This was the first Stephen King book that I read since my completion of his Dark Tower series and it was definately a change in pace from that story. It was one of his early "Bachman books" and though I didn't think it would make much of a difference, you can detect a slight difference in the writing. Basically this is how it goes: 100 boys are choosen to walk, they must walk at least 4 miles per hour or they get a warning, three warnings and they shoot you, last one alive gets anything he wants for life; pretty simple. You quickly learn that walking-which is the genius of the story as it is something practically everyone does daily-is more of a mental activity than a physical one. I was a little disappointed by the ending, but the story itself is pretty solid entertainment. I hesitate to call it "fun" because there are obviously people getting shot throughout, but other than a few scenes it's not really grusome persay. It's a pretty quick read at 360 paperback pages and I got through it in about four days (many of which I stayed up late to keep reading). So if you need that last thing for your Christmas list, put this on there, it's worth reading.