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The Long Walk Paperback – February 16, 2016
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In the near future, when America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules—keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you’re out—permanently.
A “psychologically dark tale with commentary on society, teenage life, and cultural entertainment, The Long Walk is still poignant decades after its original publication” (Publishers Weekly). This edition features an introduction by Stephen King on “The Importance of Being Bachman.”
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateFebruary 16, 2016
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-10150114426X
- ISBN-13978-1501144264
- Lexile measure690L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"An illusionist extraordinaire." - Publishers Weekly
"A master storyteller." - Houston Chronicle
"An illusionist extraordinaire." - Publishers Weekly
A master storyteller. ("Houston Chronicle") An illusionist extraordinaire. ("Publishers Weekly")
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Gallery Books; Reissue edition (February 16, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 150114426X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1501144264
- Lexile measure : 690L
- Item Weight : 8.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #130 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
- #638 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #1,130 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
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About the authors

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.
King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.
King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

At the beginning of Stephen King's career, the general view among publishers was that an author was limited to one book per year, since publishing more would be unacceptable to the public. King therefore wanted to write under another name, in order to increase his publication without over-saturating the market for the King "brand". He convinced his publisher, Signet Books, to print these novels under a pseudonym.
In his introduction to The Bachman Books, King states that adopting the nom de plume Bachman was also an attempt to make sense out of his career and try to answer the question of whether his success was due to talent or luck. He says he deliberately released the Bachman novels with as little marketing presence as possible and did his best to "load the dice against" Bachman. King concludes that he has yet to find an answer to the "talent versus luck" question, as he felt he was outed as Bachman too early to know. The Bachman book Thinner (1984) sold 28,000 copies during its initial run—and then ten times as many when it was revealed that Bachman was, in fact, King.
The pseudonym King originally selected (Gus Pillsbury) is King's maternal grandfather's name, but at the last moment King changed it to Richard Bachman. Richard is a tribute to crime author Donald E. Westlake's long-running pseudonym Richard Stark. (The surname Stark was later used in King's novel The Dark Half, in which an author's malevolent pseudonym, "George Stark", comes to life.) Bachman was inspired by Bachman–Turner Overdrive, a rock and roll band King was listening to at the time his publisher asked him to choose a pseudonym on the spot.
King provided biographical details for Bachman, initially in the "about the author" blurbs in the early novels. Known "facts" about Bachman were that he was born in New York, served a four year stint in the Coast Guard, which he then followed with ten years in the merchant marine. Bachman finally settled down in rural central New Hampshire, where he ran a medium-sized dairy farm, writing at night. His fifth novel was dedicated to his wife, Claudia Inez Bachman, who also received credit for the bogus author photo on the book jacket. Other "facts" about the author were revealed in publicity dispatches from Bachman's publishers: the Bachmans had one child, a boy, who died in an unfortunate, Stephen King-ish type accident at the age of six, when he fell through a well and drowned. In 1982, a brain tumour was discovered near the base of Bachman's brain; tricky surgery removed it. After Bachman's true identity was revealed, later publicity dispatches (and about the author blurbs) revealed that Bachman died suddenly in late 1985 of "cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia".
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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After all this, the ending (which I won’t reveal) is open to some interpretation. When I googled it to find out what others thought, I discovered that King had written this in college. Wikipedia says it “was the first novel he wrote, having begun it in 1966–67 during his freshman year at the University of Maine some eight years before his first published novel Carrie was released in 1974.” Wow!
This book was exhausting...literally. I could FEEL the exhaustion the walkers felt as the walk progressed. This would have been a page turner in a regular book but I ordered this through my Kindle so it was a page clicker.
When I began reading this story, it sounded like a fun walk. 100 boys sign up for a walk and whoever outlasts the other 99 is the winner. Sounds simple. Then you learn that the rules state the walkers must keep up a pace of at least 4mph. Should they fall below, they get a warning. After three warnings, they "buy" their ticket. This is explained early in the book. So gullible me is thinking, "oh they just lose; they are out of the walk". They certainly are. After the third warning, they get a bullet in the head! I nearly fell off my chair when I got to the first person who buys their ticket! Cheeeesh!
Some of the less favorable reviewers state that this was not a good book in their opinion because who would allow their child to enter such a contest? Well, it is really unfair to give a poor review based on that. This is a book of FICTION created by one of the worlds most fascinating authors with a mind and imagination that I would LOVE to have! Stephen King is a gifted, and fascinating writer. The only NEGATIVE I can say about him is his penchant for killing dogs and cats in his stories. I've yet to read one book of his that has a dog or cat in it that doesn't meet some horrid fate such as in "Pet Semetary" and "Cujo" and all the others. Even in THIS book towards the very end, one of the guards watching the walkers KILLS an INNOCENT DOG! HAD I KNOWN that was in this book, I never would have bought it. I cannot bear to read anything where a dog gets killed...fiction or not. It breaks my heart as a dog lover and dog guardian. I cannot understand why he kills dogs in his stories. That is the only negative I can state in this story; however, I could not rate it less than five stars as the part where the dog gets killed is only a couple of sentences. THAT part of the story could have been omitted entirely and would not have affected this suspenseful "edge of your seat" thriller.
The dogs in Mr. Kings books and stories (that I've read so far) always meet a tragic end. It has gotten so that whenever he publishes a new book, I find out if there is a dog in the story; and if there is, I refuse to read it. Silly, I know, as it is only fiction...but this is something that not only upsets me but every dog loving friend I have, as I've asked. I know Mr. King happens to have both a dog and a cat as pets and loves them...so why does he always seem to bring them to some awful fate in the stories he creates with dogs and/or cats? I would really like to know. In "The Long Walk", the part of the dog getting killed was just a minor mention, and probably why I didn't catch it before beginning the read. Had that been in the beginning of the story, I never would have finished it; would have deleted it from my Kindle right at that moment.
I realize a lot of people will think my opinion regarding this part of the story is silly, but unless you're a TRUE lover of dogs, something like this...even though it is fiction, is very upsetting. I really wish he wouldn't do that in the stories that have dogs and cats in them; but he IS one of the greatest writers I've ever come across, and his books are the ONLY fiction I ever read.
Told from the perspective of "Maine's Own" Walker, Ray Garraty, the story is set in a fascist America not all that different from our own. Baseball is no longer the American pastime and has been surpassed by an annual event known as The Long Walk. Each year 100 young men are selected from thousands of applicants to participate in the Walk. The Walk is a walkathon where each Walker must maintain a walking speed of four-miles-per-hour. If they fall below that speed or commit any other infraction (such as leaving the route) they are given a warning. Each Walker is allowed three warnings. If a Walker maintains the required speed, he can walk off a warning after an hour from the time the warning was given. After three warnings and not walking any of the warnings off, a Walker is given a ticket. When you get ticketed, you aren't allowed a potty break, a chance to eat a snack, or to take a nap. When you are given your ticket, you are shot dead on the spot. Once you begin the Walk the only way to get out is if you get your ticket or outlast everyone else and win The Prize. And what exactly is The Prize? It's anything and everything you want for the rest of your life.
THE LONG WALK is a brilliant novel that explores the depths of the human condition. Most of the Walkers have no idea what they have gotten themselves into once they begin the walk. It isn't until the first shot is fired that most of the walkers realize exactly what is going on: that they are walking towards their deaths. As the Walk progresses the Walkers learn a lifetime of knowledge about themselves, about each other, and about humanity. How should a person live? What makes life living for? How is it that a group of strangers can become closer than brothers in a few hours? Is life just a game or is it a journey? The novel illustrates that even those who have the best odds and the most to live for in life can be felled by the same diseases, illnesses, and temptations as everyone else. The novel also is full of social commentary, through the observations about the ever-present and ever-growing Crowd that surrounds the Walkers. How can people become so hardened that they cheer people on to get "ticketed" right before their eyes? This is just one of the issues that THE LONG WALK examines through the engaging tale it tells.
The LONG WALK is easy to read and after the first few chapters of exposition and set-up becomes a page-turner. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and will read it again and again. I highly recommended it.
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Not a complete waste of time I would say
















