The Running Man

By Stephen King

In the year 2025, the best men don’t run for President, they run for their lives….

Ben Richards is out of work and out of luck. His eighteen-month-old daughter is sick, and neither Ben nor his wife can afford to take her to a doctor. For a man with no cash and no hope from the poor side of town, there’s only one thing to do: become a contestant on one of the Network’s Games, shows where you can win more money than you’ve ever dreamed of—or die trying. Now, Ben’s going prime-time on the Network’s highest-rated viewer participation show. And he’s about to become prey for the masses….

With an introduction by the author, “The Importance of Being Bachman”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Aug 1, 1999
• ISBN: 9781101212141

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

Reviews for The Running Man

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's the ultimate act of rebellion in a dark Orwellian dystopia. The writing was good, the pacing was crazy, Masterful plot...even if the author did reveal the ending in the audio preview! the book is full of suspense, and has a brilliant ending. Past is prologue.

[afishcalledamy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's the year 2025 and Ben Richards, resident of the dystopian Co-Op City, is out of work, his daughter is dying of pneumonia, and his wife is prostituting herself to feed their family. The only thing left for him to do is run. He auditions for Games Network, a government-run reality television station, that run compulsory program on all of the city's televisions 24 hours a day. He is selected to be a contestant on the Network's most popular TV show The Running Man. On the Running Man contestants are branded enemies of the state, released into society, and win 100 New Dollars for their beneficiaries for each hour that they are able to evade capture and execution by the show's hired "Hunters."Let me stop right here and preface my review of this book by saying that I am a HUGE fan of King. He can weave stories so convincing that I am able to suspend disbelief for literally anything that he is able to come up with. Seriously. The man could write about homicidal bananas, and I would be completely on board (and most likely terrified of bananas for the rest of my life).With that said, on to my review . . .I really enjoyed the running man. Like King's other "Bachman Books" The Running Man is grittier than a lot of his other work, and that's one of my favorite things about King writing as Bachman, he really makes you feel the desperation of the situation. Ben Richards is a great character. Initially I found him annoying, but as the book progressed his snarkiness really grew on me. The cast of supporting characters is excellent as well. Bradley, one of the people who helps Ben in New York is one of my most favorite King characters ever, and "Chief Hunter" McCone is so appropriately sleazy that he made my skin crawl. The story moved very quickly. There were a lot of well written action sequences and completely unexpected plot twists. It held my attention so well that I was able to finish it in a single sitting. My only real gripe was the ending, which is the case with quite a few King books. To me it felt a bit rushed, but maybe that's because I was hoping for a different outcome. Overall I'd recommend The Running Man to any King fans or fans of dystopian literature; and with the popularity of more recent works like The Hunger Games and Battle Royale it's really worth a look for fans of those series as well.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow. VERY different from the movie, but very good in its own ways. The ending was wonderful, though a bit too predictable.

[edgeworth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like The Long Walk, this is another novel which Stephen King initially wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. It was one of his early books which I quite wanted to read because it’s very different to King’s traditional horror fare, being more of a science fiction thriller. It’s probably more famous for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film adaptation, which is only loosely based on the book, and which neatly slots into the so-bad-it’s-good category. (It’s probably also the most Eighties film ever made, even more than Back to the Future).The Running Man takes place in then-distant 2025, when America has become a polluted dystopian wasteland where the rich rule over the poor and the masses are kept entertained by nightly gladiatorial game shows in which contestants compete for their lives. Ben Richards is a poverty-stricken 28-year-old father whose baby daughter is dying of pneumonia, who makes the difficult decision to enter the deadliest game show of all: The Running Man, in which the contestant must survive as long as possible while being hunted across America by a team of killers.A down-and-out protagonist struggling to feed his family is a running theme in much of King’s early fiction, reflecting his own circumstances for much of his early life – married young, kids to feed, living in a trailer, working dead-end jobs. There’s an undercurrent of anger in The Running Man, as Richards rails against the injustice of the gap between rich and poor, and as the novel heats up towards the end there’s the sense of a brewing class war. The dystopian future America of The Running Man is obviously an exaggerated vision (whether one looks at it from 1982 or 2013) but there’s no doubt it was born from very real thoughts and observations King made about his own situation as a young man in the 1970s. (Although it’s very… American of King never to lay the blame on capitalism itself. For a foreign writer – or perhaps even a modern American writer – that would be considered an indisputable fact.)My enjoyment of The Running Man was limited by the fact that I was spoilered on the ending, which probably would have been a really great one if I hadn’t known it was coming. I was spoilered not by my own curiosity, not by Wikipedia or another book review, but by Stephen King’s own introduction to The Long Walk. (The same introduction precedes this edition of The Running Man, which was part of a series printed by Signet in the late 1990s; I imagine it also precedes the other two Bachman books, Rage and Roadwork – if Rage was reprinted at all, which, come to think of it, I don’t believe it was, on King’s request). Spoilers are irritating at the best of times, but when the author himself spoils you it’s beyond stupid – particularly when he does so in a completely different book! The idea for reprint introductions in general, I suppose, stems from the days when it was a 19th century classic that was being reprinted, and it was assumed everyone had already read it and would appreciate 20 pages of some literary analysis at the beginning. Putting that questionable notion aside, it’s completely ridiculous to carry the custom on into the modern age, when many of us are picking up books that we’ve never read, for the first time, in a reprint edition. And even then, why not put it at the end, after the book is fresh in our minds, and we’re thinking about it, and might appreciate somebody else’s perspective?Just, sorry, again: Stephen King wrote an introduction for his book in which he tells you the ending. And then put it at the beginning of other books as well.Anyway. Aside from this fuckwittery, did I enjoy The Running Man? Yes, but not as much as I was expecting to, even knowing I’d been spoilered. The Long Walk is by far the superior Bachman book – though it’s also, in my opinion, one of the best things King ever wrote. The Running Man, in comparison to The Long Walk’s chilling simplicity, takes place in a much more complex world, and makes much more of its science fiction and dystopian aspects – not always skilfully. Richards’ rage and contempt are thinly veiled facades for King’s own, and the injustices of this future America are often awkwardly shoehorned into the plot. I’m thinking specifically of his pillow talk conversation about air pollution records, including specific years and legislative acts, with his black street hoodlum saviour – and let’s not even get into King’s phonetic dialogue for black characters.Worth reading, but not the best of the Bachman books – and for the love of God, don’t read the introduction.

[ferrisscottr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pretty pissed that Stephen King gave away the ending in the Preface (why the !@#$ would you do that)!

Knowing the ending ruined a lot of the book. Nice world building but I would have liked to know more about how it got that way.
Good characters but not great (which is usually King's strong point).

After a while it just seemed like more of the same....yes he's still running and this situation seems like a lot more of the same situation from last chapter and the chapter before that.

Much better than the movie (although I loved Richard Dawson in the movie) but not up to Stephen King's usual level of quality.

[matthew254 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Running Man is Stephen King's other, and in my opinion, better of his dystopian game-show books he wrote under the Richard Bachman name (the other being The Long Walk). This is my second go around for this book and I'll just say what I say anytime the book is mentioned: it has almost nothing to do with the cheesy 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger film; King's book is decidedly more enjoyable. I shamefully like the movie, too, but for nostalgia's sake.

[blockbuster1994 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very successful, but unlikey King novel. Characters are developed quickly. The pace is fast and furious. Nothing is supernatural or overtly frightening, but, oh man, is this a sinister place set sometime in the future. The Running Man is a nationally televised gameshow featuring ordinary US citizens, who through their own personal circumstances, volunteer to be chased by professionally trained headhunters with the goal that the citizen contestants will be executed for pure entertainment value. It is possible to for a person to win by outmaneuvering the executioners, but in reality, nobody has ever survived for more than 8 days. Despite knowing the odds and probable outcome, Ben Richards enters the game, with the hope that he might last long enough to earn enough game money to provide medical treatment for his daughter, gravely ill with pneumonia. Or perhaps from pollution created by the capitalistic, greedy country that has evolved. However, Richards proves to be the ultimate player and his experience is cliffhanger. I could not put this story down.My secret favorite character is McCone, the premiere headhunter, who King describes at one point his snarling at Richards as "a completely unconscious gesture, one that could probably be traced all the way to McCone's ancestors, the Neanderthals who crept up behind their enemies with large rocks rather than battling to death in an honorable, but unintelligent manner."

[jolerie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

He understood well enough how a man with a choice between pride and responsibility will almost always choose pride - if responsibility robs him of his manhood. In the year 2025, society has gone to the dogs with a clear distinction between those who are the dogs and those who own the dogs. The corporation who owns the television network has all the power and everyone else either works for them or is fodder for a corrupt system that ensures that entertainment trumps everything and human life is cheap, worth a dime a dozen. Ben Richards has no choice but to subject himself to an organization that he loathes with every fibre of his being and yet his submission turned defiance may be what leads to an anarchy of a scale that this ruined world has never known. Written under the pseudonym Richard Backman, King sets out to paint a bleak and utterly hopeless world where game shows are a common fixture of society. These so called games are inherently rigged with odds stacked against the contestants and only the desperate need to apply. I wonder if he wrote these books during a particularly dark and angry season of his life because if the goal was to make the reader feel dejected about life and to rue at the unfairness of just existing, that he accomplishes with words to spare. In fashionable King style, the ending leaves you with a sour aftertaste and a gratefulness that no matter how bad the current state of the world may be, it can't possibly be as dark and dreary as the fictional world you hold between your fingers.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is another bleak one -- does that characterise all of the books Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman? It's kind of similar to The Long Walk, in that it's a future America and a brutal form of entertainment involving death. It's easier to read than The Long Walk -- a bit more dynamic, I guess.

The trouble I had with it was predictability, in the main. You know that he's going to escape this time, 'cause there's however many pages left. It's also difficult to sympathise with the main character, despite the wife-and-child excuse, because he's not that likeable. We don't learn that much about him other than that he's slightly antisocial (by the standards of his society), that he doesn't quite fit. Well, no shit, Sherlock. He's the main character of the novel. There's got to be something special about him or he wouldn't be the main character.

Characterisation is light throughout, really. Some of the little glimpses we get of characters -- Amelia, Bradley, Killian -- are good, they sound like interesting people, but you don't get inside their skins, not very deep.

I did enjoy the ending -- it isn't a happy ending, at all, but it's a satisfying one, I think, because there's revenge and perhaps the possibility of change. The book as a whole is easy to read, both because the writing is functional and goes down easy, and because it all has a kind of energy to it. There's very little 'dead writing' where nothing is going on. It's an angry novel, though: dark and angry.

[jacksonarthur · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you're looking for the movie, don't look here. A strong book and a great read, but no place for Ah-nuld in this one.

[wongxu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book did not stop once to catch its breath or let me catch mine. It was a breathless race to the end. Best to start this one at the beginning of the day and not before bed.

[jimocracy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Masterfully written! I've put off reading this book for over twenty years now because why wife had blurted out the ending. I should have know that Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) is such a great writer that knowing the ending could never ruin the story. I was mesmerized with every moment and never dissappointed!

Now that I have finished the masterpiece, I wish someone would make the movie version that did justice to the original story. Steven E. de Souza's screenplay version of the famous Schwarzenegger movie was a mere shadow of the greatness of this story (and yes, I still blame him for also writing such crap as Die Hard 2 and Judge Dredd).

Despite most of the future America being against Ben Richards, the reader was with him every step of the way and crying for blood along with him. I think this might have been the best single Stephen King book I've ever read and now I'm hungry for more of his Bachman books!

[bethiepaige_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Actually more 3.5
very close to 4

It was an interesting story, I really liked it.
Though I didn't really feel connected to Richards, even when it came to him as a pitiful husband just trying to support his family. I just didn't feel it. I couldn't feel his anger towards the Network as much as I think I should've.

I really liked the story and his character was good. I don't think you can go completely wrong with a simple King novel.

[placo75 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An entertaining, quick read. It differs quite a bit from the movie. This book was originally written by King under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman.

[daxman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As far as chase books go, this one is the greatest.

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm actually surprised at how good this one is. I'm actually surprised that so many of his books are actually from the 1970's and 1980's... he has been writing a while! 'The Running Man' is a cross between George Orwell's '1984' with reality television, H.G. Well's 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' without the animals, and a bit of everything from Philip K. Dick. I was happy to see references to 1984 and Wells in this, long after I noticed the comparisons. The book is written in 1982 and takes place in 2025. Sadly, I found that King couldn't really see anything that would be happening in 2013, let alone 2025 (cell phones?). There are air-cars though! But they only hover off the road (begging the question - what is the point and why aren't they called hover cars?) The main character here is poor man with a sick daughter and his only way to find his family money is to enter a TV game show to the death. He is on the run from The Hunters, can run anywhere on the planet and he gets money each day he survives. It is very captivating, as most Stephen King books usually are. There are some passages that reminded me that King isn't just good at plot.

[austin12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The novel, The Running Man, by Stephan King, encompasses the theme of the don't make dumb decisions. In the beginning, Ben Richards, the protaginist, struggles with needing money to support himself and others so he joins a game that can nearly take his life but the outcome of one billion new dollars if he stays alive. Throughout the middle he perserveres through nearly losing his life by a shot gun blast and being knifed by the other participating in the 30 day hunting game. (102/276)

[veeralpadhiar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good dystopian thriller that keeps you reading right till the end. I just read 'The Long Walk' so I thought that this might be a good book to read next by Stephen King. I browsed the shops, Goodreads and amazon half expecting to come across 'The Jogging Men' and was relieved as well as a bit disappointed to know that there isn't any.

Well of course, the protagonist here does not participate in a running contest but instead is running and hiding from the hunters and the privileged population of the USA alike. Yup, that is the game. He has a 12 hours head start and then he receives 100 dollars an hour of his survival time. There are perks when he kills policemen and there are prizes for the people to inform on his whereabouts. So all in all, a pretty gloomy picture.

And the end reminded me of a real major event that shook the world to its core for all the wrong reasons at the turn of this century.

[bethie9paige · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Actually more 3.5
very close to 4

It was an interesting story, I really liked it.
Though I didn't really feel connected to Richards, even when it came to him as a pitiful husband just trying to support his family. I just didn't feel it. I couldn't feel his anger towards the Network as much as I think I should've.

I really liked the story and his character was good. I don't think you can go completely wrong with a simple King novel.

[fothpaul · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An enjoyable book with an engaging plot which kept me turning the pages wanting to find out what happens. I’d seen the film many years ago but this was so vastly different from the books that it didn’t spoil the story for me at all. The only similarities seemed to be that there was a game show and it was on TV.I enjoyed the elements of humour thrown into the story here and there, such as Richards giving the middle finger to the organiser of the games shortly before crashing the plane into the building. I felt that the ending was a fitting one to the story and although you could predict that Richards would go after the games organisers, it wasn’t clear how he would go about this which kept me wondering.One strange element to the story though was the sudden gory nature of the final scenes, having been shot at and wounded and had his ankle broken Richards intestines fell out right near the end. This was a strange feature of the ending, and seemed a little out of keeping with the rest of the story. It was described in great detail as he dragged his guts around and they got caught around various objects. This was only a small section of the story, but it really felt that it was something that the author had become fixated upon and that wasn’t necessary.I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to others. But at the end of it all it definitely felt a bit like pulp fiction. There was an idea behind it all, about an elite suppressing the rest of society, and people choosing to be ignorant of this etc, but this wasn’t fully explored.

[thetwods · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Completely different from the film, the book takes the game across the country and puts Ben Richards, who looks nothing like Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a battle for survival amongst the public.

[jseger9000 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ben Richards needs money in a bad way. He has nothing to lose, but a lot to live for. His desperation drives him to sign up for The Running Man, free-vee’s hottest game show. If he can survive being hunted for thirty days, he will win the grand prize of one billion New Dollars. So far the record is eight days.The Running Man is about as stripped down a book as Stephen King is likely to write. In the introduction he mentions it was written within a week and published with very few changes. A very straight ahead thriller that churns right along with barely a pause for breath.The book is fast paced and fun with a wallop of an ending, but the social commentary is a little heavy handed. A fun book and the most simply entertaining of the Bachman books in this collection, but it is far from being top-tier King. The Running Man is a goof (though not as fun as it should have been).

[areadingmachine · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply one of the best dystopian stories from Stephen King or any other writer. Dont judge it by the movie.

[portm-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I never could quite put my finger on the reason I didn't like the Bachman stories as well as those written as King until I listened to the author's note. He says he was an angry young man, and they were angry books. I think this nails it exactly - this is an angry book missing much of the sly humor that makes King so enjoyable. Still, the story and its characters sucked me right in, and even knowing how the story would end didn't dim the experience. Full disclosure, the vivid descriptions did have me gagging a little near the end, and I don't gross out easily. I downloaded this version from Audible, and Kevin Kenerly did an outstanding job on the narration.

[runner56_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It surprised me as I read The Running Man that although the author is listed as Richard Bachman, all his fans know that this is Stephen King writing under his pseudonym. What I find amazing is the style, the characterization and everything that is familiar to me about SK is totally absent from this story. Is this meant to be? Is this to be read as a 3rd rate novel about a man Ben Richards trying to escape is meagre poor surroundings with one shot at the big pay off? I know that King can write great stand alone crime (Joyland, Mr Mercedes) and yet if I had not know that this was written by SK I would never have guessed.It is not a bad story. Ben Richards lives with his wife Sheila and daughter Cathy, impoverished residents of the fictional Co-Op city. His gravely ill daughter Cathy needs medicine, and his wife Sheila has resorted to prostitution to bring in money for the family. In desperation, Richards turns to the Games Network, a government-operated television station that runs violent game shows. After rigorous physical and mental testing, Richards is selected to appear on "The Running Man" the Games Network's most popular, lucrative, and dangerous program. His task is keep ahead of The Hunters and by doing so he will earn cash...survive 30 days and the big billion dollar jackpot will be his! The story is fast and pleasant but devoid of any real depth and feeling...perhaps that is the purpose of the author but having enjoyed so many brilliant King novels I cannot help feel a little disappointed. Having said that it is an ok story with a nice conclusion, one I did not see coming and suited the overall structure very well.

[barb_h_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audiobook version of this book. It was exciting and very different from the movie. At least I think so. It's been a long time since I saw the movie, but it seemed like the movie was completely different. I took a star off because I didn't really like the ending. I tend to have trouble with Stephen King's endings so that's not very surprising. Overall though I did enjoy this story.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The year is 2025. The poor and downtrodden are relegated to a mean ghetto, where they have little hope and virtually no opportunity. But though he’s been unemployed for a couple of years, Ben Richards is determined to get some money to help his wife and sick child. He decides to apply for one of the game shows that are constantly shown on Free Vee. For every hour he outruns the Hunters he earns one hundred New Dollars. If he can keep running for 30 days, he wins and earns a cool one billion. The odds are against him; the shows thrive on maiming, or even killing, the contestants. But this is his only chance.I am a fan of Stephen King, and have read at least one other book written under his pseudonym of Richard Bachman. This is completely different from any of his works I’ve read before. The pace is frantic and unrelenting; I felt as sleep deprived as the main character. I’m reminded of Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), George Orwell (1984) and Alduous Huxley (Brave New World).

[martensgirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love the idea of the book, but about half way it takes a distinct downward turn. Unusually for King, the main character is not particularly well formulated. The ending is ridiculous.

[cail_judy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a damn fun read. It's not trying to be sophisticated, it wants to blow the reader's mind. It moves quick and kept me turning the pages.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, this was a wild ride through a horrific, nightmarish scenario. This is my first Bachmann book that I've read and the style is an abrupt departure from the King works that I have grown accustomed to. Nonetheless, it has its charms and perks. Although not the greatest novel, it is an engaging action/thriller ride that is still worth reading.3 stars.