The Running Man by Stephen King

[katekintailbc]

The Running Man
by Stephen King
(Audio)

I needed something to listen to while I did data entry at work, and this Stephen King book was available. So I gave it a try. My library download expired before I could finish it, so I ended up putting it on hold and listening to it a few weeks later to finish it up.

This is the story of Ben Richards, a man just trying to get enough money to take care of his family and his sick daughter. It's the year 2025 and the country (world?) is ruled by a Network that puts on popular programming to the bubblegum masses like reality shows that push the boundaries of morality. In order to get the money, Ben agrees to go on a game show and suddenly finds himself being chased. If he evades the hunters, the money is his. Otherwise, he's out the money and will die. The Network makes sure the entire country is on board with turning in and killing Ben. They make him look like a murderer and, what's worse, the run for his life actually turns him into one.

Well, this was a depressing book. The world King built seemed believable if you were predicting it in the '80s or even '90s. Pollution is killing people, so they wear filters in their noses. There are flying cars. There is a free entertainment network controlling the single narrative for the entire industry. I had trouble buying the fact that we could evolve into this world, though there were some very believable aspects as well. I was shocked to find out the book was written in 2010. Then I realized that was the audiobook's publish date. The story was originally published in 1982. Okay, that makes more sense.

While reading, I was definitely rooting for Ben. He learns a lot about the world while on the run, and the idea of exposing the world to the truth as well as winning and saving his family seems like a great story. Except I forgot the one rule I have about a Stephen King novel: no one is safe. That's right! Characters I believed in and liked? Yeah, they up and die, just like that. There was a lot of that, just when I was sure those characters would have happy endings. I was shocked and horrified and, in true Stephen King fashion, the descriptions were way too gory and detailed. I don't mind a little gore, but the description of trying to hold one's intestines in one's chest? It was way too well described. Yikes.

I did not see the ending coming, and I didn't like it. In fact, there was little I did like. You see a moral character not only become immoral but get a lot of other good characters in trouble or killed. There was very little take-away except "stop killing our planet and don't let reality TV become this terrible" both things I already believed before picking up the book. Really, this book just made me sad, horrified, and depressed. I kind of wish I hadn't bothered finishing it.