9. The Running Man. Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman). 1982. 317 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: She was squinting at the thermometer in the white light coming through the window. Beyond her, in the drizzle, the other highrises in the Co-Op City rose like the gray turrets of a penitentiary.
Premise/plot: Ben Richards enters the games out of desperation. His young daughter is sick and the family who is already struggling to pay for the barest of bare necessities cannot afford to get her medical help. He may not be of much worth to his family as he is, but if he entered the games then there's a chance his death may help his family just enough. And, of course, he may beat all odds--unlikely--and bring home money as well. It's an option that he feels is his one and only option.
The book is set in the bleakest of bleak dystopian worlds. The games on Free-Vee offer entertainment amidst the bleakity-bleakness of life. BUT they are anything but fun.
Ben Richards agrees to the rules of the game. He'll send in TEN MINUTES OF VIDEO FOOTAGE per day while being hunted by those professionals IN the game and those outside the game. There's a reward for ANY person reporting his whereabouts. There is no continual surveillance. There is not a studio where this game is filmed. He can literally GO anywhere in the world--so long as he can manage his own way around.
This is a game of strategy and some luck.
My thoughts: I saw the movie from the 1980s recently. This book is absolutely NOTHING at all like it--not even a little bit. Two or three names are the same, perhaps. Do not expect the book to be like the movie.
I didn't love the movie, so I was happy to see the differences. That being said, the first two-thirds of this one was a bit on the slow side. I joked with my best friend that it was 80% hiding and 20% running. And I wasn't wrong--at that point in the book. The ending IS fast-paced. You reach a point where it is ALL thriller-action-intensity.
© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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