Many years ago, Stephen King decided he wanted to start his career again. He was also chomping at the bit because his publishers were limiting him to one book per year. So he decided that he would start a new career (while keeping his old one) and write books under a pseudonym. These are collectively known as The Bachman Books. King felt he could write additional books and build a second career. This would give King an additional outlet and keep his publishers happy by not over saturating the Stephen King brand. So, how does Bachman compare to King?

There were four books published under the pseudonym before the secret came out: Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. The first two books were started by King well before King’s first publication and you can tell. There is a roughness around them and an air that they are the creation of a young undisciplined writer. Rage is the story of a high school student who takes his class hostage and conducts a session of tell me your secrets. The Long Walk is about an extreme walking contest in an alternate Earth, where you die if your pace slows down.

Roadwork could have been basis for Falling Down. It’s about a man who’s life has fallen apart and when he suffers one last humiliation, he decides to destroy everything in his path. Barton Dawes has lost his son and loses his wife. And when his home and office are going to be destroyed by a highway project, Dawes goes about trying to destroy the project.

The last one became famous after the pseudonym was revealed due to the movie version that came out later (and starred Schwarzenegger). Ben Richards has a daughter with a serious illness which he can’t afford to pay for the medicine. So he enters one a contest to get the money. The one he is chosen for is The Running Man. He, actually his beneficiaries, gets money for staying alive while professional hunters search for and attempt to kill him. Unlike in the movie, Richards can go anywhere in the world, but citizens get money for tipping the hunters off to his location. As we learn more about Richards, his family and the world this is set in, the job Richards has changes.

More than his other work as Stephen King, the Bachman books seem to focus a lot more on death. All the protagonists are in situations where they are going to die. The writing is very definitely in King’s style, which is why so many people were asking him if he was Bachman at the time. The 5th Bachman book, Thinner, was published as a right before the pseudonym was blown. And as King says in the introduction, Thinner sold a decent amount of books under the Bachman name. Then it sold ten times as many when the King name was put on it.

King seems to think that the 6th Bachman book would have put Bachman on the best seller’s list. That book, Misery, was published under King’s name and did very well. It also was adapted for a very successful movie. It’s interesting to think that King might have become two best-selling authors at the same time. And, from reading the introduction, you can tell he’s still a little sad/mad that he wasn’t able to do it. The first four books are good, but not great, but the story surrounding them is interesting and King lays it all out in the introduction. Recommended.