I Am Legend

It seems strange to find a 1954 vampire novel in Millennium's "SF Masterworks" classic reprints series. I Am Legend, though, was a trailblazing and later much imitated story that reinvented the vampire myth as SF. Without losing the horror, it presents vampirism as a disease whose secrets can be unlocked by scientific tools. The hero Robert Neville, perhaps the last uninfected man on Earth, finds himself in a paranoid nightmare. By night, the bloodthirsty undead of small-town America besiege his barricaded house: their repeated cry "Come out, Neville!" is a famous SF catchphrase. By day, when they hide in shadow and become comatose, Neville gets out his wooden stakes for an orgy of slaughter. He also discovers pseudoscientific explanations, some rather strained, for vampires' fear of light, vulnerability to stakes though not bullets, loathing of garlic, and so on. What gives the story its uneasy power is the gradual perspective shift which shows that by fighting monsters Neville is himself becoming monstrous--not a vampire but something to terrify vampires and haunt their dreams as a dreadful legend from the bad old days. I Am Legend was altered out of recognition when filmed as The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston. Avoid the movie; read the book. --David Langford

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View books by Richard Matheson.

Well deserved classic - Rated
An excellent post-apocalypse vampire story. The ending is quite shocking and the sense of isolation felt by the central character well put across. A well-deserved classic.

This edition also contains a collection of macabre short stories written over a period of nearly 4 decades in the author's career. Some of them have very similar themes (haunting, personal possession, funeral parlours) and a couple of them fell flat for me. The best of these was probably Prey, where the spirit of a killer African doll attacks and then takes over a woman.

A master class in sci-fi horror - Rated
Firstly, this is a very different novel to the Will Smith film adaptation. Much darker, much bleaker with the battle taking place inside the protagonist's mind as outside. Incredibly well-written with a shift in perspective which steadily builds, inverting reader's perception in a way which the film simply fails to do. What starts out as a typical post-apocalyptic novel with a lone hero battling the evil which surrounds him, slowly disintegrates each part of what is originally taken to be true, be it the "goodness" of the hero, the "evil" of the vampires or the world which they inhabit. It's hard reading virtually all the way though - every scrap of hope is blinked out one at a time until the end, when it comes, is almost uplifting.

I am Legend - Rated
Excellent SF by Richard Matheson. In an alternative present or near future the human civilization has been destroyed by a virus that turns people into vampires. The story focuses on Robert Neville, maybe the only human who seems to be immune. On the days he drives around the empty city looking for resources and make his house/stronghold more resistant. In the night the vampires arrive and try to break in. The story is very well written and full of suspense. And very dark. Not exactly a feelgood book.
Mathesons' novel was made into a movie in 1970: "Omega Man" with Charlton Heston in the role of Neville. The film is very well worth watching, if just to compare with the novel. There are many differences which is interesting. (Also "I am Legend" was recently made into a film by some Hollywood studio with Will Smith as Neville. I haven't seen it but I really don't think it is as dark as the novel, or half as interesting.)

This is Legend! - Rated
I read this book in a couple of days, i thought this was a fantastic book. From the start to the end, every page was fantastic, why the film could not have been like this?!
I have passed this book on to my Brother to read.

One of the best book i have read in a long time.

This book is Legend!.

Superb, don't be put off by the sub par film. - Rated
As the title suggests, this reviewer is not a fan of the Will Smith film. If you did enjoy the film, then there is plenty for you to enjoy in Richard Mathesons, original novel, so give it a read. If like me you didn't like the source material may sway you. It's a brilliant read, it's not to long, and it's very well paced. A great action book. One of the best horrors I have read.