Rating: Summary: Excellent book! Review: By far one of the better books I've read. It engrosses you in the story and you don't want to put it down. I read over 200 pages in one night!
Highly recommended!
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: Good collaboration Review: Best-selling authors Stephen King and Peter Straub proved themselves a dynamic duo when they collaborated and conceived "The Talisman." Fantasy and reality collide in this whirlwind tale as "The Talisman" chronicles the journey of a young boy attempting to save his dying mother. After meeting an eccentric old man in an amusement park, Jack Sawyer becomes aware of an alien realm called the Territories. Jack must trek across America, facing the evil creatures of the Territories and of this world, to retrieve a valuable prize that can save his mother's life. The book, while very enthralling, can crawl at points and some sequences feel as if they don't relate to the plot, which is distracting to the reader. The two authors each have a noticeably distinct style, making it obvious when one author stops writing and the other starts. Any avid King fan can recognize his trademark style. Straub has the amazing ability to define scenes down to the finest detail. The novel is well-devised with the effort of both authors and very pleasant to read. The vivid descriptions make the unforgettable characters come alive. Scenes become so astonishingly real that it's more like watching a movie than reading a book. With great descriptions, interesting characters and two great authors holding the reins, "The Talisman" is a success.
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.
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