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A review by kimabill
The Running Man by Stephen King, Richard Bachman
4.0
***Warning*** DO NOT read Stephen King's introduction to this book before you read the book. He gives away the ending! Booo, Stephen King. Of course, the introduction was all about King mourning the fact that people eventually firgured out that it was him writing under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, so maybe giving away the ending was a little bit about revenge. Still, why would an author sabotage himself that way? But I digress...
I decided to read this because I realized that I hadn't read any of the "Bachman Books" and I felt like I should. This book could be a definite precursor to The Hunger Games or a postcursor (?) to "The Most Dangerous Game." It is about a futuristic dystopia (I know!) where the poor people earn money by participating in reality shows like "Treadmill to Dollars" where you run till you die and your family gets money based on how long you last. The protagonist of the book is chosen for the big-money game called "The Running Man" where he is hunted by members of the Games Corporation and average citizens are rewarded for sightings and tip-offs to the hunters. The book is incredibly fast-paced and nerve-wracking - lots of action. There's some gory Stephen King stuff toward the end, but mostly it is just like an action movie. (Actually, I guess this was made into a movie in 1987 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I watched the trailer and couldn't recognize a single scene from the book.) I read it so fast, I felt like I had just run a race when I finished it.
Also, the book is set in 2025...could we really be that close to our own dystopian future?! Yikes!
I decided to read this because I realized that I hadn't read any of the "Bachman Books" and I felt like I should. This book could be a definite precursor to The Hunger Games or a postcursor (?) to "The Most Dangerous Game." It is about a futuristic dystopia (I know!) where the poor people earn money by participating in reality shows like "Treadmill to Dollars" where you run till you die and your family gets money based on how long you last. The protagonist of the book is chosen for the big-money game called "The Running Man" where he is hunted by members of the Games Corporation and average citizens are rewarded for sightings and tip-offs to the hunters. The book is incredibly fast-paced and nerve-wracking - lots of action. There's some gory Stephen King stuff toward the end, but mostly it is just like an action movie. (Actually, I guess this was made into a movie in 1987 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I watched the trailer and couldn't recognize a single scene from the book.) I read it so fast, I felt like I had just run a race when I finished it.
Also, the book is set in 2025...could we really be that close to our own dystopian future?! Yikes!