By Richard Matheson
I'm a fan of apocalyptic stories. The idea of everyone on Earth dying except for a few people or say one person and how they deal with the aftermath fascinates me. My favorite Twilight Zone episode is the one with Burgess Meredith where he is the last man left on Earth.
Enter I Am Legend. I saw the movie
when it first came out. I loved how it showed how Will Smith went shopping for food and other everyday items So I was excited to read the original 1954 story. Other "versions" of the book exist in movie format. The Omega Man
and Last Man on Earth
Now there are differences between the book and the movie. The biggest being the location. The book is set in Southern California, more on that in a bit, the movie in New York City. The main character Robert Neville is white instead of black, the movie takes place in the near future. Yeah really the differences are minor.
The book does a good job of showing how Robert survives by shopping at the supermarket and other local stores. Making do with the goods that are left and still in good shape. He has stocked the rooms of his house with food and liquor. He tries to deal with his agony over losing his wife and daughter with the liquor. If the book is dated it's only because Robert occupies his evenings drinking, smoking, reading, and listening to records. What's a record? Hey in another few years or so that might be a pretty valid question. He has to teach himself trades for example how to fix a car.
Robert reaches a few conclusions about what has caused mankind to die from his sturdy of human biology out of books from the library. He determines it is a bacteria that he is immune against. After 3 years he finally encounters another person. A women! Even though he is starved for companionship he is reluctant to believe that she is like him and not a vampire. He subjects her to his vampire tests but the true test will be testing her blood under his microscope. Is she a survivor or is she something else? This story is one you really should read for yourself.
On a side note the street Robert lives on, Cimarron, is in Gardena CA. I thought that the name sounded familiar when I was reading the book. At one point Robert is driving around and the narrative mentions that he turns on Haas Ave, and then right onto Cimarron. Yeah he lives the next street over from my grandparents! How weird is that?!
The version of the book that I read also has 10 other short stories that range from 2-10 pages long. I Am Legend was only 160 pages. None of the stories really stood out. They were all macabre and I thought not very well developed when compared to the main story. For about 3 or 4 days after finishing the book I kept daydreaming about being the last person left on Earth. It really blows your mind.
If you are interested in more apocalyptic TV shows try Jeremiah. It is being shown in reruns on the Sci-Fi channel. You can currently only get the first season
on DVD. I've heard that Jericho
is supposed to be pretty good also though I haven't watched it yet and I am planning on reading The Tripod series
by John Christopher soon. Look for more info on those book soon.If anyone has any suggestions for other books, movies, TV shows about apocalyptic stories stories let me know.
