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Warning: Waiting for the Will Smith I am Legend movie? Beware, this post may contain spoilers!

More winter training reading goodness. Well, I’m on something of an post-apocalypse kick. Piqued by the I am Legend movie trailers, I researched the original 1954 novel by Robert Matheson just to see exactly what was going on. What I found was a quasi sci-fi vampire novel, one that happened to be one of the best and most important representatives of the genre in the 20th century. Further piqued, I popped by the local Borders, picked up the novel, sat down ostensibly to read the first chapter just to get a taste…and ended up reading the whole book. Wow, this is one amazing novel.

The protagonist is Robert Neville, a war veteran and regular joe who finds himself the last “normal” human, presumably on Earth, circa 1974. Something has happened, and that something is that every living person, and even some non-living, have turned into vampires. Many of the vampire tropes are in place: the thirst for blood, the aversion to garlic, sunlight, and crosses, immunity to bullets, and death by wooden stakes. Neville has fortified himself in his house, foraging for supplies during the day and repelling vampire attacks at night.

One aspect that sets this novel apart is that the main character Neville, displaying resourcefulness and ingenuity, spends much of his time researching and explaining why people have become vampires. For him, there must be a scientific explaination as to why vampires are warded off by garlic. He makes some startling discoveries, and while much of it is science fiction, it’s very good sci-fi and propels the story along nicely. Neville is also a flawed man, very much the anti-hero, drinking frequently and often times to oblivion, and the reader really gets a sense of the crushing loneliness and utter absurdity of his situation. On the surface this is a vampire book, but the real story is one of a man living in hell and how he deals with his situation, and it’s this exploration of character that really sets the novel apart.

The story has a pretty amazing twist at the end that will leave the reader pondering this one for some time. Read the book in one sitting then check out the movie in two weeks. I highly recommend I am Legend.