I cannot remember when exactly I heard of I am Legend, but I know that I immediately wanted to read it (I want to say that it was from some 1970s Hugo award-winning derivative, but I think this origin is unlikely). I am reasonably sure that the novel's Wikipedia page has spoilers, but I have never read it (just to make certain). When I saw the preview trailer (twice!) for the movie with Will Smith earlier this year, I knew that I would have to read the book before the film was released.
Normally when I read a book and I know a feature film is upcoming, I am hopeful that the movie will not only adequately transform the book's words into images, but will enhance it. With I am Legend, I want exactly the opposite. From what I have seen from the extended trailers shown during the World Series, the film may stray substantially from the book. This would be a Very Good Thing. Read on for spoilers about the book, which I do not think you should read anyway.
The main character in I am Legend is Robert Neville. In what has become science-fiction cliché, he is the only human left on Earth. Everyone else is either dead, or has become a vampire. Neville spends his nights barricaded into a fortress-like home, but is able to move freely during the days.
While I realize that the book was groundbreaking back in 1954, there are still enough unreasonable plot elements that had me rolling my eyes. For example:
- The sudden spread of vampirism is explained by a bacterial plague, which is helped to spread by an increased amount of dust caused by nuclear bombs. Despite being a factory worker before the epidemic occurs, Neville manages to accrue enough scientific knowledge to figure this out.
- Neville does not become infected, because he was previously bitten by a vampire bat during military service in Panama.
- The vampires never seem to make good-faith efforts to break into Neville's home, preferring instead of wait outside and taunt him.
To the vampires, Neville is a serial killer, a monster that comes during the daylight hours and kills them mercilessly.
To them he was some terrible scourge they had never seen, a scourge even worse than the disease they had come to live with. He was an invisible specter who had left for evidence of his existence the bloodless bodies of their loved ones.
The book raises a lot of interesting questions on superstition's relation to science, normalcy, and the benefits of society and civilization. Unfortunately, at 151 pages (which includes a substantial amount of flashbacks), many of the weightier concepts are poorly developed. Even more damning is the fact that the book's enjoyability fades as the book continues. By the end of the novel, I cared less about Neville than I did when I was first introduced to him on page 1. I do not know whether the film version of I am Legend will be more satisfying, but it will be difficult for it to be worse, even if it is another generic horror film.
# At 17:19 on December 7, 2007, MTF wrote:
you are such a redicuously lost and small minded retard. buckle up cause your riding the short bus...this book is one of the top 10 books ever written. you make no sense at all with your craptastic comments about the book and have no sense of understadning half the things that are represnted in this story and it's similies. stfu. seriously.
# At 17:20 on December 7, 2007, MTF wrote:
douche...thats you that is.
# At 18:29 on December 7, 2007, Martey wrote:
I realize that the previous two comments by MTF were probably meant to be insulting, but the misspellings and hyperbole ("one of the top 10 books ever written") made me laugh. I felt my readers needed to share in my mirth.
I think if I am making people like MTF angry, I am doing something right.
# At 10:02 on December 8, 2007, John Freese wrote:
Martey - You are legend. You could wreck MTF with your little pinky.
# At 16:09 on December 8, 2007, Ben Sheridan wrote:
Just like you wrecked MTF's mom with your montstrous black dong...
# At 11:49 on December 22, 2007, Isaac Glendening wrote:
Does every single thing need to be spelled out for you with a plot? The book explains enough and allows you to let your imagination fill in what it wants while giving you a great story about Robert Neville and this new world he lives in. Apparently, this wonderful book was lost on you.
# At 12:53 on December 22, 2007, Martey wrote:
My issue with this novel is not that few things are explained, but that too many things that are not explained do not make any sense. This is not an issue with my imagination, but with Matheson's half-hearted attempt at constructing the "new world" that Neville lives in.
The book may have been lost on me, but the review was lost on you, Issac.
# At 15:25 on April 14, 2008, Isaac Glendening wrote:
No Sir, I got the sum of your feeble attempt to understand this story. Perhaps if your own reading comprehension was up to snuff you would be able to at least spell my name properly...but it must be hard for someone like you.
--ISAAC
# At 22:50 on April 14, 2008, Martey wrote:
I'll apologize for spelling your name wrong, Isaac, but I will not apologize for my feelings on the book.
Instead of spending several pages talking about changes in society in the face of the plague (incineration as the only legal form of burial; the rise in belief in pentecostal religion) that are only tangentially related to the main story, Matheson should have spent more time on the "new world" that you laud so much. It is not until the very end of the novel that we discover anything about the vampiric society that has replaced human civilization, and then we are limited to the vague impressions of the imprisoned Neville.