Nappaland's BookBlog Review

Cover ImageI AM LEGEND

by Richard Matheson

(TOR Books)

 

Reader Appeal: Mature Teen / Adult

Genre: Fiction / Horror

 

Nappaland.com reviews the new and fresh. We explore the cutting edge of pop culture—what’s now.

So why review a volume published in 1954?

For starters, I Am Legend has been adapted into film for the third time since 1964 (The Last Man on Earth and Omega Man were the early adaptations). Today, Matheson’s seminal novel is credited with popularizing the fictional theme of an epidemic triggering a world-wide apocalypse. I Am Legend has created a lasting impact on the horror genre - even Stephen King cites it as a source of inspiration.

The seemingly never ending press of zombie movies to hit the box office in recent years? The RESIDENT EVIL video game and movie franchise? Blame Matheson and this book.

So it seems fitting that Nappaland.com would take a look at the work that had a hand in starting it all. 

I have to admit that I’m timid about wandering into the horror genre at all. Didn’t the Apostle Paul tell us to keep our eyes on that which is good, pure, and rated “G”? It was Jeffery Overstreet’s thoughtful book Through a Screen Darkly that caused me to understand that the horror genre had the potential to allow audiences to explore the concepts of evil and justice. Evil, then, was a dark backdrop that could set off the virtues of love and justice. Then I encountered Ted Dekker and Coach Culbertson’s works and found examples of Christians redeeming the genre. So when I Am Legend hit the big screen, I decided give the horror genre a spin.

Matheson’s novel bears little resemblance to it’s big screen counterpart other than there’s a hero named Neville who lives alone battling the undead who encounters a dog, and later a woman. The movie adaptation strips away Matheson’s literary themes and retells I Am Legend as an heroic story of a man who sacrifices himself to literally save all of humanity.

Matheson on the other hand explores more complex themes. He delves into Neville’s efforts to cope with isolation, with alcoholism being his primary strategy. Neville spends his time repairing his home's defenses, battling vampire-like creatures, and attempting to discover the cure to the plague that has left him alone.

The story turns as Neville realizes that human society is continuing after all. But that he is excluded from it. The vampires are the new humanity. Neville, now, is the stuff of their legends. He is the monster who inhabits their nightmares, the bane of their existence.

I Am Legend is an intelligent and suspenseful thriller, and by today’s movie standards, is a rather tame story. Matheson’s work contains plenty of action, but does not rely on gore. Instead we feel Matheson’s loneliness and desperation. We are intrigued by flashbacks which reveal the secrets of the plague which lead to humankind’s demise… or rebirth, depending on which side of the legend one falls.

The second half of the volume is filled with several short shorts by Matheson. In these short stories we see Matheson experimenting on small literary canvases. “Mad House” is a notable haunted house story which explores the consequences of bitterness. A few the stories are reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe’s work.

I Am Legend is a volume that I’ll be passing on to my fourteen-year-old as soon as I finish this review. Christian parents could consider allowing their teens to read this book as an alternative to the some of the more dark and dehumanizing horror works that are available today.

BOOKBLOG RATING: A

--LS

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