The Running Man
by Stephen King
read by Kevin Kenerly
My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Dystopian thriller
Ben Richards’s daughter is dying, and he can only think of one way to get the money for her medicine—volunteer for one of the “big money” Games that so often end in death for the players. When he’s selected for the Running Man game, the whole country becomes his game board…and all its citizens his opponents.
I’m still dancing around reading any of Stephen King’s horror novels, though this book has a few horrific moments of its own. Not that I’d expected a book about a man signing up to be hunted to his death to be uplifting, but I was hoping for at least some bit of hopefulness by the end of the story or at least a purpose to it. There’s a side plot about the air pollution that seems like it’s going to end up being important, but it completely fizzles out by the end of the book.
To be fair, I don’t know how I would have felt about the ending if I hadn’t known exactly what was going to happen. Apparently the publishers of this edition of the book figured that it’s old enough that the ending isn’t a secret, so they put an introduction at the beginning of the audiobook in which Stephen King fully spoils the ending. Seriously, if you’re going to be giving big spoilers like that, put it after the book! And since I was listening to the audiobook, I couldn’t even sort of see it coming and look away… But speaking of the ending, it just felt completely pointless to me. Richards may have liked his plan in the moment, but it’s not like what happened was really going to change anything all that much, at least not given the way it happened. It was just fruitless.
Then too, the year is 2025, yet somehow, it feels like 1970. It can be interesting or even amusing to read a book (or watch a movie) decades after the writer dreamed up what he or she thought the future might look like, to be in that future and see the differences. But Stephen King’s idea of the future when he wrote this book in the early 80s doesn’t feel particularly futuristic. There are hover cars (but still “wheeled” cars too) and a few dystopian elements involving heavy air pollution and people’s willingness to root for the death of games contestants, but overall, the worldbuilding just felt meager.
The bright spot of the audiobook experience was the narrator, who I actually really liked, but the narration couldn’t save the narrative flaws. So this is not destined to be my favorite King book. However, plenty of other people have enjoyed it, so if you’re interested, check out other reviews at the link below.
Find out more about The Running Man
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
