Comments on: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

By: John McClain

John McClain — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:52:20 +0000

@Brian Vacek: Not “an” apocalypse novel, it’s actually the first Apocalypse novel written in English (French author Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville wrote Le Dernier Homme in 1805 so he keeps the title for the first Apocalyptic novel written, but it came out in France, so Shelley keeps her “first written in English” title). The beginning of Shelley’s novel is quite slow, and the novel is written for people of a different time, but I think it’s worth a read anyway.

By: Brian Vacek

Brian Vacek — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:07:26 +0000

Mary Shelley wrote an early plague apocalypse novel called “The Last Man” back in 1826. I haven’t read it, but I’m certainly curious.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:28:27 +0000

Another fantastic read. My main problem with any of the movies that had been written about this book is that they completely missed the point.

The books title directly references this, that righteousness/goodness is relative. The dragon slayer becomes the dragon.

By: Cam

Cam — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:43:53 +0000

I’m a dolt. I completely forgot that you’d already written a review of the book on this site.

http://www.wereadscifi.com/i-am-legend-by-richard-matheson/

Sigh. Sorry about that.

By: ian

ian — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:16:11 +0000

Glad you liked it Cam. It’s a great book, quite a quick read, but I liked that about it. Not full of self-gratuitous fluff (ehem, Stephenson)…. and of course the flipping around of what is myth was the clincher which made a good book, one of the greats.

By: Cam

Cam — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:02:23 +0000

Thanks Ian! That was an excellent book. I didn’t read many of the short stories that came bundled with it since they didn’t seem to be related in any way to this world.. at least not the first 5 or 6 of them. The ending was indeed worth the read, and an excellent commentary on ‘normal’ being purely in the eyes of the beholder. I thought that the original Neville was very believable as a character, and doubt anyone, faced with the same situation, could have been as gallant and heroic as Will Smith was in the movie. But hey, that’s Hollywood.