The Bachman books

[davidbo32]

I have read all the Richard Bachman books except Blaze. I enjoyed them all apart from The Regulators. I think the Bachman books are darker, more sinister than regular Stephen King books, and always have an unhappy ending. Often they portray people who are in a hopeless, extreme situation, with their backs up against the wall.

I have a few questions regarding the Bachman books:

1. Does anybody know why Stephen King chose to write as Richard Bachman?
2. Why did he continue to write under the name of Richard Bachman after everybody knew that Richard Bachman is Stephen King?
3. What do you think is typical of the Bachman books? Do they have something in common, that is different from other S.K. books in a positive or negative way?
4.In what order would you rank the R. Bachman books? My list looks like this:

1. Thinner
2. The Long Walk
3. The Running Man (scarily relevant when you think about reality tv shows from later years)
4. Rage
5. Roadwork
6. The Regulators

[cwalrus]

1. I believe the most straightforward reason SK has stated was that publishers back then would not publish more than one book per year for an author for fear that they would saturate the market. I don't believe the early novels were purposely written with the pen name in mind. They were manuscripts that SK had completed already. I think the intro to Salem's Lot, he mentioned how the publisher had to choose between releasing Salem's Lot or Roadwork and that his agent wanted Roadwork to be the next book so that SK wouldn't be pegged as a "horror writer." The Bachman name came from SK hearing Bachman-Turner overdrive's "Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." Not sure where Richard came from.

2. Why did he continue to write as Bachman? Why not? He's SK . He could do whatever he wants with his writing.

3. The biggest difference between a Bachman book ("ive only read the first four) is the absence of the supernatural as the main plot device for a story, but I'm not sure if that is by design or if it just happened to work out that way. There are also regular SK stories that don't rely on the supernatural, but his earlier work tended to rely on it heavily. The early Bachman books showed how good a writer SK is when just writing straight fiction. I wouldn't say the style of these books are different at all though. They seem to be written in a similar kind of narrative voice as his other books, which is probably why he was found out.

4. Since I've only read the first four, I'll list the order from my favorite to least favorite:

1. The Long Walk
2. Roadwork
3. The Running Man
4. Rage

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

My copy of the Bachman Books (1991) contains an excellent essay entitled 'Why I Was Bachman' that answers many questions.

Also mentions that Misery was originally intended to be a Bachman book.

Long days and pleasant nights

[sam peebles]

The first name Richard comes from author Richard Stark (which is also a pen name). King would later go on to use his last name Stark for the pen name of Thad Beaumont in The Dark Half (his pen name in that is George Stark).

Ranking
1. The Long Walk
2. The Running Man
3. Regulators (I'm sorry, but that opening scene where the paperboy gets hit by a shotgun is classic
4. Thinner
5. Roadwork, Rage, Blaze

[JRLauer]

I'd rank the Bachman books like this:

1. The Regulators
2. Blaze
3. Thinner
4. The Long Walk
5. Roadwork
6. Rage

[jackson992]

For me The Regulators is hands down the best followed by Long Walk and Rage

[tillyn]

SK is lighter than Bachman, maybe this is why he choose to use this name. Let the darker side come out. I enjoy both sides of Sai King.

[pampam]

i loved all the bachman books, including the regulators, but i would suggest reading blaze it was amazing! definitely my favorite bachman book!!

[Blaine is pain]

I agree on the fact that Bachman's books are a little more "complex" than King's one, maybe more tortured will be the point.

I'd rank Bachman's books :

1. The Long Walk : Unavoidable for a King's fan. So intense...
2. Blaze : A successfull focus on one character
3. The running man : Maybe it will be you (or me!) soon...
4. The regulators : close to a SK's book in my opinion
5. Rage : my first ever read from SK, what a souvenir !
6. Thinner : Not weird enough or too weird. It don't really understood why I did not like it.
7. Roadwork : Good time reading it, but less intense that others (in my opinion !)

[Jack Frost]

Absolutely LOVED The Long Walk, Rage, Thinner, and Blaze!

The Running Man and Roadwork were good, but I don't find myself drawn to read again and again like the ones I listed above.

HATED The Regulators! I found it hard to follow, and unlike other Kings and Bachmans, I couldn't fall in love with, or hate, the characters. I kept having to remind myself who each one was. I just couldn't get IN to the story like I usually do with SK/Bachman stories.