You are alone, surrounded by blood-sucking mutants who will stop at nothing to turn you into one of them. Well, maybe your schooldays aren’t quite that bad (;p), but as a back to school read I reckon I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is pretty much unbeatable.
It’s hard to believe it was first published in 1954. Why? Because when you read it, you’ll realise that every game, film, comic, novel or story (or blog!) about being trapped by monsters and fighting for your survival was directly influenced by this book. I Am Legend came first. And here’s the thing: it’s still absolutely amazing. It’s been filmed a couple of times, but neither version came close to capturing this book’s relentless tension, its psychological insight or (especially) its perfect, courageous, logical but at the same time utterly unexpected ending.
I reread I Am Legend last weekend in the spiffy new (but inexpensive!) classic-looking hardback “Gollancz 50″ edition above. It was even better than I remembered. Stake yourself a copy today.
If you like I Am Legend then a lot of the rest of Matheson’s work is well worth checking out too. His prolific output has sometimes been a little uneven in quality (Hell House, for example, didn’t work for me). The Shrinking Man, however, is brilliant.
Matheson takes a campy premise – a man who finds himself unstoppably, helplessly getting smaller and smaller – and turns it into a nightmare that would give Franz Kafka the shivers.
Matheson’s Westerns are surprisingly awesome too. I picked up two in the edition above. Journal of the Gun Years, in particular, is tremendous.
Happy Reading!
08/09/2011 at 12:38 am Permalink
I Am Legend is a fantastic book! Highly recommended. I had no idea Matheson had written The Shrinking Man, however. The old B&W movie scared me silly as a kid!