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.

Come out Neville! - Rated
I read this book in just a few hours and it was compelling right to the end. It's better than the film too, although it would've been nice for the pooch to survive and be Robert's companion.

As you probably know, it tells the story of the last man on Earth after a vampiric plague sweeps through the world. Robert Neville is alone and hell bent on survivng. There are a few twists and turns here too, one of them being in the form of Ruth, a woman that Robert sees wandering in daylight one afternoon. I won't give it away though!

This is truly an awesome story and well worth the read. Especially since it's only 160 pages long. Do yourself a favour and buy it now. If you enjoy this try Stir Of Echoes too, that too is better than the film. Sit back and take the phone off the hook and enjoy!

A great read - Rated
I thouroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend that you watch the film before reading the book so you can enjoy both as I did. As mentioned there a plenty of differences between film and book but in my opinion the ending in the book is far better, more haunting. My horror reading normally revolves around Richard Laymon and Graham Masterton this was a refreshing detour of style. Buy, read, enjoy.

Great book - got me back to reading - Rated
I'm quite a fussy reader, I can give up on a book at any point for seemingly random reasons so when I find a book that I can't stop thinking about even when I'm not reading then I know it's a good un!

I don't think I can really do this book justice in a review...it just sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading it until it was finished...then I wanted to keep going!

Not the movie! Thank my Stars! - Rated
I read this book when I was a teenager and after being invited to go see the film(which I review elsewhere) I decided to read it again before viewing the film.
Well it was as exciting now as then.A book that in an oblique way reminded me of "The Body Snatchers". An allegory for our times, a disease that becomes an evolutionary change, where those that are immune are the new enemy.
I found this book well plotted and thought provoking, unlike the film.
Read it!Read it twice!

I am legendary! - Rated
The book and the film are TOTALLY different but they're both great.
Maybe watch the film first as you have longer to come to terms with the differences when reading the book.