A
book written by
Robert Matheson. The plot follows a man,
Robert Neville. As far as he's concerned, he is the
last man on earth. However, he is not alone. His
neighbors,
friends,
wife and
child have all turned into
the Undead and stalk him after the sun goes down. He
barricades himself in his house at night to get away from the
eternal horror that leaving would
represent. As soon as the sun light is gone, and for the
remainder of the night, his former
best friend and neighbor Ben Cortman screams, in a terrible, desperate and worst of all hungry tone, "Come out, Neville!"
This book is a
classic example of
horror. It is written in
third person, allowing the reader to feel as if they are watching a
film. However, the
internal struggle between Neville's base needs and his
sliding morals as well as his
gradual, overpowering paranoid delusions could not be
accurately portrayed in a cinematic format, not without
significant changes to the
story. There have been attempts, however. The Charlton Heston movie
The Omega Man attempted to create an acceptable
analogue of the novel but got caught up in
1970's slang and lifestyle issues and in the works (for the past several years) is a new adaptation featuring
the Terminator in the lead role.
A quick sidenote. The
trade paperback edition of this book also includes several
short stories also written by Robert Matheson. All deal with the subjects of
death,
undeath and
mourning. Most of them are very good and worth every
penny, but it is not apparent from the title of the
book (if you order online, or special order) so do not be
surprised when you receive it.