The Bachman Books

by Richard Bachman, Stephen King

Written under the nom de plume "Richard Bachman," here are four early novels by bestselling author Stephen King: RAGE, a story of stunning psychological horror; THE LONG WALK, the tale of a macabre marathon; ROADWORK, a variation on the theme of "Home Sweet Home"; and THE RUNNING MAN, a nightmare vision of a ghoulish game show in which you bet your life--literally.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Suspense

692 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

This is a Stephen King pseudonym.

At the beginning of Stephen King's career, the general view among publishers was that an author was limited to one book per year, since publishing more would be unacceptable to the public. King therefore wanted to write under another name, in order to increase his publication without over-saturating the market for the King "brand". He convinced his publisher, Signet Books, to print these novels under a pseudonym.

In his introduction to The Bachman Books, King states that adopting the nom de plume Bachman was also an attempt to make sense out of his career and try to answer the question of whether his success was due to talent or luck. He says he deliberately released the Bachman novels with as little marketing presence as possible and did his best to "load the dice against" Bachman. King concludes that he has yet to find an answer to the "talent versus luck" question, as he felt he was outed as Bachman too early to know. The Bachman book Thinner (1984) sold 28,000 copies during its initial run—and then ten times as many when it was revealed that Bachman was, in fact, King.

The pseudonym King originally selected (Gus Pillsbury) is King's maternal grandfather's name, but at the last moment King changed it to Richard Bachman. Richard is a tribute to crime author Donald E. Westlake's long-running pseudonym Richard Stark. (The surname Stark was later used in King's novel The Dark Half, in which an author's malevolent pseudonym, "George Stark", comes to life.) Bachman was inspired by Bachman–Turner Overdrive, a rock and roll band King was listening to at the time his publisher asked him to choose a pseudonym on the spot.

King provided biographical details for Bachman, initially in the "about the author" blurbs in the early novels. Known "facts" about Bachman were that he was born in New York, served a four-year stint in the Coast Guard, which he then followed with ten years in the merchant marine. Bachman finally settled down in rural central New Hampshire, where he ran a medium-sized dairy farm, writing at night. His fifth novel was dedicated to his wife, Claudia Inez Bachman, who also received credit for the bogus author photo on the book jacket. Other "facts" about the author were revealed in publicity dispatches from Bachman's publishers: the Bachmans had one child, a boy, who died in an unfortunate, Stephen King-ish type accident at the age of six, when he fell through a well and drowned. In 1982, a brain tumour was discovered near the base of Bachman's brain; tricky surgery removed it. After Bachman's true identity was revealed, later publicity dispatches (and about the author blurbs) revealed that Bachman died suddenly in late 1985 of "cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia".

King dedicated Bachman's early books—Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), and The Running Man (1982)—to people close to him. The link between King and his shadow writer was exposed after a Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk, Steve Brown, noted similarities between the writing styles of King and Bachman. Brown located publisher's records at the Library of Congress which included a document naming King as the author of one of Bachman's novels. Brown wrote to King's publishers with a copy of the documents he had uncovered, and asked them what to do. Two weeks later, King telephoned Brown personally and suggested he write an article about how he discovered the truth, allowing himself to be interviewed. King has taken full ownership of the Bachman name on numerous occasions, as with the republication of the first four Bachman titles as The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King in 1985. The introduction, titled "Why I Was Bachman," details the whole Bachman/King story.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rage - The banned Bachman book that is more notorious for being banned than - the student loses it at school, kills and takes a class hostage story. Still a story very much ahead of its time when it was written. 4 out of 12,Two Stars.

The Long Walk - This book haunts me, an exceptionally horrifying read. 100 teenage boys compete in the Long Walk endurance race… where there can only be one winner and the losers die or are killed! So far ahead of it's time, as King/Bachman takes the reality TV show to its logical conclusion? 10 out of 12, FIVE STAR READ!
The Running Man - Completely different to the film. Ben Richards is compelled to take part in The Running Man in this dystopia, to save the lives of his family, but the Games have no idea just how difficult Richards will be to kill. Dark, thrilling and definitely hardcore dystopian horror classic! Also King's blazing attack on consumerism and capitalism inability to truly help the masses? 8 out of 12, firm Four Star read.
King/Bachman's tale of a white suburban male finally having one First World problem too many and going out with a bang! Like Rage a pretty poor book, albeit written by a very young and busy King. 3 out of 12, Two Star read.

Two stinkers and two Constant Reader classics, gives an average of about a 6 out of 12, Three Stars overall. AT such an early stage in his career this, in hindsight, now we know King wrote them, as a huge marker that this writer would be a sometimes supreme novella writer.

2003 read

[Stefan Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rage:
One of King’s earliest works, Rage wasn’t published until he had established himself and when it was, it was published under the author name Richard Bachman. This novel is definitely raw in many aspects, but I think that is what helps to give it its charm.
The story centers on a student who kills his teacher in front of his class and holds the class hostage for most of the day. He and the class then discuss a variety of issues, but the main conversation revolves around what has led him to this. King’s narrative and character development really help to pull the reader into the story and there is enough tension to help keep things moving when it starts to seem that it’s going to be dull.
Not the most action packed or scary of King’s novels, but still manages to be a page turner. I rank it up with the top of his novels from the story-telling aspect of this novel alone.


The Long Walk:
The Long Walk is another of Stephen King's novels written as Richard Bachman. In the traditional style of his Bachman writings, it is much more raw than most of his other writing. I enjoy the change in style as it lends even more realism to his writing and makes the story even more intense.
The Long Walk isn't really a horror tale so much as it is a tale of friendships formed under dire circumstances. We see up close how this interpersonal relationships grow and dissolve and reform again with great frequency throughout the race. It is also about the strength of the human spirit. When pushed to its limits, the human mind continues to push the body on into realms never deemed possible by the rational mind.
The story is a good one, if a little predictable, and even though it moves along at a slower pace than some, it's almost like we are right there with the walkers as follow-along spectators. Rich in detail and character, the slow pace doesn't make you want to stop reading, if anything, it enhances the tension.
I truly enjoyed rereading this novel and plan on visiting it again in the future.


Road Work:
This is my lowest rated King book so far. Not to say that it is a bad book or that I would discourage anyone from reading it, but it's definitely not on par with the majority of King's other works.
As usual, character development is top notch and the plot itself has no real problems. My problem with the book is that it really takes forever to get anywhere. The basic theory of the plot is that we see a man's descent into madness as everything that he has worked his entire life for is being taken away from him. He systematically sets out to destroy anything that he has left and tries to find a way to exact some sort of vengeance against the powers that be who have ruined his existence.
I have no problem with this storyline except that the way that it plays out, a lot of it is a rehash of what happens to the mind of Jack Torrance in The Shining. It's not nearly as nutty as The Shining, nor do we have the supernatural overtones in Roadwork, but I just got the general impression that I'd experienced the feel of the novel somewhere else.
Anyway, I don't want to condemn this story in any way. The main character is compelling and endearing in his way and the novel definitely has some strong moments here and there, I just felt that it took a little to long to get to some of them.


The Running Man:
It's the future and Ben Richards journeys to the Network Games Building to apply for a job as a contestant in order to supply the money to feed his family and provide medicine for his sick infant daughter. The job he gets ends up being more than both he and the Network bargained for!
The Running Man is a fairly well written tale set in the now not too distant future. Interestingly enough, the country is riveted to their free-vees in order to watch what is in essence nothing more than an unending stream of reality television game shows. It makes me wonder if Mark Burnett based some of his ideas upon this book and the (sort of) related movie.
Once Richards has moved through the application process, the action moves along at a pretty brisk pace and there are some really nice elements of storytelling apparent throughout. My only complaint is that King tries a little too hard with creating the future setting and goes overboard with the names and slogans for things that he uses in his setting. At times, especially during the beginning of the book, it's a bit cheesy and distracting.

[Jen from Quebec :0) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all 4 of King's novels found within 'The Bachman Books' collection, but currently, I've just re-read THE LONG WALK...a book I re-read every single year. Yes, it IS that good. I never tire of it. Every time I re-read this work I'm again stunned by the incredible amount of prescience possessed by Uncle Stevie! It is as if he has seen a future vision of North America that actually *could* happen. No supernatural stuff in this one: just the all-too-real monsters of human beings and capitalism.

Stephen King is a genius. This story was published in 1979 (yet written in the 1960's); and King predicted a future for humanity that, in many different facets, is scary in its accuracy.

The book takes place in America's future, where the televised event known as 'The Long Walk' has become a TV sensation, game/sports sensation, reality show sensation and BETTING sensation, with a whole economy wrapped up in this game of death known as 'The Long Walk'. For the annual 'Long Walk', 100 desperate, poverty-stricken, teenage American boys are chosen (after applying and going through a series of tests) to...walk. Starting in Maine, they walk + walk until only 1 is left standing. The Prize? Anything you want for the rest of your life. A pretty appealing reason to enter, especially in THIS desolate future version of America...but there IS the 99% chance the walk will kill you.

With army tanks + soldiers following the 100 'lucky' boys, the Walkers must *continuously walk* at a pace of 4 miles an hour. Dropping this speed for ANY reason: fatigue, urinating/deficating along the road, heatstroke, dehydration, broken shoes-anything-will give you a Warning. (There are other Rules that will also get you a Warning, like interfering with another walker, or leaving the route, for example). Get 3 Warnings and you'll 'buy your ticket'- you'll be shot down dead on the road, as the massive Crowds watch in person and live on TV- the very ultimate in reality shows.

What makes Stephen King such a prescient genius is that he wrote this story waaaaay BEFORE reality TV even EXISTED, before it was even a CONCEPT, and adds his own macabre ideas to the format. People discovering this book for the 1st time could easily assume it was written in the early heyday of reality TV- perhaps back when 'Survivor' premiered as a breakout success + viewers were enthralled with THAT televised contest...but no. KING WROTE THIS IN THE 1960's. Again, PRESCIENT GENIUS- I can't stress this enough!

The setting that King crafts makes it clear that in this version of the future, America has become an unstable, impoverished, militaristic country of citizens living in fear; one where TV's 'Long Walk' contest isn't just an obsession, it's almost a new religion. In fact, any citizens that dare voice negative opinions about TV's cash-cow are taken off by the government 'Squads' and killed. (One of many reasons the Squads will gladly execute people).

The Walk is not just a distraction for destitute denizens to avoid their harsh realities, it's also a means of allowing people to dare + hope for better things. Perhaps the 'Walker' that you've bet on will be THE Walker-his win could change your fortune! The 10000s of boys applying to enter the grueling, inhumane 'Long Walk' are dirt poor and have nothing to lose, nor do the people betting; betting on 'The Long Walk' has now become the biggest money-maker in the country. Forget the lottery- this barbaric, televised walking contest grants the government more $$ than lottos ever did. In King's dystopian future, the US economy runs on LIVE, televised, desperate children walking until they drop dead of exhaustion + malaise, or die from a bullet to the head for being too slow.

Each year the Walk begins in Maine at the border of USA/Canada, and the group walks south...for as long as it takes. (Often the Walk lasts over 5 days + nights, going into the state of Massachusetts or farther). The 'game' is run by The Major, a hard military figure, revered in the country and a giant celebrity. Ray Garraty is our main character, and he is dubbed 'Maine's Own' in press coverage of the Walk-he's the lone entrant from Maine this particular year-so he gets the unusual experience of walking through his home state with the Crowd on his side. (The Crowd in this novel is basically another character to the story + 'Crowd' is always, always capitalized in the book). Ray decides to be friends with his fellow Walkers, and it is through his lens that readers experience the Long Walk.

King does many subtle yet great things so brilliantly in this book. Discussions of important issues like death, fame, love, race, politics, media, money, etc arise as the boys in the 'Long Walk' talk the hours (and days) away. And, since these characters are literally walking towards death, having them talk about BIG IDEAS feels normal for their circumstances, and doesn't come across as 'preachy.' Also, simply doing things like always capitalizing various words and phrases(The Long Walk, Crowd, Warning, Ticket, Squads, Cheer, etc) make you yourself begin to question some BIG IDEAS.

I have owned a copy of this book ('The Long Walk') 3 times, and given it away to friends each time, because it is THAT good. (I'm a PUSHER-A BOOK Pusher, and I like to share when I've 'got the goods', lol) BUT, I still have a copy of this novella in my paperback Bachman collection though, and this is one collection I will NEVER allow to 'Get a Ticket'. (Especially because it also includes the old story, 'Rage', which most editions do not carry any longer).

This book is short and brutal and amazing. -Jen from Quebec :0)

[Valerie Book Valkyrie-on Holiday Semi-Hiatus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so excited to have bought this First Edition in pristine condition, at a bargain price.

For newcomers to the works of Stephen King, a little BACKSTORY about this volume:
In 1974 Stephen King had his name on the copyright forms of one book, Carrie, his first published novel. He wrote five novels before writing Carrie: Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, Running Man, and Thinner, in that order. The Bachman Books is the volume under review herein and contains the first four titles. (The back story on Thinner deviates from that of The Backman Books, from which it is excluded, and so is not included here.)

Stephen King started writing Rage in 1966, he was a senior in highschool, he stashed the manuscript in The Trunk in the attic and moved on with his 19 year old life. The Long Walk was written in its entirety while the author was a freshman in College, 1966-67 at which time it was submitted to Bennett Cerf/Randomhouse and rejected; into The Trunk it went. Following the death of his mother in 1973 at age 59 due to to cancer he wrote Roadwork, "to try to make sense of it all."
Running Man came shortly thereafter. Ultimately these four novels were published individually between 1977 and 1982 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

Why a pseudonym? By 1977 King had three published novels under his own name: Carrie (1974), Salem's Lot (1975), and The Shining (1977). Each more prodigious than its predecessor. The author posits that his publishers thought he was overpublishing the market. "Bachman provided a compromise for both of us", says the author. Of the four Bachman books, King offered his opinion of the writing, "[one was] bad (Roadwork), one was indifferent (Running Man), and I thought two were pretty good (Rage and The Long Walk)" As King's work grew in popularity with half a dozen best selling novels between 1977 and 1982, as well as the advent of the Dark Tower series, the author had concerns about publishing his earlier novice works under the auspicious moniker of Stephen King. (These concerns quickly proved to be completely unfounded!)

Thereby Richard Bachman was born, "an unpleasant fellow who was born in New York.......settled in rural central New Hampshire, where he wrote at night and tended his dairy farm during the day." There is an extensive history included at the beginning of The Bachman Books, a kind of preamble.
Richard Bachman died suddenly in 1985, when the Bangor Daily News published that King was Bachman, of "cancer of the pseudonym."

All four books will be individually reviewed , spoiler free, below as I finish them.

🟣5/24/24 The first book: RAGE
3.5 Baleful Stars.
Stephen King started writing Rage in 1966, he was a senior in highschool, he stashed the manuscript in The Trunk in the attic and moved on with his 19 year old life. It wasn't until 1970 that the author discovered the stashed manuscript was moved, and moldering away in an old box in the cellar of his childhood home. He completed the novel in 1971 but it remained unpublished, for reasons explained above in BACKSTORY, until its publication in 1977. The original title was GETTING IT ON. How Oh-So-Groovy!

The protagonist, and unreliable narrator, is Charlie Decker, a 19 year old white male highschool senior. Resemble someone we know from 1966 when the story was first conceived?

The book opens with Charlie slouched in a seat near the windows in Algebra II Class gazing out at the school yard, contemplating the tenacity of the grass growing therein. "Two years ago. To the best of my recollection, that was about the time I started to lose my mind."
Charlie, an only child, ruminates on his upbringing and recent events, forshadowing his inescapable future. Charlie's narration vascilates between confident calmness and tempestuous trepidation.
The dialogue is purposeful, vexing, and strewn with profanity. An ordinary highschool classroom enigmatically morphs into a surreal scrim behind which abhorrent juvenile hijinks unfold. Rife with adolescent sexual angst and impudent violence, RAGE is an American coming of age story a la Stephen King.

9/26/2024 ADDENDUM:
I recently read a GR review of The Bachman Books wherein the reviewer's edition did not contain RAGE. I asked if the reviewer knew why RAGE was omitted. Another GR member, Matthew Cross, was kind enough to respond which prompted me to do a little research. This is some of what I found:
“Unfortunately, Rage was associated with real high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the 1988 incident at San Gabriel High School in California, the 1989 incident at Jackson County High School in Kentucky, the 1993 shooting at East Carter High School in Kentucky, the 1996 shooting at Frontier Middle School in Washington, and the 1997 shooting at Heath High School in Kentucky. In all those cases, the perpetrators had read Rage, and one of them had even written an essay on it. After the 1997 incident, King decided to allow RAGE to fall out of print in the United States, and was only available as part of the collection The Bachman Books, though new editions of it don’t include it anymore.” screenrant.com

The last edition of THE BACHMAN BOOKS to include RAGE was printed in 2001.

I agree with Mathhew Cross when he commented "a highschool student can fully understand what he's going to do and knows right from wrong.....I think this book should be read by students and secondary school so that when they feel any kind of pressure i.e. bullying, things going on at home (like Charlie) they know what it can lead to, and speak up about their feelings to other people around them."

Indeed, Banning a story by allowing it to go out of print is not the solution for reducing or eradicating highschool shooting incidents, BUT it IS certainly a form of “passive” censorship!

🟣8/2/24 The second book: The long Walk
3 Blistering Festering Stars
Are you the goal-oriented sort, or maybe the process-oriented type?
Which is more important to you: the destination, or how you get there?
Either way, The Long Walk will have you searching for the Why of it all;
Or, just maybe, more importantly, Who is travelling with you...
GR Friend Panda does a phenomenal review of The Long Walk here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

8/5/24 Addendum: In this story SK demonstrates a possible influence by the works of Philip K. Dick who wrote prolifically about "alternate futures" (speculative fiction was not a genre label at that time). Not a point of focus in the story, but significant nevertheless, early on in the walk the protagonist alludes to a bombing episode "on the East Coast", one of defeat for the United States; after which the annual Long Walk was imposed upon the defeated populace. Becoming aware of this fleetingly presented fact, my perspective on the story became colored by a deeper political hue rather than the more popular tone of "entertainment/reality television".

🟣10/1/24 The third book: Roadwork
3.5 USDOT Stars
Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, or expropriation refers to the power of the government to take private property and, after providing just compensation to the property owner, convert it into public use.
On November 20, 1973 Barton & Mary Dawes have been "eminent domained" and must vacate their home, the only home they have known as a family, by January 20, 1974. "I know how you feel about this house", cries Mary. "No you don't", Bart says, "not at all"...."

So, you're living life on autopilot... surely not your whole life... but there are those ...“cruising”...moments. You catch the bus to work much like Barton George Dawes, aka Georgie, does most mornings:

“He kept doing things without letting himself think about them. Safer that way. It was like having a circuit breaker in his head, and it thumped into place every time part of him tried to ask: But why are you doing this? Part of his mind would go dark. Hey Georgie, who turned out the lights? Whoops, I did. Something screwy in the wiring, I guess. Just a sec. Reset the switch. The lights go back on. But the thought is gone. Everything is fine. Let us continue, Freddy - where were we?
He was walking to the bus stop.....”


Stephen King offered his opinion of the writing in this story as being “bad”. Hmmm, maybe a bit loosely written; there are definitely a few obviously dropped threads, and at least one missed opportunity to ignite the sparks of a parallel plot or give flight to a fledgling psychological facet.
To cite specific examples would imbue spoilers. But, you can easily recognize these perturbations for yourself in your own reading.

Still, King's young self tackles the reader and hauls them right into the 1972-73 small city working class world of Barton George Dawes, evincing a firm grasp of scandalous scenarios, corrupt concepts, and redolent "red tape" far beyound the years of most adults in their early twenties.
Also, 37yo Georgie often makes sage comments such as, "All places are the same unless your mind changes. There's no magic place to get your mind right. If you feel like shit, everything you see looks like shit." Well seasoned insight from Stephen King's early-twenty-something self.

While the prose may not convey the throat constricting tension, sweat provoking suspense, or hair raising horror of his later novels, you may just find yourself reaching for a glass of water and reminding yourself to breath as the characters and setting do bear King's trademark "lifesize" level of development.

🟣11/8/24 The fourth, and final, book: The Running Man - 3.5 Shin Splinting Stars rounded up to 4 Satisfying Stars at the finish!
Review to come

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rage ***
The Long Walk *****
Roadwork ***
The Running Man ****

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd bought this collection a few years back, and despite it peering out from the bookshelf at me for as long, I've only just gotten around to actually reading it. Of course, I don't regret leaving it so long, because it turns out, I wasn't really missing out on anything, because although this was written by Stephen King, this didn't feel like the King I most enjoy. In comparison to The Shining, Pet Sematary and The Green Mile, this felt rather mediocre.

This collection contains three stories, the first being 'The Long Walk'. This is a disturbingly crazy adventure about 100 teenage boys who are ultimately walking for their lives. This is a test of endurance because they are expected to walk across three states with no stoppages, no toilet breaks, with just a thin tube of pureed tuna for nutrition. There is no time to rest on this walk, and if one of the boys receive three strikes-they are shot dead. There can be only one winner at the end of this. I think the creativity behind this story is most intriguing, but it had a couple of problems. Firstly, the rules of the game are never explained to the reader. I mean, how and why would people support this kind of game, cheering them on to their deaths at the sideline? There are many questions left unanswered. I'm unsure that people would physically be able to walk that long without a break, taking all of the awful conditions into account. Lastly, the way the teenage boys were chatting in the walk, didn't ring true to me. It sounded like older men chatting instead, ones that had lived a bit.

The second story is 'Roadwork'. This was my least favourite of the three. This was about a person's descent into madness, and while I can appreciate this theme within stories, I thought this was tediously written and I was glad to have finished it.

The third and final story here was 'The running Man'. This is essentially a story about a game of death, with a large jackpot at the end if you win. This had excellent world building and was atmospheric until the end, but it just wasn't enough to up the rating I'm giving this collection.

Overall, this was a tolerable collection from King, but I just didn't feel enthralled by any of it.

[Lucy'sLilLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rage – 4 Stars

I’m finding it hard to digest this book and give it a rating but, in the end, I think 4 is fair.
The insight into this young, troubled mind was really something to behold and it was masterfully written but it isn’t up there with the top short stories I have read from SK. This is true horror, no monsters, ghost or creatures just the mind of a young boy.

The Long Walk – 5 Stars

Wow, this book! I have read so many Stephen King books now and this one is up there with the absolute best. The premise of this book is one of a kind. Although this is just a book ultimately about 1000 boys walking it is packed full with emotion, doubt, hope and hopelessness. The feeling of hopelessness is almost unbearable to read, you won't regret reading this one.

Roadwork – 3 Stars

Not a bad book honestly but it’s too long even though it’s not that long. A story that is so believable and wouldn’t be that shocking to read in the news. Reading this opens your eyes to how quickly your life can be turned upside down. Our main character is slowly beaten down and he can’t pick himself back up.

The Running Man – 4 Stars

This book is set in 2023 and has scary similarities to the world we live in today. People are corrupted into thinking those with low incomes are criminals and don't deserve to live. People volunteer for game-shows to win money knowing that they will probably die in the process. It's a sad reality of money problems and feeling there is no other choice. It isn't one of SK's more horrifying reads in terms on the body horror or the paranormal but I think what makes this horrifying is how close it is to our reality. Think Squid Games.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rage **
Running Man *** and a half
Roadworks**
The Long Walk ****

Very mixed. I'll definitely read the Long Walk again (and possibly The Running Man) but I really wasn't keen on the other 2

[Kandice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rage was so predictive! I'm glad it's no longer in print, but equally glad I read it first.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I'm in the process of of re/reading all of Stephen King's works in chronological order. I'm reading these books individually in the order they were published between his other works. After having read through the entire book over the time period of a few years I've concluded that "The Long Walk" is my favourite novel here, which I do remember enjoying a lot the first time around also. My least favourite was "Roadwork", though I'll say I didn't not like any of them. Taken together on average I rate the complete collection a 4 out of 5.

Rage - This is the first book Stephen King published under the nome de plume of Richard Bachman. This is very different from the other books he had published at this time. I'm not sure if it really fits in under any specific genre other than just fiction. This is an angry story of an angry youth who, in his last year of high school, thinks he is going insane and one day takes his algebra classroom hostage at gun point after killing two teachers in the process. The story turns into a "Breakfast Club" type of scenario as the hostages and the hostage taker tell stories and learn about each other. Interesting story, well-written and thought-provoking. Even though some kid blamed the influence of this book on his real-life school shooting and King later retired this book from ever being republished I still really do recommend it. (4/5)

The Long Walk - I originally read "The Long Walk" when King released his omnibus of "The Bachman Books" in 1985. Of the four novels "The Long Walk" and "The Running Man" were my favourites and I was looking forward to this re-read. Initially, the book struck a chord with me because even back in the eighties I could imagine a world where game shows had turned to life or death. Of course, now, in the 21st century, with reality shows that embarrass, degrade, hurt and sometimes seriously injure participants physically and/or emotionally; the life and death scenario is not so hard to imagine in today's death culture.

In "The Long Walk" we are in a future America, which has a dictator and a military presence, we know only that some event happened in the past for things to turn out this way. Boys from the age of 14 to 17 are allowed to enter the annual Long Walk, from which 100 contestants are chosen. The event is a national spectacle and parts of it are aired on TV and millions of dollars are exchanged in bets on who will be the winner. The book focuses on the race from one participant's point of view and we experience the physical, emotional and mental hardships and breakdowns that these boys suffer. Penalty for slipping below 4 miles per hour during the walk results in a warning every thirty seconds, after the 3rd warning, their is a 30 second countdown and the loser is shot dead and carried away. The game ends when one contestant remains alive. I really appreciated the psychological insight into the Walkers as a whole group and as individuals; the dynamics as they broke down into small groups, pairs and loners; and the examination of the varying effects that the psychological and physical torture had on different individuals. Probably my favourite of all the Bachman books, but I'll have to reread them all before I make a definite decision. A reread that lived up to my expectations. (5/5)

Roadwork - This is my first re-read that I went into it with absolutely no memory of the story whatsoever. And my copy only has some vague sentence about an angry man fighting back as a summary so I was none the wiser from that. As I read, it really didn't come back to me either, which is strange as I completely remember the other three in this book.

This is a hard book for me to review as it got better as I read it. Honestly, I was quite bored for the first half and didn't really get hooked until close to the end when the excitement built. This is a story that tries too hard to show the reader the mental breakdown of a man. One who looses it and goes out "guns blazing". When we meet Bart he's already well down the road to no return, hearing a voice and talking with it. The book takes a long time to slowly let the reader know who this voice is and what the whole story behind it is and this is part of the book's slowness and what made it such a bland read for the most part. Now, even though I seem negative here; the book wasn't bad; in fact it was good. This story is a thinker. Bart is 'crazy' when we meet him and in my mind the deeper he goes into his insanity the saner he becomes, until at the end of the book when he can be viewed as a madman, he is at his ultimate sanest moment in the entire book. He has taken himself where he wanted to end up even though he didn't know it as far back as a few years ago when "the incident" happened and he's enjoyed these last weeks getting there. I was satisfied with the read at the end, even though I had a hard time really getting into it.

This is the first Bachman that I truly felt was King. The writing style, the stream of consciousness, the dialogue are all classic King and thinking back I can see true fans of the time putting the clues together at this point and outing King as Bachman (or at least suspecting) with this book.

When I read a King, I always look out for connections to other books and the only one I noticed here was one of the laundry machines was called The Mangler. This is the name of a machine (perhaps even the title?) in a short story in "Night Shift". 3.5/5

The Running Man - This is the book that I was most looking forward to re-reading in this collection. The first time I read it, the movie hadn't been made yet and I found this an incredibly scary tale as it felt so real. More real than The Long Walk at that time, which is also a deadly game show sci-fi. This time it didn't affect me as much because it wasn't very believable in our time and age. King's vision of 2025 from his vantage point of 1982 just isn't possible; the world has changed too much since then. Pollution is no longer our major concern and all the smoking, etc just wouldn't fly anymore. However going beyond that, it is a good story. A government run state happily killing off it's poor, sick and unproductive, so-called useless people is a possible reality if the current death culture, eugenics centred society that exists today continues. This is a grim book with no hope. It starts off with us, and the main character, knowing he will die at the end. But it is a good chase story and I think it is a well-written Bachman book. Unfortunately, the movie does spoil reading this for me now as I couldn't get Arnold Schwarzenegger out of my head as Ben, nor Richard Dawson as the TV Host. For those who don't know though the book and the movie may have the same basic plot (a game show to the death) but the similarity ends there. They completely re-wrote the plot and characters for the movie version so don't pass up the book because of your opinion of the movie.

Interestingly enough, I found a reference to the King Universe here, when Ben ends up at an airport in Derry, Maine. I love looking for the connections between the books now that I'm reading these in chrono order; but I knew Derry from future books such as "It" so I had to Google and see if this was the first time Derry was ever mentioned by King and technically, it is! It is debatable though because this was published as a Bachman book and in the same year, 1982, under his own name King published the collection "Different Seasons" which contains the novella "The Body", which doesn't take place in Derry but does mention it in passing as a nearby town. So we can see King establishing his universe already and this is the year that astute readers should have made the connection between Bachman and King as he has now given it away. (4/5)

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I re-read this, with my old, ragged copy that's falling apart at the seams with masking tape and hope keeping it from completely collapsing into a pile of loose pages, I fall a little bit more in love with it. I'm going to take it a novel at a time, because I love each and every one of them, even if it did take me a while to enjoy Roadwork as much as I do now, or at all, really, so let's get started.

Rage, first of all - I've always loved Rage, and I love that it's the first one in the bindup because it's so interesting. I remember hearing a reviewer on YouTube describe it as 'Breakfast Club with a gun' once, and that's just about the best description of this book that I've ever heard. It follows Charlie Decker, who holds up his algebra class and they all have a lot of fun. It's got that definite 'early King' feel, and it makes me slightly angry and in-awe because he wrote the thing when he was younger than I am now . Like, God.

Next up is The Long Walk, which is actually my favorite book. Like, I re-read this thing at least twice a year, that's how much I love it and all of the characters and everything. I love everything, to misquote Abraham on purpose because what he actually says wouldn't really work here. I just really love all of the characters you meet along the way, and how they're all broken down completely before being shot in the head. My favorite character fluctuates - I was a die-hard Barkovitch fan for the longest time, that kid's hilarious, but now I've finally accepted the fact that my favorite is Abraham and also that Stebbins is dumb and that he will never be my favorite and I don't understand why he is liked because I hate that kid.

I could say a lot more about TLW, but it's time for Roadwork. See, I didn't like Roadwork the first time I read it. Or.... the second time. Or third time. Or for a while after that. But as I was re-reading this thing at least once a year, I ran into it at least once a year. And somewhere along the line, I really started to appreciate it. It's about this dude who's got a road ready to be built through his house and through his workplace, and he decides to take matters into his own hands and it's pretty fun. As of today, it's still probably my least favorite, but I do really love it.

And last, The Running Man, which is honestly just a ton of fun. I just love this one, and I love how fast-paced it is and how the high the stakes are and even how interesting the world is. See, both TLW and TRM take place in a dystopian world, but the world in TLW is distinctly more similar to our own; the only real differences seem to be the Walk and the Major, neither of which we (obviously) have. But in TRM, King's created this almost entirely different dystopian world, and let me tell you how interesting it is to read this book in 2015, when most of the stuff in this book has already 'taken place.' Also, it's freaky to me that Ben Richards was 'born' a month after I was. Like that's freaky. I don't even know it's just freaky.

But in the end, I really love these books, and I really love how all of the Bachman Books are told . I love how depressing the ends are - Roadwork and TRM have more satisfying endings than Rage or TLW, but they're still not happy endings, really - and I just love everything. Everybody. I love everybody.

[Marnie (Enchanted Bibliophile) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed each story separately.
Go check out my reviews.

The Long Walk: 4*
My Review: The Long Walk
Roadwork: 3*
My Review: Roadwork
The Running Man: 5*
My Review: The Running Man

[Licha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Long Walk finalizes the first four Bachman books for me. For sake of brevity, I reviewed the other three stories individually.

I’m a little torn by what to rate this particular story. The first half started out very strong. I’d give it 3.5 stars. What an insane story! One hundred boys are on a walk of endurance for their lives, and only one can survive. This is not just a simple 10 mile marathon. No. This walk crosses at least three states. The boys are not allowed to go under four miles, step out of boundaries, ask for provisions other than canteens of water and one daily allowance of pureed paste-like food. Tuna in a tube. Delicious. They are not allowed to physically interfere with any of the boy’s walking progress. There are no bathroom breaks (yes, if you’ve got to go #2 or #3, you better do it quick and you will do it right there on the open road), no sleeping breaks, no rest breaks, and no first aid breaks. Three strikes within an hour, the boy will get killed. Every hour they walk without a strike can earn them back a strike. The goal is The Prize, anything you want at your beck and call. It’s the elusive goal that 99 boys will pay their lives with.

So what went wrong for me?

The story dragged after the second half. The story could have been a lot shorter and not missed a thing. It became very repetitive after a while. If King’s intention was to make me feel like I was literally walking that long walk with the boys, he succeeded. There were also many unanswered questions that I felt needed an explanation. I was able to overlook it in The Running Man, but in this story, I felt like there was some explaining to do.

--The rules of the game are never fully explained. We learn a rule here and there but that’s about it. How did this sadist contest come to be created? What world were the boys living in that boys would willingly sign up to participate? What world are people living in that they are willing spectators, cheering the boys on and even betting on which boy will make it to the end? Who exactly is the Mayor?

--Can someone really walk that long, without any breaks of any sort? I would have been shot after the first few miles if not a couple. It started getting harder to believe the longer they walked, especially in the conditions given.

--Too much unbelievable conversation between the boys goes on. It didn’t ring true to teenage boys. They sounded like old men who have lived through quite a bit. Some of the conversation seemed mundane considering what was at stake. The conversations also didn’t reveal anything about the boys that would have made me like any of them. There wasn’t any one in particular I could root for.

The end was a little anticlimactic for me. By that point I was wishing all the boys would just fall from sheer exhaustion. The second half of this was 1.5 stars.

[Kit★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a good 10-12 years since I've read this one, and it was long overdue for a re-read. Especially considering the fact that the only story I could really even remember in even the vaguest way was "The Long Walk". So I picked it up to give it another whirl. Not disappointed at all, but of course, that's no surprise.
"Rage" slipped through the cracks in my mind, big-time. I was browsing around online, and seen an article about this book of SK's about a school shooting that was no longer being published. I was like "huh?" Didn't remember it at all. Good thing I've got this edition for my collection. It's the story of boy (Charlie Decker) reaching his breaking point. Mentally unstable, he's got this deep, hateful rage toward his father going back to when he was a toddler. Due to his mentality, he has some trouble in school, especially one time when he gets called up to the blackboard to do a problem, and the teacher makes fun of him. So he busts the teacher in the head with a big wrench. That sets in motion more problems for Charlie, with the principal, with the guidance counselor, and with his father. So one day he decides to use the gun he's been carrying around, and after lighting a fire in his locker, he proceeds to kill two teachers, and holds his classmates hostage. But not with the intention of killing them. Sure, he threatens it, but mostly he just wants to teach them a lesson of sorts. Through the day, the kids learn things about each other, and themselves, culminating in some revenge taken out on another student. Charlie ends up in a mental hospital, and that's probably for the best.
"The Long Walk" is so far my favorite in this collection. I love the characterization, the boys on this walk, Garraty, McVries, Stebbins, poor, sweet Scramm... I definitely wanted more information on what kind of world they were living in, how had this walk come about, what was going on with the Government, what and why was this Squad-ing? I can't imagine having to walk like this, endless, no stopping, no resting. I'd die for sure! I like how the boys handled it differently, and I liked how SK depicted the encroaching madness. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. What the heck? He made it to the end, his mind had been slipping, but mostly seemed to be holding in there, then when he finally reached the end and won, I guess it was too much for his mind to handle? I don't know, I didn't like how he just took off running. Stop, man! You won, you're done, lay down and rest, y'know? Otherwise an excellent story.
"Roadwork" was another one I didn't really remember, but now I'm really glad I read it. It may even be the new best in the collection. I thought it was quite a good story, if a little slow in the beginning. It's a day by day tale of a depressed guy, Barton Dawes, who just decides he can't take it anymore. By all outward appearances, he's happy, good marriage with a pretty wife, nice house, a long-time job at an industrial laundry. But the city has plans underway to build a freeway extension that will go right through his neighborhood, destroying his home, and the plant he works at. So inside, sort of subconsciously, he's freaking out. He's supposed to be handling the deal on the new plant where his company will move to, and his wife thinks he's handling the finding of their new home as well. He's balking at the idea of over 20 years of memories being bulldozed and paved over, especially when he thinks of his son who passed away. That plays a big part in his breakdown/rebellion. He starts talking to himself, he spins a ton of lies, and eventually ends up losing his wife and job. In place of going to work, he begins traveling up and down the freeway every day, and even stops to pick up a hitchhiker one day. She ends up being a good part of his thoughts, and I liked her character (though I really liked his wife Mary too). He finds Sal Magliore, an Italian mobster type character, a little stereotypical, but easy to envision in my mind, and even sort of likable in a strange way, so not a terrible thing I guess. Bart has a plan to make his point and go out with a bang, and it works, if only for a short while. I almost am surprised at how much I liked this story. Reading the short little description on the back of the cover, I didn't think this would be one I would be real into, but it was an excellent surprise, and it's now a story I'll think about for a good while.
"The Running Man" took me by surprise. This was a great sort of dystopian story, where America has been sort of taken over by a TV (Free-Vee) Network, and poor people are just fodder for the "entertainment" machine. The main character, Ben Richards is poor, unemployed with pretty much no chances of getting a job, sort of angry and down in the dumps, his baby daughter sick with an awful case of the flu, and no way of getting medical help for her. Their meals consist of a food pill for him and his wife, maybe some fake coffee, and fake milk for the baby. On the Free-Vee, there are game shows, brutal and even sort of sinister. For example, "Treadmill to Bucks" where the contestants all have heart or respiratory problems. They are put on a treadmill, and for every minute they walk while keeping up conversation with the show host, they win ten dollars. Every couple of minutes, they'll be asked a question, and if they get it right, they'll get fifty dollars. If they get it wrong, fifty dollars is deducted from their winnings so far, and the treadmill's speed is increased. Contestants frequently have heart attacks and/or strokes. And that's just one of the tamer day-time shows. The prime-time ones are even worse. So Ben, with no other options, decides to go to the Network headquarters and sign up for a show. He's just one of a long line of poor people waiting to sign up. Finally, he gets in, and is put through a barrage of physical and mental tests, and is selected as a contestant. He's one of six that get called up to the upper offices, and 3 of the six are led off on way, while Ben, a guy named Laughlin, and another guy get led off the other way. Turns out, Ben has been selected to be the new man on the hit show "The Running Man", a show where two guys (in this case Ben and Laughlin) are introduced to Free-Vee audiences nationwide, and given exaggerated profiles of being anti-social and anti-establishment. They have a 12 hour headstart before Hunters start coming after them, and citizens everywhere are encouraged to call in and report sightings, they get rewarded $100 for a proven sighting, and $1000 for a sighting resulting in the contestants death. For every hour the men stay alive, they earn $100, and if they happen to kill a law-enforcement official, they earn a $100 bonus. Ben's desperate for the money for his family, and he has to trust that the people in charge will give it to his wife. So with everyone on the lookout for him and hating his guts, he's released back into the city. And oh yea, he has to mail in two 10 minute video tapes to the Network per day, or he'll forfeit the money, and the hunt will still be on. Too bad the Network uses the postage stamps to locate Ben, despite saying that they wouldn't. Ben meets up with some more of "his people" (the poor from the inner-city) and gains an accomplice who helps him elude the Hunters, if only for a short time. But someone reports him, forcing him to make a run for it, getting him injured in the process. He starts to take desperate measures, taking a hostage, and bluffing his way through roadblocks and onto a plane. Here, towards the end, the story was really flying, I couldn't read fast enough, it was like barreling downhill toward a river. Ben discovers some terrible things on his last flight, and makes a dramatic last stand, with a fiery conclusion. I loved the ending. Loved it! I won't give it away, but it was excellent, I was left with a big grin on my face, saying "Hell yea!"
All of these stories were great in my opinion, and having finished, I don't know if I could pick a favorite between "The Long Walk", "Roadwork" and "The Running Man". A great collection of some early work by SK, and his younger style definitely is represented well here.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Updating this review after 12 years.

Road Work is the only weak link in this book, although legend has it that Rage is out of print finally (probably to King's great relief). Update: I still find this to be the weakest of the four stories, but now as a more adulty-adult than I was when I first read it, I can recommend it for its understanding of the mindless machine of government "progress," and of the terror of being an adult and still having no control over your world. It's not a bad story, it's just not as great as the others.

Rage - 20 years before high school massacres started in America, King wrote this story of a misunderstood and clearly mentally ill kid going apeshit and holding his classroom hostage. Update: This book should not be out of print, in my personal opinion. This should be a conversation we're all having, all the time. This is a story about mob mentality, as much as it is about a mentally ill person with a gun. This story turns out to be even more prescient than The Running Man. It's a hard read in today's environment, but may end up being standard reading in school in 50 years.

The Long Walk - Once a year, one representative from each state, all boys around 18, set off walking at 4 MPH. If they slow down, they get warned. After the 3rd warning...let's just say that the fabulous prize afforded to the winner probably isn't worth it. This story is ALL character development. Update: Two things. 1) 4 MPH is a preposterous speed. 2.5 to 3 would make more sense. Someone told me that King has since acknowledged that, but it's easy enough to ignore and 2) "All character development" is not meant as a bad thing. It's an amazing character-driven story.

The Running Man - This story just proves that Stephen Kind is a visionary, given when it was written and the state of TV today. I would love to see this done as a real movie, not the Richard Dawson/Governator crap version that came out in the 80s. In a dismally dystopian future, the networks are running the government and reality tv rules supreme. Ben Richards, out of options for raising money to care for his sick daughter, signs up to be a contestant and lands the ultimate gig - "The Running Man," the most popular show on tv. The trick - stay alive while hunted by assassins. For every day he stays alive, more money gets pumped to his family, but what starts as a noble sacrifice on his part leads to rage and revenge when he realizes the game is rigged. Update: Everything I said before still stands true. I will add that, with a game show host in the White House at the time of this writing, the looming threat (and delivery) of global warming, and the racism in America, this story keeps getting more and more plausible.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of King's best stories are in this collection, notably Rage, written years before Columbine, The Long Walk, which is like The Hunger Games without the love triangle or the optimism, and The Running Man, which is much darker and much better than the movie that was (very, very loosely) based on it. These are all typically grim King stories, but without the supernatural flavor of most of his work.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of early Bachman stories written by Stephen King: Rage, The Long Walk, The Running Man, and Roadwork. I've reviewed them all separately, and some I've liked more than others, but still, in my profession and expert opinion, it's hard to go wrong with King. ;)

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first "dirty book" that I ever read in my life. I mean, I had not read anything except Famous Five, Five Find Outers and Secret Seven during my teens. So reading The Bachman Books (with all the language and sex), when I was around fifteen was truly shocking. I was especially affected by The Long Walk and Road Work.

I haven't read this collection of short stories in a while. But I remember how Garraty's relationship with Priscilla did not work out because of the smell of cow dung (or was it milk products?) whenever they made love.

Road Work and Rage are dangerous works of art. These stories have the power to push deranged people to commit acts of violence or destroy themselves. King once compared his novels to hamburgers. This book is cyanide.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a collection it's indispensible for a King completist, owing largely to the inclusion of the out-of-print Rage. I found my copy on Thriftbooks by wish-listing every edition that included all four novels and choosing a low-priced one. It includes an introduction by King explaining "Why I Was Bachman," all of which boil down to: "because I wanted to." I like that it includes pages of the original paperback covers for the included novels.

I reviewed each book separately as I read it and am copying them all again here:

Rage

Ah, King's infamous out-of-print book, the first released under his then-secret Richard Bachman nom de plume, and much later removed from publication at King's behest after it it was associated with various unbalanced nutjobs who took it as inspiration to commmit violence in schools. Somehow, for reasons no one in America can explain, school shootings have continued. The evergreen headline from The Onion comes frequently to mind: "‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens."

Written earlier than Carrie, it shows its immaturity. Not in the quality of the writing, which even then included classic King-isms, such as the recurrence of phrases as shorthand for a character's philosophy, in this instance "getting it on", but in the content, character behavior and plot.

The protagonist, a violent teenager who in a more recent decade would never under any circumstances have been allowed back onto school grounds, ends up holding a classroom of his peers as semi-willing hostages while they "get it on". This means that they try to do away with phonies and reject societal judgment of their class and behaviors. For example, highlighting the contrast between how a girl who "puts out" is thought of compared to the boys who were equally involved. The fact that the class is willing to engage in this conversation with a boy who just murdered their teacher in cold blood is, well, interesting. Eventually, in some kind of turn-around groupthink, the adolescents' titular rage is turned on the adults who attempt to negotiate for the hostages and ultimately on a classmate who embodies the phoniness they consider themselves to be rebelling against.

Silly tropes abound, the most notable being the "pocket protector" device, wherein an object in a breast pocket by happenstance stops a bullet from a police sniper, and another the idea that certain emotional events drive a person to a permanent catatonic or psychotic state.

This title need not be sought out except by King scholars and the obsessive completionist. I unfortunately fall into the latter category. I recently began a no-timeframe Stephen King publication-order re-read and so was compelled to seek this story out. I read it as a teenager and somehow never subsequently brought a gun to school in order to "get it on".

The Long Walk

Like the prior Bachman Book (Rage), this is notably adolescent in concept, although with mature prose which at times verges on the poetic. It's the kind of story that sticks with you when you read it at a certain young age, which is probably why I love it.

Predating The Hunger Games by decades, "The Walk" is a nihilistic competition for teenagers that reflects and supports a fascist rule. The details of the world in which this takes place are scant, necessarily so because any attempt to explain rationally why such a context exists would fail. In a late-1970's alternate history USA, teenage boys volunteer for an annual contest in which the winner will be granted whatever they want for the rest of their lives. 100 contestants set out for a days-long march along public roads, where the masses gather to cheer them on and hope to see some of them get their ticket. The rules are simple: walk with a speed of at least 4 miles per hour, which is a brisk pace. Fall below that speed threshold and the boy earns a warning, which can only be negated by a full hour of warning-free walking. Continue to drag your feet for another 30 seconds, and you get another warning. Then another. There is no fourth warning. At that point, you get your ticket. Only one will win, at the expense of the other 99. The story is explicit about the need to eat, sleep, piss and shit while maintaining that pace, unending day and night until the contest is over. It's a brutal concept once you get into the details. I found myself thinking about how shoe technology would change the race today; at best it could only prolong the suffering.

It's a suprisingly long book given the concept. The narrator follows one walker in particular, a home-grown hero in the state of Maine where the walk begins. Friendships, alliances and rivalries are formed and broken as the event progresses, as these teen boys discuss their lives and mostly death and the conditions that drove them to volunteer for this macabre display. Adolescent male sexuality, that fragile thing, is a frequent topic. The boys rage, plot, plead, flail against fate, fall, and die. The winner... well, if you're paying attention, the outcome of the race is revealed many times throughout the story.

I was struck by the parallel of the main character's missing father, who was taken by "the Squad" years ago, and King's own father leaving when he was very young.


Roadwork

Surprisingly honest story of complicated grief. A horror-less novel. The rhythm of the protagonist's internal dialogue between his "Fred" and "George" personas (Take that, Weasleys!) was representative of much of King's writing over the subsequent years. I liked that this wasn't a story of a psychological breakdown; that had already taken place. Instead it's about the slowly rolling outcome of that breakdown.

The Running Man

A fitting final entry in The Bachman Books, drawing in themes from the other novels in the collection. It was the second dystopian novel; The Running Man was written by an older King, but like The Long Walk it shows a mixture of terrific writing chops and a bit of immaturity in content choices now and then. It also uses a main character who reminded me greatly of Barton Dawes, the protagonist of Roadwork. It's basically the same man, disaffected, raging at society, but dropped into a very different setting.

Ben Richards is the Running Man, participating in a deadly game show that sees him hunted and hated across a poisoned nation. The setting immediately draws comparisons to Fahrenheit 451, which it succeeded by three decades, and Squid Game, which would not arrive for another four. Half thriller, half social commentary, it's an interesting ride. It is broken in 100 countdown-style mini-chapters which propels the story effectively. It may have been a little self-indulgent at times, but it's mostly sharp.

Written in 1982 and set in 2025, with the intervening time revealing no advancement in racial slurs. As I re-read King's oevre in publication order, I've noticed that he uses the N-word in almost every book so far, and this one takes it to new heights. In every case it's clear that it's the characters speaking, and not all of them; every such speaker has been degenerate and villainous. It's an excuse but certainly no longer excusable; a product of his times, King has thankfully since shown evolution. It was bad enough in this book that I requested a library copy of a more recent printing, curious to see if the language might have been revised since first release.

I read this exactly once before, as a teenager, many years ago. It's been at least as long since I saw the film adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; does anyone remember that? It had a very different plot aside from the core concept of the game show. If memory serves, the arcade game Smash TV, which I dropped a lot of quarters on, used at least one audio clip from the film, of a game show host saying, "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of two halves. Or rather, one third and two thirds. I loved both The Long Walk and The Running Man,, but found Roadwork a bit bland. It's a good thing they stuck it in the middle, because I may have just given up on it if it had been the last of the three stories included in this book. But, as they say, two out of three ain't bad.

The Long Walk sees teenage boys doing just what it says on the tin: walking. And walking. And walking. The last one standing - walking - wins everything he could ever want, but to get there he has to outlast the other 99 participants, some just nameless faces, but some who become friends. He has to watch them be shot when their three warnings are used up. A sometimes horrific, heart-wrenching look at the lengths to which human endurance can stretch.

Roadwork is about a man who's whole life is about to be torn apart so that a road can be built through the middle of it. Literally. His home and place of employment are due to be torn down, but he does nothing to relocate either. I can kind of see why, with the memories attached to these places, but new memories can be made. It dragged a little, really, and there seemed to be very little forward motion in the story. There were interesting aspects, but I never really enjoyed reading it.

The Running Man again does what it says on the tin. A man is put on the run, and he (or his family) will receive money for every hour that he evades capture. This is a clever and suspenseful story and you can't help but root for Ben Richards, for the almost inevitable circumstances he finds himself in and the tenacity he shows whilst on the run.

These books were all written by Stephen King under a pseudonym, but apparently people from the off suspected that it was him, and I can see why. While the subject matters are more sci-fi than the average King book, they just feel like King. Of course little things like the format and the Maine-connection would have probably tipped of King-fans of the time.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these back in 2015. These stories make me think of Stephen King's short story, UR. Imagine another universe where SK chose to write literary fiction instead of horror. I love his literary fiction, especially The Long Walk. I enjoy his genius in literary contrast. In his controversial book, Rage, I found myself laughing at the killer's dark humor and trying to stop myself, because it felt wrong to laugh.

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of four novels. As I finish them, I will write mini-reviews for them.

Rage: While unrealistic in many senses, this has been among the most interesting and gripping Stephen King story I've read yet. The mob mentality that is created and the twist that makes this horror instead of just a thriller is something that could have come off as amaturish, but works really well under King's hand. The horror in this story is namely in that in underminds all the classical stereotypes of what a good American (because King is rooted in the US culture) should do and how they should react. It is, in essence, King's version of Lord of the Flies ... but I found this one to be more interesting and a lot better.

The Long Walk: This, along with The Running Man, is probably the reason why newcomers to King's work would pick up this collection. The Long Walk is, essentially, the American version of Battle Royale (and yes, BR did come much later). The best part is, though, that by focusing his story on one stretch of highway and specifically on a certain set of boys in the group of 200 that start the walk, King allows the reader to understand the emotions and sanity levels of the group entire. While many situational pieces are missing in this story (How did this start? Why did some of these people actually sign up for it? What does the rest of the US look like in this future?), the intense focus of the story does allow the reader to delve deep into many other questions and ignore the nagging world around them. Very cool sections where the writing matches the characters' mindsets ... if only King could have made the entire piece work out that way!

Roadwork: King's assessment was correct, this is the worst of the bunch. Written with the flaws of a Dean Koontz novel (without the interesting plot ... which really says something), this plodding piece of trash made me cringe from all the bad writing. The main flaw, King tried too hard. His novel about "something serious" ended up being too long and had as much subtlety as a few jackhammers. I can understand the need to write to exorcise a few demons (in the introduction, he claims he wrote this piece when dealing with his mother's "painful death" the year before), but many of the pieces that come out of that much pain should not see the light of day ... read any high schooler's poetry for examples. Or read Roadwork. Or better yet, don't.

Running Man: Easily the most entertaining of the bunch, it is a simple story told with little or no MESSAGES. The closest to a pulp fiction story you can get without the massive violence (although the end is a little gory ... which is not a bad thing). I greatly enjoyed this one and read it the quickest of the four. No wonder it was made into an Arnold Schwarzenneger movie (though I haven't seen that yet). It fits that mode of quick action-no thinking that his movies have in common.

Overall: A nice collection of Richard Bachman/Stephen King books. It was interesting to see King trying new and/or different things with these. While they may not be among his best works, they are (with one exception) very enjoyable popular fiction works and two of them - Long Walk and Running Man - do rank among his better works. Thumbs up!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the omnibus that is no longer sold commercially, thanks to the lead novella "Rage," which was found in the locker of one of the school shooters of the late '90s. You will now find editions of the other three novellas sold separately. Luckily for me, I bought this before SK took this one off the market.

Looking back 10+ years later, I think most of these stories hold up very well (especially since some of them were among the first things King ever wrote); "The Running Man" is the only clunker, made even more ridiculous when memories of the movie are backlit on the page, but the other three are solid. "The Long Walk" in particular is some kind of masterpiece of psychological terror, and "Rage" was more intense than pretty much anything else I'd read up till then.

I haven't spent much time teasing out the differences between a Stephen King novel and one with the Bachman imprimatur on it, but I would guess it has something to do with the utter dourness of the Bachman stories. No matter what evil conspires to ruin the down-home characters of a SK book, there's usually a good bit of humor sprinkled throughout. Bachman characters just get shit on from start to finish, and the endings offer no glimpse of hope.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of four early Stephen King novels which were originally published under his now famous Richard Bachman pseudonym. The Long Walk and The Running Man are arguably in the ball park of science fiction, Roadwork is a very interesting character study, and Rage is a chilling and foreshadowing vision of Columbine and such subsequent incidents. The novels are all substantially shorter than almost all of his later works, and have a pure and exhilarating full-speed-ahead-and-damn-the-torpedoes-and-lets-tell-this-story verve and enthusiasm that many of his later stuffier and more carefully crafted books lack. I recommend it unreservedly for his iconic Constant Readers.

[Szplug · Rating 4 out of 5]

These four novellas are almost as good as their cousins from Different Seasons . It's a shame that the Columbine Shootings have directly proceeded to the best of the four stories—Rage, with its everyone-can-find-some-angle-to-relate-to protagonist Charlie Decker, he who thrashed in his sleep whilst in the marescape of The Cherokee Nose Job—being consigned to the ashbin of publishing history. No more shall the intrepid young reader experience the thrilling fractured-mirror empathic pulses from the original teen instigator of Let's Take the Class Hostage and Commence Playing Operation Mindfuck without seeking out older, shopworn editions. In the light of events that happened in the past few decades, I suppose the decision is understandable, if, IMO, somewhat lamentable. It may be that my memories of Rage are all the fonder as, one hash-filled eventide during my eighteenth year, select passages from the narrative of Charlie Decker, read to me by a luscious lynx of a Croat, were accompanied by one of the finest, most leisurely handjobs I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing that wasn't self-administered—she worked it like the shifter of a banana yellow Porsche 928—and until the day I die I will always, first and foremost, associate Rage with that pleasant sharing with a svelte story chum. Ah, summer nights.

The other three stories have no erotic recollections attached to them, alas, but nonetheless they remain damn fine stuff. The Long Walk was suitably appealing to my temperament at that particular age; and I can still recall the clenching induced by the whipcrack of a rifle as the first amongst these futuristic, neo-gladiatorial stripling walking dudes was ticketed, though, of course, I knew it was coming. King/Bachman ofttimes has difficulty with his endings—he's not a natural closer—but the final sentences of The Long Walk are just really good. The Running Man proved a far better experiment in dystopian pursuits than the rather goofy, Dawson's Cheek of a movie that was subsequently hatched under its rubric; and the underrated Roadwork—which, regrettably, has had nary a kind word written anywhere to acknowledge its depiction of a hands-on cleansing of a particular built-up blockage of modern blue-and white-collar frustrations, wherein midsize shop employees felt a part of a family, rather than processed positions or payroll number sequences—possessed itself of a sweaty midwestern charm that I appreciated the more with each further reading. Still, it was the opening gambit of the savage explosive power of teenage torment contained within Rage that always drew me back—it just won't be the same without Charlie Don't Mind If I Do! Decker and his Ted-baiting shenanigans greeting the curious reader and inveigling him towards Getting It On.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was my second or third King book. It collects all but Thinner of the original five Bachman novellas.
"The Running Man" I already reviewed. Better than (and WAY different from) than the movie
"The Long Walk" I also already reviewed. it's one of my favorite stories of all time. Love it.
"Roadwork" I don't remember all that well, but I know I liked it.
"Rage" was the controversial one. It's about a student who took his high school class hostage, killing the teacher in the process. The rest of the story is just him talking to the class and figuring how it came to this point. It's an amazing story about what it's like to be a teenager from someone who wasn't too far from that age himself. It's always being blamed for high school hostage situations, but I think that's because people don't understand it. It's not judgmental really on either side. It's saying that being a teenager is fucking painful. And all it takes is an ear to stop things like this from happening.

[avery (avereads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rage - no rating, but an interesting uncomfortable story
The Long Walk - 4 stars, very bleak
Roadwork - 0.5 only the Exorcist refs got it the half star
The Running Man - 5 stars, this was incredible

[Veronika Duritzdeschain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt one of my favourite books, the Bachman Books proves that horror is not about vampires, werewolves and blood but rather about human nature, depravity and circumstance. The Long Walk, Rage, Roadwork and the Running Man were included in my copy, with Thinner and the Regulators being read seperately. Out of them all I would have to say that the Long Walk was my favourite for its intensity and bitter comprehension. I used these stories as examples whenever people feel it necessary to knock the genre, because something they show is that the real, ball clenching horror of the world does not lie in fantasy but in reality.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Long Walk
Journeying again through King's dominion in publication order its pretty obvious from the outset that despite writing under a pseudonym, it's quite clearly him - set in Maine and his obsession for describing breasts 'token nubs' in the first chapter alone!

It's such a fascinating premise and one that feels a head of its time with the reality show concept.
One hundred boys taking part in the challenge with a literal three strikes and your out (shot) for dropping below an average speed.

There's finally plans for a movie adaptation, re-reading this now it's so startling similar that a novel a teenage King initially wrote in the 60's feels very much like many popular YA novels today (Hunger Games, Maze Runner).

I think this is my favourite out of the three in this collection.


Roadwork
Viewed through both the era it was written and subject matter of the enegy crisis, this Bachman book seems like an interesting time capsual.

It's a little overlong and the main protagonist is unlikeable but seeing his perspective still makes it interesting.
Reeling against the construction of a new highway which in turn will see his house and place of work demolished - places that hold a lot of sentimental memories for him.

It's a very weak novel by King's standards, I couldn't imagine this title being published as his second novel instead of Salem's Lot as original planned.


The Running Man
Having these titles collected together shows an angry side to the writing.
Just like The Long Walk, this is a dystopian reality show that's premise is all about trying to stay alive aslong as possible.

I like how fast paced this is, the longer that Ben Richards stays alive - the more he earns.
Along with the short chapters counting down to something climactic.
The conclusion certainly hits differently nowadays, but can understand why Ben would resort to that.

It's a curious story, one where the countdown conflicts with trying to survive. This story is probably better regarded as it already has a movie adaptation.

[Noella · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 verhalen: Razernij, De marathon, Werk in uitvoering, en Vlucht naar de top. Het derde, Werk in uitvoering, had ik al in een aparte uitgave gelezen, dus dat heb ik nu overgeslagen. Razernij en De marathon vond ik goed, echt verhalen waarbij je wilde doorlezen om te weten hoe het afliep. Maar eerlijk gezegd vond ik Vlucht naar de top ook niet goed. Waarschijnlijk kwam dat omdat het in 1982 geschreven is en zich afspeelde in de toekomst.--in 2021... en het dus nogal ongeloofwaardig overkwam, en ik me daarom niet kon inleven in het verhaal. Daarbij, futuristische verhalen zijn mijn ding niet, over hoogstaande technologie en een (op de een of andere manier) praktisch onleefbare aarde.
Dus 3 sterren omdat ik twee van de verhalen toch wel goed vond.