Rating: 
Summary: King and Straub chose an AWFUL reader!
Review: My wife and I love listening to Steven King's books on tape and have been willing to put up with some pretty bad readers. But this one takes the cake. He sounds like he's announcing a baseball game, all breathless and excited. We can't stand it. We actually took the set of tapes back and got the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Better Than The Talisman!
Review: I'll come out and say it right away: The Black House was a better book than its predecessor, The Talisman. Although I am a huge fan of The Talisman, I have to admit that Black House will probably go down in history, and it will be remembered as a masterpiece of horror. Because the book IS horrific, it IS amazingly well written and it IS totally engaging.Black House takes us thirty years into the future. Jack does not remember what happened to him when he was twelve. He is a retired cop and is brought back to work when a killer who passes himself as The Fisherman starts acting up. The killer abducts and kills little children, just like some other notirious killer did in the 1920s. Coincidence? Of course not. And it's not a coincidence either that the killings are connected to the Territories. The book takes the best of both authors. It is some of the best writing I've seen in a long time. Straub is amazing at creating serial killers that are believable and very scary. And he knows how to write compelling characters that are either detectives or cops. King is best when he writes wide-scope novels that cover large areas (ie, a whole town, like this book does) and many characters. He is a master at plotting suspense and delivering amazingly well drawn characters. So take the best of both authors, put them together and you have The Black House. Plus, the book answers many, many questions about King's Dark Tower epic. Everything is connected in the King World, this book included. Black House is an amazing read. And there are some nail-biting sequences (two scenes gave me the creeps like no other horror book has in the last ten years). This one is a keeper! It is a great read and a very intelligent book.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck!
Review: I just finished reading the TALISMAN (again) the day I got BLACK HOUSE. I started reading BLACK HOUSE today and I doubt whether I will finish it. This has happened to me with many of King's newer books. I feel like I am wading through a quagmire of words that threaten to suffocate me with their imagery. It is just too much! Especially in the light of recent events, I find it difficult to read a book that on first read appears to be so unrelentingly grim. If I were you, I would wait until you can get it at the library. Something this dark needs to be read when there is a glimmer of light somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Why did I buy this in hardback?
Review: As I was reading this book, and particularly in the strangely narrated beginning, I got the impression that King and Straub had written this story while half drunk and laughing their rear-ends off. Not that I'm complaining exactly. The first part of the story does provide some good background on the characters, but it's rather boring. I suppose that whole flying around to peek in on people bit was the best they could come up with, but it's almost like torture to read it. I love the story, and most of it is very well written. It was well worth slogging through the first 50 pages or so, waiting for the story to pick up. I don't know as it was worth the price though. I should have waited for it to come out in paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Three words - save your money
Review: I'm not going to repeat the plot, it's already been done here. I loved the Talisman, and I'm a huge fan of the Dark Tower series. That said, I wish King would just stop messing about and give us the next episode of the DT instead of these teasers like in 'Hearts in Atlantis' and now 'Black House'.
"Black House' is exceedingly annoying to read, I've always had a dislike of books written in the present tense, so that in itself is a major annoyance. Couple this with the endless introduction which is written as if in a screenplay - it came off as a conceit of whoever wrote it, I would guess Straub. Occasionally the writing takes off and the book becomes almost enjoyable, this is where Steve has taken over I'm guessing, but everything in the book seems to take forever to happen. It's not like I'm some kid who wants lots of action and fast, I love John Irving's books for instance, but this book seriously needed the attention of a good editor.
I still haven't finished it, but it's more like I feel I have to finish it as I spent the money on it, not that I'm desperate to get to the end. It's hard work.
I wish I'd saved my money.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful sequel to a wonderful story
Review: The 15th of September finally arrived. Jack Sawyer, who along with his friends Wolf and Richard had captured my heart in The Talisman, was back. It was like meeting an old school friend whom I hadn't seen for many years and I wondered what sort of man my friend had become. From page one I was hooked. Jack Sawyer the boy has grown up to be an honest, trustworthy and honorable man, but a man haunted by memories of a childhood odessy that he has convinced himself never happened. In Black House he must come face to face with those memories, go back to the Territories and draw on all of his strength and courage to save a little boy, a town and all of the worlds linked by the Talisman and the Dark Tower. The early part of the book at first seemed to drag but I guess I was just eager to get back to the Territories. With hindsight this stage-setting was essential to the story as it unfolded. Likewise the merging of the Dark Tower mythology into the story at first felt artificial and forced, but became natural and right as the saga progressed. Jack Sawyer is still brave and true. Stephen King and Peter Straub have done him proud. Black House is a truly wonderful sequel to the Talisman, right up to its heart-wrenching conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but really not a sequal to "The Talisman"
Review: OK, I really expected this to be a sequel to "The Talisman", but it ended up being a fairly straight-forward horror novel, with some Talisman and Dark Tower bits thrown in near the end. In fact, it reveals a lot of new information about the Dark Tower worlds, but very little about the Territories (from "The Talisman"). As a Talisman fan, I was somewhat disappointed. As a Dark Tower fan, a really liked the new Dark Tower material. (Dark Tower fans: if you want another taste of the Dark Tower, go to... and read the first chapter of his next Dark Tower book!) The story is set in a small Wisconsin town (Le Riviere) just like many of the small Maine towns from just about every King book. It starts very slowly - the "bird flying over the town" trick used to introduce the characters just doesn't work. Once it gets going, though, the story moves along pretty quickly, mixing the bad (a serial child-killer named the Fisherman) with the truly evil (Gorg, Mr. Munshun, and the Crimson King). The end happens very quickly - maybe a little too quickly. I expected a more drawn-out confrontation between good and evil, and the battle was over before I knew what hit me. The characters are quite good. Jack Sawyer is back from "The Talisman", and is joined by the La Riviere police chief, a beer-brewing group of bikers, and a blind man named Henry Leyden. Henry is the real star of this book, and is easily one of my favorite King characters. There's also the usual collection of small-town characters, evil creatures from another world, talking crows, and other oddities thet you'd expect from Stephen King and Peter Straub. Altogether, a good book. Just not a sequel to "The Talisman".
Rating:
Summary: Toto, I don't think we're in Castle Rock anymore
Review: King moves further away from his Derry/Castle Rock monster books in "Black House." The story doesn't even take place in Maine!
Straub's influence is evident here in the first 30 pages of the story. It begins with a very detailed visual narration of the story's setting and characters in western Wisconsin. Some reviewers seems to find getting through this description difficult and dull. It's central to the theme of the book that we understand that French Landing is a pretty, yet very ordinary midwestern town. The horror is that this ordinary town is succumbing to "slippage"--it is tilting into evil and more importantly, into other worlds.
The individual styles of Straub and King are blended as well here as in Talisman. They emphasize the reverberation of actions--across countries, worlds and time. One moment has momentous consequences. For example, a short phone call home from a Barney Fife-like cop results in near riots, a janitor's quick nap allows a murderer to get loose, and the joyous clasping of friend's hand exposes that friend to fatal gunshots.
In light of recent events, this "resonance of events" theme is heartbreaking. Missing the subway may mean you miss your date with death. Having to go back for your keys may mean you don't. Ka.
The characters, especially the children, are brilliantly drawn and the language is beautiful, horrific and amusing. This is shown in the smallest of details such as the names of buildings. If the "Reinhold T. Grauerhammer VFW Hall" doesn't make you chuckle, you're not paying attention.
This is a book closer to the Dark Tower series than King's other horror novels, but it is not a Dark Tower book. Since it seems to be "in the middle," it's possible it may upset both DT fans AND Castle Rock fans. Best to just take this one on its own, folks. It's well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Return
Review: I just have to say that I have consumed the sequel to The Talisman in a matter of days. It maintained and in spots exceeded the wonder and terror that were present in the Talisman. There is so much in this book, but I could not possibly spoil it for others. I suggest any fan of the fantasy/horror genre read it, along with the Talisman and The Darktower series.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT FINISHED YET
Review: I love The Talisman...one of my favorite books of all time. I am not finished with Black House yet..keyword "yet"..it had better move along and pick up...I am just past the tour of the "Black House"...all I can say is if things don't progress soon, I'd through with this book. I had no idea that the Dark Tower was involved until I read some reviews...so far I am very disappointed...will check back in as I (IF I) get further along.
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