Play Book Tag discussion

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - 4* - My Review

Robert Neville survives an outbreak of a bacterial disease that has infected everyone else (as far as he knows) and turned them into vampires. He hunts them down by day and barricades himself in his cabin at night, listening to them call to him to come out. Neville becomes obsessed with finding a cure. I am surprised at how much I liked this story. I do not normally read books about vampires or zombies, and when I do, I rarely enjoy them. I think the difference here is that the author thought it out and came up with a plausible scientific rationale for their existence and reasons the methods of killing them worked (or did not work). It is unexpectedly philosophical. It was not solely focused on an invading hoard of supernatural killers. It is a study of isolation, and how a person might react as a sole survivor of humanity, wondering if it is worth surviving if you are doomed to be forever alone. This book was published in 1954 and it is extremely well crafted. My version also contains short stories, though none matches the power of the novella. I Am Legend is a short and compelling read, not a word wasted. I am not surprised that it is still popular.

PBT Steeplechase - tagged "zombie" x57:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...

I just read this a couple of months ago. I definitely agree with you that it is so well done. Sometimes it's hard for me to see why classics are classics, but in this case it seemed obvious.

Yes, and this was written before zombies were trendy!