I Am Legend And Other Stories (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
Like Lucy, this rating is gonna take some splainin. Unfortunately, I don't have a slide show or any multi-colored pie charts to provide visual assistance on this one, so I will try to splain it as clearly as I can, but I will be using quite a few "i.e." and "e.g." to provide supporting clarification for my commentary given I am performing this review without the safety net of visual aids. Please, do not try this at home. Oh, I've also decided to throw in the occasional word in Spanish...why you ask?....because I just watched some old I Love Lucy re-runs and am getting in touch with my inner Ricky Ricardo. Okay, from the standpoint of pure smile-spreading enjoyment (e.g., while reading, I look down and notice my toes tapping involuntarily to the smooth, jazzy, melodic flow of the narrative), I would probably rate this 3 to 3.5 stars (i.e., there was no visible toe tapping, but I did have the occasional feeling of warmth move through my tummy....though that could've just been the tacos). Richard Matheson is a terrific writer and this story, like his others, is a quality product and I have zero complaints about the prose or the technical choices he made took in constructing the narrative. My issue was really with the main character, Robert Neville. He just wasn't very compelling or interesting. He certainly wasn't the most engaging character I have ever come across. This is a bit of a problem since the entire book is spent lollygagging around with Robby as he provides running jogging sauntering commentary about the world around him. This was a negative for me and detracted from the number of happy units I was able to mine from the reading experience. So why the 4.0 to 4.5 stars? I shall splain as there are several reasons that are mucho importante (Oh, yeah...that's right, I just turned this into my first bilingual review). How cosmopolitan. First (Primero) is the plot. This book, written in 1954, was the genesis for EVERY zombie book that follows and provides the basic framework for most of the post-apocalyptic undead fiction being produced today. Amazingly, it is also one of the best of these stories despite being the first. Here is the basic plot or argumento: Robert Neville is the sole survivor of a pandemic that struck the world and caused the infected to exhibit all the outward signs of vampirism (vampirismo). He spends his days gathering supplies, fortifying his house and killing the sleeping “vampires” and spends his nights barricaded in his house and fending off attacks from the walking dead. Sound familiar? Well this is the book that started it all and I felt that deserved some serious recognition for both its originality and Matheson's being a trailblazer (pionero) of the zombie sub-genre. Second (Segundo), is the world-building/back-story and Matheson's explanation of both the plague and the “vampires” which I thought was nothing short of EXCELENTE (i.e., magnifico). While certainly not good science in the sense that it can be analyzed objectively, the explanations given are compelling and superb theater. I actually wish more time had been spent on this aspect of the book because I thought it was just fantástico (i.e....if you need a translation of this, please stop reading and go put the crash helmet back on). Third (Tercero), is the end of the book which, in my opinion, is worthy of 5 HUGE stars all by itself. I would say that goes double for the very last line of the book (which I think makes it a 10 MEGANORMOUS star ending if my math is correct). Thus, Matheson being the superb writer that he is, not only invents a sub-genre but then, over 50 years after the fact, can still claim to have written one of the best, most original examples of it. That is pretty especial, no? Thus for all of the above reasons (motivos), I am giving the book a rating of 4.0 to 4.5 stars despite not always “enjoying” the book as much as I would have liked. However, if you haven’t read this, I would highly recommend it as I think it has a lot going for it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
It was really good. Neville is a very interesting protagonist. You really want to root for him that he will survive. I don't want to spoil you, but the ending will definitely hit you like a one-two punch. I definitely wanted a different one. Nevertheless it was one of the best short stories I have ever read. I finished I am Legend more than a year ago. It had such an effect on my psyche that I had to put the book down. Let me tell you a secret. I am a bit of a whimp when it comes to horror. Yet like the worst masochist, I adore horror. I love being scared and that feeling of unsettledness that settles in your stomach like a heavy meal. Anyway, I felt like I wanted to finish it, because I really liked Matheson's writing. And I paid a lot of money for the book ;)I pulled it out the summer I moved back to TX and read some more. There were some excellently written stories, all deeply disturbing. One of the most effecting is one where a henpecked young woman under her mother's thumb buys a Zuni doll for her boyfriend that her mother has forced her to break up with. The Zuni warrior comes to life and tries to kill her. She manages to survive but her mind is possessed by the Zuni doll and she calls her mother over to visit. The story ends with her jabbing a knife into the floor in the same motion the Zuni doll uses. The end is particularly disconcerting because you know that a horrendous fate awaits her mother. Another story was a little too unsettling. It's set in the future after wars and people have barely managed to keep a semblance of normal life. A sheltered suburban girl meets a dangerous crowd in college. They go to the city to a club where there is a unique show. A woman who has become effectively a zombie from a drug that she overdosed on. That scene was really hard to read because the horror is knowing that this was a normal girl who was changed by this drug she abused. And the other element of horror rests in the fact that the young, sheltered woman is about to walk down the same path. That was not my favorite story. Another story features a man who goes to the funeral parlor to plan his wife's service and arrangement. It ends with him going home to kill his wife. Very unsettling. As I have described, some of the stories are quite disturbing, some horrific, and some humorous. I loved the story in the funeral parlor where a vampire wants a funeral and he invites a host of ghoulish creatures. And the witch and this other character has a fight. Of course the werewolf has to go because he is called by the moon to hunt. It was really funny. I also loved the one where the guy has been hexed by a witch doctor in Africa and his fiance calls her anthropologist friend who studied witch doctors to save him. It was really really good-my second favorite after I am Legend. I think it be great as a movie short. Probably the most disturbing story was the one with a man who has anger issues. His anger has possessed his house, for lack of a better description. He is a frustrated writer who cannot write and has allowed bitterness to kill him slowly. Strange things happen to him at home, rungs slip, pencils jab him, he bangs his knee everytime he sits down at the table. His wife has decided to leave him and he cannot ask her to stay, although he loves here. His friend at the university where he works who is a scientist warns him about the house but he doesn't listen. He manages to get fired by yelling at a student and goes home. His wife is there and asks him to tell her to stay, he runs her off, and the house takes his revenge. This story comes across like a Greek tragedy. You can see the path that the character is taking but you are helpless to stop it. This is the side aspect of horror. The horror lies not necessarily in the supernatural elements but the poor choices the characters make. I can see why Matheson is cited as an influence by Stephen King. He definitely has a feel for the horrific in various forms.
What do You think about I Am Legend And Other Stories (1997)?
Richard Matheson (1926-2013) In Memoriam.Such is the low profile of some great writers that it's only now I discovered that this early sf favourite of mine died five months ago. I discovered sf in my teens (as you know, the answer to the question "when was the golden age of science fiction?" is "14") and I Am Legend was the first novel I read all in one without a break because I couldn't do anything except read it, I was as hypnotised as a rabbit in the headlights of a big van being driven straight at my head. Man, what a trip. Those were the great days of reading when every page was like an explosion. This short novel, if I remember right, is frighteningly bleak, there's not the slightest chance of any kind of happy ending. It was the first apocalyse story I read. Now they're as common as traffic cones. How many times have you seen the Statue of Liberty's arm poking up out of a heap of rubble/the engulfing waters/a pile of corpses. Very surprisingly, the latest movie version of I am Legend was pretty good, I thought, except for the usual audience-tested fake ending. I usually mentally discount the last scene of every big budget movie these days, it's the next-to-last scene which is the real ending. It's a convention, they have to do it. I did enjoy the head of the Statue being hurled into the street in Cloverfield which was a great little apocalyse movie, and one I could imagine Richard Matheson writing. I gave that scene my "Best use of the Statue of Liberty in an SF Movie" award for that year. The wonderful tv series The Walking Dead is son-of-I Am Legend and I hope RM enjoyed the first couple of series before he died and didn't come back again.
—Paul Bryant
What a ride! I loved this book. The title novella was the main attraction, and took up more than half of it. It was very good, a solid 4+ star effort.But what brought it up to 5 was the inclusion of 10 other great Matheson stories. These weren't simple filler; each story was enjoyable (and mostly creepy) on its own.Matheson has a talent for giving readers a snapshot of another world/reality/time/possibility. He doesn't use pages and pages to describe the settings where these stories take place, but just a few words. And they're so vivid. I've commented somewhere that any of these little realities could be so much more. They all have enough imagination and possibility wrapped up in them that they could fill long books or movies without losing anything.Short story collections don't always do it for me. Usually there are a few good ones, but a lot of "meh" stuff in between. While I liked some better than others, I can honestly say that Matheson is very consistent. Most writers don't hold up through an entire volume of short work quite this well. The big exceptions to that are Stephen King, as well as his son Joe Hill. Coincidentally (?), both have listed Matheson near the top of the list of their influences.Favorites:"Witch War" - just a few pages, but wow. I would love to see this expanded to a huge epic. I love it."Person to Person" - Awesome way to cap off the book. Creep-fest that should have been a Twilight Zone episode."I am Legend" - Main attraction. It's more than a scary story (though it is). It's a tale of survival as well as a story about the psychological effects of isolation. Very layered, simple in its telling but deep in meaning.
—Chris
Okay, you’re a sci-fi or horror fan. Maybe you are into ‘cult classics.’ Maybe, you just like reading the novels that movies are based on. It almost doesn’t matter. If you’re considering this novella, by all means read it. Matheson does a lot with this story and does it well. Every I is dotted, every T is crossed. Any “what about…” question is answered and every “why don’t…” is spoken to. He does everything you could hope for, except create characters you can care about. Don’t misunderstand, he creates characters you’re quite likely to remember (a form of caring, I suppose) but empathy seems unlikely. I have to rate this novella highly, largely because the author did so much correctly. For a novella/short story, there’s little extraneous—little to fault. I won’t spoil the ending; it’s unnecessary when reviewing. I will say, “Alas, poor Fortunato, I knew him.” The title—its relation to the story—is exquisite. Inspired.
—Mike Puma
