I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Dec. 23rd, 2006 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
An SF novel about vampires ...
Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.
By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.
How long can one man survive like this?
Reprinted as part of Gollancz's 'SF Masterworks' series, this is one of those novels that's frequently cited as a standout in the genre, but which I'd never got around to reading before now (so thank you, Gollancz).
The premise is very simple: a bacterial infection has turned Earth's population into vampires - both 'living' vampires and 'living dead' vampires. For slightly contrived reasons, Robert Neville is immune to the infection, resulting in his soon becoming the only man alive.
The writing is brutal and tense. The Robert we see at the beginning is very much on the edge of his sanity. His days are monotonous - gathering wooden dowels for stakes, sharpening them, killing any vampires he comes across and repairing the defenses around his house. His nights are spent drinking alochol and trying to ignore the vampires who gather outside his house, including his former friend Ben Cortman, all of whom call for him to come out so they can drink his blood. As the story unfolds, Robert discovers a purpose in trying to work out what caused mankind to turn into vampires, devoting himself to research until he's discovered the bacteria responsible and then tries to work on a cure. Interwoven with this, we get some background to the plague and the personal toll it's wrecked on Robert, the disease taking his wife and the authorities taking his daughter. The one spark of hope that Robert has is when he meets a woman, Ruth, who seems to be unaffected by the disease and claims to be another survivor. But is she everything she seems ...?
There are holes in the story (e.g. the fact that Robert's immune because he was bitten by a vampire bat in Panama is just a little stretching credibility and his ability to learn about biology in a comparatively short space of time with little formal training) and I would have liked the section with Ruth to be drawn out more, on the basis that her revelation is shocking but happens too quickly for you to appreciate the betrayal and the implications. However, the writing is superb. This is a book that plugs into your worse fears, has a strong internal logic and a hero you can empathise with. It's also a book that does not pull its punches. I was very much thrown by one of the quotes on the back cover from James Lovegrove who says "It is by turns, scary, thrilling, tragic, witty and - ultimately - uplifting". I would love to know what Lovegrove's criteria is for uplifting fiction because the ending of this book was, to me, incredibly down beat and just a tad depressing. Yes, it suggests that a form of humanity will survive, but it will be a long, brutal struggle before society returns to anything approaching human standards.
My biggest gripe is actually about the price. Gollancz have put a price tag of £6.99 on this book, when it's only 160 pages. To be honest, whilst this is a good book and I'd recommend it to SF and horror fans alike, this is v. pricey for what you're getting. To put it another way, you could get the 450 pages of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman for £7.99 and that includes an interview with the author and some discussion topics. Gollancz could at least have put some kind of foreword in there either analysing the text, giving some more information on Richard Matheson or discussing its impact on the horror and SF genres. By just giving us the text of the novel, I felt a little short changed.
The Verdict:
Whether you're into the horror or SF genres or just really like a good old fashioned tense thriller, I'd recommend this book. My concerns about the pricing aside (and really, whilst Gollancz should be commended for plugging some of the classics of SF fiction, the price they're charging is indefensible for what is being offered), this is tautly written and will genuinely send a chill up your spine.
An SF novel about vampires ...
Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.
By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.
How long can one man survive like this?
Reprinted as part of Gollancz's 'SF Masterworks' series, this is one of those novels that's frequently cited as a standout in the genre, but which I'd never got around to reading before now (so thank you, Gollancz).
The premise is very simple: a bacterial infection has turned Earth's population into vampires - both 'living' vampires and 'living dead' vampires. For slightly contrived reasons, Robert Neville is immune to the infection, resulting in his soon becoming the only man alive.
The writing is brutal and tense. The Robert we see at the beginning is very much on the edge of his sanity. His days are monotonous - gathering wooden dowels for stakes, sharpening them, killing any vampires he comes across and repairing the defenses around his house. His nights are spent drinking alochol and trying to ignore the vampires who gather outside his house, including his former friend Ben Cortman, all of whom call for him to come out so they can drink his blood. As the story unfolds, Robert discovers a purpose in trying to work out what caused mankind to turn into vampires, devoting himself to research until he's discovered the bacteria responsible and then tries to work on a cure. Interwoven with this, we get some background to the plague and the personal toll it's wrecked on Robert, the disease taking his wife and the authorities taking his daughter. The one spark of hope that Robert has is when he meets a woman, Ruth, who seems to be unaffected by the disease and claims to be another survivor. But is she everything she seems ...?
There are holes in the story (e.g. the fact that Robert's immune because he was bitten by a vampire bat in Panama is just a little stretching credibility and his ability to learn about biology in a comparatively short space of time with little formal training) and I would have liked the section with Ruth to be drawn out more, on the basis that her revelation is shocking but happens too quickly for you to appreciate the betrayal and the implications. However, the writing is superb. This is a book that plugs into your worse fears, has a strong internal logic and a hero you can empathise with. It's also a book that does not pull its punches. I was very much thrown by one of the quotes on the back cover from James Lovegrove who says "It is by turns, scary, thrilling, tragic, witty and - ultimately - uplifting". I would love to know what Lovegrove's criteria is for uplifting fiction because the ending of this book was, to me, incredibly down beat and just a tad depressing. Yes, it suggests that a form of humanity will survive, but it will be a long, brutal struggle before society returns to anything approaching human standards.
My biggest gripe is actually about the price. Gollancz have put a price tag of £6.99 on this book, when it's only 160 pages. To be honest, whilst this is a good book and I'd recommend it to SF and horror fans alike, this is v. pricey for what you're getting. To put it another way, you could get the 450 pages of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman for £7.99 and that includes an interview with the author and some discussion topics. Gollancz could at least have put some kind of foreword in there either analysing the text, giving some more information on Richard Matheson or discussing its impact on the horror and SF genres. By just giving us the text of the novel, I felt a little short changed.
The Verdict:
Whether you're into the horror or SF genres or just really like a good old fashioned tense thriller, I'd recommend this book. My concerns about the pricing aside (and really, whilst Gollancz should be commended for plugging some of the classics of SF fiction, the price they're charging is indefensible for what is being offered), this is tautly written and will genuinely send a chill up your spine.
