by Jay Wilburn

The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. I think there is something to be learned through this challenge. As Richard Chizmar and Bev Vincent put up their posts on the official site, I will link those in the corresponding ones of mine on this blog, typically with the “After” posts.

You can go back and read the previous post After Cujo or go back to the beginning for Before Carrie to follow them all through.

Here is the link the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.

Let’s hit the starting line with The Running Man.

Let the countdown begin …

I read this along with the other Bachman books all around the same time in high school. This was years after I saw the movie on HBO over at a friend’s house. I was very disappointed that the book did not match up to the fascination and over-the-top visuals of the movie as I sww them. It felt like a crime novel set in the 1970’s to me and that prejudice on my part looking for the game show glitz of the movie version took me a while to get over. I expected something for futuristic in a traditional sense. I finished the whole book though and ultimately enjoyed the book version despite my youth and inexperience with the world.

I did not enjoy it as much as The Long Walk, but I enjoyed it for the same reasons. I read both stories back to back. I don’t remember which one was first. I think I may have hit The Running Man first because of the movie and because I was shocked to discover Stephen King had written the story. The Long Walk stuck deeper in my imagination and is probably the better story. Both stories strike a dystopian, nihilistic, sadistic game show spectacle tone that I didn’t realize I was looking for at the time.

I’m not sure how I feel about picking it up again. The Bachman books aren’t hitting me the same way they did the first time through. I had a similar experience with The Stand this last reading. I had played these out so far in my own imagination since first reading them that the reality of the actual story was missing some of that speculation I had created around them. I’ve read more widely since then and have a broader range of comparison. The stories stuck in my mind and became bigger in my imagination than they really were on the page. That’s got to be a sign of a great story and a damaged reader, I think.

There are a number of novels ahead on this list for which I have mixed feelings. It’s odd to revisit some of these over the distance of time expecting too much in some cases and too little in others.

Enough is enough, let’s get the game afoot with The Running Man. My next post will be After The Running Man.

— Jay Wilburn, wild imagination and damaged reader

Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn has a Masters Degree in Education that goes mostly unused since he quit teaching to write about zombies. Jay writes horror because he tends to find the light by facing down the darkness. His is doing well following a life saving kidney transplant. Jay is the author of Maidens of Zombie Kingdom a young adult fantasy trilogy, Lake Scatter Wood Tales adventure books for elementary and middle school readers, Vampire Christ a trilogy of political and religious satire, and The Dead Song Legend. He cowrote The Enemy Held Near, Yard Full of Bones, and The Hidden Truth with Armand Rosamilia. You can also find Jay's work in Best Horror of the Year volume 5. He is a staff writer with Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, and the Still Water Bay series with Crystal Lake Publishing.

Jay's Patreon Page | Purchase Signed Books