[Guest]

by Richard Bachman

Just starting reading this collection of four early SK books recently. I'm on The Running Man now, and I forgot just how engrossing and fast moving this novel is. Classic Stephen King.

How they made the movie is beyond me.

 

[scottsigler]

by Richard Bachman

Just starting reading this collection of four early SK books recently. I'm on The Running Man now, and I forgot just how engrossing and fast moving this novel is. Classic Stephen King.

Loved this one. I thought all of the Bachman books were solid (but still haven't read THINNER).

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Running Man is my all time favorite Steven King novel....

Betsy

 

[scottsigler]

Not sure what you mean by sold

Sorry, a typo. I meant "solid." Corrected in the post above.

 

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

Running Man is my all time favorite Steven King novel....

Betsy

The Stand is my all-time favorite fiction book...the long, un-edited (less edited?) version.

I used to be really into King, even tho I'm not a horror fan. I just liked his everyman writing style. Havent read him in yrs tho but I have his newer one about a biosphere on my shelf waiting.

 

[kempton.mooney]

It feels like King is not as big a deal as he used to be. I remember when IT and THE STAND were made into movies, everyone would talk about King. Now he's faded into the background even though he keeps writing. Does anyone think this is because he isn't marketing himself as well these days? Or his latest writing is not as good? Or people have tired of his writing style?

 

[John Dax]

The Running Man is brilliant. I always wished they made a movie out of it...

(Yes, my powers of blacking out certain movies are well honed. That might also explain my confusion with the numbering of the Highlander movies.)

 

[JeffMariotte]

The Running Man was lots of fun. My copy is a paperback from the days before anyone knew Bachman was King (although stylistically, it was pretty clear to most of us).

I think King has just gotten better and better as a writer. Lisey's Story was brilliantly written. The Dome was terrific (except I thought the ending revelation was weak--but the same was true of It). He's one of the best we've got, and though his focus has changed his abilities continue to grow.

 

[Sean Cunningham]

I don't know if there was such a thing as reality TV when he wrote the book, but I thought of it quite often during the reality TV craze of the last decade. It seemed eerily predictive when Big Brother was all over the place.

 

[Glen Krisch]

I just finished King's Full Dark, No Stars, which is a novella collection.  Brilliant stuff!  It's made me want to go back and read The Bachman books, especially The Long Walk.  The Running Man is one of those prescient tales that every writer describing the future hopes to create.

 

[R. M. Reed]

The Long Walk would make a great movie if done right. It might be too gruesome because they are so young.

 

[balaspa]

I liked all of the Bachman books except for Roadwork.  I have never been able to get into it or finish it.  Then I read King wrote it in an attempt to do a truly "serious" work and it was an attempt to deal with a death and particularly rough time in his life.  I think it comes through.  There is always a wicked sense of fun, even in his most horrific works, that is entirely absent here.

 

[joanhallhovey]

You know, I think this is the only Stephen King novel I've not read.  I'll have to remedy that.
Thanks for this thread.
Joan

 

[Colin Taber]

The Stand is my all-time favorite fiction book...the long, un-edited (less edited?) version.

I used to be really into King, even tho I'm not a horror fan. I just liked his everyman writing style. Havent read him in yrs tho but I have his newer one about a biosphere on my shelf waiting.

His prose is a very easy and comfortable read, like a good conversation. Very hard to ''just'' read a chapter before bed, two hours later you're cursing that you have to get up in four hours for work!

 

[Russell Brooks]

Firestarter was the last King book I read. I haven't read The Running Man, but I enjoyed the movie.

 

[ColinJ]

THE RUNNING MAN is incredibly prescient. That garish atrocity they made starring Ahnold got some of the themes right, but the book is so much closer to what we are seeing now that thinking back on it it's kind of uncomfortable.

I'd love to see a faithful version of that book done as a movie (David Fincher could pull it off) but I can't imagine that ending every making it to the screen.

 

[balaspa]

My first King book was Cujo.  My dad had borrowed it from someone and had left it lying around the house.  I was in 5th grade...LOL.  I thought I would go to the library and check out another one and after being questioned and lectured by the librarian before she finally let me check out Firestarter, I decided I would buy the books from now on.  Turns out bookstores just wanted my money and could care less about my age...so, I have bought every King book the day it came out in hardcover for years....until I got my ereader.  Full Dark, No Stars was my first Kind digital purchase.

This has nothing to do with Running Man...but I felt the need to share, this morning.

 

[Russell Brooks]

My first King book was Cujo. My dad had borrowed it from someone and had left it lying around the house. I was in 5th grade...LOL. I thought I would go to the library and check out another one and after being questioned and lectured by the librarian before she finally let me check out Firestarter, I decided I would buy the books from now on. Turns out bookstores just wanted my money and could care less about my age...so, I have bought every King book the day it came out in hardcover for years....until I got my ereader. Full Dark, No Stars was my first Kind digital purchase.

This has nothing to do with Running Man...but I felt the need to share, this morning.

My first King book was The Tommyknockers, it was a good book, although I felt that there was too much fluff. The entire second part could've been left out and it wouldn't have taken anything away from the actual story.

 

[R. M. Reed]

Balaspa: I always wanted the latest King book but could never afford the hardback. So I waited for a year or more for the paperback. Arrgh!

 

[Sean Cunningham]

THE RUNNING MAN is incredibly prescient. That garish atrocity they made starring Ahnold got some of the themes right, but the book is so much closer to what we are seeing now that thinking back on it it's kind of uncomfortable.

Great fun to watch as a fifteen year old boy though.