I Am Legend - Richard Matheson

This book is a bit out of my normal comfort zone. I've been watching a lot of older films lately, and there have been some good ones and some not so good ones. I've seen movies with classic actors such as Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I've also seen a few with Vincent Price. One that caught my eye a few weeks ago was called The Last Man on Earth (1964). As I was watching the credits, I noticed the story was based off this book. When I saw that, I recognized it as the title of another movie starring Will Smith. In all, three movies are based off this book.

Robert Neville is the last man alive. Each night, his house is besieged by what he believes to be vampires. So, he spends his days fortifying his house, clearing away the bodies, killing any slumbering vampires he can find and just trying to stay sane. The book covers a time period of about three years. In that time, Robert tries to discover the source of the vampires and what he can do about it.

This book was interesting in that there's basically one character for most of it. There are a few flashbacks here and there, but overall, it's a man against himself and his surroundings. He has to teach himself science to try and discover how the disease works, and then what to do with the information he collects. 

I appreciated the way Robert's emotions were handled throughout the book. This isn't one of those happily ever after books, so don't expect to walk away with a light heart afterwards. I did enjoy this book and thought it was an intriguing and unique contribution to the usual vampire stories. Good Book!

P.S. I liked it much better than the movie - no offense Vincent!