Digital Audio
English language
Published April 1, 2010 by Blackstone Audio.
It is 2025, and reality television has progressed to the point where people are willing to wager their lives in exchange for a chance at enormous wealth. Ben Richards is desperate: he needs money to treat his daughter's illness, which grows worse by the day. In a dystopian America where the poor are seen by the government as worrisome rodents rather than actual human beings, he knows his last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man. The objective is to elude police and specially trained trackers for a month. The reward is a cool billion dollars. The catch is that everyone else on the planet is watching and willing to turn him in for a reward.
Welcome to America in 2025, when the best men don't run for president—they run for their lives.
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.
