I Am Legend

I absolutely enjoyed reading this, its a shame that the movies, I Am Legend, The Omega Man, and The Last Man On Earth didnt follow this book more closely. Without giving the story away, the detail given to the depth of character, human psyche, was amazing, considering when this was written, Im mildly shocked at how Not Campy the story is. Definitely an excellent read. If youve seen any of the movies I mentioned, this is a must read, as usual Hollywood absolutely did not do the story justice.

Just what I wanted and received BEFORE the stated delivery time frame. I knew I was ordering the hardcover version of the book, but I was surprised to see its size. Its a little larger than a paperback. Fits in my hands perfectly. I was kind of leery about the font sizes as I was sure shrinking it down would make it difficult to read (getting up in years, so my eyesight isnt so good). But again, I was pleasantly surprised to see that wasnt the case. Excellent readability. The stories contained within: I Am Legend Buried Talents The Near Departed Prey Witch War Dance of the Dead Dress of White Silk Mad House The Funeral From Shadowed Places Person to Person

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.

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...

Richard Mathesons I Am Legend is a short story about a man named Robert Neville, the last living human on the planet. To complicate things, due to a bacteria there are now vampires running amok who know where he lives. By day he hunts the vampires and kills them while they sleep, by night he inebriates himself and holes up in his house. He finds a dog, and another survivor, but both feed the fire of despair, loneliness and inebriation. And by day the legend grows. Matheson weaves a compelling and frightening tale, and the emotions of Robert Neville are felt by the reader. The ending offers a wonderful twist, and the original story is far better than the recent Will Smith film of the same name. I Am Legend is such an influential story that it almost single-handedly invented the vampire/zombie apocalypse genre that is so prevalent in modern cinema. This specific omnibus also features ten other short stories. A reader unfamiliar with Matheson may pass over them, or read them expecting very little compared to the titular story, but reading them will quickly change the readers mind. Several of the short stories are wonderfully frightening, and they all offer a horrific twist at the end. Highlights include Prey, Madhouse, and Person to Person, although each story is well written and highly entertaining.

Ok, I actually liked all of the movies (

I Am Legend is an amazing story describing a plague that turns the entire world into Vampires, with the exception of one man, who spends the rest of his life simply existing and fighting to maintain his life by killing vampires. It is a very interesting story and I was intrigued by the day to day events the protagonist goes through and the effect the plague has on his sanity. The storytelling is not chronological and jumps right into things, with the protagonist recalling how the plague started and events that happened before it became full blown. The story is amazing and I was very intrigued at how Mattheson can make simple day to day chores interesting. Its an amazing concept and doesnt seem dated at all, even though the story was written over 50 years ago (it takes place in the future of 1970). My main problem with this book was that it ended halfway through. Apparently its a collection of short stories, and I Am Legend only takes up about 170 pages. I read about half of the other stories and they are okay, but nothing too good and I lost interest quickly. Some are a few pages and some are several chapters. I got bored with them quickly and theyre pretty much your typical science fiction from the 50s, although some were written later. I do think the I Am Legend story alone is worth the price of the book.

Not at all what I expected, being familiar with so many adaptations of it. Im glad I finally read the original.

“I Am Legend” is actually one of those extremely rare examples where the movie was a vast improvement from the book. In the movie, the protagonist is someone who is courageous, resilient, possessing great integrity, and generally someone you want to root for; in contrast, the book’s main hero is a hysterical drunkard who seems to be more concerned with his lack of sex life and not the fact that the world has come to a virtual end. Weird priorities if you ask me, concerning yourself with your urges and not your own survival. Quite a few times he actually ponders sticking it into a female vampire, technically a living corpse. Yes, it gets that gross. When he finally encounters a living female, his first response is not an empathic “poor thing, she has just lost her husband and children, I shall help her as much as I can,” but “she’s skinnier than I prefer them but I’d still do her… hopefully she’s not infected… I wonder why she’s so afraid of me though?” Yeah, I wonder too, you absolute brainless caveman. You have literally just chased her through the field when she clearly didn’t want to be anywhere near you; you slapped her and physically dragged her into your house and locked her in your bedroom. The insolence, not acknowledging you as her knight in shining armor indeed *heavy sarcasm here*. At this point, I was actually glad at how the book ended because the literary Robert Neville indeed would better off being dead than the movie one. The movie one I mourned; this one’s death I actually cheered. So yeah, if you watched the movie, don’t bother with the book. You’ll most likely end up being disappointed.

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.