Mass Market Paperback, 219 pages
English language
Published Jan. 7, 1987 by New American Library.
WELCOME TO AMERICA IN 2025 WHEN THE BEST MEN DON'T RUN FOR PRESIDENT, THEY RUN FOR THEIR LIVES--IN THE ULTIMATE DEATH GAME.
Each night all Americans tune in to the nation's favorite TV game show--The Running Man.
Each night they see if the contestant has evaded death at the hands of the Hunters just one more day. Thirty days of survival takes the prize--one billion dollars.
The record is eight days...
But now a new contestant, Ben Richards, has set out to beat the brutal odds, beat the rigged game, beat the entire savage system. He's betting his life that he can... --back cover
This reads very much the way I assume it was written. Fueled, shall we say? It's full of misogyny (pudenda, anyone?) and racism. You can probably skip it, but don't think watching the movie is a substitute as they are nothing alike in plot or characters, imo.
This is one of the cases where the movie is better than the book. I have read another book King wrote as Bachman, The Long Walk, and the memory of it still stays with me even after 30 years. The Running Man did not manage to impress me as much. Maybe I am less impressionable now, but also because the book is not nearly as good. I felt the writing was abusing adjectives and the whole portrayal of the world of 2025 aged liked milk.
Instead of reading this short book, just re-watch the movie with Arnold. Much more entertaining.
