* #2 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series -- a library of the finest science fiction ever written * Filmed twice (starring Vincent Price and Charlton Heston) with a third version, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, in pre-production * 'The most clever and riveting vampire novel since DRACULA' -- Dean R. Koontz * 'The author who influenced me most as a writer was Richard Matheson. Books like I AM LEGEND were an inspiration to me' -- Stephen King
Richard Matheson (1926 - )Richard Matheson was born in 1926. He began publishing SF with his short story 'Born of Man and Woman' which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. I Am Legend was published in 1954 and has been adapted to film three times. Matheson wrote the script for the film The Incredible Shrinking Man, an adaptation of his second SF novel The Shrinking Man (published in 1956). The film won a Hugo award in 1958. He wrote many screenplays (including The Fall of the House of Usher) as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone. He continued to write short stories and novels, some of which formed the basis for film scripts, including Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1971. Further SF short stories were collected in The Shores of Space (1957) and Shock! (1961). His other novels include Hell House (1971) (filmed as The Legend of Hell House in 1973), Bid Time Return (1975), Earthbound (1982) and Journal of the Gun Years (1992). A film of his novel What Dreams May Come (1978) was released in 1998, starring Robin Williams. A collection of his stories from the 1950s and 1960s was released in 1989 as Richard Matheson: Collected Stories.
Robert Neville has witnessed the end of the world. The world's population has been obliterated by a vampire virus, though Neville has somehow survived. As he toils to make sense of it all and protect himself against the hounding vampires who seek out his life force, Neville embarks on a series of projects to discover the source of the plague and hopefully put an end to the vampires. In a tale that plays with the slippery slope of sanity, Dean makes the perfect choice for a narrator. His powerful performance proves chilling and haunting. As Neville teeters on the edge of sanity, Dean manipulates his tone, speed, emphasis and projection accordingly, making listeners tremble with his narration. While some might rebuke his narration for being too dramatic or providing too much interpretation, Dean's intensity adds to the book in a way that benefits listeners over readers. The visceral nature of his performance evokes the image of a foamy-mouthed Dean growling at a microphone with spittle flying. A Tor paperback. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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