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The Running Man
352 pages, Hardcover
Published October 14, 2025
9 people are currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,614 books886k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 27, 2025
Interesting, and makes me like the movie (2025) more.
If you know why Bachman exists for King**, you’ll know how this ends before you start it. But I found myself missing the (few) parts that made the new movie good. The Apostle, the revolution, “Richards Lives” are all absent, so it just feels like you’re watching a rat scurry around in a cage for 200 or so pages.
After two bad film adaptations you start to wonder, would this have been better if it were written by Stephen King? I say yes.
Oh well.
** Foreword from Stephen King for a collection of The Bachman Books:
Stephen King has always understood that the good guys don't always win (see Cujo, Pet Sematary, and - perhaps - Christine), but he has also understood that mostly they do. Every day, in real life, the good guys win. Mostly these victories go unheralded (MAN ARRIVES HOME SAFE FROM WORK YET AGAIN wouldn't sell many papers); but they are nonetheless real for all that and fiction should reflect reality.
…..
The good folks mostly win, courage usually triumphs over fear, the family dog hardly ever contracts rabies; these are things I knew at twenty - five, and things I still know now, at the age (almost) of 25 x 2. But I know something else as well: there's a place in most of us where rain is pretty much constant, the shadows are always long, and the woods are full of monsters. It is good to have a voice in which the terrors of such a place can be articulated and its geography partially described, without denying the sunshine and clarity that fill so much of our ordinary lives. For me, Bachman is that voice.
If you know why Bachman exists for King**, you’ll know how this ends before you start it. But I found myself missing the (few) parts that made the new movie good. The Apostle, the revolution, “Richards Lives” are all absent, so it just feels like you’re watching a rat scurry around in a cage for 200 or so pages.
After two bad film adaptations you start to wonder, would this have been better if it were written by Stephen King? I say yes.
Oh well.
** Foreword from Stephen King for a collection of The Bachman Books:
Stephen King has always understood that the good guys don't always win (see Cujo, Pet Sematary, and - perhaps - Christine), but he has also understood that mostly they do. Every day, in real life, the good guys win. Mostly these victories go unheralded (MAN ARRIVES HOME SAFE FROM WORK YET AGAIN wouldn't sell many papers); but they are nonetheless real for all that and fiction should reflect reality.
…..
The good folks mostly win, courage usually triumphs over fear, the family dog hardly ever contracts rabies; these are things I knew at twenty - five, and things I still know now, at the age (almost) of 25 x 2. But I know something else as well: there's a place in most of us where rain is pretty much constant, the shadows are always long, and the woods are full of monsters. It is good to have a voice in which the terrors of such a place can be articulated and its geography partially described, without denying the sunshine and clarity that fill so much of our ordinary lives. For me, Bachman is that voice.
November 29, 2025
This was an exciting and satisfying execution of the "Running Man" reality TV show concept. "The Running Man" is first and foremost a class commentary, depicting a dystopian future where the starving appetites of media conglomerates and their consumers literally prey on the misery of the poor and desperate. I love a solid class-driven, futuristic dystopia such as "The Hunger Games" or "1984," and I would definitely put this novel among them—a short but thrilling read driven by fascinating characters and a fast-paced plot.
November 20, 2025
Picked it up from the library on a whim and then stayed up ridiculously late reading it. Couldn’t put it down. Nothing like the old Arnold movie
Great dystopian thriller with FreeVee reality tv feeding off of people’s suffering, eerily prescient about our current reality tv. No spoilers, but I wonder if the movie will stay true to the ending in the book
King write it in 1973 but didn’t publish it until 1982 under a pseudonym. Set in 2025 with America as an authoritan dystopia.
Great dystopian thriller with FreeVee reality tv feeding off of people’s suffering, eerily prescient about our current reality tv. No spoilers, but I wonder if the movie will stay true to the ending in the book
King write it in 1973 but didn’t publish it until 1982 under a pseudonym. Set in 2025 with America as an authoritan dystopia.
November 17, 2025
Read this in one sitting and then watched the movie the next day. Loved the book and loved the way the movie changed the book. Book is ALWAYS BETTER but who doesn’t love Glen Powell?
December 14, 2025
hooked from the first page!! this is such a fast read and soooooo intense! #LOVED IT
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews