Wednesday, 1 October 2014

In Which We Discuss the Running Man

A lot of people have sited this as one of their favourite Stephen King  novels.  I can't say I'll be joining them.

Running Man  was a pretty quick read.  Two days, if I recall correctly.  I didn't dislike the book, but reading it more than thirty years after it was published, it did not compare well to more modern books.  Chart Throb  and Dead Famous did the reality TV parody in a way I preferred.  I feel like Play or Die did the hunting human plot better.

I think a big reason why I preferred Play or Die was that it was set in a world closer to mine.  I had a better idea of the options available to the main character, so I could better evaluate her decisions and therefore her resourcefulness and intelligence.  I didn't feel like I could do that with with the Running Man.

Weirdly, wikipedia keeps saying that Running Man is similar to Battle Royale and Hunger Games.  No it isn't, not more so than any other novel.

I've never seen the movie, but I gather it's very different from the book.  James Smythe has, and continues with his excellent Guardian articles here.

Unusually, The Running Man doesn't appear to have any links with other Stephen King novels.

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