Sunday, May 16, 2010

I Am Legend by: Richard Matheson


Synopsis (for just the novella I Am Legend, not any of the other stories):

From out of the night come the living dead with a single purpose: to destroy Robert Neville, the last man on earth.
[from barnesandnoble.com]

I watched the movie I Am Legend a while ago, and was excited to see the similarities and differences between the movie and novella. There were definitely more differences than similiarities. I really liked the novella, I think it had a cooler message in the end, and I liked how the main character wasn't really someone the reader could fully love or fully hate. It was easy to empathsize with him, but he wasn't a very likeable character. He had flaws. And I liked that. He wasn't a kind-hearted survivor like Will Smith was in the movie, he was rough around the edge. So, I think the novella was a stronger story. I liked how the vampires communicated. The creatures in the movie didn't really communicate like the ones in the novella did. And I liked the scientific explanation that was given in the novella. It was definitely an interesting take on vampirism.

So, while I loved the movie, I think I liked the novella a bit more.

The other stories in the collection were interesting. I wasn't fond of "Buried Talents" or "Dance of the Dead".

"Prey" was okay, as was "Witch War", although I would've liked more on "Witch War". I think Matheson could've gone farther with that story. It was interesting. I would've liked to have known more about the seven girls. The end of "Dress of White Silk" was creepy, and I liked how he wrote it in the perspective of a little kid. That was cool. I liked the premise of "Mad House, but hated the main character. I didn't feel bad for what happened at the end of the story at all.

"The Funeral" was cool, but it's another story I would've liked to read more about. "From Shadowed Places" was all right, interesting enough. "Person to person" was probably my favorite in the collection, after the novella. I loved the ending, it was pretty awesome.

All in all, the stories were entertaining, but it's not a collection that I'll be going back to anytime soon. For some, I would recommend checking it out from the library first. 

Overall rating: 6/10

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