A Vampire novel with a difference. (I am Legend - Richard Matheson)

Member Name: Brett Bligh

Product:	I am Legend - Richard Matheson
Date:	20/08/00 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brevity, treatment of the subject of vampires from a different angle, inevitable ending.

Disadvantages: Would not film well, at least in the Hollywood blockbuster style (IS this actually a disadvantage?)

Barricaded into his house and only daring leave during the hours of daylight, Robert Neville is the last surviving member of the human race, surrounded on all sides by those who were, formerly, his neighbours and who have now been changed into vampires.

Charting Neville’s solitary life, including his encounter with a dog, terrified into savagery, who becomes his only companion for a time, and his attempted scientific investigation of the vampire condition, this novel, written in a simple style consisting of short sentences, is very effective; all the more so because of the fact that it chooses to approach the subject of vampirism from an sf rather than horror standpoint, hence avoiding most of the hoary old clichés which most vampire novels seem to be swamped with.

Short in length at only 160 pages in my edition, the novel also overcomes the problem of padding which has blighted and ruined many similar works and ensures that most of the events depicted in the book are either of some importance to the plot or add to the very distinct and oppressive feel of the book’s solitary ‘hero’.

Already filmed as The Omega Man, there was, I am lead to understand, a proposed script for a modern movie based upon this book which would have featured Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead. Thankfully, this looks likely to have died in development hell, since one of the major advantages of this book is that the central protagonist is not an all-powerful action hero but is actually, when push comes to shove, incredibly vulnerable in this dangerous new world, and the ending, which would definitely have been changed in a Schwarzenegger action-film, is probably the strongest thing in the book.

This book deserves to have been recently reprinted as one of Millennium’s excellent SF Masterworks series, and it deserves to be read. Recommended.

Summary: