Although I did say that I will be reviewing a few books and games over the coming weeks, I’ve decided to delay those reviews, and do a review of the latest book that I just finished and post the reviews on here in reverse chronological order of book finishing… Confused? Me too.

Anyway – Onto The Book – The Running Man. Apocalyptic Future. Arnie. Great Film. “I’ll be back!”. Lots of Violence. Great. The book though? Hmmmm Interesting one there.

Once again, I didn’t actually know that The Running Man was based on the book, well – technically a novella-ish in length, written by Stephen King. I’ve been on a bit of a mission recently to read as many books that have been turned into films as I can, and then give my opinion on the crossover rating.

The only thing that the film has in common with the book is that the main guy involved is called Ben, the show he goes on is called “The Running Man”,  and that he runs. Actually – scrap the running part. In actual fact Arnie in the movie version “runs” from point A to point B. Ben Richards in the book version is much more intelligent and a lot less eco conscience since he takes a few taxis, hitches a ride, hijacks a car, and takes a plane. And crawls through a pipe.

The Plot – Simply involves a dystopian future. A VERY dystopian future. If there was a very small scale of dystopian futures in novels, you’d have:

• Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sleep – Pah. Not Dystopia at all! So you got a few dangerous robots wandering around, but no worse than a few nights in Merthyr. Could live here easy.
• The Sprawl Trilogy – Meh. So you got strange notions of Cyber Space all around, and AI controls the world. At least you can still get a beer and make some money on the black market.
• The Running Man – Holy Shit. Everything is totally screwed. If you don’t die from being killed by the police for loitering, then you’ll die of cancer from breathing or the flu, no one can afford medicine unless you part of the Network, nearly everyones sterile through radiation, and even if you go on a game show you probably gonna get killed! Lethal!

But back to the plot. To sum it up very quickly you got Ben Richards. Unemployable as he stood up for his rights at a major company, has young sick daughter, a wife and no money. Decides to enter for a game show in the much despised “Network Games”, and gets entered into the most dangerous prime time show of The Running Man. He grabs a few disguises, goes on the run, gets paranoid, and bluffs his way to glory.

Different to the film version, the game rules are simple. 12 hours head start, $100 for each hour you’re alive (with 12 hours paid in advance), and the only rules are that each day two 10minute videos need to be taken each day and mailed to the Games Building. Survive a month on the run, and the survivor will get $1 billion dollars. Which all sounds too easy if it weren’t for these “Hunters” who… hunt… and kill you. Oh and the fact that every civilian that sees you can turn informer, and possibly kill you as well.

The real main difference of film vs. book is the style and approach to the plot. Stephen Kings version has a lot more suspense and thriller, and the only real action comes towards the end. In fact, you only ever get to see one Hunter in the whole book.

I especially loved some of the other sick games that are mentioned (which I don’t remember seeing in the film). These include “Swim the Crocodiles”, and my favourite “Treadmill to Bucks” where people with Heart problems / Bronchitis / Lung problems get paid $1 for each minute they run on a treadmill, and get interrupted with questions. For every question they get wrong, the treadmill speeds up with an increased incline, and they lose $50. Not too sure when they finish though, but I thought it was genius.

All in all – the book is good. Damn good. To make a faithful film of the book would have required a very good director and script writer to deliver the tension and portray the paranoia that the main protagonist faces. And besides, due to the ending (which is really rather good and sort of surprising), I don’t think a film could be made. So skip the film and buy the book and read it. Actually – buy the film and watch the film, then buy the book and read the book.