Rating: 
Summary: Circus and bread
Review: That's unmistakably Bachman! Who else could have written a story where characters are shot one after one, one after another, sometimes in pairs, in triangles, but mostly on their own. With all others watching. Waiting for the finger of fate touch them and pass the leprosy of death. Grim novel, but somehow beautiful in its own right. Like 'The Regulators', written 26 years later, here we have no winners. The two novels are sisters, in fact. In the latter the main fetish is television, in the one I am reviewing, it is sports - with live performance and spectators. It reminds me of the old movie with James Caan, 'The Roller Coaster'. Participants are wolves to each other, and although at the beginning they have their sanity working, not long after they lose all humanity and real ground, transforming into animals who operate on instinct. The self-preservation one. There is one thing we share as a society, which King emphasizes as symptomatic and ever-present. The circus. Remember ancient Rome and gladiators? Rome's people needed circus and bread, and since then the human race has not changed much. I could perfectly imagine myself as a spectator of The Long Walk. I do not deny that there is a blood-thirsty animal inside my own self. And I am not alone, I guess, which makes this novel more real than one might think initially. A final word about the writing style. Abstracting from the subject of fiction here, we can clearly see that already as an undergraduate, Stephen King was perfectly able to get a good grip on our throat, to make us read madly, to interrupt the main story with leisurely paced amazing digressions, to put life into his characters - make them 3-dimensional and ripe, to transplant his memories of fatherland into fascinating environment, and finally, just to write a helluva lot of a good story.
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Summary: Stephen King is a genius
Review: Warning: in this review I talk about the ending of the book, too. I really enjoyed this book, it's a work of a genius. As many other good stories, you can read it at many different levels: you can just follow the race, to see who'll be the winner; you can take it as an intelligent, satirical protrait of today's tv-shows and entertainment; you can go deeper and find your interpretation of the story. I personally like the interpretation (titled "understanding the story") of the reviewer who took it as a metaphor of our working life and competition: the same senseless struggle, the absurdity of a society that will ALWAYS be able to put a new and different goal ahead of us, and even if there isn't one, our mind will create it for us (like the ending of the book seems to suggest). But hey, who knows what's hidden in mr. King's mind: I guess he just wrote a great story, without much analyzing.
Rating: 
Summary: The Long Walk
Review: The Long Walk by Stephen King is suspensful because there is a nonstop in the action. From the opening 3 pages of the book to the very end. A grueling walk that if you even try to stop,the guards following in the white jeep will shoot the Long Walkersafter 3 warnings, until there is only one Long Walker left. This book is very descriptive about the walkers death. Stephen King has several ways to keep his audience into the book and entertained. The book also gives great descriptive information on how the Long Walkers become tired and exhausted. Another good descriptive passagesas how muscle spasms in the back of the legs in the back of the calfs. Stephen King uses the characters in the book to keep the Long Walking paceand keeping the audience informed about the characters by having them make conversations and began to tell about their lives. This book really gives great and intensifying action for any Stephen King fan.
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Summary: I am NOT a Stephen King Fan
Review: This book is not what you expect. The story, on the surface, is about a race where death is the ultimate motivation. However, there is more too this story than that. The story is a metaphor for life. It will make you question why you go on living each day. A great story.
Rating:
Summary: The Long Walk
Review: For those true Stephen King collectors. This book grabs you from the beginning and will not let you go till the end. I found it one of the best and know you will too. I hated for it to end.
Rating:
Summary: exellent
Review: "The Long Walk" was the first book I read by Stephen king. Every year there is an event called "The Long Walk" where 100 teenage boys have to walk as long as they can. If they don't, they die. If they fall below 4mph they get a warning, the fourth time they fall below 4mph, they get shot. It's kind of a sad book because almost all of the characters die, but it's great. You'll have to read it to know what I mean, and I suggest you do.
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Summary: Walk or die
Review: I have to say that I thought that the "Bachman-Books" had less quality than King-books. But this novel is a true 1# Bestseller. My favourite figure in this novel is Stebbins because at first sight he seems harmless and so everybody supposes that he'd die quickly but you'll find out that he is very tough. Will Garraty win? -Check it out! If you read this book you'll read an exciting book that is based on a true happening.
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Summary: The Long Walk
Review: I'm an avid SK fan! I've read everything he's written so far. (I have to say "The Stand" is my favorite, followed closely by "The Dark Tower Gunslinger Series..I'm waiting!). Sorry to zone out there! I read "The Long Walk" several years ago and was horrified, it is a story every SK fan should read! It was so scary, sickening & engrossing that even when I could have upchucked at the amazing minute details (SK is the master!) I would put the book down, shaken to the bone & grab it back up again! You just couldn't stop reading it! I loved it and want everyone to read it!
Rating:
Summary: Gripping - a stunning concept!
Review: One of Stephen Kings best books! The concept of the Long Walk (I read it in Dutch, where it is translated as "The Marathon") is amazing and gives you great insight in the madness of other societies, beliefs and ideas. Before you read it, you think "this will never happen in modern society; the idea is outrageous!". But then you start thinking about all the other things people die for these days: the ideal weight (anorexic?), sports, an idea, a political belief....why not this? The book is very gripping, it is a cliche - I know - but it is very hard to put down. It moves you to tears sometimes, because King portrays the despair and the helplessness of the characters in a way where you want to reach in the book and help them yourself. Five stars! Normally I am not automatically a King fan (at least not all of his books), but this is a good one. It stays with you.
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Summary: STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Review: I'm a misanthrope. I guess that I was one of the 8 or 9 people who read this book when it came out as a pulp paperback in the late 1970's. I was so stunned, shocked, and horrified, by this book that I literally couldn't get anyone else to read it. My mind was so captured by the characters that I couldn't work without wondering "where are they now?" "What is happening?" I had to take off work to finish the book. Now here it is...20+ years later. I still remember when Thinner came out and the world discovered Stephen King was Richard Bachman. I had become a Stephen King fan and was very happy, elated, and suprized, that he authored a book that to this day invades my waking space and my nightmares. I'll be blunt. It's not the best written novel I've ever read, but it is the most gripping. Be careful, be honest, and beware, "The Long Walk" is coming.
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