Richard Matheson: I am Legend

This book is one of my all-time favorites because it simply gives you everything. I usually insult books which are short because they don’t develop enough to let you remember them and are centered on just one thing.

Well, here you have the last guy on the planet (that’s our centre from which we can’t derive, can we?) and we follow him as he scavenges for supplies, as he remembers his past in which something happened and resulted in everyone dead or turned into vampire. Now, retrospective is nice and certainly not boring. Then we have the main character actually going to library to gather as much info on viruses and diseases as possible. We also have our depressed character who doesn’t know whether to let go or not. Then we have a hopeful character who encounters a dog and wants him as a friend. After that we get even more hopeful character who can’t believe his eyes as he finds a woman who is actually alive and in the sunlight. Then, we have a guy who will not fight and surrender only to change his mind at the very last moment. Plus some more. 

I don’t wanna tell you about the mind-blowing discovery at the end because I want you to read it and experience it yourselves. There are so many levels, spoken and unspoken. And you know what? The author managed to fill every page with so much content that it doesn’t matter how short the book is. And the ending... oh my gosh. 

This book let me rethink all my values. Really, I had to think a lot about what’s good and what’s bad and how we deal with it (which is a rare moment for a social sciences major... we think about such things in class while reading all those evil philosophers but never while reading fiction). 

I read this book quite a few years ago and I still get the chills, I still remember the moment I was finished. I remember the impact. How it changed my life. This is exactly the type of book which will prevent you from reading anything else after that. You’ll find yourself sitting on a river bank and staring into water as you contemplate the meaning of life. And you won’t get up till you solve it. Or at least find a way how to solve it.

Well played, Matheson, this truly is a masterpiece.

GENRE: hall of fame doesn't say anything, does it? 
FANGS OUT: the end will blow your mind 
FANGS RETRACTING: haven’t found a single flaw 

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