04/03/2025
The interesting thing about this book is I saw the movie with Will Smith first, then also saw Omega Man with Yul Brynner after that which was much closer to the story. The overall story is good, although there is a struggle in parts of it to relate to the main character and his view of the world. I suspect this is a book age issue since it was a different time back then. It was interesting how the book had similarities to The Road in the sense of a man without his wife, although here no child either. In some of the sections where he is getting technical, I found a lot of that to be fascinating. The parts I probably would have left out is trying to explain why crosses or religious implements work for some people and not others. That was really pushing. All that said, the pure joy in this story is how the main character becomes the last human on earth (as far as he knows) and all the new humans are terrified of him. And now that he is going to die, his story will be carried on, he will become legend. That is what made this book so great and conceptually works so well at the end. I also enjoyed that there are a variety of humans in different stages, and how there is a hierarchy related to that even in the new humans. I think for most people the book might be a struggle to get through, but it is definitely worth it.
2025-11
