneliness and the human side of being alone, more so than in the movie. In the book he is not accompanied by a his trusting dog Sam. Robert Neville is essentially not the same as in the movie; which is fine because that was the way the movie makers wanted it. So even though the movie is based on the book, you have to look at each work different, and dont judge one by the other. With the version of the book I received there were also some short stories by the author which I did not expect. I liked the book and it was/is good but I preferred the movie. After you read and see you might think different.

The movie certainly falls short of such a great novel. I enjoyed the details provided by Richard, the science involved to try to explain the myth. Completely recommended!

There are some books that, while good in and of themselves, later generations may have a hard time fully appreciating because they lack context. I am Legend feels like one of those books. While modern readers should appreciate it as good zombie apocalypse novel with a clever twist, connoisseurs of the genre will recognize it for the landmark novel it is. That may have sounded more pretentious than was meant, so let me clarify: This book is about a man named Robert Neville, the last survivor of a plague that wiped out humanity. He fortifies his house daily to fend off monsters who attack him. Does this sound like fairly standard zombie fiction? Yes. But what normal probably wont realize is this was the first book to do this. This novel spawned a thousand imitators, and its uniqueness may get lossed in the crowd if you dont know the history. The writing itself is fantastic, locking the reader in to the frustration and grind of life after the end. I can not recommend this book enough to horror and sci-fi fans.

Despite its vampire origins, this book originated many medical, zombie, dystopian thrillers. Robert Neville is alone. Very alone. Well, not completely alone. His family, friends, and neighbors have all come down with a bad case of vampirism. However, this sickness more closely resembles zombism (without the brain eating). The vampires have an intelligence much closer to (but slightly above) your typical walking dead. The story opens with the protagonist literally boarded up in his home, living off a generator and the food he manages to pilfer during daylight hours. Over time, he has managed to find a way to survive in a world where people (and sometimes animals) are dying of this strange disease that very closely resembles vampirism. Despite the best efforts of the world’s scientists, everyone had gone to rot except Neville (or so we think). So he has shored up his existence with a greenhouse full of garlic, strategically placed mirrors and the occasional Christian cross. All this helps to keep the relentless vampire apocalypse at bay during the wearisome nights. During the day, Neville makes repairs to his fortifications, hunts downed weaken vampires and dispatches them with wooden stakes and picks up supplies around the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The author brings a nice sort of thriller-suspense element to the table as he plays with this constant cycle of safety and danger as the sun rises and sets. The nights are where the fun begins. At sundown, Neville must be back home safe and sound or risk being overwhelmed by the masses. The vampires are not too strong physically, but at night they are at full strength and they come out in never ending swarms. Every single evening, Neville sits in his home stares at a mural of some nameless and beautiful landscape of a long forgotten time of yore and drinks himself into numbness at he listens to the vampires throw rocks at his windows and mirrors, beat on his walls and (in a particularly chilling way) call out his name. The author makes interesting leaps into scientific plausibility for this plague that has besot mankind. He mixes in classic vampire legend with microbiology and psychology. It’s a great mix for pleasing modern readers. The theories for how some of the vampire legends evolved from truth (like the chemical qualities in garlic scent being repellent to the vampire germ) and some are just psychological (the Christian vampires fear a cross because somewhere in their infected brains they have memories that tell them they should be). The main character is just a plant worker, an everyman. Yet, we follow along with him over the months as he educates himself with library books on how to learn about microbiology and test out theories and hypothesis on the vampires so that he can learn what happened and why its happened, and see if maybe he can change the course of things. He’s pretty much alone with a lot of time on his hand (in between vampire slayings), but it may be a bit of stretch given that he does have daily maintenance on his home/fortress to keep up and supplies to obtain (and there is nobody around to help him). Still these ideas of working science into legend really help to build up the mystery, suspense, and tension. They are also the precursor elements for many similar books to come. The true story is here. It’s not about vampires, zombies, or zombie-vampire hybrids. It’s about a man who thinks he’s the only person left in the world. Who has buried and reburied his loved ones. A man utterly broken and alone, fueled on fumes of whisky to carry out the primal instincts of his body. Survival. Some reviews may disagree, but the book has real strength here. We get inside this man’s head and really feel his struggle and his sense of hopelessness. We follow his ups and downs as little glints of hope dash past him and then are snatched away by the cruel reality of this dystopian world: his mind’s struggle with his body’s desire—the impetus of life. Of particular note, is Neville’s struggle with carnal temptation when the female vampires outside his house try to tempt him with their attributes of flesh, his spiral into deeper and deeper alcoholism and his violent lashings of frustration at the trappings of his environment. All of this is felt and related to the reader in a very compelling way. This, my fiends, is the heart of the story. The ending, which is a bit of a twist, sets a nice perspective on things. It’s dark and sort of unsuspecting. The author goes from spending a vast majority of the book, zoomed tightly and claustrophobically on a sole protagonist to suddenly panning wide and taking in a much broader view. Sort of inline with the Twilight Zone style that the author helped create when he wrote for that show. Podcast: If you enjoy my review (or this topic) this book and the movie based on it were further discussed/debated in a lively discussion on my podcast: No Deodorant In Outer Space. The podcast is available on iTunes or our website.

Despite its deliberate slow pacing this is one of the most chilling novels of the 20th Century. Written in 1954 by Richard Matheson I Am Legend takes a close look at what it means to be human and what it takes to become inhuman. Robert Neville is the last man on Earth, but he is not alone! The rest of the human race has died, victims of a mysterious plague that has infected everyone and has a 99% fatality rate. The problem is, the dead wont stay dead! Urban legends of The Undead, Vampires, have been with us for centuries, is it possible that these legends have a basis in scientific fact? Matheson explores that possibility from the viewpoint of one man, while also delving into that mans troubled mind. Beyond the mundane problem of just staying alive; getting enough food, water and shelter, there is the very real problem of being totally alone. Alone, with his dark thoughts, fighting alcoholism, painful memories of his past life and how his wife died, twice, all combine to threaten his sanity and his life. But there are external threats to his life as well. The Undead, hungry for Nevilles living flesh and blood, surround his fortified house each night where they fight among themselves and seek access to his home. During the day things are reversed. Unlike the Undead, Neville can come out in the sunlight and is free to roam the city looking for the sleeping Undead and to drive wooden stakes through their hearts. But even as he wages his pointless war against the Vampires, Neville realizes that his vendetta cant go on forever, he must find another way. Questions fill his mind. Why are the Vampires repulsed by things like garlic and the Holy Cross? What is it about the sun light that burns their flesh? If this is a plague then there must be a cure, someway to save what is left of humanity, if there is any humanity left to save. Dark, brooding and, at times, depressing I Am Legend is a true classic of Horror Fiction. Richard Mathesons low key prose dominated the Speculative Fiction field from the mid 20th century to the early 21st century. Weather it was a shrinking man, a terrified airline passenger at 20,000 feet or a lonely traveling salesman being stalked by a psychotic trucker, this author excelled at placing ordinary men into extraordinary situations. I Am Legend is such a novel and Hollywood was quick to see its potential with three different films: The Last Man on Earth 1964, The Omega Man 1971 and I Am Legend 2007. While all three were faithful to the original story, each one deviated from the novel in its own special way to create a unique take on the Last Man scenario. In the novel, as well as the screenplays, I wondered why the central character did not just pack up and leave the city, seek out an isolated place in whatever wilderness there was and find some measure of peace. Neville himself had no answer for that question, but maybe you will. I first read this in my early teens, so reading it now is like revisiting an old friend, but I wonder how modern readers will take to it. In this day of high-action entertainment like The Walking Dead some readers might get impatient with I Am Legends low-key approach but, I think, if they give it a fair chance they may find it to be an important look at the human phyche and what happens when things go terribly wrong. I had no technical or formatting problems with this Kindle edition. Last Ranger