The Talisman

Filled with interesting ideas, but the execution was not to my liking.

Similarly to The Stand, the middle section of the book is a depressing slog and the ending does not make up for it. The main character goes through ordeal after ordeal and the reader is never adequately rewarded for sticking with the book.

The book is filled with cheeky pop-culture references that are neither funny nor clever and only serve to take the reader out of the book. Particularly the phrase “Can you give me hallelujah”. This phrase is drilled into the readers mind over and over, seemingly as a joke? I don't understand what the motivation for repeating this cheesy line over and over was, but it made the book that much more annoying to read for me.

Again, there are tons of interesting ideas, however none of them are really expanded on which makes the middle section of the book depressing and uninteresting.

High paced, “young adult” style writing, 600+ page non-stop adventure. The ease of the writing style, the high tempo pace, and of course the traditional absurd, fantasy, violence, suffering you're used to in King, written in amusing quippy often sexual-innuendo-esque, often slightly disturbed, quite weird, and not always in-character one-liners makes this a hilariously fast enjoyable and dark read. Stupidly quotable, and highly addicting.

Executive Summary: I first read this back in high school, and I remember liking it, but not as much as the sequel. The ending of this is really good, but I found parts of it really slow.Audiobook: One of the main reasons I decided to reread this was that I got a good deal on the audiobook. I really like Frank Mueller from the early Dark Tower books, so I was eager to see hear him read this book. He did a good job with this one, and it helped a lot during the slow parts.Full ReviewDark Tower is still one of my favorite series. In high school once I ran out of Dark Tower books I started reading a bunch of the other stuff King wrote that had ties to that series, including this one.When I first read this, my mother didn't have cancer yet, let alone died from it. I had totally forgotten that detail, and it made the start of this book hit a little close to home for me. I love the idea of being able to find a magic cure. It seems like exactly the kind of thing a kid would think of when dealing with a dying parent. But really the premise is mostly just a Macguffin.The real point of this book to me is the journey itself. Of course being a King book, the journey is full of dark and horrible things.It's hard to say how much is Steven King and how much is Peter Straub, but it feels very much like a King novel to me. Then again I've never read Straub outside of this series, so I'm probably not the right person to speak to that.Overall, I found the ending of this book really good, but there were parts of the story that dragged or were very hard to listen to. Some of that is just my own personal history, while others is just the pacing of the book itself. I recall liking [b:Black House 10607 Black House (The Talisman, #2) Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388263466s/10607.jpg 1738813] much better, but it seems like most people I've talked to like this one better.

Glad that's over with. Not as bad as people suggest but I will never think about it again unless The Duffer Brothers or Sarah Reads (the only three fans of this book, I heard) somehow do something to make me remember it exists. And then I'll say, “oh yeah, that book”, and then forget it right after.

Rating: 2.75 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3/5 -Cover: 2/5-Story: 3/5-Writing: 3/5Genre: Fiction/Contemporary/LGBTType: BookWorth?: YesHated Disliked It Was Okay Liked Loved FavoritedThis book took me forever to finish but I did. It was a typical Stephen King book. Dragged in places and was great in the other. At some points I was ICKed out. It is clear Stephen King has an obsession with children being put in sexual situations. It has become a theme of his and how people look over this is... something. Other than that the story was pretty darn good. A good ole good vs evil. I did feel like Jack was acting older than his age but I mean... given the situation he was in I kind of glad he was. I am so glad to have read this because I will be starting Gunslinger soon and well... there are a bit of ties to it. Kind of exciting for me!

This was an odd book, and I don’t quite know what to think of it. There were parts that were great in either energy or storytelling and other parts that were dragging and distortedly written. I don’t have too much experience with Straub’s works, only Ghost Story, which gave me a high expectation for this collaboration.

And collaborated they did as you can’t tell who wrote what part and with only some classic King style in there that’s all his own. This book blended great in some parts that made this feel like an effort of great companionship by both authors. On the other hand, the parts where it doesn’t blend so well are what make this book feel off.

The whole story built up a magical other world that we don’t get to see enough of. We spend so much time on the Real/regular world with the main character getting stopped at numerous pits of despair. I just want the story to go on. The book was part childhood loss and random torture. Some trials the main character/hero is put through were unnecessarily long. Other characters like Wolf and Richard could be a little annoying and only added to the trials of the MC.

All this is not to say this is a completely bad book. Although I maybe a sucker for King’s works since I have loved so much of his other novels. The feel of the book is part fairy tale but mostly dark fantasy and dark it does well. The evil and just mean for fun characters were done well and parts of the trials were good to read. It just should have been shorter and worked more with the magic of the Territories.

I am hoping that the next book fixes some of these issues as that would turn this into a great collaboration.