I Am Legend

This is SO different from the movie but I loved them both, because of their differences and despite them the same. Do yourself a favor and read this short masterpiece, then do the author one and review!!

I have a passion for punishing myself by reading the books that inspired movies. The movies sometimes augment the books, assuming that the details you need youve already read from the print versions. Harry Potter was very much this experience. In some cases, Ive enjoyed the books much more than the movie adaptations...Jurassic Park was one such movie. As beautiful as the film was, the book was leaps and bounds better. With this book, its been a few years since Ive watched the movie. I remember feeling bad about the dog... the loss of Nevilles family, the search for a cure... the mindless zombie like creatures. In many ways, the movie adaptation and this source material are two fine stories that share common threads but diverge enough that they really shouldnt be compared. And thats how I had to approach this book. It took me about three chapters of saying, Wow, thats really different from the movie, before I had to have a mental come to Jesus with myself and say DONT COMPARE THE TWO VERSIONS. Once I did that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was able to delve into the dark places and moral/ethical questions that came along with creatures overrunning the human race. Neville is flawed. Hes tortured. Hes a survivor. In essence, hes HUMAN. Its easy to empathize with his confusion, melancholy, anger and despair - even when some of those acts are unspeakable. Nevilles journey is really that of watching the Kübler-Ross model, or the five stages of grief, play out its course (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). And I never understood the significance of the title of the movie, the book brought the point home with alacrity and wonder. Totally unexpected, but a really great read.

Not a book that was hard to put down, after the first few chapters I simply read it because I bought it. This is a story that could have been so well done, yet its a hodge-podge of events all scrambled together, and not in a clever way. How many times did I have to read that the man was upset, throwing drinking glasses and digging his nails into his palms? Two thirds of the book deal with the mans emotions, which I simply dont care to read about, and the ending sucks.

is a classic horror story. Some regard it as THE classic horror story. Influencing great modern horror writers like Stephen King, its one that will stick with you. I still remember the exact moment I started and finished this book nearly 10 years ago. I was sitting shotgun while my father drove us home from a vacation in Michigan. The AC was too high and I was freezing but couldnt bare to pull my eyes away from this story long enough to ask him to turn it down. I was delighted that I could find a Non-Will Smith cover for this book. As many people know, this story has been adapted into 3 or 4 movies over the years. Word of warning, this is different from the Will Smith movie. If the movie was a standalone with a different name, I would have liked it more. As an adaptation of the book, the movie is seriously lacking. Differences like the fact that the vampires can talk make this story more compelling as the last man on earth isnt alone. This is one of my favorite books of all time. Pros: If youve seen the movie, you can still read the book and be very enthralled. Different enough where you wont know the twists. Great writing. This book made me want to become an author when I was little. Cant say too much more as I dont want to give anything away. Cons: Be careful to purchase the correct copy if youre avoiding the Will Smith movie cover print. The sticker on the back of mine was sticky enough that now, once removed, my book sticks to everything. Thats my biggest complaint people. Back of the book is a little sticky. Seriously. Buy this!

It is a quick read at only 100 pages, and reminded me a lot of Michael Crichtons The Andromeda Strain. However if you like any form of neatly tied up answers and conclusion you will be somewhat disappointed with the ending. It left me dissatisfied in the way the vague ambiguous endings of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits do.

Reviewing a classic is rather strange for me. Its like reviewing Oliver Twist, when almost everyone knows what its about, due to movies, TV show references, and most recently in commercials urging kids to use manners. When people think of I Am Legend , they usually dont know its a book, and just know its a post apocalyptic movie where most of the population has been mutated into vampires, and Will Smith is the last man standing, blah, blah, blah. The movie was great, I admit it. But that was before I read the book. And like every other movie supposedly based on I Am Legend, like The Last Man On Earth and the very horrendous The Omega Man, the movies seem to exclude many of the main points that make the novel so great. I hope they actually make an accurate movie based on the book someday. Richard Matheson deserves a better movie adaption. Ok, now enough about the movie and on to the book. The book is set in the late 1970s. The world was decimated by a horrible virus, that turns men and animals into vampires. Robert Neville, the last man, as far as he knows, is fighting to survive. The book deals mainly with Roberts internal struggle with insanity, which Matheson handles beautifully. I dont want to spoil the main points, so I urge you to read the book. :) Overall, I give the book 5 out of 5 stars! Available in most eBook formats and in print.

This is one of those rare cases where I saw a movie before I read the book it was based on. I enjoyed the film with Will Smith, but it was totally different than the book. To me, the film was more about the triumph of the human spirit; one man fighting for humanity. The book is more of a philosophical examination of what it means to be normal - part of the majority. Matheson chose vampirism to be his plague, but really, he could have chosen anything. The question becomes, is a person still normal when the rest of the world is different, is it right to keep fighting against change? Robert Neville is perhaps the last man on earth. He has barricaded himself in his house, and each night it is surrounded by vampires waiting for their prey to emerge. He wrestles with not only survival, but his very sanity. He needs a purpose to keep going, and finds it in a search for answers. Vampires were legends - but perhaps they were real all along. What causes vampirism? Is it just a bacteria? If so, how does he explain their fear of religious artifacts? The novel is written almost like a journal of Neville - only in third person. There is a lot of descriptions of what he does day to day, what he is thinking (or trying not to think about). Gradually, pieces of the past are put together for the reader to see how he came to be alone for 3 years. In the novel, there are 2 types of vampires - those infected but still alive, and the undead. The difference between them is crucial to the resolution of the story - though not necessarily in the way a reader may expect (or the way the movie ended). In the movie, the vampires are ravening, seemingly mindless creatures that the audience can easily side with Neville against. In the novel, they are intelligent and see Neville as a threat to their existence. Who has the right to survive? I think what made the novel most worth reading was finding out just what the title meant. The movie never explains it - the book makes it pivotal. Overall, the book is very slow (much like the movie) but makes a reader think more about what is happening than simply watching one man try to survive. And I highly recommend it - if only to know the ending that really needed to occur. Given that I Am Legend is a short novel, this edition is very nice for the inclusion of several other Matheson short stories. Even though Will Smith doesnt look like Neville as described in the book, Im still happy to see him on the cover!

I Am legend is a classic science fiction/horror novel written in 1954 by Richard Matheson. It is a story written in a post-apocalyptic setting. The hero is what appears to be a lone survivor of the disaster and is having to deal with the results thereof. I have read that this book has served as inspiration to many of the zombie books and movies from just after it was written through the modern era. While Im sure that many will have seen the Will Smith movie version of this book, please do not expect the book to be precisely like the movie. I was torn as how to rate this book. From a classical perspective I would rate it a five, but when I compare it books that I have really enjoyed from the modern era I would rate it a three. Neither is fair so I have compromised and given it a four. It is a definite read if you are into reading the classics. I would highly recommend to anyone who is into the science fiction/horror genres. I was always puzzled by the title of this book. However, on the last page it becomes crystal clear. Happy reading to all!

Its a great read

Wow, what a story, complete with an unexpected twist in the end.. I haven’t seen Will Smith’s movie of the same name, but it sounds like a typical Hollywood treatment of a story that already has two other movies based on it. To expect the MC of the book to behave like a heroic character in a 2007 movie does the book an incredible disservice. The MC has faced horrors enough to result in a major traumatic stress syndrome. To face the distinct possibility of being the last person on earth not affected by a bacteria which has turned everyone else into vampires- both the dead and a not quite living. These are not glamorous “Twilight” vampires, but more like the creatures from Bram Stokers novel, with similar powers and weaknesses. One or two are people Robert Neville, the main character, knew before they were infected. Now every night they gather outside his barricaded house and try to entice him outside. Initially, Robert drinks himself into oblivion every night. As the book progresses the things has gone through are revealed- I’ll try to avoid spoilers here, but the MC’s actions are understandable. He also is trying to figure out how the plague spread. Not a trained scientist, he makes use of daylight hours when the vampires are hiding from the sunlight to take books from the library and try to understand. He also actively seeks out the vampires who are weak and lethargic in the daytime and kills them, initially with wooden stakes which were mentioned in Brampton Stoker’s Dracula. The MC has an electric generator to power his home and especially keep food from spoiling. He also has a car which he keeps maintained so he can drive to half destroyed supermarkets for food, as well as ammunition. The vampires cannot be killed by bullets, but it slows them down when the MC is in a tight spot. I had to take a break from reading about halfway as the story is really intense. If you approach the novel as the original, written half a century before the movie of the same name, before Anne Rice’s novels and tough movie heroes who can handle almost anything, the MC becomes more understandable, having gone through the collapse of civilized society.