One of my favorite books is Melville’s MOBY DICK because for me it seems to be a book that is at once of it’s time and yet exists outside of time. The same for Cervantes DON QUIXOTE—a book that clearly represents its world but at the same time does so in a fashion that is forward thinking and from which the future will draw grand inspiration. Both books can be read as straightforward adventure stories. Beyond being a saga of the sea, MOBY DICK is the first techno-thriller with amazingly detailed evocations of whale hunting and DON QUIXOTE not only created the novel but brilliantly blurs the lines between reality and an unreliable narrator. I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson joins this category. At first blush a straightforward monster story, it becomes so much more as it moves along. Robert Neville is the last conversational man on earth. There are other people around but they have all been transformed into vampires which makes Neville’s life a bit of a struggle. Published in 1954, this story echoes through many of the thrillers that would follow it. Even the current spate of zombie dramas owes a dept to Matheson. At once a new breed of vampire story, it is also a medical thriller, social critique and personal drama. As he did with another of my favorite stories, THE SHRINKING MAN, Matheson gives a wonderful sense of normalcy to his setting before gradually revealing something more bizarre. The day to day grind of a life lived alone and the thin margin of his survival are felt from each page. My concern when I began reading was that such a promising beginning would likely dwindle down to nothing as many thrillers or horror novels tend to do. Near the end it turns in a direction that I did not expect and ends wonderfully with the main character making a decision he has actively avoided for reasons that he could never have imagined. A short novel who’s brevity works to its advantage, this edition also includes several short stories including his classic PREY about a very active doll and single woman with mommy issues. All the stories are good to great and fit well with the sense of isolation inherent in the title novel.