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Editorial Review:
It seems strange to find a 1954 vampire novel in Millennium's "SF Masterworks" classic reprints series. I Am Legend, though, was a trailblazing and later much imitated story that reinvented the vampire myth as SF. Without losing the horror, it presents vampirism as a disease whose secrets can be unlocked by scientific tools. The hero Robert Neville, perhaps the last uninfected man on Earth, finds himself in a paranoid nightmare. By night, the bloodthirsty undead of small-town America besiege his barricaded house: their repeated cry "Come out, Neville!" is a famous SF catchphrase. By day, when they hide in shadow and become comatose, Neville gets out his wooden stakes for an orgy of slaughter. He also discovers pseudoscientific explanations, some rather strained, for vampires' fear of light, vulnerability to stakes though not bullets, loathing of garlic, and so on. What gives the story its uneasy power is the gradual perspective shift which shows that by fighting monsters Neville is himself becoming monstrous--not a vampire but something to terrify vampires and haunt their dreams as a dreadful legend from the bad old days. I Am Legend was altered out of recognition when filmed as The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston. Avoid the movie; read the book. --David Langford
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
5/5 Not my typical read I read this short book after seeing all the reviews (thank you) and thought I must give it a go. I have tried lots of 'horror' novels over the years and they have never really engaged me. I read this over two evenings and found it totally absorbed me. The text races along wonderfully.
This is not my typical read - favourite books include: Papillon, Hamlet, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath and The Old Man and the Sea. I assume it is because having read them they stay with you and... more info
Hair raisingingly good stuff This is a brilliant book, that manages to transcend the boundaries of Science Fiction or Horror genres. It was way ahead of its time.
I think its impact is down to its focus- rather than a overblown description of a post-apocalyptic world where everyone has turned into vampires, it concentrates on the experience of one man. You feel the claustrophobia of Neville as he shuts himself in his house every night, and you sympathise with his loneliness as the last normal man on earth. Even if you're not... more info
Come out Neville! I read this book in just a few hours and it was compelling right to the end. It's better than the film too, although it would've been nice for the pooch to survive and be Robert's companion. As you probably know, it tells the story of the last man on Earth after a vampiric plague sweeps through the world. Robert Neville is alone and hell bent on survivng. There are a few twists and turns here too, one of them being in the form of Ruth, a woman that Robert sees wandering in daylight one afternoon. I... more info
A great read I thouroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend that you watch the film before reading the book so you can enjoy both as I did. As mentioned there a plenty of differences between film and book but in my opinion the ending in the book is far better, more haunting. My horror reading normally revolves around Richard Laymon and Graham Masterton this was a refreshing detour of style. Buy, read, enjoy.
