I Am Legend

This is a fantastic novella from a brilliant writer. It was way ahead of its time and Matheson inspired so many giants in the horror field, including Stephen King. This book in particular is one of the main contributing forces that gave rise to the zombie genre. I wouldnt say this is a literary masterpiece so much as an amazing story that is solidly written. The premise is dazzling and it kept me turning the pages. I will refrain from giving it the fifth star because some of Nevilles thinking got a touch repetitive for me and I was actually a little confused about what constituted a (WARNING, mild spoiler) vampire or another kind of undead type of vampire being that isnt quite a vampire. I honestly cant spoil it too bad because I dont clearly understand that part. One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was that I have seen two film versions of I Am Legend and this still felt original. I think its because the main character is a truly human character. We get a front row seat to those flaws in the book and we get to do it as he battles vampires from a last man on earth perspective. It was a fun read. I will try more of Mathesons written work. (He also wrote many screenplays.)

I was apprehensive about getting this book because of all the good reviews surrounding it. I am somewhat skeptical of what everyone else thinks is good because I like to form my own opinions. Its not that I go out looking for things with bad reviews, (because most of the time, theyre right *grin*) just that I dont like to be overly influenced by other people. However in this case I can assure you, the hype is all that. All the stories in this collection are worth your while. Some are funny, some gross, all intriguing. I am Legend is the stand alone best though. It reminded me of The Omega Man, a movie with Charleton Heston, or perhaps it should be other way around. . .I am not sure about the dates. The one true man against a world of monsters. It is fantastic, people at work kept giving me strange looks because of how obivously into the book I was. I read it very fast, then again, it goes fast once you get past I am Legend, which takes up most of the book. The book is set up with I am Legend which is like 126 pages or so, and the others are kind of tag alongs, they dont deal with the first story at all, in fact none of the stories are related in any way, but as I said before, each have their own flavor and I loved each one and began to respect Mr. Matheson more and more as I went on. Check it out, if youre into horror, you dont know what youre missing. Five worthy stars!

The book and the movie share only a few details in common. The most obvious shared attribute is the title. The differences are almost staggering; Los Angeles/New York, Caucasian male/African-American male, blue collar/white collar, etc. The story is roughly 160 pages long, although there are ten short stories that follow: Buried Talents, The Near Departed, Prey, Witch War, Dance of the Dead, Dress of White Silk, Mad House, The Funeral, From Shadowed Places, and Person to Person. If you are purchasing the book because you like the movie you may feel cheated that the movie is merely based on the book, rather than a direct cinematic interpretation. The book is a great (and a quick) read, told by the perspective of Robert Neville, a man feared to be the sole survivor of the human race. The beginning, however, seems to be drawn out and the word choice is less than sophisticated. Thankfully, as the story progresses so does the word choice. If you love stories based on the appeal of the last man, or on the decline of society, then this book would be to your liking. Matheson also takes a new spin on vampire lore, which was one of the reasons this book appealed to me (the other being that it was a required text for a class). Although better vampires stories exist, this book is worth the read for any vampire enthusiast and highly recommended.

Though this novel is certainly quite well known, particularly amongst horror fans, its not quite as famous as Id imagine it would be, or as it ought to be, for that matter. Its pretty damn influential, particularly in films as it was a primary inspiration for Night of the Living Dead. (And, it was adapted for film twice, first as The Last Man on Earth, then as The Omega Man (which it resembles in only the vaguest manner.) But adaptations are quite entertaining I think, if far from truly satisfactory.) Anyway, this is definitely one of my favorite novels, horror or otherwise. (Well, Id probably call it a novella, but whatever) Some negative reviews have complained about this novel from a stylistic of scientific standpoint, and while they may have a point, I think theyre kinda missing the boat. Yeah, the whole scientific explanation for how vampires could exist doesnt work, but Ive never heard of anyone saying they like this story because of the science. This aint hard science fiction. In fact, it only loosely qualifies as sci-fi, as it is more sorta, apocalyptic horror. (It is about *vampires*, for gods sake.) The only thing that bothered me much about the scientific aspect of this novel is that is comes as a sorta revelation to Neville that they could essentially be vampires, but that the condition was caused by disease. Well, duh. At its heart, I Am Legend is about isolation, and the key to whether or not you enjoy this novel comes from whether or not you can truly sympathize with Neville. (This is also true of Mathesons inferior but still enjoyable novel, The Shrinking Man, which contains even more improbable science.) Personally, I find Neville to be just about the most tragic character Ive ever encountered in media of any sort. It may not seem too tough to make Neville sympathetic, as hes in an unimaginably bad situation,(everyones dead but him, there are vampires, etc.) but Matheson makes the most of it, showing us his unspeakable loneliness, along with the crushing boredom and the dehumanizing brutality necessary to his new life. And his eventual transformation into something which is not quite a monster, but which is also definitely less than human is both convincing and shattering. And what can I say, I actually think this is a fairly cleverly written book, at least at times. Matheson is good at using sudden deflation and anticlimax, in terms of his prose. For example, I like how he writes about Nevilles using all his stakes in his daily extermination, ending the section saying something like: `He had 37 stakes. Thats just an effective way of instantly juxtaposing the gruesome absurdity of his situation, along with the casual, repetitious way he goes about his business. Also (spoiler alert), the way he ends the long section describing his attempt to help a dog writing simply, `The dog was dead in a week. (Or something like that.) Anyway, Im done. I like this a lot. (The edition Ive read doesnt come with the short stories after this, so I cant comment on them, naturally.)

this book is good but nowhere but the table of contents (which i didnt see until after) lists that this book is an anthology. i thought i was only half way done I am Legend when it suddenly ended. kind of a disappointment, although the other stories are pretty good as well

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 Roberts 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 Ive 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.

Writer Richard Matheson is a legend himself. This tantalizing tale about the last man alive on Earth and his efforts to destroy a plague of vampires runs out of momentum about halfway through this superbly written novel. Chapter Five is sensational, but afterward the novel bogs down in our protagonist’s deconstruction of venerable vampire myths. The cross is not a sure fire way to kill a vampire. The hero Robert Neville has lost not only his wife but also his daughter to an apocalyptic disease that wipes out mankind, and the survivors are vampires that besiege his house. Neville has converted his home into a veritable fortress to keep out these fanged intruders. One of closest friends—Ben Courtland—keeps haranguing him to come so a legion of vampires can finish him off. Desperate but determined, our lonesome protagonist struggles to figure out a way to kill these predators. Meantime, he goes to pieces slowly. At one point, Neville tried to rescue the last dog alive, but he cannot help it. Later, he chases down a girl, but there is something about her to augers I’ll for him. In the end, Robert Neville reminds us just as Hemingway did in his own vintage novel “To Have and Have Not” that a man alone cannot make it. Any time that a hero dies in a work of literature, it leaves a bitter taste in the readers mouth. Nevertheless, Matheson’s prose is first rate. His descriptions and dialogue are both memorable.

Ok, I actually liked all of the movies (

As other reviewers have mentioned, the Kindle edition is missing some of the text from the book. This was obvious in the middle of Chapter 8 and it might explain some of the other issues I had with the story. One of these was that Richard Matheson stated there was more than one type of vampire early on in the story but I found it hard to understand from Nevilles point of view what the differences between them were. The story also jumps around a little and, while Ive seen this in other stories, I found it harder than usual to recognize when this was happening. This might have been the result of missing text. Having said all this, I recommend the novel which clarifies the title in a way that the Will Smith movie did not. The story could also be taken as a metaphor for the process that various groups, comfortable with having the majority, have faced when societal change leaves them in the minority. The book is not a difficult read although in a couple places, Matheson gets a little heavy-handed with his scientific knowledge or research. I read it in about a day.

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.