The Running Man

Reading Stephen King's On Writing made me want to do two things: read his books and follow his advice. Luckily, one of his pieces of advice is to read daily, and when you can't read a physical book, to listen to an audio book. Searching the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble, I came across this gem, which he wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman.

The protagonist here is Ben Richards, a poor man living in the ghetto of Co-Op City in the year 2025. When his sixteen month old daughter gets sick, he's desperate enough for money that he signs up for the Games, a collection of deadly game shows made to distract the masses from the ever growing problems of pollution and suffering. He is selected for The Running Man, a game where he must evade the Hunters for thirty days, netting $100 an hour for each hour he stays alive.

First off, skip the forward. It actually spoils the ending.

Even with that, King shows his talent for suspense. There is a feeling of no place is safe throughout, even though you know he has to survive for the seven and a half hours the book goes on. No place is safe for long, with people willing to sell him out at every opportunity. The last part gets a bit explicit in its violence, but not too much.

The story is pretty basic, which is fine. After The Wheel of Time I needed a good game of cat and mouse. The ending... well, I won't spoil it, but King describes it as "A happy ending, by Bachman's standards."

If this is how King writes, I have a lot to look forward to.