The Talisman

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Summary: king and Straub, Explosive
Review: I have just finshed a copy of The Talisman and I am in shock. I actually had quite a time adjusting myself to reality. The plot, the action, the places, the differences, boggles the mind. When I finally did become adjusted, all I could think of was the territories and how possible they sound. Who is to say we are not one of many worlds all connected but apart. I have never enjoyed escaping into fantasy so much and I can't wait until Sept. 15th when I can again read further of Jack's wonderful, terrifying,advenutures with his friends.

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Summary: A Collision Of Worlds
Review: Quick aside: Given that my reviews of Stephen King have, with few exceptions, met with displeasure, I've come to look at this as something like placing my head in a lion's mouth -- after the liberal application of ground beef. Yet here I am again; hope somebody brought a suture kit! Onward:

First off, it's great to see that Talisman has been reissued in such a handsome-looking package -- I like this jacket much better than the original Viking hardcover version, which did not capture the novel's spirit at all. I'm also becoming more and more intrigued by advance word on Talisman's upcoming sequel, Black House...but that's for another time. Right now I want to address the original, a collaboration between two markedly different authors, a "collision of worlds" that produced an unexpected classic of fantastic literature. The Talisman is a brilliant, glowing, fantasy/quest adventure which, in spite of a slow start and some odd turns here and there, succeeds on just about every level.

The plot can be summed up in a few sentences: Young Jack Sawyer must save the life of his dying mother by travelling to California and retrieving the Talisman. Also involved are his travels through an alternate reality called The Territories, a medieval world where magic reigns and people Jack knows on Earth have "twinners". Lined up against Jack are the diabolical Morgan Sloat and his minions, such as the maniacal Sunlight Gardener and the demonic, shape-shifting Elroy. On Jack's side are guide and mentor Speedy Parker, Sloat's skeptical son Richard, and Wolf...more on whom in a minute. I just told the basic story in a few moments; King and Straub spin this up into over six hundred delightful pages. It is an epic coming-of-age journey, a strange and beautiful admixture of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Lord of the Rings, the Round Table's quest for the Holy Grail, and still has room for both Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and the Christian idea of ressurrection and rebirth. Pretty impressive, eh?

The novel is full of King's immediacy and intimacy, as well as Straub's sensuality and more surrealistic tendencies -- note for instance Jack and Richard's journey through the Blasted Lands, which is a precursor for The Waste Lands in King's Dark Tower novel of the same name (see my review, he said shamelessly). The passages here read like King but have Straub's fingerprints all over them. Of course, I could be wrong; King and Straub both play with each other's styles and sensibilities so much in Talisman that playing who-wrote-what guessing games is silly. Even so, I still enjoy it, and I also enjoy the King/Straub collaborative "voice" very much, which is neither as cold nor as dull as some critics (not mentioning any names, like, say, HARLAN ELLISON) would have us believe. However, having said that, I will also say this: King rails against overuse of adverbs and the passive tense in On Writing, yet there are an overabundance of both in Talisman. However, someone who uses both as much as I should probably just shut the heck up -- so I will.

The story does move slowly at first -- sedate is perhaps the best word, and I think that's as it should be. Lord of the Rings didn't exactly get off to a slambang start either, and look at what Tolkien did with it. In any event, once you get into the story, the pages fly by. I just read the whole thing two weeks ago, and devoured it in about three days, just as I did when it was first released (gulp!) seventeen years ago. And although Jack's "Road of Trials" takes off on some odd tangents (such as the shootout at Camp Readiness, which is still too weird for me), it is still a great story, well-crafted, well-told, full of many interesting and amazing characters.

And that brings me to Wolf -- one of the finest characters either author has ever created. What a beautiful switch on every single werewolf cliche ever created, from Curt Siodmak to Robert Louis Stevenson. Just the idea that Wolf should be a good guy, let alone shepherd to a flock of Territories sheep (hysterically called "creep" by Jack), is such a brilliant conceit that it still floors me. What the authors then do with Wolf is even more impressive. Wolf is man's best friend on two legs; he's loyal, brave, fearless (sort of), fearsome, comic, and damn near steals the book away from its stalwart protagonist. Talisman achieves some of its finest (and funniest) moments in Wolf -- I can almost hear his snarly voice shouting "Right here and now, God pound it! Wolf!" as I write these lines, and I can't suppress a grin. Every kid should have a friend like Wolf...as long as they have a good strong padlock on them, that is. Heh heh heh.

Sorry. Anyway, The Talisman is a hard book to put down...in any sense of the phrase. I loved it then and love it now, and I can't wait to see what happens next, now that this chronicle of a boy has at last become the chronicle of a man. Remain in Light -- Phrodoe.

Rating:
Summary: Basically very good - just too long
Review: I really did like this book - until I had gotten about 2/3 into it - then it bogged down. And, it's not the length, per say, that's a problem - I love "The Stand". However, the story itself is very good - I really liked the characters and the relationships between the them. It just took too long for Jack and Richard to get into that hotel once they arrived in CA. While I probably won't read this again, I would recommend it to folks.

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Summary: Did I Read the Same Talisman as Everyone Else??
Review: When Stephen King collaborated with horror legend Peter Straub early in his career to create a combined horror novel, The Talisman was the dubious result. While written past King's early prime and long before his recent literary explosion, The Talisman is still awful compared to his other works around this era - and any of Straub's books. The plot will seem familiar to King and Straub readers - a young boy, Jack, must travel through an alternate fantasy reality to recover an object called the talisman to restore life to the queen of that land - who happens to be his mother's "twinner," or spiritually-connected mirror image in the fantasy world. Therefore, saving the queen will save his mother's life as well. After that, the book becomes a road trip novel with some horror elements as Jack makes his way from the East to the West coast, experiencing the horrors of our world and the alternate world, from real physical dangers to corrupt, hypocritical preachers, to abusive, pedophile cops. While The Talisman's premise is a good one, it never takes off like King's great books (and Straub's, too). The reader can, in fact, tell which passages King wrote and which ones Straub wrote (they seemed to have alternated 1-for-1), and this uneven quality contributes to the book's downfall. The reader can never quite get into the story - 200 pages from the end, I had no desire to finish. I didn't really care what happened to the characters, and the story had bored me so much at that point, I just put it down and never came back. If you're looking for good King, good Straub, good horror, or good fantasy, look elsewhere. Let this one sit on the shelves as a footnote to these two author's great literary careers.

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Summary: INCREDIBLE!!!
Review: Next to The Stand, this is the best book by King (and Straub, let's not forget him!) Absolutely amazing. Don't take my word for it...go read it. It never loses your attention (which is something many books tend to do at one point or another.) I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, Black House. Written almost 20 years later, I hope it does the original justice.

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Summary: One of King's best...
Review: An epic, apocalyptic tale of the fight between good and evil... OK, so that's the plot of just about every Stephen King or Peter Straub novel. So, you know what you are getting.

This is one of the best. Fast paced, engrossing, thrilling, and frightening. Hard to put down, despite its girth.

If you are a King fan, this is one not to miss. To the uninitiated, this would be a good place to start.

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Summary: One of the best of King.
Review: When Stephen King write down that his Dark Tower Series is the place where all the other books begins, you don't understand very well until you read or re-read Talisman. every one of the worlds of King are marvelous, you really think as a reality, here you became Jack Sawyer. How this book is going to affect the Dark Tower Series? I think that even King don't know, but all the Dark Tower Fans expect that it's for good. Read it, Love it and Pray for the sequel. It has to be as good as TALISMAN

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Summary: Good and evil toe to toe
Review: I wallowed in this one -- it's got everything: a boy on a quest to save his mother and another world, a mystery, really BAD bad guys, well drawn characters (courtesy of Straub) and an exciting plot and menacing mood (thanks to Steven King). Sometimes King can be troubled by dealing with such enormous concepts as good and evil in other than cartoonish form, which sometimes leads to unsatisfactory plot resolutions. I think his collaboration with Straub here makes for a breathless ride. If you liked Straub's "Ghost Story", King's "Bag of Bones," Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy, you'll love this -- if you hated any of these, don't bother with the "Talisman."

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Summary: WOW !
Review: Anyone who has spotted my reviews of other SK books will recognize a true fanatic when they see one. Why? Because Stephen King (here, in the company of Peter Straub, another fine writer) guides his readers effortlessly into other worlds, other universes. The gift of a top author is to be able to get his[her] readers to suspend belief while they enter the world of the story. In fantasy/scifi, this is all the more difficult because the reader not only has to suspend belief of what is likely and what is probable, they have to suspend belief about the real world and allow themselves to be led into a world of phantoms and dragons and witches and hobgoblins and whatever. Both of these authors have the gift of drawing their readers right into the front line of their novels. When you read The Talisman, you ARE Jack Sawyer. When you read Insomnia, you ARE Ralph Roberts, when you read The Dark Half, you ARE Thad Beaumont. King's and Straub's ability to write from one person's clear viewpoint (whilst delving into the minds of the lesser characters) is an ability that many writers lack. I'm delighted to see The Talisman republished. If you've not already read it, you should.

The biggest mystery is who wrote what!

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Summary: Straub is King or Vice Versa
Review: As an author of a debut mystery that is set primarily in a coastal amusement park, I suspect THE TALISMAN may have had a greater subtle influence on me than I ever realized. While this is an epic work of fantasy and I am a mystery writer, I recall reading this book when it first came out. When I saw it in reprint, I picked it up and read it again. THE TALISMAN, opening near a silenced theme park involves the journey of a thirteen-year-old across America and into another realm attempting to save his dying mother. The prize in crucial to Jack Sawyer, yet his journey is even more meaningful. THE TALISMAN is a groundbreaking book, and I have never been able to tell which parts were written by which writer. Steven King and Peter Straub are both brilliant here. Magnificent all around!