Black House

Rating:
Summary: The return of the King
Review: With this novel (albeit a collaboration), Stephen King returns no-holds-barred to his classic style of storytelling after his near-fatal accident. Black House is an epic tale featuring a band of ordinary heroes, a powerful child, parallel worlds and enormous stakes. The added bonus is that the novel returns us to the world of The Dark Tower saga, fitting another important piece to that super-epic jigsaw puzzle. In fact, I had difficulty finding any influence of Peter Straub beyond the first 20 pages or so, since the writing style is so clearly vintage King. Billed as a sequence to The Talisman, Black House doesn't continue that story so much as pick up the thread of its main character's (Jack Sawyer) life as an adult. King aficianados will relish this novel as a full-force return to the type of story he tells best.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and not what I expected
Review: I did not read the Talisman, and I have not read anything in the Dark Towers series. But, I love Stephen King and always have. I have not read as much of his newer stuff as the older novels, (Cujo, The Stand, etc.), but I was really disappointed with this one, possibly because of the Straub collaberation, who knows?

The bottom line is this - it has never taken me this long to read a Stephen King novel, ever. It's not that it's bad, but it doesn't hold my attention very well. It's also a very gory novel, so be prepared for that.