SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Richard Matheson has died at the age of 87.
He will be greatly missed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/...

My favourite? I Am Legend - a destiny that is now also his.

How sad. His short story Born Of Man And Woman is still one of the creepiest things I've read.

Wow, I just read that short story - creepy is right!

I still have to read that one.

Jen wrote: "How sad. His short story Born Of Man And Woman is still one of the creepiest things I've read."

I was just going to post about him and suggest reading this story -- his first published story. It's amazing:

http://www.inspirationbit.com/a-bit-o...

It's also in a number of anthologies.

Another great loss. We're going to put I Am Legend on the Random SciFi Poll for August in his memory since the group hasn't read it.

He wrote a lot more than just I am Legends. I dislike I am Legends is all basically all he is known for, and people want to read just because of the three movie adaption that made the story famous. For example, I did not know the movie Reel Steel was based on a short story by him until I saw Steel: And Other Stories in the bookstore. I wish the filmmakers would have marketed the movie like that so it could have done better.

Good blog post here: http://skullsinthestars.com/2013/06/2...

I'd forgotten that he wrote "Dual" about road rage. :)

Kevin wrote: "He wrote a lot more than just I am Legends. I dislike I am Legends is all basically all he is known for, and people want to read just because of the three movie adaption that made the story famous...."

I know he wrote more than that one book, but it is what he's best known for. I wouldn't give the films all the credit for that, I'd guess it was also one of his best stories which is probably why it was made into a film. I'm not saying you don't make a good point and that he doesn't have a lot of other great work, but I suspect I Am Legend is popular for a reason.

Kevin wrote: "He wrote a lot more than just I am Legends. I dislike I am Legends is all basically all he is known for, and people want to read just because of the three movie adaption that made the story famous...."
I didn't realise that Real Steel was from a Matheson story! I'm off to add that collection to my to-read list. I'm interested to see whether the weird unresolved self-awareness issue in the movie is there in the story.

On 'I am Legend' - it is a goodie. It's such a brilliant thing to be able to maintain a story with only one character to work with (well, one character up to a point). And while I was sure I was going to hate the movie, I didn't. I thought Will Smith did a pretty moving job and I was enjoying it until the woman turned up. Turns out I didn't really care that it only bore passing resemblance to the book.

This is a strange month - first Jack Vance, then Iain Banks, now Matheson. I've read few titles from him, so I'll try "I am Legends" (though I don't like Horror books).

He will be missed.