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<\/p>\nI’ve been on a big 80’s kick since reading Ready Player One.\u00a0 I even went to the library and picked up a copy of The Running Man movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger.\u00a0 But I also knew that there was a book version – which I’d never read.\u00a0 So, I pick up the audio-book version from the library too; and off we go.<\/p>\n
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The book itself is quite short – only 6 audio CD’s.\u00a0 Apparently King wrote the story in 48 hours or so.\u00a0 It’s definitely got the feel of a longer short story to it.<\/p>\n
Story:<\/strong> Richards shows up in a mass of people also desperate for a chance at cash.\u00a0 After passing through hoop after hoop of evaluations, he is selected for the biggest of all the games, “The Running Man.” He is given a few thousand dollars to start, is dumped on the street outside the building with a 24 hour grace period, and then becomes the quarry in a 30 day hunt.\u00a0 For each day he evades his pursuers, his family earns a large sum of money.\u00a0 If he doesn’t evade them – it won’t matter because he’ll be dead.<\/p>\n It seems like suicide, since nobody has ever survived more than 8 days.\u00a0 The network requires Ben to mail in 2 videos a day – which allows them to track him.\u00a0 His face is plastered on the TV every night with dastardly satire and stories conjured up about him to get the whole country screaming for his death.\u00a0 Unlike the movie, the chase happens in the open – anywhere in the country and the public are offered rewards for reporting him and for confirmed sightings.<\/p>\n Without giving away too much, Ben manages to stay a little ahead of his captors with tons of action and plenty of violence.\u00a0 The stalkers in the book aren’t the comic-book style stalkers found in the movie.\u00a0 They’re regular police and anonymous hunters that are never really described.\u00a0 He hides in regular hotels, runs through streets, hides in the woods.\u00a0 Yet, he manages to find a few sympathetic people who help him in evading capture. There’s lots of good social commentary during these moments since those that help him are some of the very poor of the poor.\u00a0 The most downtrodden.<\/p>\n Eventually, however, Richards is inevitably cornered and the final showdown takes place.\u00a0 The playout of those confrontations (more than one!) are very good.\u00a0 King gives you get a peek into the minds of these all-in poker players raising and re-raising each other again and again.\u00a0 Each side makes shocking and unexpected moves.\u00a0 When the cards are finally laid on the table, what is revealed is shocking and Richard’s response is no less so.\u00a0 It’s an excellent bit of psychology and imaginative writing that keeps you quite at the edge of your seat.\u00a0\u00a0 While the final resolution feels just a little forced, it is still quite good.<\/p>\n Recommendation:<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been on a big 80’s kick since reading Ready Player One.\u00a0 I even went to the library and picked up a copy of The Running Man movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger.\u00a0 But I also knew that there was a book version – which I’d never read.\u00a0 So, I pick up the audio-book version from the library too; and off we go. The book itself is quite short – only 6 audio CD’s.\u00a0 Apparently King wrote the story in 48 hours…<\/p>\n
\nIt’s the year 2025. \u00a0 The dystopian society is split between haves and have-nots. Ben Richards’ is in the latter group. He’s been blacklisted from most jobs after protesting conditions at a plant with leaky radiation shields that makes everyone sterile.\u00a0 His wife has had to resort to hooking to pay the bills and his baby daughter lies seriously ill.\u00a0 Desperate and at the end of his rope, Richards goes to the all-powerful media station ICS and tries out for one of their sadistic reality shows in hopes of earning enough money to save his daughter and free his wife from her state.<\/p>\n
\nOverall, I really liked the book.\u00a0 In some ways, I liked the movie better (a set playing field, comic-book style stalkers, etc).\u00a0 But the dsytopia that is painted in this book is raw and very believable.\u00a0 There’s a lot of excellent social commentary on where we’re going as a people when societies are split so badly between the haves and have-nots; and where we go when we stop valuing people as human beings of equal dignity and just see the downtrodden as annoying grime left in the cracks.\u00a0 I give the book a solid A- and recommended read.<\/p>\n