title: The Long Walk
author:  Stephen King 
description: Ray Garraty--along with 99 other teen boys--has entered the Long Walk, a grueling march at four miles per hour that continues until only one person is standing. The losers receive bullets to the head. As the march progresses, the numbers dwindle, the challenges of continued marching increase, and the senselessness wears on the participants' state of mind. King (writing as his alter ego, Richard Bachman) delivers another psychologically dark tale with commentary on society, teenage life, and cultural entertainment that is still poignant decades after its original publication. Kirby Heyborne's skills shine in the narrative passages, which he executes with a good mixture of rhythm and emphasis. Heyborne's light and youthful-sounding voice exudes the needed attitude of the mostly male adolescent characters. However, some of his character voices for the teens feel created just for the sole purpose of clearly distinguishing them, rather than matching voice organically to personality. His female voices lack substance, but since there are so few of them, listeners will not be too distracted. A Signet paperback. <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text:   
  
  THE LONG WALK
  
    
  
  Stephen King  
  
  
    
  (Richard Bachman)
  
  
  
  
  
    
    
  
  Only death can keep you from the finish line - in the ultimate competition of
  the all-too-near future
  
  "To me the Universe was all void of Life, or Purpose, of Volition, even of
  Hostility; it was one huge, dead, immeasurable Steamengine, rolling on, in its
  dead indifference, to grind me limb from limb. O vast, gloomy, solitary
  Golgotha, and Mill of Death! Why was the Living banished thither
  companionless, conscious? Why, if there is no Devil; nay, unless the Devil is
  your God?"
  
  -Thomas Carlyle 
  
  "I would encourage every American to walk as often as possible.
  
  It's more than healthy; it's fun."
  
  -John F. Kennedy (1962) 
  
  "The pump don't work
  
  'Cause the vandals took the handle."
  
  -Bob Dylan 
  
  
  
  
  
  PART ONE: STARTING OUT
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter 1
  
  "Say the secret word and win a hundred dollars. George, who are our first
  contestants? George ? Are you there, George?"
  
  -Groucho Marx 
  
  You Bet Your Life
  
  An old blue Ford pulled in