Rating: 
Summary: the dream of being the best...
Review: The Long Walk is a story that allows a glimpse into the mind of the teenage male. Maybe the society that would allow such an event as the Long Walk can never happen, but the willingness of the boys to take part in this 'game' can easily be imagined. The boys are not forced to enter the game, but instead compete for a chance at what they see as the glory if they win. Only after they ahve started and their friends fall behind around them, do they realize their small chance of actually making it through the Long Walk. My favorite Bachman book!
Rating: 
Summary: The Long, Long, Long Walk
Review: Steven King's books always leave me feeling mixed. His stories are always exellent in the long run, but he leaves me always feeling that the same story could have gotten accomplished in a two to three hour period rather than a full day's reading. I always feel that not much was accomplished besides from going from point A to point B. But when I run the events of the book over in my head a lot does happen but it doesn't seem to be enough. The Long Walk though by no means is a bad story. It is a great story and very powerful. It rips your emotions up showing no mercy. The deadly walk/race that is only won when the other 99 participants are dead. You get to know these charaters and feel for them and watch them die just because they couldn't keep pace. If any of them lag behind, or doing anthing else that gets them under 4 mph. They get a warning, if they get up to four warnings they are shot dead. If they manage to keep pace for one hour one warning will be taken off. They do not stop for sleep or stop for any other reason. Got diahrea? BANG! Got a cramp? BANG! they don't care as long as you just go above 4 mph. Or Else.... The Winner? He gets all that he desires but at the end of such a race does he want it? This book undoubtedly can be looked at in many different lights. A mediphor of life, possiably the final result of going to the next level in Reality T.V., or a abstract inside look of the long walk the Nazis made the survivers of the concentration camps suffer through. You tell me which view is the correct one 'cause I don't know.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best Bachman books.
Review: Why did Stephen King choose to write under the name of Richard Bachman? It turns out that the publishers only wanted one book per year from an author. He decided that this would be a good way to get some of his earlier stuff in print. The plot is simple: A group of 100 young men get together for the most deadly competion in a dark future. This competition is called The Long Walk. This book, like the previous Bachman book, Rage, is almost nothing but dialogue. The dialogue is interesting, though. Even though the ending is predictable, it still is an enjoyable read. Some of the plot twists are cool. Some reviewers say that this book is very repetative. I completely disagree. Although the setting hardly changes throughout the book, it is interesting to find out the fate of Ray's friends that he meets in the Walk. This book is different than most Stephen King books, and that is why it is a Bachman book. I am giving it only 4 stars due to the fact that most of the book is conversations between the walkers, and beacuse the writing style is a little rough. However, he wrote this before his first published novel, Carrie, and that is why his writing is not quite up to par.
Rating:
Summary: Walk as far as you can!!!
Review: This is one of Richard Bachman's books. The situation is extreme and it deals with the practice of a competition to the most absolute ending possible. It is a walking competition. It has a starting line but it has no finish line. The finish line will be determined by the distance the winner will be able to walk, when he is the last one on the road, because all those who stop or try to escape will be put to death. This is a denunciation of absolute competition, even of competition per se. To compete is to want to defeat the others, to crush them under one's foot, and hence it contains a destructive objective that goes against any kind of human project. It leads to practices that are unfair, unjust, unacceptable like the use of doping drugs, like the use of pushing the others off the track, like the use of limited and hidden violence to get rid of the opponent, etc. One should see the practices that emerge in cycling for instance, in the pack at the head of the race, a pack of mostly wild animals. Brutality on soccer fields or rugby fields is well known in some countries, etc. Here Bachman pushes the game to its logical ending. If you enter a competition you can only get out of it dead or the winner. Competition is torture, even on oneself, in order to determine who the best one is. Unacceptable. We dream of sports that would be more humane and less beastlike. But is there one sport where this competitive spirit does not govern the psychology of the players ? In universities this is called the paper chase. But in sports it is a flock of rats or spiders that have to conquer their grub by eliminating their opponents and competitors. We dream of practicing a sport just with oneself and competing with only oneself, trying to go beyond one's own limits but not pushing others off the race to get the title or the medal. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
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Summary: Engrossing, Surreal and Most Impressive Mind-Trip
Review: Unlike most previous reviewers, I'm not a devoted fan of King. I remember reading something horrid by him many years ago and deciding that he was just a hack writer and not worth my time. But recently I found myself curious about King's appeal so I picked up The Long Walk, not one of his more mainstream titles. And I'm impressed. Within the first few pages, King manages to setup an entirely surreal situation and he does this with little explanation up front. Instead, he feeds readers small pieces of information throughout the main body of the story. Of course, he kept the answers to many questions from the reader ' when this story takes place, what drove society into such a state, etc. But perhaps that makes the story that much more interesting and riveting. Bottom line: I'll go for any novel that really proves to be a mind-trip and this is one of them. This is a fabulous novel and has truly changed my opinion of King's talent. Other great mind-trips: A Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World by Haruki Murakami, The Bridge by Iain Banks and Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh.
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Summary: A Very Dark Future....
Review: I have to admit that I've been less than enthralled by King for the longest time. I'm either disappointed at an ending that is an anti-climax or just can't get past the half-way point without dozing due to boredom. This is a surprising exception. From the very beginning King held my interest by not allowing much information to be given about 'being ticketed'. It also helps that the Walkers, for the most part, are given a three-demensional existence so the readers can sympathize with them. This is real, flesh-and-blood, individual youth being manipulated in order to compete in a popular 'game' which, in turn, reflects on just how bloodthirsty this wretched society has become. I would say that this is one of King's best efforts!
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Summary: My favorite!!!!!
Review: While I admit it is dark and morbid, it is probably my favorite story! It really brings you into the story and you feel like you are walking with them. I have read and reread this story many times and I never tire of it. I think if you read a Stephen King book and you are surprised or offended by its darkness, you shouldn't be reading King. You have to get past the horror of it and really read it. The character development is wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Mobid and unsettling and terribly one tracked
Review: It's a long walk, no finish line and the last one walking wins. If you think that sounds like it might be a better short story than a novel over 300 pages, it probably would have. It's a very dark novel and most of the real content occurs within the minds of the main characters. They're just walking. For three hundred pages. Walking. I enjoyed it, but when I read it I had too much time on my hands. I wouldn't exactly call it a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Dark, Pessimistic and Moody
Review: I'm a big fan of Richard Bachman, Stephen King's alter ego. I usually love his books, as they are very dark and atmospheric. But The Long Walk wins it! This one is King's darkest novel. It's about a group of boys who, in a near future, participate in a race where the losers are killed. These 100 boys walk together for 4 days, discussing their non-existant future and death. This, of course, makes for a very bleak read. The book is short but it still felt a little repetitive to me. Sure, this is about a group of boys doing the walk (not much to do except, well, than to walk!), but it seems that King doesn't have enough to sustain the reader's attention for 350 fifty pages. As a matter of fact, the beginning of the book feels more like a short story than a novel. Did King start this one as a short story? It sure does feel like it. Still, this book is exciting in that King demonstrates how wonderful he is at writing dialogue. Everything these boys say feel true and real. You can't help but care about all these characters, even the so-called mean ones. This isn't the great King at work, but it's still a very good read nonetheless!
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Literature
Review: The Long Walk is a good Stephen King novel. It is not as polished refined or focused as other efforts, but as with almost all of his work it is spirited reading. The work introduces us to the parallel King universe of Richard Bachman, where it is indicated that the view is more dark and cynical. As many of Stephen King's novels, the novel itself is an examination of the human experience as depicted and revealed through exceptional circumstances. Although not as poetic, I liken the Long Walk to Cool Hand Luke. Both the book and the movie concentrate on flawed savior figures, in which we can easily identify ourselves, placed in constrained circumstances. The Long Walk centers around Ray Garrity who has elected to participate in the Long Walk, which is an endurance walking contest for young men. In this surreal parallel universe, the familiar geography of our United States is controlled by an unnamed marshal force. The controlling government challenges the fortitude of its young men, suggesting participation in a suicide contest. The rules are simple: the boys must continue walking at a pace of 4.0 mph or better. If a contestant fails, after three (3) warnings, to maintain this speed; he is shot and killed on the spot. There is only one winner, the last boy walking, and to him goes the satisfaction of any wish and whim he desires. While the horror or imminent and random death is the backdrop for the story, the substance lies in the examination of the individual participants and their individual reasons for participating. Garrity commiserates with those in his like lot. Engaging in discussions about the meanings of their lives, the boys examine their individual reasons for their participation, and form personal alliances for survival which seemingly go against the individual's chance for ultimate success. The main character, Garrity, is forced to examine himself and the reason for his participation. The circumstances are complicated when a stoic participant turns out to be the Major's (the symbol of Marshal law and host of the contest) son. Garrity is required to contemplate whether the ultimate reward is worthy of his participation. In many senses, the Long Walk is an extended and perhaps stretched allegory of life itself. The vagaries of life and death and the people and acquaintances we meet along the way. The Long Walk is definitely an enjoyable book that is filled with the texture that King lovers have come to appreciate. However, it is not as broad, accomplished or refined as other works, such as It, The Shining, The Body or Shawshank Redemption; or as horrifically well executed as Pet Sematary or Salem's Lot.
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