I first became aware of this novel in 2000 when, instead of doing my assignment on Jane Austen, I was listening to a CD interview and story reading with Stephen King. In which he was asked who some of his influences were in the author world, and he announced that he was very much a fan in of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.
When he described the novel it sounded very much like something I would enjoy and I made a mental note to read it one day, perhaps after I graduated uni and could read again for pleasure, rather than pushing forward with my English, Creative Writing and Journalism degree.
Fast forward to 2007, I remember being in the cinema and seeing a preview for the latest movie adaptation of I Am Legend and before the title showed up I had thought to myself 'this story line seems oddly familiar' and went back later to check that the novel I had remembered wanting to read was of the same title. It was.
Anyway, I've always put off seeing the movie, mostly because I'm not a Will Smith fan, and also because I wanted to read the story without bias. Now that I have I'm curious to see how the movie portrays the book. Poorly, it seems from the reviews, but I still plan to make up my own mind.
It's only taken me twelve years to get my hands on the book, but I've finally read it (lesson here, kids, always keep a 'to read' list - very handy). I really loved this story, it's a novella rather than a novel, though Matheson's book does contain other horror stories, much shorter but with the same isolated subtext as I Am Legend.
The story is interesting as our protagonist, Robert Neville, isn't a hero, but is merely surviving and his existence almost seems useless and without purpose. We also learn very little about Neville before the plague, but are thrown nuggets of information through his memories which still leave me unsatisfied. But I guess the essence of true horror is not the story of the all-American overcoming all odds, but being forced to accept what has become and learning to deal with it.
Definitely worth giving this story 5 pints of blood.
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