• The Running Man

  • By: Stephen King
  • Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
  • Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (3,111 ratings)

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The Running Man  By  cover art

The Running Man

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
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Publisher's summary

A desperate man attempts to win a reality TV game where the only objective is to stay alive in this number-one national best seller from Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman.

It was the ultimate death game in a nightmare future America. The year is 2025 and reality TV has grown to the point where people are willing to wager their lives for a chance at a billion-dollar jackpot. Ben Richards is desperate - he needs money to treat his daughter's illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the goal is to avoid capture by Hunters who are employed to kill him. Surviving this month-long chase is another issue when everyone else on the planet is watching - and willing to turn him in for the reward.

With an introduction by Stephen King on "The Importance of Being Bachman".

©1982 Richard Bachman (P)2010 Penguin Audio

Featured Article: The definitive guide to the very best Stephen King adaptations


If you’re a Stephen King fanatic, or are interested in learning about the movies and shows made from his books, this round-up will provide you with a comprehensive list of the very best Stephen King screen adaptations. Watch the adaptation and then listen to the audiobook, or vice versa—this choice is yours. Either way, you can see how the adaptation stacks up against the source material and experience these legendary frights over and over again.

What listeners say about The Running Man

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Skip the intro

If you haven't read/heard the story before, skip the Stephen King introduction as it contains spoilers.

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104 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Hunger Games series popped into my mind often

The Running Man was first published in 1982 under Stephen King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman. I remember reading it shortly after it was released and again a few years later when it was revealed that Bachman was King. Then, when I was in my twenties, it seemed to be a very bleak book. Now in my fifties and a parent, the book has an overwhelming sense the desperation of a man without hope.

The story does pull you in quickly. There is an immediate connection with the man character Richards. The listener roots for Richards from the beginning, realizing how he is being manipulated by the system. The world King/Bachman creates for Richard to exists in is a very segregated country. There is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. The middle class seems to be a very slim group in the middle. There is also a segregation in the ethnicity of the inhabitants. I can only remember one non-white in a position of authority. Several of the police or authority figures make racially charged remarks. As the listener hears these sections, he/she must keep in mind the time period in which the book was written.

The Hunger Games series popped into my mind often while listening to The Running Man. The Doctor Who episode “Bad Wolf” also features a similar situation with games used to control the society. Reality TV shows did not begin until the 1990’s, yet King predicts them vividly. He nails the public’s addiction to seeing other people humiliated while feeling better about themselves (“I would never demean myself like that for 15 minutes of fame.”) As I listened there was an eerie feeling similar to reading an Arthur C. Clarke and thinking how did this man see what we didn’t.

The narrator does a fantastic job. He does women as well as men. His voice communicates class, which is a huge part of the story, very well. He conveys the emotions, not just anger but the subtle layers of hope and desperation. The production values were very good. No extraneous noises or drastic changes in volume.

The Running Man is not to be missed. A college level class could be taught on this book. The themes of ethnicity, socio-economic chasms, propaganda and the meaning of what it is to be human could be mined for more than a semester's worth of class. I highly recommend The Running Man. If you have seen the movie, erase it from your mind, this book is so much better.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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56 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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One of the best of the Bachman books.

Skip the intro because it gives the story away. Well narrated and easy to follow.

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40 people found this helpful

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GET STUFFED MAGGOT

HE REMOVED HIS UNVALUABLE, VALUABLES
With the exception of The Long Walk, I believe this is the only King book, which is written in the future. I have read a lot of King, but not all, so I could be wrong. If like me, when you read, The Long Walk, you wanted to know more about the society, the story took place in. This might be it. It is a Dystopia, with people starving and lacking medical care. At one point a wife tells her husband on the phone "BEN, I TURNED TWO TRICKS THIS MORNING" and he does not even flinch. She did it to get medicine for their baby girl. Air pollution is killing people and the government is covering it up. RICH FOLKS SMOKE DOKES. Pot is legal. The better off, show off by showing off, their healthy well fed bodies, NICE T!TS. THANK YOU. The poor smoke cigarettes with the brand name of BLANDS. In this future the blacks speak like the blacks of the sixties and there is lots of racism. I'D PUT THEM ALL IN CAGES. The N word is used often, along with other racist slang. Most people are referred to by the police as MAGGOTS. The PIGS are also corrupt and like killing. The government practices DOUBLE THINK. The TV networks seem to run the country with the help of game shows. Game shows like Survivor, except when you lose, you die.

IT SEEMED LIKE HE WAS JUST LET OUT OF PRISON
Book and Movie are not much alike. Both are good. I like the book better.

HE'LL MAKE YOU SH#T IN YOUR BOOT AND EAT IT.
Language throughout is very foul.

HIS VOICE WAS AS COLD AS DEEP SPACE BETWEEN PLANETS.
Narrator is great.

I have listened to this book several times, this is even my second audible review of it. If you like Dystopia novels, this is for you.

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SPOILER!! Don't listen to the intro by the author

This was an amazing book I really enjoyed it. It may one of my favorite books by him, but don't listen to the intro on Bachman, because you'll get a spoiler of the book you're about to hear!

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34 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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spoiler alert

skip the introduction it tells you how the book end. I'm glad I had already read this book or I would have been upset. otherwise it was a great listen!

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18 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Liked the story but.......

I haven't found a King story I didn't like yet. Same goes here. But in the introduction that is given before the story, they tell you the ending. It really ruined it for me. This is very little like the movie so that isn't what gives it away. I don't understand why they would do that for a story you are about to listen to. Other than that, really enjoyed it.

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    4 out of 5 stars

A huge oversight in the foreword

If you’re reading or listening to “The Running Man” for the first time with limited familiarity of its conflict/resolution, do yourself a favor and skip the foreword until after you finish the story. While Kong’s insights to this portion of his journey as an artist are equal parts articulate, insightful, and interesting, he explicitly states the resolution in no uncertain terms as he takes his readers through his journey.

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Ruins ending in intro. why?

Who in the actual *@#% thought it was a good idea to ruin the ending in the intro? I'm done.

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Dark and powerful

I really enjoyed this dark and powerful novel. It is like Hunger Games, except it is for for adults and it is a lot better. Ben Richards lives in a near-future dystopia, and to save his daughter, he must try to get onto a reality TV survival show - a show no one has ever survived. Great narration helped boost this very good story up to five stars for me. This is Stephen King at his best. Just skip the prologue chapter at the start - it was boring.

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