Initially he seems a decent sort �' missing his family and friends, questioning his own sanity, feeling conflicted about hunting and disposing of the ‘monsters’ by day. I went back and forth on liking Robert Neville. Indeed, Richard Matheson builds science into this horror story, which makes it all the more frightening in the end. Instead, Robert Neville spends quality time at the local library digging up science texts, learning how a virus or bacteria could spread through out humanity, why the infected need sleep during the day, why garlic repels them.

This is one of the things I really enjoyed about the book �' it didn’t follow any solid fantasy/horror trope. Although better vampires stories exist, this book is worth the read for any vampire enthusiast and highly recommended.At first, it is not clear to the reader what we are dealing with �' vampires? zombies? merely the deranged left over few humans that survived some sort of plague? I’ll leave it up to you to read it and make up your own mind. Matheson also takes a new spin on vampire lore, which was one of the reasons this book appealed to me (the other being that it was a required text for a class). If you love stories based on the appeal of the last man, or on the decline of society, then this book would be to your liking. Thankfully, as the story progresses so does the word choice. The beginning, however, seems to be drawn out and the word choice is less than sophisticated. The book is a great (and quick) read, told by the perspective of Robert Neville, a man feared to be the sole survivor of the human race.

If you are purchasing the book because you like the movie you may feel cheated that the movie is merely based on the book, rather than a direct cinematic interpretation. The story is roughly 160 pages long, although there are ten short stories that follow:īuried Talents, The Near Departed, Prey, Witch War, Dance of the Dead, Dress of White Silk, Mad House, The Funeral, From Shadowed Places, and Person to Person. The differences are almost staggering Los Angeles/New York, Caucasian male/African-American male, blue collar/white collar, etc. The most obvious shared attribute is the title. The book and the movie share only a few details in common.

I am legend paperback