I Am Legend

You cant be a horror fan and not know this book. Id seen all three movie adaptations and wanted to visit the source material. The closest adaptation was the Vincent Price. The other two are barely related to the original story. Im a fan of Mathesons work and found out he had an unproduced script for the book that Hammer Films was supposed to make, but didnt. Well, I had to read it. Before I did I wanted to read the book. I Am Legend received some award as the Best Vampire Novel of the 20th Century. I would have easily given it to Interview With a Vampire. I Am Legend has influenced zombie movies way more than the vampire subgenre. Nonetheless, it is the definitive last man on Earth novel. It is far more about loneliness than vampires. Theres only a couple of scary segments but there are many that reveal despair from solitude. A few things rubbed me the wrong way. Nevilles constant attraction to the dead female vampires was weird. They want to eat you horn dog. Give it a rest. Also, there is a rather bloated chapter with a dog that could have done the same job by being a running thread throughout the novel. Ill leave my gripes there. No spoilers. Worth the read but always keep in mind, it was the pioneer of two subgenres and written in the late 50s.

This book moves about as fast as any 300+ page book Ive ever read. Thats the good part. It jumps right into the story with Neville isolated in a last-man-on-earth setting, able only to go outside during the day as factions of living and dead vampires prowl the night. There really are hardly any dull parts. Theres one short chapter just of his thoughts that doesnt do much, but thats about the only slow part. And the book introduces a good amount of mystery as Neville tries to sort through the false parts of vampire legend versus the bacterial infection in the blood causing his current plight. There is a bit of stereotypically false religion is just superstitious theme in the book, whereas science is generally the only place he can turn for answers. Theres a poke at the European Catholic Church for spreading the rumor that a cross can deter vampires when in the reality of the I Am Legend universe, only Christians who were turned into vampires are affected by crosses because of remaining psychological factors. Neville does pray in a moment of desperation in the story, but the incident is fairly isolated and is not a point of focus. The biggest problem with the whole theme of Neville seeking to find a rational, medical explanation for everything is that the author throws in an unexplained deus ex machina ending that changes the story such that he can proceed with his ironic ending that otherwise wouldnt work. But it seemed so forced, so contrived, and it leaves the reader unsatisfied with regard to the characters goal and one of the themes of the book, that the clues presented throughout the book actually pointed to some explanation.

I over the movie and wanted to read a different perspective. I wanted to know the authors original concept. This book was interesting, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi

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.

Ive seen the movie version of I Am Legend at least twice, probably three times. And up until maybe a year ago, I didnt realise that it was actually a book, and a sci-fi classic to boot. Which also made me think - how many movies are based on, or inspired by a book we dont even know about? Im also not a fan of reading a book after seeing the movie - I always find movie versions are either a) completely different or b) a big fat let-down, so I was a little wary when I started reading. I really thought I wouldnt be able to get Will Smiths face out of my mind..... However, right from the beginning I realised that the book version of I Am Legend is different in several ways to the movie, and not once did I imagine Neville as Will Smith. The book is more personal and intimate than the movie, and the hopelessness and isolation Neville experiences comes through strongly. There is less action and less vampire spookiness, but their presence was always in the back of my mind the whole way through. Im really glad I put my habits aside and decided to read I Am Legend - and I will definitely be recommending it to anyone that interested in reading a sci-fi classic. Theres not a lot I can say that hasnt been said a thousand times and a hundred different ways before, but I found I Am Legend to be far more character-focused and emotionally intense than I imagined it would be.

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.

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.

This is one of those classic books Ive been meaning to get around to. When it was finally on sale for less than a buck on the Kindle, I decided to take the plunge and I was not disappointed. Ive only read one of Mathesons other books (his latest one at the time of this review) but Im a big fan of his work on the original Twilight Zone and I Am Legend certainly has much of the same vibe as many TZ episodes. Many Twilight Zone episodes (including the pilot) dealt with a lone or small group of survivors after the apocalypse. Only in this case instead of nuclear war its a plague that gradually turns everyone into vampires. Its important to note that in many ways Mathesons vampires are more akin to the zombies of Night of the Living Dead and such than the vampires in Dracula or especially Twilight. These vampires cannot go out in the light and they drink blood, but they arent super strong or super fast and they cant change into other shapes. The way they shamble around, seemingly unable to even open a door, definitely makes them closer to zombies than vampires. Robert Neville is seemingly the last man on Earth, or at least the last man in his neck of the woods in California. After about five months hes built his old house into an impenetrable fortress thats stocked with food and has a generator for electricity. He even has a hothouse to grow garlic that helps keep the vampires at bay. Every night the vampires gather around his house, hoping hell come out. One of his former neighbors yells at him constantly to come out while the undead women strike lurid poses in the hope of coaxing Neville from his fortress. Most of the story then deals with Nevilles survival. In particular in how he has to deal with the crushing loneliness and isolation of being the only real human left. To help combat that, Neville begins trying to understand the disease that wiped out humanity and possibly to find a cure for it. Along the way we learn a little more about Nevilles life before the plague, in particular what happened with his wife and daughter. Though still by the end the details are a little skimpy, especially where the daughter is concerned. One bit of confusion for me was that it took a while for Matheson to really establish whether Kathy was the wife or daughter and the same for Virginia. Still, I found this a riveting, suspenseful read. Modern readers who yearn for buckets of blood and gore arent going to find that so much in here, but it is a fascinating tale of survival in the face of great horror and adversity. Another note is that if you saw the Will Smith film from a few years ago you should disregard that as except for the title and basic premise they dont have much in common. That is all.

Im usually not one of those people that reads the book AFTER seeing the movie, but this was the case for this particular story. I seen the Will Smith version and was somewhat confused as not much was explained correctly. It was all too extreme with the way the movie portrays it. The book (or rather short story) is really a fascinating dive into the brain of the last survivor of a vampiric plague. It really makes you feel like that last person siting there, while reading in bed imagining Vampires bouncing bricks off your house. The different moods the main character goes through in his daily routine. Only thing I didnt like was the ending, but not for the reason that it ends, but that because after I flipped to the main page and continued reading 5-6 more pages before I realized I was reading ANOTHER short story. This cover makes no mention of short storys it just finishes the I am legend one and continues into another, and another, and another. So it left me confused if THAT was it? that was the ending? But then I got pissed off because I kept reading and was confused by other short stories. I cant say I really enjoyed the other ones tho, I bought this book for I am Legend.

wowowo i finally got some money and after watching pewdiepies review of the book i am pleasantly surprised how much i loved following nevilles story. Like i seriously wished the story went on longer. Im not going to lie though, i was a little confused at the end, but i think I understand it-_-. Anyway i really do recommend I Am Legend. The main story is so much fun and some of the mini stories after were enjoyable too.