I Am Legend Audiobook By Richard Matheson cover art

I Am Legend

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I Am Legend

By: Richard Matheson
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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About this listen

The basis for the film starring Academy Award nominee Will Smith, I Am Legend is a classic of horror and suspense.

In I Am Legend, a terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive are transformed into bloodthirsty creatures of the night. Robert Neville is the last living man on earth. Every other man, woman, and child has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

Richard Matheson’s chilling tale is a white-knuckle ride into a world of darkness and terror.

©1954, 1982 by Richard Matheson (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Fantasy Fiction Horror Paranormal Science Fiction Scary Vampire
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Critic reviews

"One of the ten all-time best novels of vampirism." ( Fangoria)
"The most clever and riveting vampire novel since Dracula." (Dean Koontz)
"I think the author who influenced me most as a writer was Richard Matheson. Books like I Am Legend were an inspiration to me." (Stephen King)

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What listeners say about I Am Legend

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    7,159
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    4,873
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    2,142
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

TheThe Best Matheson on Earth

Matheson's classic tale of the last man on earth's battle against plague-ridden...vampires? That's right, before Romero ever set hordes of zombies loose upon the silver screen, Matheson had already done it, albeit with vampires. While it can be enjoyed on the surface as an excellent horror-thriller, it is also a strong exploration of the concept of what it means to be human, issues of violence and race domination. A short, but highly rewarding read. One of my top 10 of all time. I wasn't overly fond of the narrator for this, but I'm pretty sure that's a matter of personal preference.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I thought it would suck

I'm into zombies not vampires. The book was written in the 50's so i thought it would be outdated. I liked the movie, but really thought the book must be very boring. A dude all by himself. Seemed a bit boring. I just pictured an artsy kind of book with a guy dealing with his internal struggle and alot of blah blah.

Well, it really is kinda all of the above, except boring. Its very interesting and I am sure if the book was written today it would definitely be with zombies, not vampires. There is some action too, so all is okay. I think it must have been redone too, I swear a date I heard was in the 1970's.

Narrator was pretty good with good inflection at the appropriate places, not seemingly randomly for no reason like some annoying narrators.

I did not like the end. It was a good ending. I don't want to give it away, but it was artsy. If you find artsy endings predictably similar you know what I mean (opposite of Hollywood endings).

If you like zombie stories I think this will satisfy you.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A

Being a fan of the movie, "The Omega Man," I finally got around to reading "I am Legend." I enjoyed the story very much. I was surprised that it was a "vampire" story as well as a post -apocalypse tale. Now I am even more interested in what Hollywood and Will Smith come up with for the new movie adaptation being released in December 2007. I think that Robert Neville is probably one of the most memorable characters in Science Fiction. The narration is excellent.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Still better than any of the movie versions

And why is it better? Because it asks questions about what it means to be human that the movies choose to skip over. But to talk about what those questions are would be too much of a spoiler, so I'll just point out how much the current zombie craze owes to this book. From George Romero to The Walking Dead, this book anticipated and in some ways is still way ahead of them in exploring the possibilities. Here's the thing: not all of the night creatures in this book are inarticulate rotting zombies. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Better than the movie

At first when I started listening (I have the audio version), I kept comparing it to the movie and thinking the movie was better. But as it went along my opinion totally changed. This was way better than the movie. No overdone messiah figure, no maudlin "a boy and his dog" with echoes of Old Yeller. Now that being said, there were parts I didn't like. The anger spells were just cheesy and poorly written IMHO. Also it is unbelievable that without any prior training and no one to assist him, this one guy came up with all this science. I don't buy it.

Now one reason why the book was better than the movie, is that the book actually makes sense out of the title which is the whole theme of the book. The movie absolutely didn't, and I left the movie wondering why the heck it was called that (call me sheltered but I didn't even know there was a book). It made no sense.

I don't even think the movie should have been called the same name--it radically departed from the story. Radically. It was at best derivative. Though the Fresh Prince's acting was, as usual, stellar.

One more reason not to like the movie. THEY SMASHED A GORGEOUS MAC PRO!! So while the protagonist was killing his dog, I was like, "Forget the dog, look what happened to the Mac!"

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant.

A Great story made even better by the masterful performance of Robertson Dean. Check it out!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great classic vampire novel

A classic scary vampire novel. The novel focuses on a character who is surviving in a world overrun by vampires. The vampires are more like zombies than modern vampires, as they lack the intellect and sophistication bestowed in most vampire stories. The main character was portrayed as a nervous wreck, and the descriptions of him, his mental state, his situation, and more were very thorough and detailed.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Please read/listen & judge for yourself.

I have watched the original 1964 movie starring Vincent Price as Robert Neville, as well as watching Will Smith play same. It seems to me that the original 1964 movie (Titled "Last Man on Earth" written by Richard Matheson) follows the book more accurate then the movie "I am Legend" w/Will Smith.
The Movie w/Will Smith was made more for the audience of today, as was the original "Last Man on Earth" in 1964. Vincent Price gave (as usual) an outstanding performance in the movie, as did Will Smith, but judging the book to the 2007 movie and giving it a poor rating is not fair to either the book nor the movie. As for the Narrator, he did his best to act the characters of the book, usually men with deep voices find it difficult to do a feminine voice.

As I titled this listen w/an open mind and try not to compare (especially with the 2007 movie), both were very good in their own rights, give credit where credit is due. I too have judged a "remake" to the original until I set my mind to understand that the 2nd movie was a stand alone movie, not one intended to be an actual remake but another persons vision of the same script using current technology to try and better the movie goers experience.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better than the movie

There have been many movies throughout the years about this book. Vincent Price was the first and Will Smith was the latest. The Vincent Price one follows the story line the best if you want to see a good movie rendition. The story starts out with a pandemic that no one knows the source yet it took place between competing nations at war with each other. Not unlike our own situation. Humanity is wiped out expect one person. The story never goes into other nations, so we have to take this at face value. This is a great story of one person's drive to survive and possibly find a cure. In the end however our prejudices win out. Read and see what I mean.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Kudos

The book is better then the movie. This one is worth listening too.

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