One Shot Design

This 1954 post-apocalyptic novel by Richard Matheson tells the story of Robert Neville, an ex-soldier immune to an epidemic that changed mankind into a vampire species. Neville is struggling with aloneness through a routine he set up to survive and keep some mental sanity. However, one day, he encounters what seems to be another uncontaminated human being. That is where the story takes an unexpected turn, ending with a twist giving its full meaning to the book’s title. In the line of Mary Shelley’s 1826 book “The Last Man”, Matheson’s novel is a metaphorical dissertation on death, the emergence of society and the subjective notion of good and evil.

Keeping in mind that it is a fiction neither based on historical facts nor written as an essay on Theology, the Da Vinci Code makes for an entertaining thriller. Dan Brown cleverly combines the disciplines of History, Geography and Art History to weave a thriller about the Knights Templar and the quest for the Holy Grail. After gradually raising the tension, the well-paced story ends with a World-altering finding, much like René Barjavel’s “The Ice People” and “The Immortals”.