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[firecat]

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

I didn't expect much from the book that inspired George Romero to make Night of the Living Dead (I am not a fan of zombies), but I was pleasantly surprised. Published in 1954, I Am Legend had a huge influence on the modern vampire and zombie horror genres. The story focuses exclusively on the activities and inner dialogue of a man who believes he is the last survivor of a plague that infected all other humans with a zombie-ish form of vampirism. The book is well written and doesn't pull any punches. The survivalism/vampire trope is basically an excuse to explore human emotion in all its variety.

Trivia note: Richard Matheson also wrote the Star Trek:TOS first-season episode "The Enemy Within."

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Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I have to read that at some time, but it's one of those works like Psycho or The Sixth Sense where I already KNOW the twist before I've ever seen it.

It seems to me that a vampire story is about a small number of monsters preying on a large group of innocents/victims, while a zombie story is about a large number of monsters preying on a small group of innocents/victims.

And that I Am Legend is the story of a man who thinks he's the hero of a zombie story, but discovers that he's actually the villian in a vampire story.