Wahl.ES@Xerox.ARPA (12/30/85)
From: Wahl.ES@Xerox.ARPA The Running Man by Stephen King (alias Bachman) Best of the Bachman Books and, to my knowledge, King's only real SF. But when is the borrowing of an idea theft? That's been bothering me ever since I heard about this story. Okay, the story is set in a future world where people risk life and limb for money and prizes on televised game shows. Our hero is a contestant on a show where he must run from hired killers. Much of his flight is televised and viewers can phone in to inform on our hero, and let the killers know where he is. The above describes both The Running Man and "The Prize of Peril" by Robert Sheckley. There's also some similarity in plot to King's The Long Walk and Sheckley's "The People Trap," too, but that's not as pronounced. Now, the rest of the plot is different. Sheckley's is an idea short story, a logical developement of that initial idea, with viewers of the game show also helping the contestant. King's is a black novel, set in a 1984 style world, where everyone is out to get the hero, including all the law-inforcement and government folks. It makes less sense, but it's much more scary which is, after all, what you expect from King. But it still seems to me that King must have gotten the idea from the Sheckley short story and it bothers me that no acknowledgement to Sheckley was given. --Lisa