Book Review: I Am Legend [Richard Matheson]

Bookgasm. 'Nuff said.

Post-Apocalyptic Castaway?

Once in a while, you come across a book that makes your inner bookworm orgasm. You know you've had one when you find yourself going "squeeeee!" like a crazed teenage girl over some male pop idol long after you've finished the book.

Richard Matheson's "Hell House" has been on my reading wish list for quite some time now, so when I came across this 2006 edition of I Am Legend + short stories/Hell House in a secondhand bookstore, I snapped it up in a millisecond.

Funny thing is, I was never interested in reading "I Am Legend." I mistakenly thought it was similar in plot to the movie of the same title starring Will Smith, or to "The Omega Man", starring Charlton Heston. (I remember watching this as a kid- my maiden aunts are BIG Charlton Heston fans). Since neither movie really appealed to me, when it came to the book, I was like, meh.

I shall now try to repress said fan girl (SQUEEEEEEE!!!!) slightly, lest I give away the entire story in this review in my enthusiasm. Well, either that, or the whole thing shall end up being punctuated by a whole bunch of squees.

Robert Neville is the last man on earth. Our setting is post-war, and due to biological warfare, a pandemic has spread and turned everyone around him into mindless, bloodsucking creatures. (Quite the zombie-vampire mix.) 

When we first meet Robert, he has been alone for several months and has given into depression and alcoholism. He has lost both wife and daughter to the disease, and his current life is an endless cycle—by day, he sets out to kill as many vampires as he can; by night, he is imprisoned in his own house, drinking, while vampires surround his house, crying out for his blood until the break of dawn.

As the story progresses, Robert eventually meets another living creature - a dog. It is this contact with life that snaps him out of his depression and inspires him to turn his energies into studying the vampire, in hopes of finally finding a cure and restoring humanity.

My take on this tale? To label Richard Matheson as a horror novelist is a gross understatement, and trying to put a genre to "I Am Legend" is kind of like trying to fit a square through a circular hole. It is more than just a horror story written to terrify its readers. It is a philosophical dialogue on a lone man struggling to survive and all the while, looking for a reason to. It is a crash course in biology, a study on social behavior and psychological conditioning, among other things. It won't take long before you're sucked into the story and you're identifying with the protagonist. A few chapters on and I found myself cheering Robert on his ingeniousness, his ability to adapt, and sympathizing with his frustrations and sadness. Richard Matheson is a true master of words. The beauty of the story mainly lies in that he has given Robert Neville a soul.

One of my favorite parts is when Robert snaps out his depression and starts researching and experimenting to find out more about the disease. Oh, the details! I loved how Matheson has a plausible explanation for every aspect of the vampire—from the physical evolution to the folklore surrounding it. Kudos to Matheson for using "hysterical blindness" (psychological conditioning + insanity) to explain why a Christian vampire would fear the cross, the Jewish vampire the torah, a Buddhist vampire the swastika, and so on. (Thank you, Mr. Matheson, for the United Colors of Vampirism.)

Oh, and of course, the ending. The last chapter was headed towards a direction I really, really didn't like. So there I was, seething, trying to keep my violent reactions in check until the very end. And then, all of a sudden, this master of words was able to deftly wrap the story up FLAWLESSLY, BEAUTIFULLY, PERFECTLY (SQUEEEEE! SQUEEEEE!), in a way that melted my heart and left me shaking my head in disbelief at how he was able to do that with JUST THREE SHORT PARAGRAPHS. Amazing.

Published in 1954, Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" has been hailed by many as a pioneer for the global apocalypse/zombie genre, and also as "the first modern vampire novel". Sad, if you think about it, about how the paranormal genre have now evolved mostly into love stories between suicidal teenage girls and emo paranormal entities attending high school for eternity. Oh, and vampires now sparkle in sunlight too!

But then, as Robert Neville puts it, "Normalcy [is] a majority concept, the standard of many and not the standard of just one man." And the sarcasm of this blogger probably just stems from her love for a more eloquent bygone era. 


For classic movie buffs, the 1964 film "The Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price is the closest movie adaptation to the novel.

Book Review: Menz Insana [Christopher Fowler]

RATING: 5 Stars! An all-time fave!

Leisure Suit Larry turned mad scientist? :P

This is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. Found this title in a bargain bin in near-perfect condition. Sweetest find eveeer! 

Menz Insana tells of a wacky love story set in the realm of the insane, the Mental Plane, where things poof in and out of existence, float in the middle of nothingness, cause random implosions and explosions, and- well, you get the idea. Skinny, balding, ex-pharmacist Menz is contented to be living in the realm of insanity, and has never felt happier in his entire life. However, his girlfriend, the lovely Jaz (who is Playboy Playmate material), wants to go back to the realm of sanity to find out who she was before insanity. 

The plot takes an unexpected twist when she DOES find out who she was, how she got to the Mental Plane in the first place, and her relationship to Menz in the sane world. Will their love survive after the truth is revealed?

I absolutely loved Fowler's creation of the Mental Plane. Kudos to John Bolton's art as well, which shifts from sophisticated altered photography to cartoon-ish illustrations, which sets the mood by emphasizing the difference between reality and insanity. The Mental Plane can be described as Alice's Wonderland with an R-rating. Fowler also makes a humorous analogy of the Mental Plane to Dante's "Inferno", where there are different levels of insanity which can be visited via an elevator.

And of course, who can forget the other inhabitants of the Mental Plane such as the adorable Squid Baby, or our couple's arrogant, hormone-raging, thick-skulled, suit-wearing neighbor ("Neighbor?? We don't even have walls!") Cowhead, or Drips the Inside-Out Man (*drip* *drip* eeew...) and tons of others. The characters are all delightfully cheeky, and the conversations full of razor-sharp wit. And, ironically, given the theme of the story, Fowler manages to leave no loose screws (pun intended) in the end. 

Menz Insana is brimming with intelligence: light, quirky and funny on the surface, but it leaves the reader reflecting on the line between what's sane and insane, what's good and bad, the shackles and restraints society imposes on people, and the pressure of today's social system on people's minds. An excellent read.

Book Review: Diary [Chuck Palahniuk]

RATING: Haunting. Couldn't put it down!

Misty Marie Kleinmann, who’s lived all her life in a trailer park, likes beautiful pictures and shiny things. She attends art school, where she meets Peter Wilmot, the son of a wealthy family in wealthy Waytansea Island. The promising young artist gets married to her beloved, and she is whisked off to a fairytale ending in Waytansea Island.

Or at least, that’s what she thought.

Twelve years after happily ever after, Misty Wilmot is working as a waitress in the island’s only hotel. The Wilmots are broke, her husband is in a coma, she barely knows her teenage daughter, and her mother-in-law’s a pain in the ass. And if that wasn’t enough, threats of lawsuits are posed to leap from every corner of the tourist-ridden island.

Before the accident that turned him into a vegetable, Peter (a contractor for vacation houses) has taken to redecorating the houses without their owners’ permissions: he has built secret rooms and written cryptic (and rather vulgar, hehe) messages all over the walls.

A confused Misty starts on a mission to find out the truth about her husband’s actions (like if he really did stick people’s toothbrushes up his ass, for example :P). She starts to find other cryptic messages hidden all over the island, written by two women from previous centuries.

And in the midst of it all, Misty (who hasn’t picked up a paintbrush since art school) starts to paint again. Rather obsessively, too, as if being driven by some unknown force.

When she finally pieces everything together, she finds herself in the middle of a secret that puts her family and the entire island in danger.

“Diary” is a hauntingly strange book. The plot is odd, the events unfold in a series of inconsecutive flashbacks, and the story told in second-person where you, the reader, are Peter.

I think "Diary" deserves a five for three reasons: 1) The mystery got me so hooked, I wasn’t able to put the book down. (I finished this one in one sitting); 2) A "whoa" ending that has a way of etching itself into your mind; 3) It's a strange and totally unbelievable story that's packed up so neat and pretty in the end that it’s convincing enough to make you think “What if it’s real?” with series of chills running down your spine.

Game Review: Dead Rising [CAPCOM]

Rating:	★★★★★
Console:	Xbox 360

An experiment gone awry, a mall-ful of zombies, psychopathic survivors, the DHS and the military. An overused plot? Yep. Crummy game? Dead wrong.

Dead Rising is one of the most addicting games I've come across in a long time. You play Frank West, photojournalist, and you have 72 hours to survive in a mall full of zombies and save as many survivors as you can. Sounds simple, right? Au contraire, this game is one of the hardest games I've ever played, especially when you're as OC as I am in saving NPCs. Not only do you get to deal with escorting unbelievably idiotic (running-against-the-wall idiotic), scared-to-death survivors to safety, you've got a time limit as well. So that means making a schedule on how to finish all quests in the shortest time possible- if you don't go psycho and murder the blubbering morons yourself, that is.

The system is simple enough - you get linear gameplay with the hours open for main quests (which you can choose not to do, of course), but you'll certainly get the most fun with the open world free play. It is completely up to you to explore the zombie-infested mall and do whatever you want to do.

This game was especially designed to be played on HDTV - and for good reason too! For people who can appreciate blood and gore games like yours truly, it's quite a treat to watch a blood-and-gut splattered Frank West tearing off zombies apart with his bare hands, sending heads and limbs and god-knows-what flying everywhere.

Blood and gore aside, the thing that I liked most about this game is that you virtually get to use whatever item you can find at the mall to kill zombies. Aside from the usual guns, knives and chainsaws, you get to use HDTVs, potted plants, CDs, and even toy Light Sabers and teddy bears. Or, since your character gains skills while leveling up, you could eventually tear zombies apart like they were made of paper. It's loads of fun thinking up creative ways to kill both living and undead enemies. Boosts replay value too.

It's just really too bad this game doesn't have multiplayer feature. Now THAT would have been insanely fun. *big grin*

This game's got me eyeing the chainsaws in Ace Hardware last time I was in SM. Full marks! I'm definitely never going to look at a mall the same way again! :P

Book Review: Letters from Hades [Jeffrey Thomas]

RATING: Brilliant! Loved it!

Loving the cover art!

A man wakes up in Hell after committing suicide. He is sent to Avernus University to learn the ways of the Damned before being set free to roam around Hell. Our hero is given a flesh covered notebook with a blinking eye in school, but he decides to keep this notebook after his graduation to record his journey, and also as a silent traveling companion.

Our hero travels through different landscapes such as forests, deserts, arctic areas, all of which features different inhabitants, different punishments, all richly detailed. The main city is an urbanized version of Dante's Inferno with elements of Amsterdam and New York thrown into it.

Of course, Hell could not exist without a Heaven, now could it? As if the Damned don’t have enough on their hands dealing with the Demons, all hell – or heaven, rather- breaks loose in Hell when the Angels descend and make mayhem (with God’s consent, of course) by turning Hell into their own, perverted playground.

On one hand, Letters from Hades is a guidebook/travelogue to Jeffrey Thomas' version of Hell- which is definitely something to marvel about. He's created an intricately detailed world that breathes, cries, and bleeds. On the other hand, Letters from Hades is a discourse on concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, and on grabbing life by the reins and actually living it.

An epic power struggle. Unlikely alliances. Throw in a female Demon and forbidden love into the mix, and you get one hell of a good yarn which I give full marks. Whimsical, yet tightly knitted it's almost believable. Stands out. An enjoyable read.

Book Review: The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable

RATING: Loved it! No ranting whatsoever!

Oooh. That beard makes me break out in hot sweat- menopausal-like :P

The theme of this story revolves around faith, death, and the unknown or, as Pratchett puts it, “…the imponderables of life, in the face of which people either start to pray…” or, in the case of Terry Pratchett’s 27th Discworld Novel, “…become really, really angry.”

Genghiz Cohen, or better known as Cohen the Barbarian, is the emperor of the Agatean Empire. He has fame and fortune, and has done everything at least once in his life. However, he is not happy.

After losing Old Vincent, one of his faithful Silver Hordes, to a *ahem* cucumber, Cohen is struck with the realization that: 1) There are “no more worlds left to conquer” so to speak; and 2) He is getting old.

Angry at the gods for letting people get old and die, Cohen and the rest of his Silver Hordes (Boy Willie, Truckle the Uncivil, Caleb the Ripper, and the cranky but lovable Mad Hamish) set out to give what the first hero stole back to the gods. With interest, even.

However, this will cause the end of the world.

From Ankh-Morpork comes three heroes to stop these legendary heroes. Genius Leonard of Quirm (a spoof of Leonardo da Vinci, obviously), Captain Carrot the six-foot dwarf, and cowardly wizard Rincewind. Will they be able to save the world in time?

Terry Pratchett is an author with a great sense of humor. I totally worship this guy. Nobody but Pratchett could manage to poke fun of religion, death and old age, and make it into something so - well, for lack of a better term - "tastefully hilarious". While this one's shorter than other Discworld novels, I find it to be one of the funniest. Humor is satirical and tongue-in-cheek at its best. Paul Kidby's illustrations are gorgeous. Done in a rather serious Renaissance-inspired style, but the subject matter is anything but. You can imagine the outcome :) Pratchett and Kidby complement each other like Flotsam and Jetsam. I've read this book several times already, but it never fails to make me laugh.

I love this book. No ranting whatsoever. Very, very strongly recommended. Full stars, and then some!