I Am Legend = a great first half of this book
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Please be aware that I Am Legend only comprises the first 170 pages of this edition. The publishers, riding the wave of the new movie of the same name, have filled the remainder with other Matheson short stories. They're great in their own right, but I wish the title was more representative of what was inside. Like any great story, I wanted I am Legend to never end.
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Disappointment
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This short story could have been so much more, the overall story line had the makings of a good novel condensed into a short story.
Good plot leading to one big dead end.
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The Best Matheson on Earth
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Matheson's classic tale of the last man on earth's battle against plague-ridden...vampires? That's right, before Romero ever set hordes of zombies loose upon the silver screen, Matheson had already done it, albeit with vampires. While it can be enjoyed on the surface as an excellent horror-thriller, it is also a strong exploration of the concept of what it means to be human, issues of violence and race domination. It will be interesting to see how the forthcoming film adaptation handles these subtleties, as well as whether or not the poignantly bleak ending will be retained or not. A short, but highly rewarding read. One of my top 10 of all time.
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Loved it, one of the best Vamp books I've read
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I am a huge horror fiction fan and lately I've been widening my collection to include older books (I usually read King, Laymon, Little, Lee, etc). So I picked up I am Legend b/c I've heard it is a classic vampire book. I can tell you I am not disapointed, this book was excellent and easy to read. I found it so interesting and fast paced I finished it in one day. The book is about Robert Neville, a man who had survived an epidemic that has turned everyone into vampires. He has barricaded himself in his house, venturing out in the daytime to get supplies and hunt vampires. The story is compelling as he struggles with his solitude and tries to figure out why people have changed and if there is a cure. This is a classic vampire novel and has earned a permenant place on my bookshelf!
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Visceral and sharp
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A great romp through the mind of a paranoid survivor of what may or may not be a disease that changed all humanity into monsters. The story is marred mostly by its brevity and quick conclusion, but the buildup and suffocating sense of being under siege are fantastic and the loops of reasoning and confused logic are superbly crafted. The other stories in this collection are memorable but not exceptionally well-written. A good read if you want to discover the origins of modern horror.
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