Best Richard Matheson Audiobooks
Richard Matheson is the writer who quietly remade American horror and science fiction from the inside out. Where other writers reached for cosmic dread, Matheson found the uncanny in the mundane — a man alone in a world of vampires, a couple haunted by a house that wants them dead, a passenger who sees something on the wing of a plane. I Am Legend didn't just invent the modern zombie apocalypse; it turned the monster-movie premise into a meditation on loneliness and what it means to be human. Hell House remains one of the most viscerally unsettling haunted house novels ever written. His prose is stripped and precise, almost cinematic — he was a prolific Hollywood screenwriter, and it shows. Readers who want horror that gets under your skin through psychological pressure rather than gore will find Matheson indispensable.
Where to Start with Richard Matheson
- Best entry point → I Am Legend
- Best standalone → What Dreams May Come
- What fans keep coming back to → I Am Legend and Other Stories
- Best narrator for Richard Matheson → Echos (Rivages noir)
- Highest rated by listeners → The Best of Richard Matheson
Best Richard Matheson Audiobooks
- 1
I Am Legend
Narrated by Robertson Dean
★ 4.20 ABR Score (170.3K ratings)★ 4.05 Goodreads (154.9K) ★ 4.21 Audible (15.3K)More about this pick
Robertson Dean captures the isolation and desperation of humanity's last survivor hunting vampires by day and hiding by night.
- 2
What Dreams May Come
Narrated by Robertson Dean
★ 4.00 ABR Score (16.7K ratings)★ 3.96 Goodreads (15.1K) ★ 4.45 Audible (1.5K)More about this pick
Chris Nielsen discovers the afterlife after a fatal accident, then risks everything to save his wife's soul from hell. Robertson Dean navigates Matheson's spiritual landscape with emotional depth.
- 3
The Best of Richard Matheson
by Richard Matheson, Victor LaValle
Narrated by Donald Corren, Peter Berkrot, Richard Powers, Hillary Huber, Traber Burns, Scott Brick, Devon Sorvari, Kevin Kenerly
★ 3.98 ABR Score (2.6K ratings)★ 4.16 Goodreads (2.3K) ★ 4.47 Audible (341)More about this pick
Eight different narrators tackle Matheson's chilling short stories, each voice perfectly suited to these tales that inspired countless Twilight Zone episodes.
- 4
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories
by Richard Matheson, Stephen King
Narrated by Julia Campbell, Richard Powers, Malcolm Hillgartner, Arte Johnson, Jay Karnes, Ray Porter, Yuri Rasovsky, Lorna Raver
★ 3.96 ABR Score (9.6K ratings)★ 4.05 Goodreads (8.4K) ★ 4.17 Audible (1.1K)More about this pick
Eight narrators elevate Matheson's paranoia masterpieces. The psychological horror that defined the Twilight Zone still beats modern scares.
- 5
I Am Legend and Other Stories
Narrated by Robertson Dean, Yuri Rasovsky
★ 3.90 ABR Score (137.8K ratings)★ 4 Goodreads (136.8K) ★ 4.02 Audible (1.0K)More about this pick
The last man on Earth hunts vampires by day and hides by night in this collection of Matheson's influential horror stories. Dean and Rasovsky capture both the claustrophobic terror and philosophical weight of humanity's end.
- 6
Hell House
Narrated by Ray Porter
★ 3.83 ABR Score (70.3K ratings)★ 3.69 Goodreads (64.1K) ★ 4.05 Audible (6.2K)More about this pick
Ray Porter guides four investigators into Belasco House, where previous expeditions ended in murder and madness in this haunted house classic.
- 7
Echos (Rivages noir)
by Richard Matheson, François Guérif, Jean-Paul Gratias
Narrated by Robertson Dean
★ 3.74 ABR Score (15.4K ratings)★ 3.86 Goodreads (15.4K) ★ 3.83 Audible (59)More about this pick
Matheson's supernatural thriller follows Tom Wallace as a ghost demands he solve its murder. Robertson Dean navigates the French noir atmosphere while keeping the supernatural elements grounded and unsettling.
- 8
Somewhere in Time
Narrated by Scott Brick
★ 3.71 ABR Score (9.7K ratings)★ 3.85 Goodreads (8.8K) ★ 4.12 Audible (880)More about this pick
Scott Brick's hushed, yearning narration transforms Matheson's time-crossing love story into something genuinely haunting. It's the rare romance where the audio performance makes you believe in impossible devotion.
- 9
Steel: And Other Stories
Narrated by Scott Brick
★ 3.55 ABR Score (843 ratings)★ 3.63 Goodreads (775) ★ 3.57 Audible (68)More about this pick
Scott Brick presents Matheson's vision of future boxing where massive humanoid robots have replaced human champions, leaving flesh-and-blood fighters obsolete.
- 10
The Box: Uncanny Stories
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.44 ABR Score (4.0K ratings)★ 3.54 Goodreads (3.9K) ★ 3.36 Audible (88)More about this pick
Matheson's twisted moral puzzles get their due with Grover Gardner's measured delivery, especially in the title story about a button that kills strangers for money.