The Bachman Books by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book took me ages to finish it. If you’ve seen the book, you would know how thick it is. I would call it a dictionary even.

 

Anyway, “The Bachman Books” contained three stories that Stephen King wrote under the name of “Richard Bachman” – “The Long Walk”, “Roadwork” and “The Running Man”. I could understand why some people guessed that Bachman was Stephen King. I mean, who else could have written such stories that were filled with chilling suspense? Sure, it’s not horror stories, which were what Stephen King was famous for but the emotions that these stories gave you are pretty much the same.

“The Long Walk” and “The Running Man” were set in the grim future while “Roadwork” was set in the ’70s.

The first story in the book has always been cited in the list of favourite Stephen King’s books by his fans and I could understand why now that I’ve read it. “The Long Walk” is about 100 boys who volunteered to walk for miles at a certain speed. Sounds like brisk walking. Yes, but if they were to fall off it, they will not survive.

It took me a while to get used to “Roadwork”. After reading “The Long Walk”, this sets me back a little and I think I know why. This story is about a man who refused to surrender to change – a change he believed is destroying people’s lives. As you read on, you would just want the character to just move on but you know that if you were in his place, you’d do the same, because it might have happened already to some of us. Authorities making things that are seemingly useful to you but you know it does otherwise and eventually the truth came out – it’s a money-making business. So, this story has a more realistic tone to it as compared to the other two stories.

“The Running Man” is a futuristic game show where two men from the poor side of the town were hunted to death to win the ultimate prize – $1 billion. It’s like “The Hunger Games” with lesser people. Sure, “The Hunger Games” had contestants kill each other but eventually, it was the authorities who played a hand in them. Same here. “The Running Man” had professional hunters who never failed in their hunting of the running men but only one had eluded them – Ben Richards, the protagonist of this story.

All in all, I really do love this book. It’s worth my 1-month-or-so reading it and carrying this thick book back and forth to and from work, reading in the train. If you had never read Stephen King’s books before (I didn’t) and you want to be introduced to his writing, this would be a good one. Sure, he’s not writing as himself but a pseudonym, it’s still him.

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