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I Am Legend
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312865047
ISBN: 031286504X
Label: Orb Books
Manufacturer: Orb Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 317
Publication Date: September 15, 1997
Publisher: Orb Books
Studio: Orb Books
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Editorial Review:
One of the most influential vampire novels of the 20th century, I Am Legend regularly appears on the "10 Best" lists of numerous critical studies of the horror genre. As Richard Matheson's third novel, it was first marketed as science fiction (for although written in 1954, the story takes place in a future 1976). A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else. Employing a stark, almost documentary style, Richard Matheson was one of the first writers to convince us that the undead can lurk in a local supermarket freezer as well as a remote Gothic castle. His influence on a generation of bestselling authors--including Stephen King and Dean Koontz--who first read him in their youth is, well, legendary. --Stanley Wiater
Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth 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 dawn.How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Where Have You Gone, Charleton Heston?
It's beyond me to understand how horror fans can go on and on about their favorite horror books as if they were written by Pynchon or Nabokov. The bottomline about "I Am Legend" is simple: it's about loneliness and loss in a post-apocalypse world overrun by vampires. If that doesn't cause you to dissolve with laughter, then "I Am Legend" might be for you. It's well-written, holds the reader's interest, and has been the basis for three movies. It will appeal to most teenage boys (or to grown ... Read More
Rating: - ... worth it.
I read the book because I saw the movie (as surely many others did). I have to say that I actually liked the movie more, but they are so different that it's hardly worth comparing them.
The whole story is about what it would be like to be, basically, the last man alive. Although the conclusions it reaches are not entirely happy, the ending left me with a lot to think about in a way that the movie did not. It felt like it was political in some sense, but I'm not sure exactly what to think ... Read More
Rating:  - Great book and literature
It is perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness. It far surpasses Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe in that regard. Its insights into what it is to be human go far beyond genre, and is all the more surprising because, having read his short stories- which range from competent but simplistic, to having classic Twilight Zone twists (he was a major contributor to the original tv series) there is nothing within those short stories that suggests the supreme majesty of the existential masterpiece I ... Read More
Rating:  - Really a collection of stories
Wanted to read this and see how it compared to the movies. Really this is the I am Legend tale and then a collection of the author's other works as well, which I have yet to read.
Overall, it was a little too much 60's theory that man is controlled by his urges not his mind for my taste but it was nice to see the payoff at the end to understand what the author really wanted the title to be.
Rating:  - Not as good as I anticipated, unfortunately
I really wanted to like this book. Honestly, I did. I can see why the story of "I am Legend" has some serious appeal. I, at least, loved the ending, but it just couldn't make up for the disdain I had for the earlier parts. Coupled with the fact that this book is 312 pages and the story of "I am Legend" ends on page 159 means that this entire book isn't "I am Legend". Considering I wasn't a huge fan of "I am Legend", this might sound like a good thing, but the latter half of the book is filled with ... Read More
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