I Am Legend and Other Stories (Richard Matheson)

I Am Legend and Other Stories
Richard Matheson
Tor Books
Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: A lone man endures after a vampire plague destroys the world... a failed writer's rage manifests dangerously in his home... a war is fought by unconventional means... a mild-mannered fellow starts hearing a telephone ring inside his head... These and other short stories by master Richard Matheson appear in this collection.

REVIEW: Richard Matheson is considered a master, with his style influencing generations and several of his stories considered genre classics. Unfortunately, like with many collections, I found my reaction here mixed, not at all helped by some very bad dating on many themes. In Matheson's world, men are apparently powered by rage and sexual hunger, while women (universally the weaker sex in every way) exist to torment males even as they enable civilization by blunting said male rage and hunger (when they're not deliberately inflaming them, or simply being too silly and naive to understand the consequences of their actions) - and his portrayal of race is really best not examined. Matheson also has a way of dragging things out, even in short stories. The strongest entry by far is the titular tale I Am Legend, basis for multiple movies and clear inspiration for innumerable tales of apocalyptic survival, especially ones with supernatural overtones. While survivor Robert Nevill discovers a "rational" cause for the plague of undead bloodsuckers, it's still a story of vampires (with a touch of zombie) and doesn't hesitate to use the term. As a standalone, it would've gotten a higher rating, for all that it still had a bit of cringe around the edges. The rest of the stories, unfortunately, were a very mixed bag, often feeling too long once the gimmick was clear and leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The audiobook version I listened to was not helped at all by the narrators, who could be hard to hear over ambient warehouse noise and sometimes seemed to be going for goofy caricature in how they presented some of the character voices. For all that Matheson's style was generally decent (when not running overlong) and he explored some interesting horror concepts (disregarding the parts that haven't aged well), I don't expect I'll read more from him, even if he is a genre master.

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