An uneven collection, but one worth reading. The introduction is funny enough to almost be worth the price of admission on its own. Overall, the novellas are average or slightly above. The Freudianism is almost painful in two of them, to their detriment, but both of those stories are still strong enough to withstand it.

Rage is sad and chilling, and while I can understand King wanting it removed from future editions after Columbine, I feel it has something to offer now that we're finally talking about how bullying and browbeating can twist kids, and break some of them in horrible and tragic ways. Perhaps the most powerful lesson is that the biggest difference between Charlie and his classmates was the gun; the pain and anger he felt, he was nowhere near alone in. Freud is everywhere here, in huge, clanking ways.

The Long Walk also suffers from excess Oedipus, but not so enormously. This will almost surely be the story of the four that will stay with you the longest; the ending is one of his most memorable by far.

Roadwork is the weakest of the four; it isn't an actively bad story, but it is almost entirely unmemorable, and it drags badly in places.

The Running Man was my favorite of the set, long before the movie came out. I still wish the story had been handed to someone who wouldn't have gutted it in favor of making it into a pure action movie, but there's no denying Richard Dawson was born to play Killian. ( )

Collects four early novels that Stephen King wrote and published as paperback originals under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Most readers will be familiar with the dystopian novella The Running Man from the movie, but The Long Walk is a much more chilling dystopian tale. Rage is a psychological horror story about a student who takes his class hostage that precedes the school shootings such as Columbine; because of the school shootings, the US edition is now out of print. Roadwork is rather forgettable. ( )

I just re-read this. I haven't read it since high school. I basically had the same impression, I remembere the Long Walk and the Running Man. But the other two I couldn't really recall. I remember being really struck by the ending of both of these. King has always been good at not giving you the warm fuzzy endings you expect. There is of course still and amatuerish quality. (he wrote most of it in college) I've never thought King was a very good writer, but an amazing story teller. Also after you read it you should go wathc the Running Man and see how they basically just took the title and made a movie out of it. But its still a fun movie at least. ( )

I'm glad I bought this novel when I did because Rage is no longer in print. I would say the stories are 50/50 with Rage and The Long Walk the standouts and Running Man a fun romp. Road Work is the weak link on the batch. If you can find a copy with Rage in it, grab that one as it is a great story and one of King's best short novellas. ( )

Out of the four novellas, The Long Walk is my favorite. It's so grueling and screwed up, which is interesting to read. ( )