The Running Man

De: Stephen King

Narrado por: Kevin Kenerly

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

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

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

Another great by the King

I loved this book, it had my attention throughout, no draw out monologues. Awesome thriller with a great narrator, as the countdown continues you will start to wish it would slow down.

Running Man by King Bachman

I’m on a Bachman kick of late. Read The Long Walk a few weeks ago, and now The Running Man. The only Bachman book I had ever read—and this was years ago— was Thinner. Absolutely loved it. Been saying I need to read the rest of the Bachman books for years but never got around to it.
Running Man was a surprise for me. Having seen, and enjoyed the movie—years ago—I was expecting something similar. They were not even close in similarity. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book. I did. Just in a different way I enjoyed the movie. Though the novel had inflections of King, it was not a typical King novel. I honestly kept thinking I was listening to a Philip K. Dick novel. It was like a Richard K(ing) Dick novel. So, very cool.
Three of the biggest disparities (there’s a 4th but it’s a spoiler), are: 1. The contestants aren’t necessarily criminals. They’re everyday shlubs who interviewed to be on the show; 2. They aren’t confined to a closed set/course. The “Runners” are out in the real world, no boundaries. They can fly to different states, go anywhere.; 3. The “Hunters” are mentioned but not featured or fleshed out. Save one, the lead Hunter, Evan McCone. And he isn’t featured or fleshed out much. Mainly towards the end. The police are the main antagonist.
Other disparities: Killian, played wonderfully by the late Richard Dawson in the movie, was a black man in the novel. And he wasn’t the emcee of the show. He was more of a producer. Personality-wise, both movie and novel character are in synch.
Ben Richards’ physique is no where near Schwarzenegger’s. He’s more lean, and not a cop. He’s another worn and tattered desperate citizen. Married (his wife is a prostitutes) and they have a daughter—sick w/influenza or some lung disease. Which is why he goes on the show. To win the money to pay for treatment. Personality-wise, very different. Novel Richards is a self-centered asshole with anger issues. He has moments of empathy, very light empathy, but overall not a very likable person.
Sub-characters are way off so I’m not even gonna get into it. The novel had some interesting and likable supporting characters. Only 1 or 2 were really given any depth. The rest were mentions or shallow bios.
Overall, once I was able to purge the movie from my mind, I really enjoyed the novel. As I said already, it’s not a typical King novel. Definitely a Bachman novel. I think reading The Long Walk before Running helped me with that.
The narrator, Kevin Kenerly, was awesome! I thought his reading, inflections, energy, and style were all perfect. Really brought the story and characters to life. I’m gonna look up more by him.
I only have Rage left to read out of the original 4 Bachman books. Looking forward to it.
My rating for The Running Man:
📚📚📚📚

Good book

Never knew the ending was so different then the movie. I really thought it was sad.

good book

enjoyed the book, does get slow in parts. performance is good I would recommend this book.

Before dystopian was cool.

Richard Bachman was a strange fellow. I am a super fan of Stephen King, a constant reader, if you will, and I have read nearly all of his books many times over. I tend to like King's stories a little more than Bachman's, other than the endings. I love the way that Bachman ended his books. What does that say about me? Well, I will leave that to your own interpretation.

Bachman tended to end his books in ways that were less than tidy. More realistic and dark than most King books. The Running Man was no exception to this. I hate reviews that have spoilers in them, or discuss the plot too much (if you want that, read the jacket), but this book lives up to the Bachman pattern. Great, flawed, realistic characters; and that ending.... This one is worth the credit, or however many New Dollars it takes.

A Masterpiece

Haunting words from the past that ring through and past the now.

I was never a King fan but, this book....

Buy it. Listen. Think.

What a thriller

Man this is a good story. It’s short and there’s a lot of anger in it. Damn it I love it.

THE RUNNING MAN

I loved it. Really am glad this hasn't happened in our world now. Great story!

One of King's most vicious books.

In the opening, King himself laments the loss of the pseudonym he wrote "The Running Man" under, as if talking about a dear friend. However, he also talks about what Richard Bachman really was, his darker and angrier half, the one that comes out in tweets and verbose essays where he is on a rant. Seething, furious anger about the state of the world, and even if you disagree with him, the anger is something we all have inside, our dark side. And while the movie adaptation with Arnold Swarzenegger barely shares much overall resemblance to the book, it still retains some of that angry and dark DNA, maybe the tiniest bit. And thank God for Kevin Kenerly, our fantastic narrarator, whose voice shines as he brings authenticity to the characters and setting, and the book is better for it.

I recommend this book, not just if you're a fan of Stephen King or the movie, but want something radically different from King. You be pleasantly surprised.