- Forum Clout
- 5,425
One of King’s more nihilistic stories, this is a simple tale about a disenfranchised man who enters a televised version of The Most Dangerous Game and pulls a 9/11.
Unlike the movie, the arena here is the greater United States. Private citizens and the police can assist the game for either side and also be collateral damage. It lacks the fun of the Smash TV-esque “boss” characters from the movie as well as the game show element. Instead, our hero self records video tapes like the tv show “Alone” and sends them in. You can see the skeletal framework of the movie in here but I think the movie is far more entertaining while making the same social commentary King thinks he’s making here.
The audiobook is particularly funny because the narrator does full blown “whatchoo talkin bout Willis” Ebonics for all the black characters. King, due to being a 50s Boomer, of course writes in a story arc about a noble group of Black Panther types that self educate at the library and build air filters and pollution detectors. One of them, an impoverished thug, helps our main character for no reason other than tenuous politics and at great risk to himself. That whole segment of the book really tests your suspension of disbelief.
It’s notable that the main villain, the head of the FreeVee network, is also black.
Anyway it ends with the main character flying a 747 into a skyscraper while raising a middle finger to the villain.
Overall this is standard King as Richard Bachman fare.
2.5/5 - enjoyable enough but nothing special.
Next up: Alas, Babylon, continuing our post-nuclear-Armageddon journey.
Unlike the movie, the arena here is the greater United States. Private citizens and the police can assist the game for either side and also be collateral damage. It lacks the fun of the Smash TV-esque “boss” characters from the movie as well as the game show element. Instead, our hero self records video tapes like the tv show “Alone” and sends them in. You can see the skeletal framework of the movie in here but I think the movie is far more entertaining while making the same social commentary King thinks he’s making here.
The audiobook is particularly funny because the narrator does full blown “whatchoo talkin bout Willis” Ebonics for all the black characters. King, due to being a 50s Boomer, of course writes in a story arc about a noble group of Black Panther types that self educate at the library and build air filters and pollution detectors. One of them, an impoverished thug, helps our main character for no reason other than tenuous politics and at great risk to himself. That whole segment of the book really tests your suspension of disbelief.
It’s notable that the main villain, the head of the FreeVee network, is also black.
Anyway it ends with the main character flying a 747 into a skyscraper while raising a middle finger to the villain.
Overall this is standard King as Richard Bachman fare.
2.5/5 - enjoyable enough but nothing special.
Next up: Alas, Babylon, continuing our post-nuclear-Armageddon journey.
