I Am Legend
Tähtivaeltaja Award 2008.
”The most clever and riveting vampire novel since Dracula.” – Dean Koontz
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 all hungry for Neville's blood. By day he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive like this?
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson (1926–2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He may be known best as the author of I Am Legend, a 1954 horror novel that has been adapted for the screen four times, although five more of his novels have been adapted as major motion pictures: The Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return (filmed as Somewhere in Time), A Stir of Echoes and The Box. Matheson also wrote numerous television episodes of The Twilight Zone for Rod Serling, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel". He later adapted his 1971 short story "Duel" as a screenplay which was promptly directed by a young Steven Spielberg, for the television movie of the same name.
Other books by Richard Matheson
Book Reviews
To be honest I think Dean Koontz is wrong, I found this book both cleverer and more riveting than Dracula, the fact that the antagonists are vampires is almost irrelevant, they could just as easily be zombies, werewolves or hells angels. The most important aspect is how and indeed why the last human continues to survive against the odds. It is one of the best post apocalypse novels ever written but unlike many of them it’s fairly short and hasn’t been dragged out to no great effect out the way some authors feel compelled to do. Also forget about the various film adaptations you may have seen, they are all good in their own way but none of them do justice to this book.