Rating: 
Summary: Another step toward the Dark Tower
Review: I re-read _The Talisman_ just prior to reading this one, since I hadn't read it since high school. I was surprised at how much I liked _The Talisman_, considering I didn't like it very much way-back-when. But this follow-up has me sort of on the fence.On the one hand, I'm not sure that Jack 'felt' like the same guy, only grown up. And I definitely did not like the narrative style (following Gorg skyward constantly pulled me out of French Landing and back into my own world where I became very much aware of the fact that I was reading a book, rather than living an adventure, which is how I usually feel when I'm reading a good book. That's part of the draw of a good book; it's an escape from reality.) However, in its defense, the story is engaging if you can get past the 'now we'll leave Jack and fly into the sky' stuff. The characters are rich and full, and I want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with Henry. Also, I have a feeling we may see more of Ty Marshall - I can hope, can't I? I mean, if it were up to me, every book would be a Dark Tower book, and I just feel like Ty Marshall might pop his head up in the next one of those! All in all, I liked a lot of the symbolism that I didn't pick up the first time I read this one. The second time through, though, I caught a lot more. I would recommend this one, but only to someone who's read the first one.
Rating: 
Summary: Bid Disappointment
Review: - Easily the worst book ever to carry the name of Stephen King. What was he thinking, I wonder? Fulfill a contractual obligation, perhaps?
- Shallow, flimsy plot, characters you just can't care about, no real element of horror whatever, and an ending not even good enough for a comic book!
- Skip this book - it isn't up to snuff and it isn't worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I was skeptical that this book would turn out to be as good as it did. Admittedly, I was frustrated up to about page 400. The new information about The Dark Tower is wonderful. The little details made the final 100 pages worth the journey it took to get there. I found myself missing the characters after the book was over. Beezer St. Pierre is probably the most original character since John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius Reilly from A Confederacy Of Dunces. Thanks guys for writing a good story!
Rating: 
Summary: ALWAYS STAY WITH A STEPHEN KING BOOK
Review: GLANCED AT WHAT OTHER FELLOW STEPHEN KING READERS HAD TO SAY ABOUT BLACK HOUSE. ALWAYS STAY WITH THE LAST WORD OF THE LAST PAGE. I JUST FINISHED "IT" AND WAS FEELING THE SAME WAY UNTIL I WAS AT THE LAST PAGE!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre Sequel
Review: I can not and will not give this book 5 stars just because this is by the infamous Stephen King and Peter Straub. Once again it is a big fat wordy book. It is written from a strange point of view, like you are a bird, flying over a town observing things and going invisibly into open windows of houses. It takes the first 75 pages to get use to this strange stand point. I have no idea why they would choose to write this way because tryng to be "creative", actually becomes aggravating. It is good and sick horror stemming once again from the Good versus Evil storyline from the Talisman. Once again we have Travelin Jack as the main character and once again the two authors insist on killing off one of your favorite characters.
The ending in the "Black House" once agains gets very very bizarre and certainly can not be predictable. I suppose if you have read the Talisman and you have waited this long for the "god pounding" sequel....read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Get to the point
Review: I am ashamed that in my first review, I admitted I didn't finish the book. I felt so bad I went back to it, but unfortunately, I didn't change my mind much on it. It's another overblown, overly long Stephen King novel that should just get to the point. I liked his stories that did this, like "Thinner" and "Christine", and I have no problem reading very long books. I just wished this one was more focused and to the point.
Rating:
Summary: Overblown style, fabulous story!
Review: OK. Let's keep it shortish and not too sweet: Loved it after I got over the "cleverness" (not) of the narrative. I felt King and Stroub were treating me like a moron - "Let us go now hence and investigate....". Come on!! I nearly gave up after 100 pages or so. Eventually of course the story kicks in and takes over, obfuscating (sorry) the cleverness. I could have given it two and a half stars, but then that's a reflection based on the annoyance factors, not the story. Four and a half stars for the story - It is GOOD! Other reviewers have outlined the plot and it's ties to other King stories. Suffice to say it would be better if you HAD read Talisman and King's Dark Tower series before, but it isn't paramount. NOTE: Just 'cos you're a King fan don't defend an experimental style as used here - UNLESS it works for you. It didn't for me, but in the end I enjoyed the complexity of the story and as usual the characterising. I may not be a literati, but I think King (don't know Stroub well enough) should write the stories for himself for sure (it's the only way). But he MUST treat Constant Readers with respect. I managed with the narrative style - eventually, but kept hoping it was (as King has said in his book "On Writing") simply a device, one used only in the introductory chapters. It went on. And on. AND ON!! Stick with it though, fellow Constant Readers, because in the end this story IS fabulous, in the real sense of the word.
Rating:
Summary: page turner
Review: This is an excellent book for the seasoned horror reader. It has extremely visual contents, and moves back nd forth in time and between characters. I have read many horror books and stories, and this was very mature reading even though it was a real page turner. Do not recommend to the squeemish or to those that may be offended by horror to children. May not be the best choice if this is your first horror read, but if you are the horror freak that I am, and you enjoy S.King as well as D. Koontz, this is a must read. May be my favorite horror novel. Go for it!!
Rating:
Summary: Need a fix between DT4 and DT5?
Review: Well here you are. King and Straub deftly intertwine the Land of Roland and the Dark Tower, The Breakers in Hearts in Atlantis, and Jack Sawyer's Territories. This book took me a long time to read because I didn't want it to ever end, and when it did - well there were so many emotions inside of me I had to go lie down. Twenty years after his first adventure throught the Territories, Jack, now 35 and a retired LA homicide detective, finds himself in the idyllic town of French Landing, Wisconsin. He has made friends and is happy just to exist, away from the brutality of LA. Unfortunately he is pressed into service when a serial killer preying on the town's children begins to taunt him with parts and letters. The Territories, dismissed by Jack as the delusional figments of a young boy struggling to deal with his monther's cancer, make themselves known in a big way, and Jack is afraid that he is losing his mind. It's only when he meets a woman, the mother of a missing boy, that he discovers that not only are the Territories real, but he is not alone in his fight to stop the Crimson King.
Rating:
Summary: Would have been better at half the size
Review: Are editors scared of telling authors like King or Straub to cut down the fat on some of their books? I guess it must be next to impossible to tell a best-selling writer that he might be doing something wrong. After all, they have the sale figures with which to back their defence. But I do think someone really needs to tell King that less is more. 'Black House' has the makings of a great book hiding in there somewhere - but there's too many half finished ideas getting in the way. (Dickens got away with it in 'Bleak House' but unfortunately neither King nor Straub is close to Dickens.) The middle third of this book is excellent. The first third, however, drags (although in a not uninteresting way); the final third (after Jack's visit to Judy/Sophie in the psych ward and the Territories) is terribly disappointing - as if both writers had given up and just wanted to get the damn thing out of the way. I had reached the 'unputdownable stage' at this point but then the steam just ran out of the story. And what is this attempt by King to tie up every one of his novels into some kind of over-arching meta-narrative? (Dark tower, etc.) A few science fiction writers seem plagued with the same need (Asmiov and Heinlein to name but two). Is it some sort of desire to play God in a solipistic universe? If it is then that way madness lies - just try to read some of Robert Heinlein's final terribly inward-looking, self referential dross. Read this book but then try 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski and (ignoring the pretentiousness factor) then tell me which one features a really scary house.
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