Rating: 
Summary: I found myself travelling along with Jack! Great book!!
Review: King & Straub make the characters come alive, they seem rea
Rating:
Summary: The best ever written that I've read!!!!
Review: I loved it!!! It really involves you to follow along with
the locations in the story. I became more interested in
geography once I found out that the cities were real.
I became a true fan after reading this one!!!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the three finest books I have ever read
Review: "The Talisman" is a masterpiece. It has become part of my holy trinity of favorite novels, alongside J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany." Readers of all three books may notice a common thread of heroism and deep love. The three novels also share writing so vivid that it creates an alternate reality that is hard to leave once the book is over. As with "Owen Meany", I immediately started "The Talisman" again the moment I finished it, with tears still drying on my face.King and Straub understand love. Love is the motivating force in this book, and the true magic of the book, more so than the hunk of glass of the title. The vividly drawn main character, 12 year old Jack, loves his mother and goes through Hell for her. Likewise, Jack loves his best friend / brother / soul mate Richard uncommonly deeply. Love like this has the power to save the universe. Peter Straub and Stephen King have my deepest gratitude.
Rating: 
Summary: Road to the Talisman is AWESOME!!
Review: I read this story about few months ago for the first time after reading these reviews. The first 150 pages or so are slow and sometimes I had trouble getting through them. But as someone else had said, once Jack meets Wolf all hell breaks loose and the story moves into overdrive! It is a fun story, heartbreaking, and at times may get you upset because all you want to do is help travelin' Jack get to the Talisman. If you haven't read it, do so but please keep with it, it will not dissapoint!!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Stephen King novels; magical
Review: This is among Stephen King's best books, which is a bit strange strange considering that he made the unusual decision to collaborate with an author who is less well known than himself, in a genre in which they both specialize.
But you can't argue with results, and The Talisman delivers in a big way. When 12 year old Jack finds himself on a sad, grey beach with his mother, a former movie star who is dying of cancer, it seems like his life can't get much worse. But he soon gets sucked into an adventure, in which he is sent on a quest to save his mother. Jack travels in two different worlds; the world that we live in, and another, fairy-tale world that mirrors our own in some ways. The fairy-tale world seems like something out of the Middle Ages, except that there are magical objects and creatures, some of which are very forbidding.
This is a masterful take on the somewhat common idea of a young person finding himself on an adventure in a magical land. By jerking Jack back and forth between the dangers of our world and the dangers of that other world, King and Straub bring both worlds into sharp focus. The dangers that Jack faces are very creative, including a sentence in a religious rehabilitation center for boys, and getting stuck in a dead-end job for a dangerous man.
This book is reminiscent of The Eyes of the Dragon, which is another King masterpiece, and yet it is slightly more slanted towards a realistic, and adult-oriented view. It also foreshadows the Gunslinger series in some respects, without being as abstract. At a hefty 768 pages, the sheer size of it might remind readers of King's name-making epics, such as The Stand. In short, this book has a lot of elements that have worked for King in the past (sad to say, I'm much less familiar with Straub's work, and so can't comment on comparisons to his other works, except to say that this is much better than Straub's "Ghost Story").
Even though some of the villains are somewhat cartoonish, Jack and his relationship with Wolf, a friend that he meets along the way, is particularly well-done and touching. We grow to love these characters, and this emotional hook keeps us interested beyond just knowing who lives and who dies. We want them to be happy, and are concerned every time their happiness is threatened.
Despite the size, this is a perfect book for someone just easing into King's work. It has elements of horror (these guys can't pass up a chance to detail the sound of a bone being crushed, for example), but is mostly centered on fantasy themes. I also highly recommend this book specifically to teenagers, who are looking for a book that is exciting, but which is more adult than the children's books that they've read to date.
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn
Review: This book is getting 3 stars from me because it was well told, And I liked the plot and all. But I was forcing myself to finish this book. It got really boring at times and felt like it wasnt going anywhere. This is my first King book I've read. I read lost boy lost girl by Straub. Ill just say im glad to be finally done with this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Fantasy
Review: What a great book, I did think however it was quite longer than it could have been with all the little obsticles Jack has to overcome, but I guess it just adds to his quest. It was a great story, check it out if you want something to keep u busy for a while and for a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: I really didn't care for this book
Review: I made it half way through this book, and simply had to put it down (I kept hoping for it to get better the whole time). The main reason why I picked it up was to get more about the Dark Tower series. The characters all seemed very superficial, and the plot was very forced. King usually does a better job at introducing and fleshing out any character in his books. His style usually is pretty continuous; no abrupt jumps or holes... I'm a huge fantasy fan, and I've read a dozen other Stephen King novels; this book was by far the worst I've read of his so far.
Rating:
Summary: WHAT A READ!!
Review: I give The Talisman 5 stars. It is not only the 1st to the sequel: Black House, but assuming one is a Stephen King true reader, they are directly relating to The Dark Tower saga. Given, the 1st 150 or so pages are almost flat out boring (most likely due to Peter Straub's work), it definitely is xciting the rest of the way thru (Stephen King's work). It is a little different in Black House. It looks as Straub & King trade off every 50 or so pages. Either way, Straub is boring while King is xciting.
Rating:
Summary: A genuine page turner
Review: This novel is a wonderful mix of fantasy, horror and myth. The story is about a twelve-year-old boy who starts on a quest for The Talisman, which is the only thing that can save his mother from the grips of cancer and the slow poisoning of evil; but he soon discovers saving his mother is but a part of his destiny. By saving his mother and defeating the forces that want her dead, he will save a world, two worlds, and an infinite number of worlds, all linked together in a chain of destiny.
Drawing from stories like Huckleberry Finn, Pinocchio, The Lord Of The Rings, a score of myths and legends, and being strongly intermixed with Stephen King's own Dark Tower saga, `Talisman' has a complex plot filled with meticulous detail and rich imagination. Had I read this book at age twelve, this would have been one of my favourite and influential books. Now, aged twenty-four, I still loved it to death, but I've read too many other books now. The beehive of my imagination has been filled with the nectar of too many other works. (I did however, read Stephen King's `Eyes Of The Dragon' at about that age, and if you like 'Talisman' I recommend you get a copy of that book as well.) Are you twelve yourself, and are you not afraid of violent and sometimes horrifying scenes, then pick this novel up now or regret it later- just like I regret it now.
Jack finds many obstacles on his road, some in our world and some in the other. You'll find no obstacles trying to finish this book, unless you're talking about turning the last page. But don't worry, there's a sequel: `Black House.'
This one gets four stars.
Bram Janssen,
The Netherlands
|
