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.

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

This book suffers from what I like to call Fake Science-itus. The Martian had a similar issue, where the book would spend pages go on and on and on about how their sci-fi science & chemistry works. Bruh, I dont need a lecture on how your fake science works, youre putting me to sleep here.

So the biggest thing to know before you buy is that only the first half of the book is I Am Legend. The other half is a collection of short stories. Just keep that in mind because it’s not really promoted correctly. That being said, I Am Legend is a harrowing tale of survival and the fragility of the human psyche when met with absolute isolation. I highly recommend for fans of horror and sci-fi alike. The writing also felt surprisingly modern for having been written in the 50’s.

I Am Legend. After reading the book, now I see why people got so annoyed at the movie. They are COMPLETELY different. Though, Im not one to get too upset by such things myself, I do get why other people might have been upset by the liberties the movie took. Anyways, that being said, I liked this book. I didnt think I was going to at first though. In my opinion, this book took a very long time to get moving with any substantial plot or action. I appreciate that they wanted to set the tone and the mood of the world for the reader, but if I remember correctly, its like 9 chapters into the book before the word Vampire is even mentioned. I almost gave up several times. The only reason I stuck with it was that for years Id heard how good the book was from various people. Luckily, once the book gets rolling its quite entertaining, and pretty much maintains that pace throughout. With the exception of a few out dated (and potentially offensive, if you are sensitive) references to African Americans, this book reads well for a novel written over 30 years ago. Lots of action and lots of interesting characters. Certainly ended up being worth the read.

There is something must say before I say anything else about this book. Unfortunately I have been jaded by the fact that I bought and watched the DVD long before picking up this book. The story I am legend in and of itself is neither spectacular nor a failure. Regrettably, the story is unexceptional. Having seen the movie first, I was surprised to find that the story line from the book is nearly entirely different from the movie viewing experiences. This cant be blamed on Mr. Matheson though. The production company and writers had their share in that scandal. Had I read the book first, and seen the movie later, Perhaps Id have enjoyed the book considerably more. As noted by others. The story I am legend is particularly short (Being only about sixty percent of the book), the rest being a compilation of short stories. These range from brilliant to downright foolish to just plain strange. All in all, I dont particularly feel that the short stories added any reading value to the book for no reason more than the fact that so many of them fail to deliver any sort of sensible plot. Overall, as Ive stated earlier. I must rate the book no better than average. One piece of advice to those of you who may be reading this, if you are interested in this book, and have not seen the movie. I highly recommend reading this BEFORE seeing the movie.

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.

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...

*SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING* Wow, just wow. I dont know what else to say. Its an incredible book, dealing with a very dark but thought provoking subject. Ive always hated book like these, the whole post apocalyptic zombie land always seemed so childish and cliche to me, but I genuinely enjoyed this. The entire story just makes you think over and over, what would I do if I were him? Bare with me those readers that are like me that absolutely hate it when people (*cough cough* English teachers and librarians *cough*) say stuff like that but for once its actually true. The author makes Neville seem so real and so painfully human that its almost impossible not to relate him to yourself. That being said I did have a few problems with the book. For one thing the beginning was kind of a drag but it got better as it went on. For another, two words: The. Dog. That scene was the worst and was only put in to further inflict pain onto its readers. If I had been forced to read this in school I would have hated it but since I read it of my own volition, it actually was really interesting and I really liked the ending.

I picked this book up in 2022. It sat on my tbr till 2023. This is one of the greatest story tellings Ive ever read in my life