Pisces51's Reviews > I Am Legend

I AM LEGEND [1954] By Richard Matheson
My Review 5.0 Stars

The members of Horror Haven voted this timeless classic to be one of our two designated Group Reads for the month of July. It is not a long book at 104 pages, but I savored it over a period of a few days. I loved it and the ending was in effect, priceless. But let’s think about this one for just a moment. The author penned this novel seventy years ago which is before a whole big bunch of us were even born.

It is appropriate to stress that Richard Matheson was the recipient of the coveted Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award for best vampire novel of the century: the genre-defining classic of horror sci-fi that inspired three films. It was in fact one of the most influential vampire novels of the 20th century. It is actually a fair question to ask if Matheson had not conceived and wrote this post-apocalyptic horror novel where would we fans of The Walking Dead TV Series be today? It is certainly possible that the works of George Romero’s classic films about the “dead walking the earth” just would not have happened. I feel strongly that his influence in the development of both vampires and zombies needs to be recognized wholly and humbly by us readers who love horror above other genres. I also have to ask how much influence I AM LEGEND had on the reems of post-apocalyptic novels and movies we enjoy so enthusiastically today.

Some readers may have listened to this novel on an audiobook. I believe that given the right narrator I would love to have this timeless story narrated to me while I lay back and just enjoyed the highs and the lows of Robert Neville’s existence. It is obvious he was only a heartbeat away from certifiable most of the time in the book.

The novel’s style reminds me of a clinical journal or a scientist’s trials and investigations. But then amidst this clinical atmosphere abruptly the flesh and blood Neville shows himself and we can feel his frustration, his confusion, his wanting, his horror. This is a man who watched the world end all around him. There are no people left. Neville surmises that he was somehow immune to the contagion which wiped out humanity. The population of surviving humans were transformed into blood-sucking creatures of the night. Infected survivors were turned into “vampires”. Neville deals with this scourge as many a strong man would do. He fortifies his home and kills the vampires when they are vulnerable. Yes, with the weapons we all know, garlic, crucifixes, and wooden stakes. Neville makes some interesting discoveries, including the effect of crosses.

Time passes and Neville attempts to remain sane, but the effects of isolation on a man is horrible with depression a predictable sequalae. Alcoholism was used as a numbing agent against his horrible anguish.

Sometime in the future it comes to pass that Neville sees a living woman walking in the daylight with what appears to be a tan. He subdues her and brings her to his quarters. He acknowledges to her that he has ended the existence of as many “vampires” as he could reasonably manage. It reaches a point wherein Neville genuinely wants to “test” the woman (Ruth), hoping of course that she is immune like him, but willing to “treat” her (albeit believing it to be unlikely to succeed). Ruth knocks Neville out and leaves when he tries to test her blood. She leaves Neville a note which explains her departure and so much more.

If I were to proceed any farther which has become a sketchy kind of synopsis it would spoil the novel for anyone who chose to read it. The surprise ending for me was like being blindsided by a ball bat upside the head. Say WHAT???? I felt heartbreak, a knot in my throat, and genuine sadness. Robert Neville realizes at the critical point “I AM LEGEND”. The ending was incredibly powerful. I found it amazing that it was only Matheson’s third book.

“I AM LEGEND” was released as “Hard Science Fiction” and alternatively “Dystopian Science Fiction”. In 2010 he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His awards are many, and his writing was diverse in that Matheson even turned his talented pen to Westerns (winner of the Spur Award for Best Western Novel). He wrote in a wide variety of genres, such as fantasy, horror, terror, suspense, the paranormal, science fiction of course, and even Westerns as previously noted.

Many of his works were adapted to film. I was surprised (but shouldn’t have been) that Matheson wrote for television on a large scale, for such heavyweights as The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and Star Trek. It makes me want to pull out my boxsets of Twilight Zone and Night Gallery and pull the discs and watch those episodes for which he contributed his talent. Stephen King credits Richard Matheson with being the author who influenced him the most as a writer. It feels strange thinking about the reigning King of Horror reading Matheson when he was youngster. Dean Koontz was likely thumbing through a Matheson novel around the same time.

A hearty thanks to Horror Haven still again for a wonderfully fulfilling choice in their voting “I Am Legend” as our designated read this month.

THIS HORROR CLASSIC IS A MASTERPIECE FOR THE AGES