I Am Legend (1954)

I'd been meaning to read I Am Legend for a while before finally getting around to it. In the meantime I'd seen Francis Lawrence's film adaptation. I knew changes had been made to the story for the film, but I naively thought they were going to be simple plot changes: a character dies who had survived or vice versa, someone is introduced sooner, maybe even something bigger like Will Smith finding a cure where the novel's Neville had failed or again vice versa. I was wholly unprepared for the humdinger of a change: the very nature and meaning of the story to be flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, and I'll tell you how I became the Prince of– no, wait, that's a different Will Smith thing. Let me start again.

The essence of the story is that a curious affliction has struck humanity; perhaps just the west coast of the US, maybe the whole of the US, or maybe even the whole world. This affliction turns people into vampires, complete with an aversion to ultraviolet light and a weakness to having dirty great stakes thrust through their thorax. Robert Neville lives alone in Los Angeles researching the disease to which he is immune, hoping to find a cure, and killing the afflicted in his spare time.

His humdrum existence (told, to be honest, via rather humdrum prose) is shaken when he meets Ruth, a second survivor. Suddenly just being with another human being, the one thing we all assume we would miss if it were taken away, is the alien concept. Ruth's appearance is the shove that the rather lumbering story needs to lurch towards its conclusion which, to quote Nataliya's rather excellent review, is where lies the book's “soul-crushing impact”.

I Am Legend is undeniably flawed. And not even a flawed masterpiece, but just downright flawed. The characters are few in number and yet still come across as wooden. Neville, our only companion for half the book, isn't particularly good company. The first half is too slow, the second half could be fleshed out. But a book isn't just a bunch of clever words strung together in the right order. A book is a chalice for winged ideas. And the idea here soars. ( )

I'd been meaning to read I Am Legend for a while before finally getting around to it. In the meantime I'd seen Francis Lawrence's film adaptation. I knew changes had been made to the story for the film, but I naively thought they were going to be simple plot changes: a character dies who had survived or vice versa, someone is introduced sooner, maybe even something bigger like Will Smith finding a cure where the novel's Neville had failed or again vice versa. I was wholly unprepared for the humdinger of a change: the very nature and meaning of the story to be flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, and I'll tell you how I became the Prince of– no, wait, that's a different Will Smith thing. Let me start again.

The essence of the story is that a curious affliction has struck humanity; perhaps just the west coast of the US, maybe the whole of the US, or maybe even the whole world. This affliction turns people into vampires, complete with an aversion to ultraviolet light and a weakness to having dirty great stakes thrust through their thorax. Robert Neville lives alone in Los Angeles researching the disease to which he is immune, hoping to find a cure, and killing the afflicted in his spare time.

His humdrum existence (told, to be honest, via rather humdrum prose) is shaken when he meets Ruth, a second survivor. Suddenly just being with another human being, the one thing we all assume we would miss if it were taken away, is the alien concept. Ruth's appearance is the shove that the rather lumbering story needs to lurch towards its conclusion which, to quote Nataliya's rather excellent review, is where lies the book's “soul-crushing impact”.

I Am Legend is undeniably flawed. And not even a flawed masterpiece, but just downright flawed. The characters are few in number and yet still come across as wooden. Neville, our only companion for half the book, isn't particularly good company. The first half is too slow, the second half could be fleshed out. But a book isn't just a bunch of clever words strung together in the right order. A book is a chalice for winged ideas. And the idea here soars. ( )

1286 ( )

The movie did not make it justice

I think Will Smith's movie is a good one. But Richard Matheson's original story is just too good. I couldn't stop reading. ( )

This is my second Matheson book. He is a good writer and I'll look for more of his works. Not everything he wrote was SF. Much was horror.

The book was short but interesting and fast moving. I wish he had fleshed it out more but I believe he wanted to keep up the pace. ( )