I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.93 You Save: $12.06 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of I Am Legend
Book Review: 5 Stars for the title Story - 4 stars over all
Summary: 4 Stars
What a gripping, amazingly well written story!I am Legend, is by far the best vampire story of all time. Dracula might win in name recognition, Ann Rice's popularized vampires, they all have a color of fantasy to the story. Matheson's story not only twists the story even darker by focusing on the non-vampire Neville, but sets the story in a realistic, modern (even though it was written in the 1950s!) backdrop. The effect, is that the vampires become a reality to the reader.
It reads much like a diary of a shipwrecked sailor on a remote island - a Robinson Crusoe - following Neville's experiences, triumphs, isolation, and humanity. Matheson addresses quesions like what does it mean to be "normal" or "human", and Neville keeps wondering why it is that he fights to live on all by himself, against all odds.
The other short stories in this book are delightfully (and disturbingly) well written, but "I am Legend" is by far the greatest.
Book Review: 50 years later, and this book STILL beats King!
Summary: 5 Stars
Published in 1954, this book tells the sad, spooky tale of the last man on earth, Robert Neville. For your own sake, do not read this book alone at night! I have read Stephen King, watched George Romero and no one has scared the bajeezus out of me like Matheson can.Book Review: A CLASSIC
Summary: 5 Stars
I AM LEGEND is a classic apocalyptic survivor (at least for a while) story. When you consider that LEGEND was written in 1954, the story concept is even more outstanding. It is very well written and fascinating in its charactor depth. It is no wonder that LEGEND has been made into three successful movies. If you have loved any of the movies, read the origional story. You won't regret it. The book also includes some short stories that are less outstanding.Book Review: A Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary:legend: "1a. a story coming down from the past; esp: one popularly regarded as historical although not verifiable. b: a body of such stories c: a popular myth of recent origin d: a person or thing that inspires legends"
A classic story about vampires conquering the human race, and the last (maybe?) human battling it out against the monsters. The story is riveting for several reasons. The persistence and continuously hard-fought survival of the human compelled me to cheer and root for him throughout the novel. His emotional turmoil and reflections about society draw me into the book and make me feel sympathy and a great deal of fear for him. The story is written so well, with the ever-present question looming over the main character and always in the minds of the readers: is he the last one? If he is the last one, and he dies, does the human race essentially become a legend; that which exists only in popular myth...that humans existed once but that such truth is not verifiable? Does the protagonist essentially become a legend as the last of his kind, living out his days as an inspiration to others?
Book Review: A Godfather of the Sci-Fi genre...
Summary: 4 Stars
Richard Matheson has been a staple sci-fi writer for as long as I can remember. The title story, "I am Legend", had a brief fling with mainstream with Charleton Heston's "the Omega Man". Aside from that, the story is just as powerful as when it was written in 1954. Mentioned as one of the top 10 books of Vampirism, I would rate this as one of the top three stories of Vampires, with Dracula, and the Vampire Lestat rounding out the list.