Tuesday, May 19, 2015

"I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, 1954

"I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, 1954

Honestly heart-wrenching and will hold you hostage in horror.

Written in 1954 but set in a post-Apocalyptic 1976 in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles-- whereby a turn of fate Robert Neville is the only living human remaining. Everyone has been afflicted by some virus that resulted from a worldwide biowarfare and spread via dust storms. The afflicted turns into a sort of "vampire."

"I Am Legend" is probably one of the first fusions of horror and science fiction. It's powerful and disturbing reworking of the vampire myth has made it a classic and enduring novel that had and will continue to have a profound impact on generations of writers and movie makers alike.

The author easily and effortlessly conveyed Robert Neville's loneliness and ennui with his harrowingly consequential states of mind and being. The heart-wrenching relationship between Neville and the dog brought tears to my eyes and profound sadness. Ruth's behavior was unexpected; her betrayal to him followed by her betrayal to her kind.

In the end, there was nothing left to be said but, "I am Legend."

I can't recommend this novel highly enough.

My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)  It was amazing!



From Wikipedia:
I Am Legend is a 1954 horror fiction novel by American writer Richard Matheson. It was influential in the development of the zombie genre and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and asI Am Legend in 2007, along with a direct-to-video 2007 production capitalizing on that film, I Am Omega. The novel was also the inspiration behind the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.

From Goodreads.com:

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.




No comments:

Post a Comment