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Cover of The Bachman Books by Stephen King

The Bachman Books

  • 902 pages · about 15 hours
  • First published 1985
  • 19 editions

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1 About this book

The Bachman Books collects four short novels that Stephen King published between 1977 and 1982 under the pen name Richard Bachman, together with an essay, Why I Was Bachman. Rage is about a high-school student who takes his class hostage. The Long Walk imagines a deadly walking contest for teenage boys. In Roadwork a man refuses to give up his home to a highway extension. The Running Man is set in a future where a desperate man joins a televised manhunt in which he is the quarry. The collection was first published in 1985.

  • Thrillers
  • Science fiction
  • Dystopian fiction
  • Crime scenes
  • Organized crime
  • Horror
  • Psychological Thriller
  • Game shows

2 What to expect

Four early short novels Stephen King wrote under another name, collected with an essay on why he did. They are bleaker and angrier than most of his work, with almost no supernatural element: two are deadly contests in a dark future, one is a hostage story, and one a portrait of a man coming apart. The violence is harsh, a school shooting included, and at about 900 pages it is four books in one.

Good for readers who want: early Stephen King, dark dystopian stories, and four short novels in one volume.

3 About Stephen King

Born 1947

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror fiction and has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. In a career spanning six decades, he has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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