This is a collection of four of the five books Stephn King wrote near the beginning of his career under the pen name Richard Bachman. In his introduction he gives some fairly unsatisfying reasons for writing under a pen name, none of which make sense to me. But I, and he, suspect that Bachman was on the verge of becomming a big hit when his cover was blown by a nosey bookstore clerk. Anyhow, these short novels are a little bit different than most of the work King is fameous for. Firstly they aren't really horror. They're more like psychological studies. All reaveling to degrees of success how people in different extreme situations react to their environment. It's pretty interestng stuff. Check out the reviews...
Rage is a pretty screwed up story, If it hadn't been written years ago, I'm not sure any publisher would even touch it. But the story is really pretty good. Charles Decker, misunderstood high school student, and all around instigator, has decided to throw off the shakles of the so called civilized world. He has decided to buck the system and in his own words, get it on... The way Charlie gets it on though is of somewhat questioning taste, obvious in these more troubled times. Charlie gets a gun from his fathers study, and shoots his teacher, he then proceeds to hold his class hostage, while they get it on. It's weird, but the story actually makes a twisted kind of sense. It takes the crisis to let everyone realize, even admit to themselves, what a sham their society around them is. The hostaged classroom become a place where they can release their anger, their frustration, and confusion. Charles brings them a pretty violent therapy; but in the end I've gotta say I enjoyed it. It may be of somewhat poor taste considering the grim reality of acts like the Columbine massacre, but as a novel, it proves a facinating character study. A good very read all around.
3.5/5I was pretty intrigued by the premise of The Long Walk. The story is of a the ultra conservative future America. Although as in all of King’s sci-fi stories the characters seem to exist in that unreliable limbo of the post-Vietnam era. Anyhow, that really just gives it a quaint quality and is fairly enjoyable to read. In The Long Walk we are introduced to Ray Garrety, Maine’s own champion. Garrety, a young man with a few loose screws (if you ask me) has gotten himself involved in America’s newest pastime The Long Walk. This walk is a twisted kind of marathon. It boils down to a hundred young men (all under 18) who sign up for the longest walking marathon imaginable. The winner, gets all of his desires fulfilled. The losers, get shot. One hundred guys, walking slowly to their deaths. If they stop more than three times, they’re shot. They can drink as much water as they want, but only get food supplements once a day. And let me tell you something, these guys walk I mean they really WALK. 400 miles. Days and days, never stopping. It’s crazy, it’s intense, the pacing is aggravating and slow but completely appropriate and in the moment. The Long Walk propels the reader along with these characters on this crazy walk to almost certain death. This is really a great novel. The characters are very well explored. I really cared for their well being, which made it so much tougher to bear their certain demise. I really enjoyed how we were given insight into the character’s heads. What does it take to drive a man insane. How will they deal with the fact that their friends are dying all around them? And most importantly, why would anyone even contemplate signing up for such a crazy thing?
4/5Well, this one has been a long time coming. Roadwork is definitely the slowest going of all the books in this series. This book, made me really realize that this isn’t just some simple little book of short stories. This is a collection of four novels (well novellas at least) I mean the book as a whole runs like 850 pages. This story in particular lasted about 300. And boy did I feel it. It’s not to say Roadwork was so terribly boring. I just couldn’t really get into it at all. The story follows Barton Dawes a disgruntled man watching his life slowly fall apart around him as the city builds an expressway extension through his little suburban paradise. He’s lost his job, his wife, and eventually his own life. Sorry to spoil it for you but the book is like one loooooong drawn out explanation of a physics experiment. How long will it take for a man to crack? Well, the answer is until just about the time when they start to bulldoze your house. Roadwork is simple and uninspired. I didn’t enjoy reading it and really wouldn’t recommend it.
1/5If anyone has seen the Schwarzenegger (sp?) film The Running Man, you might be inclined to think you're familier with this story. Well guess what? You're not. This is a very different tlae than the film by the same name. The premis is somewhat similar. The concept, but the actual plot is quite different. And know what else? The book is better. The Running man tells the story of Ben Richards a hard pressed, down on his luck, but generally speaking normal enough guy. His wife and him are poor. And in this future world the class division is such that the poor are always poor. They cannot rise to anything else. Richards' young daughter is sick; pneumonia. Drugs are expensive. A hospital or doctor would be way too much money. So where is he to turn. Why it's The Running Man! Amercia's favorite gameshow. If Richards can manage to survive for thirty days while being hunted down anywhere in the world, he will win $1 billion dollars. For every hour he lives, a hundred goes to his family. And so Richards runs. He meets some pretty facinating characters along the way, and peels aways the layers of lies the country, the world, around him propigate. He is a straight talking hero. Actually I think Schwarzenegger is a great choice for him. Right up the character's ally. Anyhow, the book is good, if simplistic. It's only 150 pages or so, but the plot, such that it is, captivates. The characters are often carictures, sterotypes; but I think that worked. It's a very good short read, and well worth the time invested.
4/5
