I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson

Book Review: I AM LEGEND

As we all know, the classic Richard Matheson novel, I AM LEGEND is looking to finally hit theaters this December after years of development Hell. Although the new trailer is really well-done, the people behind the making of the film (the screenwriter of BATMAN & ROBIN and the director of CONSTANTINE) have left me without much expectation. So, I decided to hit up its well-loved source material.

I dove right into I AM LEGEND and finished it very quickly. The book itself is short (only 170 pages), and it reads fast as Hell. The book tells the story of Robert Neville, the last man on Earth who is forced to board himself up in his house at night while the rest of the human race, wiped out by a cold virus and transformed into blood-thirsty vampires, try to break in. During the day, he repairs his damaged barricades, gathers up more tools for his survival, tries to crack the mystery of the germ that wiped out the planet’s population, and hunts the creatures of the night as they hide from the sunlight.

Matheson brilliantly captures the loneliness of Nevillie, particularly in a chapter where Neville is amazed to find a dog, still alive. The chapter intimately describes how Neville tries to win the dog’s trust over the course of weeks as he leaves it food to eat, wishing desperately to be able to pet it. The chapter is poetically written and heart-wrenchingly effective. The chapter’s conclusion was one of the most depressing bits of horror literature I’ve ever read. 

The edition of the book that I read (cover pictured above) also featured ten pieces of Matheson’s short fiction, which he is more known for being a master of. I had no idea Matheson was the mind behind the Zuni doll story from TRILOGY OF TERROR. I can see where Stephen King and other current horror authors got their inspiration of establishing realistic characters before placing them in extraordinary situations. "Mad House" is a golden example, where the majority of the story is setting up the humanity of a hot-headed protagonist before unleashing the hounds of horror on him. The stories go from simple but cute ("The Near Departed") to intense, ("Prey"), to interesting ("Buried Talents" and "Witch War," which bares interesting similarities to King’s FIRESTARTER), to just plain strange, but well-done ("Person to Person.")

After reading this, I declared myself an official Richard Matheson fan and will now begin the task of reading all of his material, along with other recent discoveries of mine like Jack Ketchum and Bentley Little. The film has a huge standard to live up to, and I am very doubtful it will manage. But who knows, maybe I’ll be surprised, and I’m all for that! 3.5/4