I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of I Am Legend
Book Review: A Good Read -- If You're Not Old Enough To Vote
Summary: 3 Stars
Despite being reasonably entertaining and diverting at times, "I Am Legend" is ultimately unsuccessful. Despite its short length, it becomes quite silly and boring after a while. And the inept, juvenile redundancies! How many times must the reader be subjected to descriptions of whiskey being drunk, spilled or thrown across a room? Who does Matheson think he is, Charles Jackson?Comparatively speaking, this book is inferior to Matheson's very good "Hell House," but superior to his awful "Now You See It."
As for the stories in "I Am Legend" -- they are singularly amateurish and sophomoric, and I don't know how I got through them. If they constituted the book, without the presence of the novella, my rating would fall to one star.
The bottom line? Younger readers will enjoy this book, but more sophisticated and experienced ones will be less than thrilled.
Book Review: A Must read for all Vampire fans
Summary: 4 Stars
I was excited to purchase this book after long being out of print. I read it in one day. I thought this was an excellent post-apocalyptic vampire story. It is not a scary book, but a good one. You can sure see why Matheson was the inspiration for authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Although not five stars, I would highly recommend reading it. You will especially like this if you enjoyed the movie "Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. It was based on this novel.Book Review: A Remarkable Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
"I am Legend" is a remarkable novel that tackles vampirism with science-fiction, as opposed to the horror genre. There are scary moments, but the thing that sets this novel apart is the scientific explanation that the main character, Robert Neville, gives for the plague of vampires that have taken over the world.
The premise of this novel is that Robert Neville is the only man on Earth who is immune to the vampire virus. The majority of the book follows Neville around as he goes about his daily routines in a post-apocalyptic world. By all means, the beginning of this book should have been boring--but it wasn't. Matheson's narrative and exposition bleed together as we discover the causes and effects of the germ 'vampiris' with Neville.
This book is definitely one that gets you thinking about a lot of things; routine, the way a lonely mind changes and hardens, good/evil, and love/attachment.
Nevermind Harker's journals, Helsing's tedious explanations, and the card-board cut-out Count Dracula. This is the vampire novel that allowed for today's vampire genre to blow up.
10/10 Classic.
Book Review: A Riveting, Horrifying Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
If Bram Stoker had been a middle class American in 1976, this would have been Dracula. Judging solely on the cover and maybe what somebody told you about I Am legend, you might assume that this is a straightforward horror read, a pulp 10 cent-er from the fifties. What this novel really does well is lull the reader into thinking the hero, Robert Neville, is totally safe in his baricaded house, which is what Neville seems to think. How wrong he was.Most of the begining of the book is Neville skulking around his empty house drinking lots of whiskey and mourning the death of his wife and daughter. Its only when he can shrug the booze off and venture outside that things actually take a turn for the worse. if he had stayed in his house and got drunk non-stop, he would only become victim to crippling depression and a burnt out liver, instead of the undead and the suffering living preying on him.
one thing this novel does that no other Vampire book I've ever read is to inject some science into Vampires, the victims of a horrid plague that makes them feast on blood and avoid sunlight. A good portion of Neville's time is spent trying to understand the plague, and for a while it helps keep his mind off of his problems and he actually learns lots about vampires.
In conclusion, this is an amazing novel that I had trouble putting down. If you are a fan of movies like night of the living dead or 28 days later you owe it to yourself to read the inspiration. BUY THIS BOOK!
Book Review: A Rock Solid Vampire Novel
Summary: 4 Stars
Matheson's novel is every bit as solid, thought provoking and well written as what we expect from authors such as Bradburry or King (he certainly outshines the latter). I Am Legend is one of those sparkling moments in an otherwise dull genre. The protagonist is three dimensional. The story is rewarding to the end. And the prose is crisp and intelligent. Not to mention the most important demand of a horror book. It's really goddamned scary.