SOJALS rating:

Very good (4/5)

I first read this on the 21st July 2004.

In the near future there is a devastating plague, a plague with a horrifying mortality rate. Almost everybody has died, those who were infected but survived life on as vampires.

Everyone, that is, except for Robert Neville. Alone of humanity, he seems immune to the pandemic infection

Robert Neville appears to I can't believe that I first read this in 2004. How had I missed it for so many years. And I love vampire novels and movies. I even loved "Vampire Lovers". Well, of course I loved "Vampire Lovers" - I'm a guy. Actually it's conceivable that I ad read it many years earlier, it all seemed very familiar, but then I suppose it would, since so many books and movies derive from it.

But this book is it. The forerunner of "28 Days", "Night Of the Living Dead" and so many others.

This was first made into a movie in 1964 starring Vincent Price: The Last Man on Earth . Another and better version was the 1972 The Omega Man with Charlton Heston as the courageous Robert Neville. Fab movie, as I recall.

But back to the book. It is a classic from the "Golden Age" of SF and one that simply has not dated. The only noticeable difference was that he drinks whiskey-soda whereas nowadays one would have a Tequila. Oh, I might have one now.