The Talisman by Stephen King, Peter Straub Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Talisman
Book Review: 4 Talismans for minor Dark Tower linkages
Summary: 4 Stars
Even if one wanted to severely criticize this novel, such criticism would little impact. Stephen King is the most popular author of horror stories in history and Straub is one of the best writing today. The Talisman sold a bazillion copies when it was first published and will likely rack up another bazillion with the recent release of the sequel Black House. King and Straub's collaboration is an excellent nail-biting horror/action story that is perhaps overly long but thoroughly engaging otherwise.I'm not a great Stephen King reader having read only his Dark Tower series and I tied into The Talisman because of its linkage to that series. Are the Territories of The Talisman also the Territories of the Dark Tower? Perhaps. King and Straub do make the linkage in the climax of the novel although the reader doesn't need to know anything of the Dark Tower series to enjoy The Talisman.
The Talisman is a quest novel in which the hero, twelve-year old Jack Sawyer, must traverse the continent to obtain a talisman that will cure his dying mother. His travels take him across 1981 America and the Territories which are in another world adjacent to ours. He encounters evil men, good werewolves and vice-versa along the way to mention only a few of the challenges he faces. Like most novels of this ilk, the hero and reader understand little of the quest at hand. There is a much bigger picture than the one initially presented by the authors. A twelve-year old boy can get into a lot of trouble on his own and Jack Sawyer does that in spades.
The USA of 1981 is interesting but the awe is reserved for the Territories. In spite of the length of The Talisman, the authors only feed the readers bits of it. Young Jack is never in the Territories long enough that the sense of wonder wears off. As the novel progresses we understand that the Territories and our world are intertwined and that an action in one is felt in the other. Is the overflow damage from our world into the Territories a metaphor for our impact on the environment?
What's most interesting is to read this novel some 17 years after it was first published. The authors were obviously taking a shot at the evils of corporate America. The antagonist, Morgan Sloat, is very much an example of the worst kind of corporate thief and perhaps his actions are a metaphor for the insider trading scandals and corporate downsizing of that era.
The Talisman is an exciting, wonder-filled novel that suffers only from excessive length. The authors could easily have trimmed it down by 100-200 pages without losing an awful lot of the content. Perhaps they felt the additional bulk was necessary to create the right atmosphere or perhaps they wanted to give the reader his money's worth and they are getting the royalties from it, so it's hard to argue. All in all it's an excellent if familiar story.
Book Review: A journey you won't forget
Summary: 4 Stars
About a year ago I read "Black House" and thoroughly enjoyed it. I immediately knew I wanted to read "The Talisman", a book about the young Jack Sawyer and his early adventures in the Territories. However, there are always books I want to read and it took me until now to get to it. I must say that I did not find this book to be all that compelling in the beginning, but around the time Wolf made his appearance in the narrative I started getting hooked.
"The Talisman" is the story of a quest. 12 year old Jack Sawyer must find and claim the Talisman to save not only the life of his mother, but the life of her "Twinner", who is the queen of an alternate world called the Territories. But more than the lives of these two women is at stake. Jack must defeat the evil forces that are corrupting both worlds, and possibly even worlds beyond these worlds. King and Straub have done an excellent job of creating a believable alternate world and filling the book with memorable characters, both good and evil.
Above all "The Talisman" is a book about love, friendship, loyalty and bravery with characters you will never forget.
Book Review: A Collision Of Worlds
Summary: 4 Stars
Quick aside: Given that my reviews of Stephen King have, with few exceptions, met with displeasure, I've come to look at this as something like placing my head in a lion's mouth -- after the liberal application of ground beef. Yet here I am again; hope somebody brought a suture kit! Onward:First off, it's great to see that Talisman has been reissued in such a handsome-looking package -- I like this jacket much better than the original Viking hardcover version, which did not capture the novel's spirit at all. I'm also becoming more and more intrigued by advance word on Talisman's upcoming sequel, Black House...but that's for another time. Right now I want to address the original, a collaboration between two markedly different authors, a "collision of worlds" that produced an unexpected classic of fantastic literature. The Talisman is a brilliant, glowing, fantasy/quest adventure which, in spite of a slow start and some odd turns here and there, succeeds on just about every level.
The plot can be summed up in a few sentences: Young Jack Sawyer must save the life of his dying mother by travelling to California and retrieving the Talisman. Also involved are his travels through an alternate reality called The Territories, a medieval world where magic reigns and people Jack knows on Earth have "twinners". Lined up against Jack are the diabolical Morgan Sloat and his minions, such as the maniacal Sunlight Gardener and the demonic, shape-shifting Elroy. On Jack's side are guide and mentor Speedy Parker, Sloat's skeptical son Richard, and Wolf...more on whom in a minute. I just told the basic story in a few moments; King and Straub spin this up into over six hundred delightful pages. It is an epic coming-of-age journey, a strange and beautiful admixture of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Lord of the Rings, the Round Table's quest for the Holy Grail, and still has room for both Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and the Christian idea of ressurrection and rebirth. Pretty impressive, eh?
The novel is full of King's immediacy and intimacy, as well as Straub's sensuality and more surrealistic tendencies -- note for instance Jack and Richard's journey through the Blasted Lands, which is a precursor for The Waste Lands in King's Dark Tower novel of the same name (see my review, he said shamelessly). The passages here read like King but have Straub's fingerprints all over them. Of course, I could be wrong; King and Straub both play with each other's styles and sensibilities so much in Talisman that playing who-wrote-what guessing games is silly. Even so, I still enjoy it, and I also enjoy the King/Straub collaborative "voice" very much, which is neither as cold nor as dull as some critics (not mentioning any names, like, say, HARLAN ELLISON) would have us believe. However, having said that, I will also say this: King rails against overuse of adverbs and the passive tense in On Writing, yet there are an overabundance of both in Talisman. However, someone who uses both as much as I should probably just shut the heck up -- so I will.
The story does move slowly at first -- sedate is perhaps the best word, and I think that's as it should be. Lord of the Rings didn't exactly get off to a slambang start either, and look at what Tolkien did with it. In any event, once you get into the story, the pages fly by. I just read the whole thing two weeks ago, and devoured it in about three days, just as I did when it was first released (gulp!) seventeen years ago. And although Jack's "Road of Trials" takes off on some odd tangents (such as the shootout at Camp Readiness, which is still too weird for me), it is still a great story, well-crafted, well-told, full of many interesting and amazing characters.
And that brings me to Wolf -- one of the finest characters either author has ever created. What a beautiful switch on every single werewolf cliche ever created, from Curt Siodmak to Robert Louis Stevenson. Just the idea that Wolf should be a good guy, let alone shepherd to a flock of Territories sheep (hysterically called "creep" by Jack), is such a brilliant conceit that it still floors me. What the authors then do with Wolf is even more impressive. Wolf is man's best friend on two legs; he's loyal, brave, fearless (sort of), fearsome, comic, and damn near steals the book away from its stalwart protagonist. Talisman achieves some of its finest (and funniest) moments in Wolf -- I can almost hear his snarly voice shouting "Right here and now, God pound it! Wolf!" as I write these lines, and I can't suppress a grin. Every kid should have a friend like Wolf...as long as they have a good strong padlock on them, that is. Heh heh heh.
Sorry. Anyway, The Talisman is a hard book to put down...in any sense of the phrase. I loved it then and love it now, and I can't wait to see what happens next, now that this chronicle of a boy has at last become the chronicle of a man. Remain in Light -- Phrodoe.
Book Review: A Fantastic Tale of Multiple Universes
Summary: 4 Stars
In this work by Stephen King and Peter Straub, a young boy's quest to find a cure for his dying mother leads him into another dimension. This book grabs on tight and won't let go. The character of Jack is a wonderful everyman, and with a name like Jack, it only lends itself to this idea. Any good book will take its protagonist and transform itself into its reader and this is no exception. The Talisman is a great quest story, and like any of its kind, the hero of it does not only search for a boon, but learns a great deal about themselves along the way. The thing that sets this apart from most fantasy novel writing is that it tends to not shy away from the darker aspects of things and as Jack learns, he begins to listen to his instincts when it comes to trusting certain people. A good lesson to be gleaned from this book for young readers would be to learn to become discerning as the world is latent with ambiguity as you get older.
Jack's encounters with evil are well written and the scenes with the religious zealots come to mind, as they were chilling to read. I loved the whole conclusion as it really felt like you went on the journey with this young boy. I thoroughly enjoyed The Talisman and recommend it to any who are looking for a darker and edgier type of fantasy novel.
Book Review: A Good Read...
Summary: 4 Stars
The Talisman chronicles the adventure of a twelve year old boy named Jack Sawyer. The young hero sets out from the East Coast of the USA in a bid to save his mother, who is dying from cancer. Jack needs to find the mystical artifact known only as the 'The Talisman'.
Werewolves, both good and bad, inhabit the far western parts of a world parallel to America known as The Territories - which incidentally are part of the Dark Tower World. A sixteen-year-old Wolf, simply named Wolf, is accidentally drawn pulled into America by Jack Sawyer, and the two form a strong friendship as they seek ways to travel between their worlds and find the talisman.
The book is split between The Territories and our world's America. King and Straub are able to constantly throw Jack from the frying pan to the fire, as he escapes from one life-threatening situation to another. Jack must retrieve the Talisman before it falls into enemy hands and will be lost to him forever.
A different type of book for King, as it involves the creation of worlds other than our own...A concept he uses almost exclusively in his Dark Tower stories and the Eyes of the Dragon. However, this is a successful stand alone novel, in its own right and I would suggest picking up a copy of this for a rainy day so you too can visit another world...
Relic113