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I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
01/01/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Gollancz. 161 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-575-08198-7. Buy I Am Legend in the USA - or Buy I Am Legend in the UK  check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
I suspect this review is going to be aimed at the younger generations than my particular generation who don't need to be told who Richard Matheson is and will probably already own a copy of 'I Am Legend'. Matheson, was a scriptwriter on the original 'Twilight Zone' and several notable films including 'The Incredible Shrinking Man', 'Duel' and 'The Legend Of Hellhouse', not to mention his fiction, some of which we've covered before. 'I Am Legend' also holds another distinction. This will be the second time that its been made into a film. The first, 'The Omega Man' starred Charleton Heston. Matheson wasn't happy with its director's religious allegory added at the end Whether that will change this time with Will Smith in the role of Robert Neville will have to wait until the film release.
This book is the original story, written in 1954, from which both have been based. Oddly enough, the story is set in the late 1970s which must have seen a long way 2away backwhen. Robert Neville locks himself away in his fortress home at night while vampires surround him, drowning his sorrows in whisky and classical music to hide the noise. In the daytime, he goes out looking for supplies and staking any vampires he can find while they are vulnerable. These aren't mythological vampires but the result of an infection and come in two varieties as you will discover when you read this book.
Written from Neville's perspective, you see his isolation taking its toll before he decides to fight back through the frustration. Matheson's book is a masterclass in showing Neville's vulnerability which also has a somewhat ageless quality. I haven't read the story in a couple decades now but I still came back to it afresh and finding something new in it. How many books can you say that about? One can only hope the film will live up to the book.
GF Willmetts
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