Robert Neville, the original, is a factory worker and seems to have discovered the origin of the plague that has affected the *whole* world just by getting some books out of the library.

As we turn to the film, at least there is reasoning behind Will Smith’s – I’m not going to call him Robert Neville, we all knows that he’s playing Will Smith – scientific escapades and discoveries. Overwritten, it seems that Matheson is just trying to prove that he has done an awful lot of research. The science in I AM LEGEND, the novel, is completely baffling. Added to this, he has literally imprisoned his wife – not only has he had to kill her twice, but she is now destined to spend the rest of her Vampire days encased in a lead-lined tomb and in eternal darkness. His main concerns are now his car, killing lady vampires, his relationship with whiskey and his on-going rivalry with his now vamped-up neighbour Cortman.

He spends his days testing out various methods for killing the vampires, mainly on the lady vampires, and his nights trying ignore their oh so tempting undressing in his front yard – as our editor supreme Oliver said ‘Neville is not an equal opportunities vampire hunter’. Post-apocalypse, he remains uninterested in making the bed or doing the dishes. Pre-apocalypse, he gets up, drives to the factory with his friend/rival Ben Cortman and then comes home to his loving wife and child. Our protagonist, Robert Neville, is as attached to his post-zombie routine as he was to his pre-apocalypse routine – this book is essentially about the malaise of the 1954 working man. We decided that Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND is not only racist, but also incredibly sexist. There is even an I AM LEGEND 2 in the works, apparently.Īnyway, back to the lunch in hand. However, vampires have since become ‘cool’ again, thanks to the likes of TWILIIGHT, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and TRUE BLOOD. The Cold War soon hotted up, however, with the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the idea of imminent doom and nuclear war became a central theme for many writers, overtaking zombie apocalypse. Matheson moved the vampire myth into the scientific age. Romero (director of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and Stephen King. Descended from the gothic tradition, I AM LEGEND was perhaps the first book to really explore the idea of a zombie apocalypse, and has been cited as an influence by many since, including George A. Plagues were cool – this was the time of EARTH ABIDES and DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS. I AM LEGEND was published in 1954, at a time when the USA was recovering from World War II, and everyone was happy and getting fridges.

Last Friday was one of Hodderscape’s favourite days – book and film club day! This month, our motley crew gathered to discuss I AM LEGEND, both the Richard Matheson book and the Will Smith version, which stars, well, Will Smith and dog, with the inevitable cameo from one of his spawn.

Richard matheson's novel i am legend