May 2010's SK Flavor of the Month - The Bachman Books, Roadwork and The Running Man

Sorry guys. I meant to post yesterday, but I'm trying to wrap up my current book (Fields of Fire) and am behind.

This month it's the last two Bachman Books, Roadwork and The Running Man

From the very little research I've done on these two books, I'm expecting this to be a repeat of last month. A so/so first book followed by a much better second one.

I started a week early and have finished them both already.

They are both nice quick reads and you are basically right jseger. Roadwork was relatively mediocre (better than Rage) with some definite strengths but plenty of weaknesses as well. It might have been that I just couldn't relate to it (not a home-owner or defined by my job). I don't want to get into too many specifics before people start reading it.

The Running Man is awesome and one of my favorite King books. In fact, this is the book I encourage people who are "not into horror" to read. One of this books main strengths was how tight of a story it is (same could be said for The Long Walk). King can sometimes have the tendency to meander but he doesn't really do it here and it keeps the reader gripped from start to finish.

Anyone else reading the books this month? I started Roadwork but I'm behind, as usual. As soon as Bart (George? Fred?) bought the guns I flashed on the kid from Apt Pupil and how that story ended. I'm wondering if this is going to go that route too.

I'm partway through TRM, but I've kind of lost interest I admit. It's like Robocop, very bleak and very 80s.

Roadwork was just average. I liked The Running Man, but nowhere near as much as The Long Walk. It was my second time reading them, and I enjoyed them, but I'll probably put them up for another 10 or 15 years. The Long Walk, I'll probably read within 5 at most. It may be my favorite SK work.

I just joined this group so I could read The Running Man with you. I started reading it today. So far I like it -- it reminds me of Fahrenheit 451!

I finished the book several days ago. I thought that I posted an update but....it appears that LT ate my post!

I enjoyed this book a lot especially The Long Walk. Running Man was such a desperate story, so sad. Roadwork was the one (of the last two) that got me. Such depression and anxiety. The glimpses into mental illness was disturbing.

I've just started Roadwork (I was slogging my way through the worst Richard Laymon book I've yet read). I like it so far, though am not too far into it. Bart just yelled at... oh, I don't remember. The young salesman.

I finished The Running Man this morning. Is it accurate to say that Stephen King invented reality television? ;-)

I've never seen the movie and it was on tv so I recorded it. I'll probably watch it tomorrow.

The movie is pretty ridiculous and has few actual similarities to the book.

Halfway through Roadwork and its not really interesting me, for the same reasons given by rstuckey. I think its pretty well written but mid-life crises aren't my thing.

#10 - The movie is pretty ridiculous and has few actual similarities to the book.

While that is true, the movie is good fun and worth a watch. Talk about predicting reality television!

I watched the movie today - it's so different from the book that it almost seems like someone had a similar idea and bought the rights to The Running Man just to be safe!

I'm still going through Roadwork. The book is interesting and well written, but there's just something wrong with it.

I think part of the problem is that the book is for the most part a drama, but there's this sort of thriller going on in the background. This madness angle with Bart/George. Yet it's too far in the background.

The writing is pretty impressive, considering he wrote so well about Bart's midlife crisis while he was such a young guy. Still, I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving on to The Running Man.

jseger, I'm having the same problem. Its very well written but I can't put my finger on exactly what is wrong with it.

Well, I just finished Roadwork. The ending was pretty good. Maybe I would have liked it better if it had started with the standoff and then was presented as a flashback. But then I would be making the book into something that it is not.

I guess I would have preferred the suspense elements of the book to be sprinkled more liberally through the entire narrative rather than surfacing from time to time only to submerge again while Bart's midlife crisis/breakdown continued.

Just wanted to chime in since the thread's been so quiet.

I'm reading The Running Man. Ben just 'left' the YMCA.

I like the book quiet a bit. it has all the forward momentum that Roadwork was missing. The world Stephen King lays out is really weird. It is very dystopian, but doesn't exactly seem like a typical fascist government. I'm glad it's kind of shadowy. It comes off less heavy-handed that way.

I do think that when a non-sci-fi writer decides to write sci-fi, s/he should avoid making up names for things (like 'plaxsteel'. Is that some sort of combination of plastic and steel?), it just sounds funny.

Finished Roadwork which was a bit of a let-down overall. Jseger, I think you've got it when you talk about momentum. Sometimes the story had a sort of momentum, sometimes it didn't and in the end wasn't one thing or another. I would have preferred it being a straight story of a descent into madness, or more internal and psychological and not quite so linear.

I'm now onto The Running Man, which is a lot better. I'm not too far into it, and I am enjoying it, but I am slightly worried that it's going to be The Long Walk all over again. It's set in a future where there is a lot of poverty and citizens seemed desperate enough to participate in exploitative, televised tests of survival. If The Running Man continues as it is, it'll be a very enjoyable story, but it does seem a bit unoriginal to have the same basic idea behind both stories.

As for the made-up names (plaxsteel, etc), I think non-sci-fi writers should use these with a light touch. It bothers me when EVERYTHING has to have a made-up name. So far it isn't over the top.

I finished The Running Man last night. I liked it, but I never found myself loving it. The ending is a good one though. I want to comment on it, but don't want to spoil things for anyone still reading.

Just finished The Running Man myself and thankfully it was very, very different to The Long Walk, so no worries there.

It was very good, but like you I didn't completely love it. It was just a little too action-y to really invest emotionally in the main character and his plight (unlike the boys in The Long Walk, where you wanted to reach in the book and save them all). It was VERY different from the film, which was a good thing in my opinion. The fight for clean air was very 'Total Recall'.

The ending - yep, very good, didn't see it coming, and made it possibly more controversial than Rage. And real life has put a completely different spin on the ending and made Ben's role as the hero more open to debate.

I was just writing up my review for The Bachman Books and realized that the part I enjoyed the most was the introduction.

That's funny. I couldn't stay interested in any of them to finish. Strange since a couple of them I liked when I read them the first time.

Oh, now that's harsh ;)

I'd give The Long Walk five stars, easily, and The Running Man three or four. The other two were really only of interest to fans as examples of King's early work.

I added the individual Bachman books to my 'Read but unowned' queue so that I could post individual reviews.

I wound up giving:

Rage - 2 and a half stars
The Long Walk - 4 stars
Roadwork - 2 stars
The Running Man - 3 stars

And the Bachman Books collection 3 stars over all. I was thinking that of the novella collections he's put out (Different Seasons, Four Past Midnight and Hearts in Atlantis), I think The Bachman Books is the weakest of them.

An interesting question (to me at least) about reality television and The Running Man: in King's dystopia people were forced by circumstances, mainly poverty and the totalitarian government to participate in the contests. In the real world, reality television has developed as a way for already fairly privileged people to have their fifteen minutes of fame and the only cost is humiliation, with the exception of the shows based around a skill or a talent. King envisioned people participating out of desperation, but contemporary Americans participate for entirely other reasons - what should a dystopian thinker make of the differences?

Well because right now TV is a tool of celebrity, not of the common person (unless you count local commercials no cable). It elevates and makes someone exclusive and famous (even if only for 15 minutes). Until it is relinquished by that class, the regular joe has no access. Maybe in a dystopian fantasy it will be eschewed by the "better people" and left for the dregs, thus the reality shows in TRM.

I'm thinking that King gave us a lot more credit than we deserve. We are willing to completely debase and humiliate our selves for so little, really.

Thus COPS. : )

Man, even COPS isn't voluntary. American Idol and The Batchelor and those have people lining themselves up to be made fools of.

it is...they need a release to air the show with your face recognizable. Every once in a while you get someone who wanted themselves all pixelated. the rest, who knows...