I Am Legend
by Richard Matheson

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Book Reviews of I Am Legend

Book Review: "I Am Legend" is great, but skip the other short stories
Summary: 4 Stars

That said, the title piece is writing of the highest caliber. "I Am Legend" is the story of the only man who has survived a plague that has turned the remaining population into vampires. Admittedly, that sounds rather uninspired, but what gives the plot its heft is that Matheson approaches vampires from a scientific viewpoint. As the main character struggles to survive, he cuts through the legend surrounding vampires and comes up with a scientific explanation for them.
At the same time, he is forced to struggle with his own loneliness and the encroaching madness that it inspires. He is not altogether sympathetic, but through him Matheson explores the crushing hopelessness that those who are alone feel. Rather than trying to make a sympathetic vampire, he turns his main character, a normal human, into the freak, the outcast, and explores how reacts.

In addition to the interesting psychological elements, there are some intriguing Cold War overtones within the novel. Matheson's vampires seem to have elements from Soviet Russia: they are brutal and coarse, but not necessarily evil, just different. Matheson seems to be arguing that the root of the Cold War (the brutality of the Soviet system acknowledged and aside) doesn't stem from competing ambitions but from inherently conflicted world views. That's not entirely true, but when one considers that "I Am Legend" was written in the 1950's that view seems oddly dead on.

"I Am Legend" is a superb, albeit unconventional, vampire novel. It is also an intriguing work of apocalyptic fiction. Above all though, it is an examination of the nature of being different, and the fragility of the human psyche.

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