This is actually a rather short book that is followed by several short stories that have nothing to do with the title work. I did not read all of the following shorts, but they were quite good.
The copy of this book that I read had a big picture of Will Smith on the cover and said "Now a major motion picture!" The book and the movie are so totally different that you can't really compare the two.
Matheson gets really into the depressive psychological self mutilation of Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A plague has turned everyone into zombie / vampires and he is holed up in his house utterly alone. He battles the drive to survive with the anguish and guilt of being the only survivor. Matheson really likes to get into the mind of all of his characters. He sets it up really well so that you can feel what they are feeling. It is a little scary at times.
Neville, while on a good manic streak, heads to the local University's library and studies up on medicine to try to figure out what happened and how to combat / cure it. He gets deep enough into medical jargon and has everything based well enough in reality to make a really plausible seeming explanation of where zombies and vampires came from. Being a medical person myself, I found this aspect really COOL!
p32
But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals or men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of a parent who drained the spirit of his child? the vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair, but is he worse than the parent who gave society a neurotic child that became a politician? Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with money made from handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? s he worse than the distiller who gave basterdized grain juice to stoltify the further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? ... Is he worse than the publisher who filled the ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, now, search your soul, lovie - Is the vampire so bad?
All he does is drink blood.
p78
He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Thursday, August 6, 2015
#37 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne
This is the first book I ever read not-on-paper. Usually when I return one book I pick up my next one. This visit was cut short by unexpected circumstances and I had to leave without anything to read that day. I purchased this book on my phone for 99c.
I had initially thought the book - being 150 years old - might be difficult to read but I found it not so. After a moment's thought I realized that it was first written in French (duah) and I am reading an abridged translation of Verne's words - not the original writing. Naturally they smoothed out some of the rough patches.
This is a great book of adventure, but I wouldn't really call it "science-fiction" per se. Maybe it was science fiction when Verne wrote it.. submarines were in their infancy at that time and the technology in the Nautilus was still quite a ways off.
The book has periods of truly gripping and suspenseful adventure interspersed with pages of M. Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land talking about fish. Describing the fish they see. Discussing fishing. Classifying different fish and what orders and families they belong in. Talking about cooking fish. More calcifying the fish they see on their travels.. ugh. Meanwhile the exciting bits go by a bit too quickly. I still enjoyed it, but there is a big *meh* factor throughout.
p224
It was an indescribable spectacle! Ah, why could we not communicate our sensations? Why are we imprisoned under these masks of metal and glass? Why are words between us forbidden? Why did we at least not live the life of the fish that people the liquid element, or rather that of the amphibians, who, during long hours, can transverse as they like the double domain of land and water?
p378
Here may be seen the primordial rocks that have never known the light of heaven, the lower granites that form the powerful foundation of the globe, the profound grottoes dug out of the stony mass, the outlines of such incomparable clearness, the border-lines of which stand out black as if due to the brush of certain Flemish artist. Then, beyond, an horizon of mountains, an admirable undulating line composing the background of the landscape. I cannot describe the effects of these smooth black polished rocks, destitute of moss, without a stain, and with such strange forms solidly resting on a carpet of sand that sparkled in the electric light.
p507
It was vulgar misanthropy that enclosed Captain Nemo and his companions in the sides of the Nautilus, but a sublime hatred that time could not quench.
I had initially thought the book - being 150 years old - might be difficult to read but I found it not so. After a moment's thought I realized that it was first written in French (duah) and I am reading an abridged translation of Verne's words - not the original writing. Naturally they smoothed out some of the rough patches.
This is a great book of adventure, but I wouldn't really call it "science-fiction" per se. Maybe it was science fiction when Verne wrote it.. submarines were in their infancy at that time and the technology in the Nautilus was still quite a ways off.
The book has periods of truly gripping and suspenseful adventure interspersed with pages of M. Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land talking about fish. Describing the fish they see. Discussing fishing. Classifying different fish and what orders and families they belong in. Talking about cooking fish. More calcifying the fish they see on their travels.. ugh. Meanwhile the exciting bits go by a bit too quickly. I still enjoyed it, but there is a big *meh* factor throughout.
p224
It was an indescribable spectacle! Ah, why could we not communicate our sensations? Why are we imprisoned under these masks of metal and glass? Why are words between us forbidden? Why did we at least not live the life of the fish that people the liquid element, or rather that of the amphibians, who, during long hours, can transverse as they like the double domain of land and water?
p378
Here may be seen the primordial rocks that have never known the light of heaven, the lower granites that form the powerful foundation of the globe, the profound grottoes dug out of the stony mass, the outlines of such incomparable clearness, the border-lines of which stand out black as if due to the brush of certain Flemish artist. Then, beyond, an horizon of mountains, an admirable undulating line composing the background of the landscape. I cannot describe the effects of these smooth black polished rocks, destitute of moss, without a stain, and with such strange forms solidly resting on a carpet of sand that sparkled in the electric light.
p507
It was vulgar misanthropy that enclosed Captain Nemo and his companions in the sides of the Nautilus, but a sublime hatred that time could not quench.
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