Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

In August we will be reading I Am Legend by Richard Matheson for our Sci-Fi & Fantasy category - who's in?

Hmmm.....vampires.....undecided.

I read this book awhile back and I really liked it. I was expecting it to be more like the movie with Will Smith, but it was very different. The book was definitely darker, but in some ways, better.

Started listening to an audiobook for this today. Anything post apocalyptic is right up my street normally!

I'm three quarters of the way through and before starting the book I have said that I was expecting zombies - wasn't expecting vampires.

I'm enjoying its everydayness - the acceptance that this is what life's like for Robert Neville and it's all written in a non-hyperbolic way. It reminds me of H G Wells or John Wyndham in that respect - much better than I'd thought it would be.

I’m planning to read this later in the month.

I finished this last night and my thoughts are below. Was listening to an audiobook with short stories as well as the novel and was only half way through and so thought there was loads still to come...so the ending really caught me off guard!

Brilliant post apocalyptic atmosphere with a strong focus on what it would actually feel like to be the last one remaining - though still action packed. I genuinely thought this was written in the last decade or so and was amazed to find out it's all the way back from the fifties.

This novel is one of those rare instances where I could have happily read another couple hundred of pages. The ending felt very abrupt and hence why it's not a full five stars.

I read this 15 years ago. It was very interesting and exciting! But I don't feel the need to reread it. Enjoy!

So my review (I don't think there's any real spoilers - I think most people will expect a twist in the end and I don't reveal the actual twist)

*************
I ended up giving it 5/5 stars

Well that book was MUCH better than I ever expected it to be. Firstly - for some reason I was expecting zombies, not vampires. Secondly, I admired the non-hyperbolic writing and tone, it reminded me a lot of HG Wells, or John Wyndham, where the events are described journalistically as simply happening, with a minimum of adjectives or fuss or hysteria. I got the impression of a man used to this situation, whose everyday routine was being described.

Mostly, however, I loved the moral ambivalence of the novel. Neville's moral certainty, however, is shown to be based on shaky ground and the last 30 pages are a real tug of the rug from under the reader's feet. I wasn't expecting the end - which can be interpreted as rather hopeful for humanity.

In the end, I'm giving it 4 stars for the writing (which was still excellent) but the full 5 for its turnaround of the vampire genre, giving it a whole new potential direction.

I think it is well-known lore (if it hasn't been fact-checked), that George Romero was inspired by "The Last Man on Earth" when he made "Night of the Living Dead," the first 'reanimated corpse' zombie movie (zombies were voodoo mind slaves in previous pop culture)- so the zombie/vampire split had not yet occurred, so to speak.