Richard Matheson - I am Legend

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 I am Legend
I remember a local legendary 'Vampire's Grave' covered in rusty old chains sparking my curiosity about vampire legends, so when Karen offered me the loan of 'I am Legend' I thought it would be my sort of book. But it's not really about the vampires she said, and so it turned out.

It was written in the 50s and set in the future - the seventies! But it didn'treally feel dated to me. A virus created for germ warfare has turned the human race into vampires, and Robert Neville thinks he may be the last surviving man on the planet.

He's living his life under siege, and dreads overcast days when darkness can creep up on him unawares. By day he repairs damage from attacks on his house, stakes vampires in a rather matter of fact way, and hangs up more garlic. He's discovered that crosses only work with Christian vampires, and that, contrary to popular belief, vampires do have reflections. By night, he drinks steadily and uses ear plugs to drown out the jeers of the undead menacing round his home.

Robert struggles to hang on to his sanity and suffers flashbacks from losing his wife to the vampire plague. When he's on the verge of giving in, finding a dog gives him the will to fight on. He goes on to meet a woman who may / may not be a vampire, and that challenges all his beliefs about how he's been living.

Although I'd been expecting dark and gothic, it was more bleak than I'd been prepared for. It's not lurid, and all the more powerful and atmospheric for that. Stephen King described this book as an inspiration.
Pam

Off the Shelf

Image from www.Amazon.co.uk Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut    After finishing this book, the truth of it leapt out at me. How many Billy Pilgrims are out there? Men and women coming back from Afghanistan, from a world of war to normal life. The world is still in a confused and unstable mess.   No lessons have been learned. There is still killing and lying - robbing people of life and livelihood. The people in power have lost the vision to see the mess they are creating. The few that can are labelled as not forward thinking - not seeing the big picture, or even idiots.The future health problems of service people and their families hardly bear thinking about.   Elizabeth

Off The Shelf

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Slaughterhouse 5
Kurt Vonnegut

Written in 1969, it took author Vonnegut more than 20 years to put his experience of the bombing of Dresden in World War 2 into words. He was an American prisoner of war in Dresden, being held in a disused meat plant, known as Slaughterhouse 5, and emerged after the fire-bombing of the city. As the author says, ‘All of this happened, more or less’.

The novel follows the experiences of optometrist Billy Pilgrim, a decidedly non-heroic man, who has become ‘unstuck in time’. He travels back and forth visiting his birth, death and all the moments in-between repeatedly and out of order, but always coming back to his experiences in the war and particularly in Dresden. Billy is also abducted by aliens, who transport him back to the planet Tramalfadore to become a prize exhibit in a zoo. The aliens teach him that time is linear and we experience different points in our lives over and over again.

I found this novel confusing, weird, imaginative, moving but surprisingly easy to read due to its simple, laconic style. Part anti-war tract, part autobiography, part sci-fi with a good deal of black humour, I felt that it needed a second reading to fully appreciate the big themes Vonnegut is addressing – the concept of time, fate and above all the horror and futility of war. Not a book I’d recommend for readers who like a straightforward plot and time line, but one for those who like a challenge! Can certainly be classed as ‘cult fiction’.

Cath