My Review
I am Legend is the novel that has been made into three movies, Vincent Price's The Last Man on Earth, the Charlton Heston film, Omega Man, and the Will Smith film, I am Legend. While each of these movies are excellent, the novel is different, and in my opinion better.
The story is set in a post holocaust 1974 and is told through the eyes of Robert Neville who seems to be the last survivor of a mutant virus that turned his friends, neighbors, and everyone else into evil, blood thirsty vampires. Neville battles depression and every other emotion imaginable as he deals with being alone, and haunted by the vampires from outside his fortified home.
Over several years, Neville kills the vampires in the day as they sleep. He also experiments with different methods from folklore in repelling and killing vampires. Like many other great stories, this one ends with a surprise ending, one which I was pleased with too.
I Am Legend
I Am Legend
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 07/13/2009)
Praise For The Author Of I Am Legend
"I think the author who influence me the most as a writer was Richard Matheson. Books like I Am Legend were an inspiration to me." --Stephen King
I Am Legend
Audio book download
I Am LegendIn I Am Legend, a plague has decimated the world, and those unfortunate enough to survive are transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Robert Neville is the last living man on earth. Every other man, woman, and child has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?
Richard Matheson on Wikipedia
Richard Matheson (born February 20, 1926) is an American author and screenwriter, typically of fantasy, horror, or science fiction.
Born in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of whom (Chris, Richard Christian, and Ali Matheson) are writers of fiction and screenplays.
Your turn, did you like it?
Write a review, add a comment, or debate someone who disagrees with you.
What did you think of I am Legend?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byLove it! Great read.
joe alanis says:
Besides Stokers' Dracula best vampire story ever written in my opinion! Van Helsing meets Robinson Crusoe! Try (what dreams may come) also by matheson
Posted May 16, 2009
Keeara says:
Oh i couldn't put the book down. I was afraid it was going to be to much like the movie but i was wrong. I love the way Richard Matheson writes an i'm looking forward to reading more of his novels.
Posted September 27, 2008
Sorry, not my cup of tea.
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What's the blogosphere have to say about I Am Legend?
- Classic Book Review – I Am Legend « Axiom's Edge Science Fiction ...
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- Charlton Heston plays Robert Neville, one of the last ?intact? survivors of a biological war tha...
- Book into Movie: I Am Legend
- The movie, I am Legend, starring Will Smith, is a great action packed movie that has little to nothi...
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- I Am Legend. I saw the movie I Am Legend a few months ago and enjoyed it. However, I have to say tha...
Which movie did you think do the best job with Richard Mathesons's I am Legend?
The Last Man On Earth Trailer
"The Last Man On Earth" Trailer
This is the world of the living dead! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/
Runtime: 1:47
114689 views
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The Last Man on Earth on DVD
The Last Man on Earth
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 07/13/2009)
List Price: $14.98
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Omega Man Trailer
The Omega Man on DVD
I Am Legend Poster
I am Legend Trailer
I AM LEGEND - Movie Trailer
I Am Legend Will Smith New Movie Trailer. "The last man on earth is not alone" Robert Neville is the last man alive. He busies himself with preparing for a nightly attack from the rest of the world - all of which have transformed into blood-thirsty vampires.
Runtime: 2:03
157812 views
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I am Legend On DVD
I Am Legend (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition)
Amazon Price: $10.99 (as of 07/13/2009)
List Price: $19.98
Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague -- The Infected -- lurk in the shadows... watching Neville's every move... waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered... and quickly running out of time.
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Richard Matheson Bibliography
More novels by Matheson
Fury on Sunday (1953)Someone Is Bleeding (1953)
Woman (1954)
I Am Legend (1954)
The Shrinking Man (1956)
aka Incredible Shrinking Man
A Stir of Echoes (1958)
Ride the Nightmare (1959)
The Beardless Warriors (1960)
Comedy of Terrors (1964) (with Elsie Lee)
Hell House (1971)
The Night Stalker (1972) (with Jeff Rice)
The Night Strangler (1973)
Somewhere in Time (1975)
aka Bid Time Return
What Dreams May Come (1978)
Earthbound (1982) (writing as Logan Swanson)
Journal of the Gun Years (1991)
The Gun Fight (1993)
7 Steps to Midnight (1993)
Shadow on the Sun (1994)
Now You See It.... (1995)
The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok (1996)
Hunger and Thirst (2000)
Passion Play (2000)
Camp Pleasant (2001)
Abu and the 7 Marvels (2002)
Hunted Past Reason (2002)
Come Fygures, Come Shadowes (2003)
The Link (2006)
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