I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of I Am Legend
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: What's all the fuss
Summary: 2 Stars
I eagerly anticipated this book and I have to honestly say that I hated it. Nothing ever really happened in the story and the ending seemed imcomplete to me. What a disappointment. If you want to read good vampire related material, try the Anita Blake seriesBook Review: Move over Anne Rice, here is the real vampire story
Summary: 4 Stars
Richard Matheson can really keep a reader in the seat, or under the covers frightened of what may be lunking in the dark. I Am Legend made me think twice about going outside alone at night. The most interesting thing about the book, however, is the science behind the vampires. No doubt Matheson did extensive research to come to his conclusions. This made for a very good read. Everything that Anne Rice and other vampire authors neglect to explain is written here in black and white. Great book! It kept me from sleeping soundly...Book Review: Worth it for the title story
Summary: 3 Stars
Richard Matheson is a new author for me until recently, and it was only after I'd read _I Am Legend_ that I found out he was responsible for _What Dreams May Come_ (though I must admit I've only seen the film).The title story in this collection is an eerie and fascinating exploration of our society after it is overcome by vampirism. The main character, Robert Neville, lives locked away in his fortress of a home by night, and kills vampires by day. He explores their affliction scientifically to determine the origins of the "germ" as he calls it. In fact, this is an interesting aspect of the story; vampirism as a simple bodily illness blown into the proportion of a legend.
_I Am Legend_ is a good read, and the ending, though abrupt, is worth it as Neville finally comes to understand his place in this new world ruled by gruesome enemies of humanity.
The other stories in the volume are entirely forgettable, in my opinion. Most are enumerative horror at their core, and simply list all the horrible things that happen to someone because of African curses/cursed statuettes/witchcraft wielding teenage solider-girls/fiery temper/etc. The words sound right, but the stories suffer because of the bland laundry list of cuts, bruises, and lacerations that the characters endure.
Again, read it for the title story; I was disappointed in the others.
Book Review: Absolutely Stunning!
Summary: 5 Stars
I AM LEGEND is probably one of the finest books on vampires, those undead and oft nightmarish bloodsuckers of our own creations. However, Matheson presents his vampires as the ultimate human terror, that of a replacement species for our race. The story follows Robert Neville, the sole survivor of a biological holocaust that created night stalkers who has turned his home into a fortress in suburban Los Angeles. During the day he hunts sleeping vampires, staking them through the heart and barricades himself in his home at night while they mill about his yard like cadaverous door to door salesmen, calling his name while the females raise their dresses to tease and taunt him.Neville is a beautiful study into the deterioration of the human mind, aside from the loss of his wife and daughter that haunts him constantly, he begins to lose his own grip on humanity. For three years he has lived this life of solitude, but surrounded by human monsters who, incidentally, do not wear 18th century regalia, top hats nor do they moan about how much their unlife makes them do such terrible things. Matheson's vampires are a paradox of life, do not turn into bats, wolves or mists and haven't an ounce of pretense or angst found in the likes of Anne Rice's Eurotrash vampires or the found in Vampire: the Masquerade. Neville has forgotten the sound of his own voice and much of the common etiquette that we as humans all share.
Matheson's masterful descriptions of the monotony of daily life mingled with the nagging question of why he just doesn't give himself up to them permeate the book. He constructs arguments for both sides, and deconstructs the myth of vampires by producing a wonderful scientific explanation that Neville learns over a period of a few years, literally by educating himself at the UCLA libraries. The reader is so aware of the protagonist's torment and the surging desire for companionship, human or otherwise, that when he finds the stray dog, we are captivated and pulled along as Neville spends weeks trying to coax the terrified animal into his home. And, without giving it away, the ending will knock the reader off of whatever he or she is sitting on.
Some might see similarities to this and the Chuck Heston flick, the Omega Man, which was a pale adaptation of the novel into a typical 1970's dystopian film. For myself I churned through the pages with a certain eagerness that I never possessed while reading Rice's morose and trite endeavors in the world of undead. This book soars and packs emotion into fluid verse that never stalls or loses direction. I Am Legend fits beautifully with movies such as Blade and John Carpenter's Vampires.