Sunday, August 10, 2014

Weekend Review: I am Legend

I was reading Horns, by Joe Hill, but I stopped when the library emailed me to say that Catching Fire was in. I still plan to review both books, but I haven't finished reading either one. I decided to look through my books and see which one I would be most likely to recommend to a friend. I am Legend by Richard Matheson is one of my favorites. It's the first book that I've read by Richard Matheson, but I do plan to read more. I must have read the book about the same time as the dreadful movie came out, since I have the movie cover. The movie is a joke in comparison to this book. Imagine being the last person on earth in a world dominated by vampires? Yes, vampires, not zombie-like weirdos. Imagine that they would pound on your door every night. That's what happens to Robert Neville, who is immune to vampirism because he was bitten by a bat who carried the disease. He is forced to kill his wife and daughter and burn them in a pit of fire. He stakes vampires during the day, unlike in the film where he goes to the video rental place. He researches vampires at the library, reading everything he can get his hands on. He has two brief glimmers of hope in this book. One is when a dog wanders onto his land and he befriends it, but that dog dies :(. Another is when a woman finds him. He thinks she's just like him, but she's just an evolved vampire who is wearing make up on her visible skin. At the end of the book he realizes that he is the only living man, making him legend like the vampires were. That was the movie I wanted to see, but the movie I got to see was horrible. A poor excuse for a sci-fi movie. I would have loved to see it the way it was written, as a horror novel. Anyway, this is one of my favorite books and I suggest for anyone who hasn't read it to read it as soon as possible.



FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS

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