A Fantastic Read, Worthy Among the Great Horror Stories

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	• I Am Legend Richard Matheson Tor Books, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 516 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I am in Awe of This Story!

I originally bought this book well in advance of the movie version (staring Will Smith) release, but never got around to reading it (it got buried in my ever growing mountain of books to read). Needless to say, I saw the movie and heard the opinion of many, many, many people with regards to its flaws (mainly dealing with deviation from the source material). I admit I enjoyed the movie and I've also seen the 1971 version with Charleton Heston, so I have always been rather puzzled about the avid dislike some people seem to hold for the movie versions of this book. Having finally sat down yesterday and read through it, I can now honestly say I see why. I'm not about to jump on the bandwagon, but I can see why. For me, the movie version(s) are radically different stories, they diverge from the book on many points and frankly, I don't consider them the same story. The movie versions are built on the same bones...but they do NOT tell the same story and so (speaking for myself here), I judge each on its own merits (or lack thereof).

That said...I absolutely LOVED this story (and yes, I say story, not novel). I Am Legend comes housed in a book that should be titles I Am Legend and Other Stores by Richard Matheson. I Am Legend takes up only the first 170 of the 317 pages in this "novel," the rest consists of nine short stories of varying genre and which vary greatly in how enjoyable I found them. I was surprised to note I recognize several of them as also having been made into movies in their own right (Masters of Horror, Trilogy of Terror, Creep Show, Etc.)...if you read them you're likely to recognize them (if you are also a fan of these programs/movies).

Of the title story alone, I was quite thrilled to read it at long last and am rather angry with myself that I kept putting it off as it's one of the best in this genre I've read in a good, long time! I love that Robert Neville is a "real" person...he is something of an everyman, he could be anybody (though I do admit that I have trouble picturing him as anyone but Will Smith since I saw the movie recently, much less as a blond haired Californian). He's an average working man with an average life prior to the "plague" that wipes out nearly the entire human race as we know it. Matheson quite deftly weaves a believable premise of contagion based on chemical (or other) warfare in some vague reference to "conflict" and "war" that eerily mirrors recent conflicts around the globe (9/11 included).

Faced with utter loneliness (being, he believes, the last man on earth), nightly taunting by the vampires, and unquenched sexual drives, Neville skirts madness (and sometimes succumbs to it utterly), drinking and smoking too much while trying to live as normal a life as he can. As the book progresses, Neville begins putting his time to good use, going to the library and begins researching the how and why behind the vampire "infection," and he struggles through it (as any normal man or woman would)...he's not a genius, he holds no special degrees or knowledge...he must come to his understanding as we all might, with a lot of hard work, a few thrown books and a lot of frustration. Neville also takes time to ferret out the truth to his theories and unflinchingly applies the knowledge he acquires slowly learning more and more and becoming quite an accomplished vampire killer. It is fascinating to "watch" as the story progresses his struggles with core issues; humanity, loneliness, human nature, sexuality (or the absence of it), and more.

I love that the details are given slowly, that we learn the scientific (or other) basis for the vampire mythos, that we discover Neville's past in bits and pieces (flash-backs) and are just as haunted by the nightly taunting of the vampires as he is. There is a quiet desperation to Neville's story and one can come to fully understand the burden he bears and how he tries to deal with what has happened...and just when you think you understand...when you side with him and believe that any one of us might do the same things given this circumstances...Matheson turns the story on it's ear and quite successfully pulls the rug right out from under us, turning Neville from a rugged, survivor into something else altogether! What a wonderful ending, so much starker and real than either of the movie versions I've seen gave. I was utterly shocked when I read the last few paragraphs...and completely satisfied. I Am Legend is a classic for a reason, it's a great story AND it really leaves you thinking about the entire set of circumstances when it's all said and done. Wonderful, I give it 5 stars and two thumbs up!

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Unique like the movie, but not the same

After seeing the movie, I wanted to know more, so I picked up the book. I discovered this is actually a short story & was totally different than the movie.

Like a lot of books, the story starts out in the present. However, Matheson did not delve into the past's details & when he did, it wasn't quite the chronology I was expecting -- which sets this novel apart. Also, I think Matheson portrayed the main character wonderfully! I love that he was so rough & flawed, but this also made the character more real to me. I also enjoyed the sporadic dialogue the main character had with HIMSELF -- the dialogue kept the book from being monotonous. Thought-provoking read with enough emotional & scientific-based depth to keep me interested.

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Much different than the movie...

After enjoying the movie quite a bit, I had to see what the original was like. It was no surprise, then, to find that I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but for reasons not the same. The book is way different than the movie, with really the only common element being vampires and Neville's name. Everything else is completely different!

Right from the beginning we know there are vampires, so no surprise reveal. And as another reviewer stated, the book is more about one man's trials and tribulations in trying to survive amongst the blood thirsty vampires, and then to try and overcome them by defeating them with science. This really was a good read, ultimately finishing up much stronger than the movie.

It is a little deceptive though. You pick up this 300 page book and start reading, then you get to page 160 and I Am Legend ends. From there the rest is all short stories. Nowhere does it state that I Am Legend is basically a long novella, with the rest a bunch of short stories. Not on the back of the book. Not on any product descriptions. In fact everywhere only talks about I Am Legend. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a little deceptive in the marketing. Perhaps more bang for your buck, since you would have bought I Am Legend by itself anyway.

All in all, the book is a lot better than the movie. The book is a great stand alone vampire/horror book that focuses more on man's struggle, rather than the gory side of it. Some of the short stories were interesting as well, but the star of the show is definitely I Am Legend.

5 stars.

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A Fantastic Read, Worthy Among the Great Horror Stories

A few months ago I watched the fairly entertaining movie, however hadn't considered reading the book until a friend highly recommended it. What I found was a profoundly dark, dreary, and at time sadistic horror story that I believe ranks amongst the greatest ever written. If you weren't a fan of the all-too-typical Hollywood ending found in the book, you shouldn't pass up the original story's disturbing alternative!

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