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Hi Has anybody read the book I am legend and is it worth a read.I'm looking for books to read on holiday so has anybody got any other recommendations?
Yes. much better than all three films.
Anything by Neal Stephenson will see you right too, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon is what I'd suggest.
Why would you bother reading it? They've made a film, so you don't have too. Its got Will Smith in, and everyfink. He's great, Will Smith
An Instance at the Fingerpost by Iain Pears brilliant book. Philip Pullman Northern Lights trilogy.
Loads of cycling ones if you like them David Millar's, Chris Hoy's, Wiggo's (not read the new one), Bad Blood by Jeremy Whittle (very old but interesting) willy Voet's book about festina affair.
Yes, great book. Very short though.
Because there ain't a telly on the beach binners.
Def-oh.
Great little book and inspiration for the Will Smith flick and the Charlton Heston Omega Man movie, i think.
Other great post-apocalyptic/end of days reads include:
blindness by jose saramago
after the flood by margaret atwood
the road by cormac mccarthy
Philip Pullman Northern Lights trilogy.
first two are good the last one is utter bobbins.
It's good, but feels pretty dated now, and it's very short.
Yes!!
Another vote for yes. When I was twelve years old I must have read it half a dozen times - loved it. Omega man always seemed a reasonable adaptation though by comparison it's very "light and airy". The Will Smith film? Forget it!
Recently found out that Planet of the Apes is a book. I reckon that'd be good.
I enjoyed it. You'll be done in few hours though.
If you want a bit of post apocalypse I recently read Day of the Triffids again. Different to when I read it as a kid - turns out it's not about the Triffids. We it is, but it isn't - I'll make more sense after you have read it!
binners - Member
Why would you bother reading it? They've made a film, so you don't have too. Its got Will Smith in, and everyfink. He's great, Will Smith
Cos it's different, innit. đŸ™„
Another brilliant post-apocalyptic book, that was also a film is Damnation Alley, by Roger Zelazny. I'm a huge fan of Zelazney's work, and have been for many years, he's a writer who writes very descriptively, and is humorous with it.
The film is quite catastrophically bad, and Zelazney refused to have his name connected with it; his main character, Hell Tanner, is the last of the Hell's Angels, but in the film he's just Tanner, played by Jan-Michael Vincent, as a nice, clean-cut all-American boy!
Here's the film synopsis:
garykmcd
In the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust a group of survivors, mostly US Air Force personnel, travel from the western US to Albany, New York from where a radio broadcast has been received. Led by a no nonsense Major, Eugene Denton, they travel in specialized vehicles built specifically for survival in harsh conditions. Along the way, they are joined by an attractive young woman when they stop in Las Vegas, are joined by a young boy when they meet desperate survivors in the desert, must face hoards of killer cockroaches and survive a major flood in Detroit. -- IMDb Plot: Damnation Alley (1977)
Here's the book synopsis:
Both the short story and the novel open in a post-apocalyptic Southern California, in a hellish world shattered by nuclear war decades before. Several police states have emerged in place of the former United States. Hurricane-force winds above five hundred feet prevent any sort of air travel from one state to the next, and sudden, violent, and unpredictable storms make day-to-day life a mini-hell. Hell Tanner, an imprisoned killer, is offered a full pardon in exchange for taking on a suicide mission—a drive through "Damnation Alley" across a ruined America from Los Angeles to Boston—as one of three vehicles attempting to deliver an urgently needed plague vaccine.
I would dearly love to see a new film made, preferably with Ron Pearlman in the lead rĂ´le.
If you can track down any of Zelazney's books, I recommend them very highly indeed.
Neil Stephenson, William Gibson, and Tim Powers are all really worth checking out, they write nice, big, holiday-sized books! đŸ˜€
What is I am leg end about ?
I just finished Cryptonomicon. Whilst it was a page turner, not much actually seemed to happen in it. Felt like the prelude to something, in that you don't really get to find out what happens at all, really. However the writing, characterisation, and detail was all absolutely gorgeous.
I Am Legend is good, seem to remember a fair bit darker than the film. As above wont take long though.
Isn't there a newish Ian M Banks Culture novel out?
Don't get anything too page-turning though, you'll ignore your holiday and spend however many days glued to the book. Which makes the flights and hotel a bit of a waste of money imo!
I recently read Neil Gaiman's American Gods. It was enjoyable.
yes, its quite short though
Isn't there a newish Ian M Banks Culture novel out?
Yup, The Hydrogen Sonata. Finished it a week or so ago, and damned good it is too, lots of smart-arsed Culture ships with daft names. đŸ˜€
You realise 'The last man on earth' was also based on the book?
I thought it was great.... really liked the ending too đŸ˜‰ (unlike the film, which was bobbins)
I've just read "do androids dream of electronic sheep?" (blade runner) - flippin marvelous. My first foray into sci-fi and really enjoyed it.
As an aside, just got a kindle for the commute: brilliant.
American Gods is brilliant.
A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller is also very good sci-fi.
Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon
it's a good read. (zombie undead content)
THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT HAS CHANGED FOREVER
THE REASON IS COLDBROOK
The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing.
With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead.
In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race.
But will they find her in time?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Child 44 (his second book The Secret Speech is also good and in a similar vein).
The Genesis Code, and The First Horseman both by John Case (later stuff nowhere near as good). Entertaining cinematic crime/scifi/science thrillers, everything Dan Brown's stuff isn't and still surprised they arent big budget blockbuster movies.
To be honest, I didn't realise that [i]I am Legend[/i] was ever a book. might go have a look.
I have the largest library of post apocalyptic novels in the NE of England (probably). Most of them are bilge-water but there are several notable exceptions;
Ridley Walker is right up there, Lucifer's Hammer is a close second, On the Beach is OK, John Christopher's The Death of Grass is a diverting amuse-bouche, The Road is perhaps, more closely related to the original question, as it's a film more famous than the book.
I could go on all night.
Stay away from World War Z.
Silliest book I have read for a very long time ..
Got to about halfway through, and thought that it must have a very clever and original ending ... It didnt!!
Just finished World War Z and I found it a bit of a curates egg. No idea how they will make a film out of it.
Oh another corker or a book "let the right one in" by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Just finished World War Z and I found it a bit of a curates egg. No idea how they will make a film out of it.
Judging by the trailer they've kept the title & then just thrown the rest of the book away...
Just finished reading "i am legend" after it was suggested here.
Thought it was a great read.
I was surprised how timeless it felt consdering it was written in 1954.
Strong ending too, well worth a read.
Wait, there's a science-fictiony thread and I've not recommended any Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Heinlein, or Roger Zelazny, that's not right.
Go forth and read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Lord of Light, and the Mars Trilogy.
read it, don't go expecting a hollywood ending though
I am legend good
World War Z bad
Yeah, the title makes much more sense in the book than the film.
yes +1
Great read, not long either, ideal for lazy bones like me.
I enjoyed the book more than the film.
I also enjoyed this which was recommended on here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Penal-Colony-ebook/dp/B004VTHSA6
Free if you have a Kindle