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.

Posted in Books, fiction, Vampires, Zombies 9 Comments »