 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today, we are talking about the fourth and final in this collection, anyways. Bachman book out of the Bachman books. The Running Man. I'm going to go ahead and find the cover real quick, but as I'm looking for this, I want to talk to you guys about some things that I found first and foremost. This is not a Thursday theorist, so if you're looking for that one, go check the Thursday theorist playlist or just search for it. But this is the cover, the original cover for the Running Man. Pretty basic, pretty plain. I think out of all the covers for this entire series, my favorite one is for road work. I think it tells the best overall story and prepares you the best for the book of the original covers anyways. Now, another thing I'm going to touch on in this review is, as far as this version of the book by itself, and I might go through and do a review just for this book, but for now, let this stand as a review for the bind up of these. I do not suggest anyone read the Bachman books one right after another. The reason for that is, even though I'm a huge fan of bleak stories and nihilistic fiction, I'm a big fan of that stuff, it's just sometimes it gets to be a little too much, and the Bachman books, if nothing else, are bleak. I think the most upbeat one that he ever published was The Regulators. Now, and even that one, but we'll get into that in the Regulators video. As far as the Running Man is concerned, I think I am burnt out on Bachman. And yes, I talk about Richard Bachman as if he's his own author and not, you know, just a pseudonym for Stephen King. I understand that it's a pen name, but there is something about the Bachman books that has its own unique flair. And there's only one Bachman book that I believe should have been published under the King name. But there's several Stephen King books I believe should be published under the Bachman name, which we will talk about in a future video. I will also be going over what happened with Stephen King and why he decided to come out and tell everybody that he was Richard Bachman, how it happened, that kind of thing, go into more detail than it does in the beginning of this bind up. But the Running Man. So the problem with the Running Man for me is the book is exceedingly boring. I think it is more boring than road work all the way up until the end. The end comes along and this is a spoiler free review. But once he gets away from his people, I guess is the best way that I can put it, once he gets away from his people, that's when the book got good for me this time around. The last time I read this, I've read this two other times, so this is my third time through. This is the first time I've read it back to back the Richard Bachmans. I've always done them separate or in chronological order with King's other works. But I don't care too much for this book. I don't care for too many of the Bachman books, period. And one of the reasons for that is Stephen King tends to harp on certain topics in the Bachman books. There's road work has it, rage has it, the long walk has it, and the Running Man suffers from that also. I think he started to pump the brakes starting with thinner. I don't like overly political things, fiction, whatever. And no matter what side of the fence you land on, most readers, unless you're a reader, you like politics, tend to try and stay away from politics. And there's a lot of stuff as far as politics in this book that it's even more so than the dead zone or sleeping beauties. That's very heavy-handed. He doesn't hide the messages too well. I don't mind that type of thing when it's hidden well. It's just when you can feel the author's intentions peeking through, then it breaks that fourth wall and it takes me out of the story. And that's what the first, I don't know, I guess it's about a hundred and ninety, well probably a hundred and sixty page novel. That's probably the last thirty pages that do it for me. That's what I signed up for. Now talking about the absolutely terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, I actually prefer the movie to the book and the reasoning for that is it's just a lot of fun. It's a lot of cheesy action movie fun and it doesn't tackle the same heavy tones that the book does, but it is an entertaining experience for me at least. So you can raise me down there in the comments section if you want to. I know many people like the Bachman books and especially the Long Walk, which I don't like too much, and The Running Man, which I don't like either. At the age I gave five stars, Road Work I gave three stars, I gave the Long Walk two stars, I'm giving this one two stars also, which is one star less than the first and second times that I read it. This is of course my least favorite read through of these stories. I found something new in each and every one of the stories that made it worthwhile. Stephen King's work has always been like that, that's why I've reread him more than any other author. But as far as The Running Man is concerned, I do not think it's anywhere near the best Bachman book like some people claim. And it's funny because if people like Rays, they like Road Work. If people like The Long Walk, they like The Running Man. I think those are kind of like twinners, if you want to say. Those books kind of relate to each other. I even had one of my friends on here, Bill, or thugged out white boy, or I can't remember what he's going by now. He changed his names like most people change underwear. Just kidding, Bill. But he said that the books were basically the same books just that the characters at a later age. Now, I'm going to leave a lot of stuff for the Thursday Theorist, so if you want to check out that, that will be up right after this video. So check that out. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!