I am Legend
January 22, 2008
I happen to be a huge fan of both the Post Apocalyptic genre, as well as the Zombie genre. When I saw the preview for I am Legend, I was immediately intrigued. The thing I didn’t get from the movie preview was that the rest of the world had been turned into vampires, I thought that something had just wiped out everyone, and he was the only one left. Once I heard that there were Vampires, well that made it even more appealing.
I was amazed that the book was written back in the 50’s, and that the current movie is actually the third adaptation of the story. Art and I were talking about the story, and he’s seen the other two movies. Anyway, I decided to pick up the book.
If a movie has been made for a story, I usually like to watch the movie before I read the book. This way I can enjoy both, if I don’t, then I’m generally disappointed by the movie. This rule doesn’t apply to Stephen King stories. In my experience, it’s better to see his movies, and skip the book altogether. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I’ve been burned by Stephen King too many times.
Anyway, back to "I am Legend". In the story, a plague has killed just about everyone, and those who haven’t been killed are turned into vampires. Without giving too much away, the dead become re-animated, and are some type of vampire / zombie hybrid. They aren’t terribly intelligent, want to eat human flesh, and can’t come out in the sun light. What happened to those who survive are something that I’ll let you read about on your own.
The main character seems to be the lone survivor of the plague, and the story revolves around his day to day struggles, trying to survive. He has to keep himself protected, while still maintaining the necessities of life. His biggest challenges seem to be the taunting of the vampires, dealing with the loss of his family, and the realization that he’s the only human left.
Richard Matheson, the author, tries to explain the scientific reason for the classic vampire attributes, the fear of sunlight, aversion to the cross and garlic, etc.
We get to see some of what life was like before the plague, and the events leading up to that point are alluded to. I don’t want to give it away, but they do seem interesting, and I would have liked to read more about that "world".
The main story is about 170 pages, and then the rest of the book is short stories. Some of them are interesting, and some of them aren’t very good.
All in all, this was a great story, and I’m really glad I read it. It helped to get me back into reading for enjoyment.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Interesting, my usual process is to want to read the book first if possible. I find that if I see the movie first, I see the actors and the locations as presented visually and I miss being able to make that creation myself based on the words of the author.
I didn’t realize Richard Matheson was the author of this - he has done some amazing work, notably on The Twilight Zone.
Great Review - we’ll have to check the movie out in a year when it hits HBO
SB
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:07 pm
The first adaptation of the book was back in 1964 when Vincent Price did Last Man on Earth. This movie lifts the story directly from the book and follows it more or less scene by scene.
The second one was The Omega Man with Charlton Heston in 1971. This movie is less like the book. About the only thing the book and this movie have in common is the name of the main character, and that the rest of the population are dead or are turned in to sunlight-fearing pale-skinned people who are otherwise pretty intelligent, but hate Heston’s character because he won’t join their doomsday religion, and also because Heston keeps killing their members during the day when they’re sleeping.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Scott, I can see where that may be an issue, but I haven’t ran into that problem myself. There is usually enough of a space between the book and the movie.
I didn’t know that Richard Matheson had written for the twilight zone, I was surprised to find out he had written the stories that “What Dreams May Come” and “Stir of Echoes” were based on. The next twilight zone marathon, I’ll have to pay attention to the writers.
BTW, I haven’t seen the movie yet. I’m probably going to wait until it comes out on DVD. Loved the story though.
Thanks Art, I may have to try and catch those. I do like Vincent Price.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Well I do have both of them. Just let me know…
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
I will Art, thanks!
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
The Richard Matheson I’m familiar with (same guy…) is the one who wrote Bid Time Return — a book that may be out of print now. It was about time travel which has always interested me. I also think he may have had something to do with some early TV shows or what used to be “Movies of the Week” which were written for television. I think one of them had something to do with vampires and remember liking it. The book that got me back into reading after a few years’ absence was Jurassic Park. As far as Stephen King goes, I loved reading The Stand and The Shining and although the films were entertaining, they couldn’t come close to the books. What’s next on your list?
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I didn’t realize the he had such a productive career. I’m glad I finally found out about him though.
I haven’t seen “The Stand” movie, but I did love the book, until the ending. My problem with Stephen King is that everything I have read by him have the worst endings. Like in the stand, the hand of god comes out of the sky and starts slapping people around?!?! What!?!?! I won’t even mention the ending to Needful Things. The movie for Needful things wasn’t even close to being as good, but the ending was way better. I know, maybe I should look past the ending, but it really ruins the book for me.
I’m currently reading “World War Z”, which is another Zombie book. I do love zombies. So far it has been pretty disturbing. After that is “Cryptonomicon” by Neal Stephenson. Art has been recommending it to me for years.
What are you reading? I usually stick to the Sci Fi or Fantasy, with the occasional Tom Clancy novel thrown in.
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I’m plowing through a book called “Her.” I supposed it would be the opposite of a zombie book unless I consider that it’s making me feel like one. It’s not that great, and I spend so much more of my freetime reading blogs, etc. that I only read right before I go to sleep. So, that’s about 15 minutes worth if the book isn’t great. I did buy some new mysteries (I like Carol O’Connell…), though, and promised myself I’d read The Kite Runner. I keep putting it off because much like you don’t enjoy the bad endings, I don’t like to read sad things. And right now, it would be especially sad, so on to the mysteries!
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I haven’t heard of those.
I try to read before I go to bed, but I usually have the ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. My wife only reads when we go to bed, and she has managed to get through quite a number of books. I do best when I have to fly.
She’s been reading Janet Evanovich’s series. We just received the newest one. I’ll tell her to look at O’Connell, she likes mysteries too.
Thanks Kellypea.