Or not. I was going to do an "I Am Sparta!" title, but I figured the horse has left the stable on Sparta jokes, so best to move on. I finished reading I Am Legend last week, and I figure I might as well talk a little bit about it.
The ending seemed to come upon me rather abruptly, but I think that's my fault. I didn't really pay attention to the table of contents, so I saw the book had 300+ pages and figured that was all I Am Legend, but the last half is actually a collection of short stories by Matheson. So as you might imagine, I was rather surprised when the book ended, since I was expecting a whole lot more stuff, like a prison break, or Neville becoming one of them, then destroying them from within, something like that.
The book does a lot of what I hope the movie does (I still haven't gone to see it), as much of the book is about what Neville does to pass the time. Keeping his house fortified, looking for supplies, destroying any vamps he stumbles across, and struggling with the memories of what he's lost. There's a lot of that in the book, as Neville's moods swing wildly from determined, to hopeful, to frustrated, to the depths of drunken depression, and even one night of being nearly suicidal.
When he finds a person near the end, I'm not sure I really buy their concern for him. He really isn't all that nice to them, and given the reason they're there, it just seemed a bit tacked on. The last few pages were excellent though.
Matheson seems to like writing about human psychology. It plays a role in I Am Legend, and there are at least two of the short stories that seem to involve a person in conflict with their subconscious (Person to Person and Dance of the Dead), and Mad House had an interesting idea about the effect we have on our surroundings, and the effect they can have on us. I don't get what Buried Talents was about, though. The dangers of running dishonest carny games? I'm not certain. On the whole though, most of the short stories, especially the longer ones, were pretty entertaining. The shorter ones suffer, for me, because it seems like there's some sort of catch, or a hook, but Matheson doesn't really have the time to explore the hook and what the meaning is meant to be, so I'm just left there going "Huh?"
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4 comments:
I've yet to read the book or see the new movie, but I hear the flick doesn't make the cut. Still, it's got me very interested in reading the original tale...
-M
From what I understand (from friends who saw the movie) the first half is pitch-perfect, but the second half deviates significantly from the book. I guess I'll find out when it hits video.
I have to dig out my copy of the book, it's been a long time since I've given it a read.
See? Toldja it was good.
matt: I would suggest reading the original, especially since you get all these short stories as a bonus. I've heard the same thing about the movie, though.
jason: Based on what I read in Greg Hatcher's post at Comics Should Be Good, the way the vampires are portrayed kind of takes away any chance the title had of having the same meaning.
bret: Yes, yes you did. Thank you.
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