An Interesting Spin on Vampirism

In 1954, Richard Matheson turned the vampire novel upside down in his classic 160-page novella, I Am Legend. It is still an influential story that, as of 2007, has been adapted to film four times with one of the 2007 releases being a straight to DVD release.

The book features Robert Neville, potentially the last living person in the world, as he tries to come to terms with how the mighty human species has fallen. The film takes place some time after the outbreak of a disease that does one of the following: kills and turns its victims into vampires, just turns them into vampires or leaves the immune alone. Unlike the vampire novels of the past, like Dracula or the Necroscope novels from Brian Lumley, the vampires turn into the majority. Don't worry. Nothing is ruined. You find out that much within the first ten pages. The story is an exploration of the human mind as it tries to cope with and understand disaster, loss, loneliness, desire and death.

Well, as stated before, the story is only 160 pages long and most copies of the book, especially the new one showing the movie poster for the release starring Will Smith, are 312 pages long. This means there are quite a few more stories from Matheson, who is well versed in horror and generally weird fiction, and had a work history with the original version of The Twilight Zone.

Some are just strange short stories, whereas others actually tend to actually be frightening without making you think too much about it. They follow a pseudo-Lovecraftian style of writing where, even if you know what's going to happen, a mad terror starts creeping into your mind forcing you to keep turning the pages. It is definitely a fast read because of this. If you're a quick reader you can easily finish the book in an evening.

So, time for the bottom line. Do you get the book, borrow it or just ignore it? The easy answer is, if you're a horror literature fan do not pass this book up for something else. It is a group of original twists on age-old stories and superstitions. It's heartfelt. It is frightening and lastly, interesting enough to make you not want to put the book down until you are finished reading it in its entirety.