Thumbs up for I Am Legend (and other stories) by Richard Matheson. Horror.
Simple plot: Robert Neville is the last man standing after the rest of the human race has turned into vampire-zombies. Matheson’s writing is so clean, so quick, with such sharp jabs of brilliance, you feel as if you’re spinning across the surface of a faceted diamond as the pages turn. I loved the titular story; and enjoyed the short stories just for the beauty of his writing, even though short stories, especially horror stories, do nothing for me. A must read.
“As if it were someone else’s hand, he watched his whitened fist rise up slowly, shuddering, to drive down on his leg. The pain made him suck in a breath of the house’s stale air. Garlic. Everywhere the smell of garlic. In his clothes and in the furniture and in his food and even in his drink. Have a garlic and soda; his mind rattled out the attempted joke.”
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