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Richard Matheson: I Am Legend

Yobmod said:
Overall i thought i was good (8/10).

I liked the scientific basis, far more sensical than other attempts (eg. Jack Williamson's Darker than you think explains werewolves by giving them the ability to alter reality for no reason except when silver is nearby [again for no reason]).
The only problem i found was that it took Neville to discover the cause of it all. The plague didn't strike everyone silmultaeously, yet non of the doctors or scientists did blood tests? Not likely (i guess it might have been kept a secret form the public, but that doesn't seem to be how america handles contagious disease scares.)
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I think it's more that the scientist found out, but did not live long enough to tell the rest of the world, or the part where Neville lived was cut off the communication network too early.

Yobmod said:
I thought the obsession with women wa a bit silly (especially the dead ones) :confused: . Plenty of people in real life go without sex yet don't have to drink themselves into a stupor to avoid shagging the zombie neighbors wife. :D Not me of course!
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Yeah that was pretty :eek: !!!
When you are the last living man on earth and you are thinking of your dead wife and daughter all the time it shouldn't be your first thought to get after the next undead lady!!!???

By the way I just wrote a review! :D
 
When you are the last living man on earth and you are thinking of your dead wife and daughter all the time it shouldn't be your first thought to get after the next undead lady!!!???
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Exactly my thinking. Overwrought sexual frustration played a big part in The Shrinking Man too (by the same author; its quite good). Guess that says more about the writer than the characters. :)
 
November 2004



Robert Neville is the last living man on earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive like this?
 
I Am Legend is a gorgeous book and great to read. The story kept me on my toes all the way through. I didn't like the end that much but it was ok.
The only thing that really irritated me was Neville's weird obsession with sex. He had to get drunk all the time in order to not get out and bang the next undead lady. That's very far from normal! :eek:
 
I was a little irritated with that as well. What would be a normal thing to do, though? :D

I've mentioned in another thread how I thought this book was scary...

ds
 
I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. I was hooked by the first line. I found myself laughing at Ben Cortman. Just an ordinary guy except for that one thing. It was his character that kept reminding me though, that at one time they were really all just ordinary people.
 
My friend loved this book. He's always tellin my how awesome it was too. he's always begging me to read it, but I've put it on my TBR list. I don't like vampires... they're too bloody. Ever since I saw this movie where this girl vampire bites down on this guys wrist and starts sucking ... *shivers*
 
I got this book today and finished it tonight, which says two things 1) It's not a very long story, and 2) I find it to be an excellent book.
It's not really scary or bloody as you might expect from a story about vampires but you do get an unexpected ending, an ending that I think is great.

Hay
 
There was a scene in the book where Neville was hurt the first time. I think he was bitten or scratched by one of these undead on his front porch after stumbling out drunk.
At that moment I thought => "That's it. He's infected!" And it drove me nuts, that Matheson didn't mention anything unsettling over the next few pages. I thought it was all over now and Neville was doomed to become an undead as well. It really kept me reading till I knew what was going on.
Matheson waited some time before he revealed that Neville was immune.

What did you think about this passage? Did you like it?
 
Gizmo said:
What did you think about this passage? Did you like it?
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I considerd that he might be infected but thought that he had to have some resistence to it, since he hadn't caught it yet. What I got from the part about him running out and getting slashed was that he was reaching his limit of sanity and that stands as the greatest contrast to his behaviour later on. But I hadn't put a lot of thought into the fact that he dot hurt.

Hay
 
Gizmo said:
When you are the last living man on earth and you are thinking of your dead wife and daughter all the time it shouldn't be your first thought to get after the next undead lady!!!???
Click to expand...


I got the impression that he was repulsed or disgusted by sexual advances of the undead women, using sex to try to lure him out. Kind of like " yes, I'm a horny fella, but if that's all I've got to choose from, I think I'll just get drunk instead" He's got so many emotions going on inside of him, driving him to drink, too, grief, loneliness, frustration, fear...
 
I am Legend( Omega Man?)

Almost picked this book up today but I keep thinking of the old movie The Omega Man. Are these simalar to each other?, I like the Vampire type movies but Im not real big on Vampire books. Salems lot is about the only book of this type that I have liked.
If this is not the Omega Man in print and not a run of the mill type Vampire book id like to read it.
I picked up Hell House instead, it also looks good.
Thanks
 
READ IT!!!!

I am Legend is definitely not your average vampire book. I've never seen the Omega Man, so I cannot compare, but I loved it.
 
I just finished this story and I thought it was so well written. Matheson takes you into Robert Neville's world. You feel every emotion that Robert does and just when you think the poor guy has endured enough, something else "tops the cake."
I didn't want it to end. Especially the way it did, but it had to. People that are legends are not alive.
 
Come out, Neville!

I love this book, it's so well conceived and written and the ending is so elegant. It's amazing to read a book that just "clicks" in the end like this one did. And all this in just 160 pages - just goes to show that less is more, right. Anyone who is the least bit serious in reading vampire fiction MUST read this one as well as Dracula. And who can forget those haunting words:

"Come out, Neville!"
 
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