I Am Legend

So this is about the 10th last man on earth (its always a man isnt it, funny) novel that I have read, and I would have to say this is one of the best one so far. I went into this novel having seen the Will Smith movie, and not liking it so much. I think the deal is this: If you like the movie, you wont like the book, and vice versa. I wondered how I would like a novel where the human race has be destroyed by vampires, rather than zombies, nuclear war, or plague, but I would have to say, I think that for the context of this novel, it matters not at all how the human race was extinguished, it just was, and was replaced with vampire-like beings. The book reminded me a lot of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, in that the main focus of the novel is this how this last man deals with being alone on earth with little or no companionship. The book is a touch dated because it was written in the 60s, the vampires are a bit cliched and his views on women and sex are almost funny at times (for example, the female vampires try to lure him out of his house by being naked, and he sits inside and pounds his fist to the walls and drinks and cant look outside for fear of being lured out of the house for cheap sex). What I really liked about this novel, and why I gave it 5 instead of 4 stars, is it deals with so much, in so little space, its not a long novel, but it has a lot of depth, and its very accessible. The main character is your typical every day normal guy (I dont think it even said what he did before, other than he worked at a plant, I assume nuclear power plant? So he is Homer Simpson then?). Im sure you could sit down and pick this novel apart for its cliches and silly vampireisms, but in the end, you turn quickly from page to page, desperately wanting something to go right for this guy, and of course, you know it cant. He is the last human alive, surrounded by vampires, alone. Simply put. He is 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!!

For being such a short novel (in length), I Am Legend is really full of interesting ideas and the superstitions regarding vampires. The novel was a good read and is Recommended Reading material for not only vampire novel-reading fans but to anyone who wishes to fulfill their reading of the late and great Richard Matheson.

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.

Ive had I Am Legend on my list of books to read ever since I read an interview with Stephen King a couple of decades ago where he cited it as one of his favorite books ever. When I saw that the trailer for the soon to be released movie I knew that if I saw the movie first then Id never read the book. I ordered the copy from Amazon that had the coolest cover and read it when it arrived on Wednesday. First off, Ill be surprised if the newest movielization of this is any closer to the written story than The Last Man on Earth or Omega Man. The story is very well-played...but I was completely bamboozled by Amazon when I Am Legend came to an end halfway through the book, and I realized that the other half of the book was a collection of short-stories. I thought I had quite a bit of story left until I realized that the next chapter I had just begun was a completely different story. I looked the book over, and the only indication that the whole book wasnt I Am Legend was a small phrase on the back just above the bar-code...The complete novel, plus several more unforgettable tales. I cant really complain...more stories!...but I thought that it could have been a bit more apparent say...on the cover...or the spine...that Id bought half a book of filler.

I was surprised and enjoyed that the book was so different from the movie. It was an interesting story, this masculine post apocalyptic story, filled with great scares and really compelling main character. I liked the vibe of the main character, very no nonsense drinks and smokes, a very kind of badass guy.

Im going to admit that I bought this book because I enjoyed the movie more then I had expected so my review is automatically skewered. I went into this read with expectations that make my opinion unfair to the writer. There were a few things that surprised me right off the bat: This is a book of short stories though the longest story in the book is I Am Legend. The story in the book is absolutely nothing like the movie. Honestly, I dont know how on earth they pulled the movie script out of this short story they are truly NOTHING a like. In fact, this goes way beyond the cliche point of, the book was better or when you hear people complaining that the movie wasnt enough like the book, no, in this situation the literal only thing the movie and this short story had in common was the title and the fact that the world is overrun in an apocalypse setting. After that, the story-line of the movie and the story-line of this short story are so completely different in every way I dont know how anyone could even say that the movie was based on this. With that said, I was automatically disappointed because when I saw the movie I was excited to read the book because I thought the story line of the movie would have really lent itself to a good read. The story as it is is like all of the stories in the book - dark, depressing and hopeless. This is not the kind of book you read for a feel good feeling at the end of any story in it. Though I Am Legend (as a story) was written in an interesting narrative that passed time quickly it ended with a stale quality that I found was a theme with all of the short stories in this book. I would be surprised if anyone who read this didnt know exactly what was going to happen at the end of every one of these short stories. Which was probably the biggest disappointment for me, I may have had unfair expectations of I Am Legend as a story because of the movie but I had no expectations of the rest of the stories in the book. Sadly I found this entire read rather stale and just disappointing.

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.

When the modern film adaptation I Am Legend came out in 2007, many people were annoyed or angered by the movie. I heard things like, its nothing like the book, the ending sucks and it misses the point. Now I know why. Let me just tell you, the movie does miss the point, particularly with the theatrical ending. That version of the film misses the point like the missing the broad side of a barn with a tactical nuke at point-blank range. Thats not to say I dislike the movie. I thought that, with the alternate ending, it was pretty good. I still think that. However, reading the original story has changed my feelings about it a bit, namely that I like certain things about it less than the novel. Now, I dont remember if the credits say based on I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, but if they do, I believe they definitely commit the crime of false advertising. The most it should say is inspired by... The only similarities I can think of between the book and what I remember of the movie are: The main character is named Robert Neville There is a plague of vampires that led to the collapse of civilization The main character is a human man, ostensibly the last on earth, who is immune to the disease The main character lost his wife and child after/during the outbreak of the disease There is a dog There is a woman There is science But enough about the film! Overall, I enjoyed the novel. I was not initially aware that the novel I purchased contained I Am Legend in addition to several short stories, because it was not clearly advertised on my edition. Thus, I was surprised that the story was as short as it was. I only read I Am Legend from the bunch, because that is the reason I purchased it. I feel like Matheson could have made the book longer, and fleshed out the world, the situations, and Nevilles past quite a bit more. One thing about the story that I wasnt a huge fan of was how little actually happened in the book. A big portion of the narrative was devoted to the more mundane events and inner monologues in the post-apocalyptic life of Robert Neville. On the other hand, much of the narrative dealing with Nevilles inner thoughts helped vastly with the world-building. Through Nevilles erratic, desperate, hopeless thoughts, the reader developed a taste for what it felt like to be the last man on earth, living a daily battle for existence in the midst of a plague of vampires, having lost everyone and everything you once loved. However, that brings me to my next point -- Neville was surprisingly unfeeling. I dont know if the reader was supposed to chock that up to him being a man who doesnt want to display feelings, his being a man that has given up hope, or what. He faced situations with very little sympathy, or even horror, and seemed largely apathetic about what was happening to him and what he was doing. Throughout several places in the story, I got the idea that Matheson has issues with women. I know that authors dont always write their thoughts into their characters, but it didnt seem like Neville was supposed to be especially misogynistic, because the author wrote it strictly as if his thoughts were fact and entirely acceptable. There were some things I really liked about I Am Legend. First off, it is number one on my list for most scientific books about vampires I have ever read. As a biology major and pharmacy student, I found it incredibly interesting to read about Nevilles discoveries and experiments as he uncovered the origin of the disease. That Matheson invented a somewhat scientifically sound background for the existence of vampires, debunking some elements of mythology and supporting others was original and pleasing to me. The thing I liked most about the novel (especially compared to the movie) was the ending. The events of the ending portion of I Am Legend really came out of left field for me. I wasnt expecting what happened, at all. It is very much the most important part of the novel. It leaves us with a message, questioning what we have known and what we believe. I thought it was poignant and powerful, and it certainly left me thinking. It is an unimportant detail, but I also enjoyed that the last line of the novel was I am legend. I love when books really come full circle, and when they have their title worked into them somehow. Matheson managed to do both, and it brought a smile to my face.

If, like me, you became interested in the book based on the popularization of the movie, prepare yourself for something altogether different. While the title and character name remains the same, the similarities stop there. That said, the book is an enthralling and suspenseful work lending as much to the psychology of isolation as to myth and mayhem. I enjoyed the work immensely and only regret it’s brief nature and lack of expansion.