Richard Matheson's horror stories are often considered some of the best ever, with his works often cited as inspirations by other writers like Stephen King. Several of Matheson's books have been adapted to film, including his most famous story, the novella I Am Legend, which served as the basis for the 2007 film of the same name starring Will Smith. Soon, the original book is getting a new paperback edition just in time for Halloween, and you can preorder it at Amazon for $19.
I Am Legend And Other Stories
$19
I Am Legend follows the story of Robert Neville, the last human being on Earth, as he struggles to find the cure to a pandemic that swept through the human population. The thing is, while Robert's the last human, he's not alone--the pandemic turned the rest of the population into vampires. Neville is simultaneously working to save humanity and spending his days hunting the horrific creatures through Los Angeles. At night, however, the tables are turned, and he must hide from the vampire swarms hunting him down.
The 1954 book is a horror masterpiece, and it's so affecting that it's been adapted to film three separate times: As the 1964 Vincent Price film The Last Man on Earth, in 1971 as The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston, and as Will Smith's I Am Legend in 2007. It was also counted among the inspirations for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.
This edition of the 160-page novel also includes other short stories by Matheson for a total of 320 pages. Amazon doesn't list which stories are included in the 2024 edition, but the 1997 edition of the book packed 10 additional stores:
- Buried Talents
- The Near Departed
- Prey
- Witch War
- Dance of the Dead
- Dress of White Silk
- Mad House
- The Funeral
- From Shadowed Places
- Person to Person
Amazon also has a few other options for I Am Legend, including a 2019 edition in hardcover for $15, a Kindle edition for $7, and an audiobook version for $12 (or $0 with an Audible credit).
If you want to explore the author's other works, Amazon also has a number of other Matheson books on offer, including The Best of Richard Matheson short story anthology, his excellent haunted house novel Hell House, and He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson, which includes essays about Matheson and original stories written by the authors he helped inspire, as well as "Throttle," which was the first published collaboration between Stephen King and his son, horror author Joe Hill.
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