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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
slow-paced
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
The long walk - 4,5⭐
Roadwork - 3,25⭐
The running man - 4⭐
Roadwork - 3,25⭐
The running man - 4⭐
The Long Walk was my absolute favorite story from this book. A story and main character that really sticks with you. Rage was pretty good, as well. I don't remember the other two very much, aside from the fact that Running Man was made into a movie.
These books, written before King became a household name, show an astonishing ability to tell a story from an early age. The first novel, which King has pulled from publication, Rage, is better than its subject material in many ways and shows directions King would take later on. The Long Walk and The Running Man are science fiction stories set in realistic near futures, and Roadwork is a mainstream novel about loss. None of them are particularly great, but all of them show the sort of storytelling abilities King would later show. Along with Carrie, King's first published novel, and Night Shift, his first collection of short stories, it provides a great glimpse of a young writer coming into his own. Follow these with 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, and you'll see a progression that is amazing.
While I've only read two of the four novels contained in this book, it is still one of my favorite of King's 'four books in one' collections (Four Past Midnight, Different Seasons, the upcoming Full Dark, No Stars [which I'm very excited about:]), even though this is a book of an entirely different nature (the Bachman connection; the fact that each novel was released individually).
'Rage' is a brilliant novel dealing with school-shootings far before such things were actual events (recent school-shootings are the reason that this book is no longer in print). While, yes, the protagonist does commit a heinous crime, you find yourself drawn in by his plight.
'The Long Walk' is a post-apocalyptic tale about a contest and the slow death of a group of very young men; it can be seen as a parable of war, or of modern American society, or it can be viewed as a pretty fantastic sci-fi novel.
'Rage' is a brilliant novel dealing with school-shootings far before such things were actual events (recent school-shootings are the reason that this book is no longer in print). While, yes, the protagonist does commit a heinous crime, you find yourself drawn in by his plight.
'The Long Walk' is a post-apocalyptic tale about a contest and the slow death of a group of very young men; it can be seen as a parable of war, or of modern American society, or it can be viewed as a pretty fantastic sci-fi novel.
⭐️ Rage: Charlie Decker, mad at the world, decides to enter school one day with a gun, shooting two teachers and holding a class hostage. This story has been said and done; granted this was written in the 1960s, but there wasn’t anything memorable about it. The plot got boring after the first couple chapters being stuck in the classroom. Then to top it off Bachman had Charlie ranking the girls in his class by their virginity, which was really out of place and uncalled for. Bachman tried to give Charlie a background and a ‘why’ he was the way he was, but it felt forced and so stereotypical to blame the parents for a messed up kid. None of the characters were memorable nor redeemable, most of them were just plain unlikeable so the reader found it hard to want to care or read about them. The ending felt cheap and just didn’t do the novel (not that it needed it) any justice; it just made the story even worse. It’s a good thing this novel is not printed anymore because it’s not worth reading.
⭐️⭐️.5 The Long Walk: One hundred teenage boys on the first day of May are sent on a walk known as “The Long Walk”. Breaking the rules gets you warnings, getting three warnings gets you taken out in the worst kind of way. This was a fascinating story that really intrigued the reader. The concept of the novel was good and different, something that hasn’t really been thought of and that’s what really had the reader interested, but the way Bachman wrote this kinda left it feeling a little flat. There were moments with really great, picturesque writing, but there were also moments where he would make his characters misogynistic with derogatory thoughts and that took away from the story and wasn’t needed. The characters were interesting, the reader could tell Bachman wanted to be mysterious with them to give them intrigue but it just left us confused and wondering why characters were doing what they were doing. The ending left the reader feeling a little cheated because certain events came out of nowhere and it didn’t feel like a genuine ending; it felt rushed and done just to finish it. This wasn’t a bad story, but it could have been better.
⭐️⭐️.75 Roadwork: When the area that Bart Dawes lives on is scheduled to be demolished to become a new highway, Bart isn’t having any of it. Instead, he does everything he can not to move out. For the most part this was a well told story, the reader was gripped by the plot and watching it unfold because as much as it was starting to get predicable, it was also unpredictable. The ending truly threw the reader because they didn’t see it coming and it totally changed the way they viewed the whole book. It made them question Bart’s motives more and wonder if he was really as crazy as he was made out to be. Bart as a character was not likeable in the slightest and that made this hard to read at times because the reader didn’t care about Bart, but they were curious to see what he would do next. The backstory we got on Bart was good and it helped explain why he was the way he was to an extent. Overall, this was a strong story, with a very unpleasant main character.
⭐️⭐️ The Running Man: Set in the future, in the year 2025, Ben Richards finds himself on a reality Free-Vee show where he’s on the run from Hunters who are trying to kill him… all in the name of entertainment. This 100% read as someone from the 1980s writing about the future because the technology was laughable in the year 2022. Basically, Bachaman took technology from the ‘80s and gave it weird enhancements that felt comical. It didn’t really add too much to the story though. Bachman also touched upon an airborne illness that was causing cancer, but he didn’t really explore it more. There was so much potential with the things he briefly touched on that really could have made this story better and more flushed out. Instead, this story read like a fever dream and the reader never really had any idea what was actually happening. It was great that the plot was unpredictable and the reader never knew what was coming, but it also made it hard to stay connected. It also didn’t help that the main character, Richards, was so unlikeable that the reader didn’t care what happened to him. He had no redeeming qualities, nor did he have developments. All in all, this novel had a lot of intrigue with no real follow through.
⭐️⭐️.5 The Long Walk: One hundred teenage boys on the first day of May are sent on a walk known as “The Long Walk”. Breaking the rules gets you warnings, getting three warnings gets you taken out in the worst kind of way. This was a fascinating story that really intrigued the reader. The concept of the novel was good and different, something that hasn’t really been thought of and that’s what really had the reader interested, but the way Bachman wrote this kinda left it feeling a little flat. There were moments with really great, picturesque writing, but there were also moments where he would make his characters misogynistic with derogatory thoughts and that took away from the story and wasn’t needed. The characters were interesting, the reader could tell Bachman wanted to be mysterious with them to give them intrigue but it just left us confused and wondering why characters were doing what they were doing. The ending left the reader feeling a little cheated because certain events came out of nowhere and it didn’t feel like a genuine ending; it felt rushed and done just to finish it. This wasn’t a bad story, but it could have been better.
⭐️⭐️.75 Roadwork: When the area that Bart Dawes lives on is scheduled to be demolished to become a new highway, Bart isn’t having any of it. Instead, he does everything he can not to move out. For the most part this was a well told story, the reader was gripped by the plot and watching it unfold because as much as it was starting to get predicable, it was also unpredictable. The ending truly threw the reader because they didn’t see it coming and it totally changed the way they viewed the whole book. It made them question Bart’s motives more and wonder if he was really as crazy as he was made out to be. Bart as a character was not likeable in the slightest and that made this hard to read at times because the reader didn’t care about Bart, but they were curious to see what he would do next. The backstory we got on Bart was good and it helped explain why he was the way he was to an extent. Overall, this was a strong story, with a very unpleasant main character.
⭐️⭐️ The Running Man: Set in the future, in the year 2025, Ben Richards finds himself on a reality Free-Vee show where he’s on the run from Hunters who are trying to kill him… all in the name of entertainment. This 100% read as someone from the 1980s writing about the future because the technology was laughable in the year 2022. Basically, Bachaman took technology from the ‘80s and gave it weird enhancements that felt comical. It didn’t really add too much to the story though. Bachman also touched upon an airborne illness that was causing cancer, but he didn’t really explore it more. There was so much potential with the things he briefly touched on that really could have made this story better and more flushed out. Instead, this story read like a fever dream and the reader never really had any idea what was actually happening. It was great that the plot was unpredictable and the reader never knew what was coming, but it also made it hard to stay connected. It also didn’t help that the main character, Richards, was so unlikeable that the reader didn’t care what happened to him. He had no redeeming qualities, nor did he have developments. All in all, this novel had a lot of intrigue with no real follow through.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes