I Am Legend Paperback – October 30, 2007

I Am Legend has been on my list for years. I am not sure why I let it go for as long as I have. I enjoyed both films greatly, although I hold a particular fondness for Omega Man (1971) with Heston. I feel it holds a bit truer to the actual book, but there are a few more adaptations in existence (so I am told).I Am Legend follows protagonist Robert Neville after a plague has swept through, claiming the entirety of mankind and leaving nothing but vampiric beings in its wake. It is the end of times. Yet somehow, Neville remains. Alone and outnumbered, he must fight for survival and try to establish a life of solitude.I want to note that for a brief portion of this story I actually listened to the audio book narrated by Robertson Dean. I can safely recommend it, as I found the narrator’s tone to be reminiscent of the actual film, Omega Man. It was nostalgic. So If you are in search a shorter audio book, this might be an ideal option. You could certainly knock this one off of your TBR in a matter of hours.Where to start? This is a brilliant read! Cleverly disguised as your run-of-the-mill science fiction, I Am Legend delivers a reading experience that goes well beyond the expected. This is not just a mere story of a virus and mankind’s end. This is a keen observation of humanity through the eyes of one desperate and desolate human being.“He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet’s intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.”Our main character is everything you would come to expect him to be. He is angry. He is despairing. And he is forever seeking answers and solutions. It is through Neville that we exposed to the horrors of what it is to be the last surviving human. The psychological ramifications are endless, and I feel that the 3rd person narration seen through Neville’s eyes conveys this appropriately with well-timed emotional responses and outburst. The sense of desperation is forever present in his relentless studies and efforts to find a cure, a solution. The loneliness is experienced through his need to reside within his own memories of his wife and a life that was. The added element of his alcoholism and sporadic actions expose his weakness and ineffective coping, reminding us once again that this is more than a science fiction story.The writing is very impressive when you take into account that I Am Legend was originally published in 1954 and set with a futuristic Los Angeles during 1976. While the pace is somewhat slow, it is consistent and aids well in setting the atmosphere. I feel that it was a brazen decision on the author’s part to create a single character and leave him to his own devices while providing the reader with limited insight through the chosen narration. It is easy to see why this book has influenced multiple films. By the time you have completed Neville’s journey, I Am Legend will evoke a different type of fear that is very human and very real.“Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.”This is an ideal read for fans of the films, post apocalyptic settings and titles that take an abstract approach to exploring humanity. I found this to be a very solid first encounter with Matheson’s work, and it will certainly not be the end of the line in this new relationship. I walked away from I Am Legend with a real sense of why he is such a prolific name in science fiction.

When the modern film adaptation I Am Legend came out in 2007, many people were annoyed or angered by the movie. I heard things like, "it's nothing like the book", "the ending sucks" and "it misses the point". Now I know why. Let me just tell you, the movie does miss the point, particularly with the theatrical ending. That version of the film misses the point like the missing the broad side of a barn with a tactical nuke at point-blank range. That's not to say I dislike the movie. I thought that, with the alternate ending, it was pretty good. I still think that. However, reading the original story has changed my feelings about it a bit, namely that I like certain things about it less than the novel. Now, I don't remember if the credits say "based on I Am Legend by Richard Matheson", but if they do, I believe they definitely commit the crime of false advertising. The most it should say is "inspired by..." The only similarities I can think of between the book and what I remember of the movie are:The main character is named Robert NevilleThere is a plague of vampires that led to the collapse of civilizationThe main character is a human man, ostensibly the last on earth, who is immune to the diseaseThe main character lost his wife and child after/during the outbreak of the diseaseThere is a dogThere is a womanThere is scienceBut enough about the film! Overall, I enjoyed the novel. I was not initially aware that the novel I purchased contained I Am Legend in addition to several short stories, because it was not clearly advertised on my edition. Thus, I was surprised that the story was as short as it was. I only read I Am Legend from the bunch, because that is the reason I purchased it. I feel like Matheson could have made the book longer, and fleshed out the world, the situations, and Neville's past quite a bit more.One thing about the story that I wasn't a huge fan of was how little actually happened in the book. A big portion of the narrative was devoted to the more mundane events and inner monologues in the post-apocalyptic life of Robert Neville. On the other hand, much of the narrative dealing with Neville's inner thoughts helped vastly with the world-building. Through Neville's erratic, desperate, hopeless thoughts, the reader developed a taste for what it felt like to be the last man on earth, living a daily battle for existence in the midst of a plague of vampires, having lost everyone and everything you once loved.However, that brings me to my next point -- Neville was surprisingly unfeeling. I don't know if the reader was supposed to chock that up to him being a man who doesn't want to display feelings, his being a man that has given up hope, or what. He faced situations with very little sympathy, or even horror, and seemed largely apathetic about what was happening to him and what he was doing. Throughout several places in the story, I got the idea that Matheson has issues with women. I know that authors don't always write their thoughts into their characters, but it didn't seem like Neville was supposed to be especially misogynistic, because the author wrote it strictly as if his thoughts were fact and entirely acceptable.There were some things I really liked about I Am Legend. First off, it is number one on my list for most scientific books about vampires I have ever read. As a biology major and pharmacy student, I found it incredibly interesting to read about Neville's discoveries and experiments as he uncovered the origin of the disease. That Matheson invented a somewhat scientifically sound background for the existence of vampires, debunking some elements of mythology and supporting others was original and pleasing to me.The thing I liked most about the novel (especially compared to the movie) was the ending. The events of the ending portion of I Am Legend really came out of left field for me. I wasn't expecting what happened, at all. It is very much the most important part of the novel. It leaves us with a message, questioning what we have known and what we believe. I thought it was poignant and powerful, and it certainly left me thinking.It is an unimportant detail, but I also enjoyed that the last line of the novel was "I am legend." I love when books really come full circle, and when they have their title worked into them somehow. Matheson managed to do both, and it brought a smile to my face.