Robert Neville is the only survivor of a global pandemic which causes the people it kills to rise again as vampires. At night, he barricades himself inside his home in southern California as the vampires gather outside his house, taunting him to come outside. His days are an endless routine of repairing the house, disposing of bodies, and hunting for the vampires’ hiding places. In the three years since everyone died, the only other living thing Neville has seen is a dog that he spends weeks befriending. So when he comes across a living woman one day, his entire world is turned upside down. Like the movie adaptations, the novel really shines when it focuses on how Neville keeps himself (barely) sane by immersing himself in the constant work of survival. Whenever his thoughts stray to memories of the events leading up to the catastrophe, the death of his family, or even just wondering why he works so hard to survive, he starts to unravel. After all, what’s the point of surviving if you’ll never see another human again? Matheson thought of this as a science fiction novel, and dedicates a large part of the story to scientifically explaining details of the vampire myth like garlic and wooden stakes, but the explanations all feel like too much of a stretch. Still, this book not only led to three movie adaptations, it virtually single-handedly spawned the zombie movie genre, so it’s easy to ignore the weak parts and focus on the day-to-day reality of the last man on Earth.

This review is the third in a four-part series reviewing Richard Matheson’s novelI am Legend, and the three movies that have been made based on it: Vincent Price’sThe Last Man on Earth, Charlton Heston’sThe Omega Man, and Will Smith’sI am Legend.