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by: Richard Matheson
List Price: $14.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765318749
ISBN: 0765318741
Label: Tor Books
Manufacturer: Tor Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: October 30, 2007
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Sales Rank: 4668
Studio: Tor Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone.
An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him. By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.... Richard Matheson’s classic novel has now been transformed by Warner Bros. into a major motion picture starring Academy Award nominee Will Smith. Directed by Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”), the film opens nationwide in December 2007.
Amazon.com Review:
One of the most influential vampire novels of the 20th century, I Am Legend regularly appears on the '10 Best' lists of numerous critical studies of the horror genre. As Richard Matheson's third novel, it was first marketed as science fiction (for although written in 1954, the story takes place in a future 1976). A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else. Employing a stark, almost documentary style, Richard Matheson was one of the first writers to convince us that the undead can lurk in a local supermarket freezer as well as a remote Gothic castle. His influence on a generation of bestselling authors--including Stephen King and Dean Koontz--who first read him in their youth is, well, legendary. --Stanley Wiater
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great book and literature
It is perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness. It far surpasses Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe in that regard. Its insights into what it is to be human go far beyond genre, and is all the more surprising because, having read his short stories- which range from competent but simplistic, to having classic Twilight Zone twists (he was a major contributor to the original tv series) there is nothing within those short stories that suggests the supreme majesty of the existential masterpiece ... Read More
Rating:  - Really a collection of stories
Wanted to read this and see how it compared to the movies. Really this is the I am Legend tale and then a collection of the author's other works as well, which I have yet to read.
Overall, it was a little too much 60's theory that man is controlled by his urges not his mind for my taste but it was nice to see the payoff at the end to understand what the author really wanted the title to be.
Rating:  - Not as good as I anticipated, unfortunately
I really wanted to like this book. Honestly, I did. I can see why the story of "I am Legend" has some serious appeal. I, at least, loved the ending, but it just couldn't make up for the disdain I had for the earlier parts. Coupled with the fact that this book is 312 pages and the story of "I am Legend" ends on page 159 means that this entire book isn't "I am Legend". Considering I wasn't a huge fan of "I am Legend", this might sound like a good thing, but the latter half of the book is filled with ... Read More
Rating: - A Fantastic Read, Worthy Among the Great Horror Stories
A few months ago I watched the fairly entertaining movie, however hadn't considered reading the book until a friend highly recommended it. What I found was a profoundly dark, dreary, and at time sadistic horror story that I believe ranks amongst the greatest ever written. If you weren't a fan of the all-too-typical Hollywood ending found in the book, you shouldn't pass up the original story's disturbing alternative!
Rating: - Much different than the movie...
After enjoying the movie quite a bit, I had to see what the original was like. It was no surprise, then, to find that I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but for reasons not the same. The book is way different than the movie, with really the only common element being vampires and Neville's name. Everything else is completely different!
Right from the beginning we know there are vampires, so no surprise reveal. And as another reviewer stated, the book is more about one man's trials and tribulations ... Read More
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