The Talisman (The Talisman #1)

As my review title says, this is one of the greatest books ever written. I have 2 favourite books of all time & this is one of them. Unsurprisingly the other is also written by Stephen King, The Stand. My words will never do justice to this book so I won\’t even try. Just trust that if you ever have doubt in Stephen King\’s ability to transport you into another world, read this book & you\’ll never doubt him again. Thank you Mr King, this book helped shape my world.

I first read THE TALISMAN, collaboratively written by Stephen King and Peter Straub, when it was first published in 1984 and hadn\’t re-read the story until just now. One of the benefits of getting older is a less precise memory. I didn\’t remember much of my first reading at all. So I got to enjoy this book all over again. In fact, I don\’t remember liking the book as much back then as this time around. Jack is a 12 year-old boy whose mother is dying. His mother was a star of Grade B movies in her heyday. Mom takes Jack from L.A. to an off-season resort in New Hampshire. There he meets a man that starts him on the noble quest to save his mother\’s life. This is a mixed genre book of horror and fantasy, taking Jack from his present day life to a mirror dimension and back again, meeting many people, both evil and good. I loved the book – the well-drawn characters especially Jack\’s friends, the locations that the story encompasses, and the fantastic storyline. While I enjoyed reading this story like it was a first-time read, I\’m amazed how much of it I had forgotten. I am now off to read the sequel BLACK HOUSE which takes place when Jack is an adult and was first published in 2001. I just found out this was a planned trilogy. I wonder if King and Straub will ever write the third book?

If you\’re a Stephen King fan, read the last 300 pages of this book only. They\’re the only pages that felt King-like. The rest of the book was so bad I almost threw it in the garbage on several occasions…the only thing keeping me from doing it was I was in a foreign country and had nothing else to read. But seriously, the first couple hundred pages are so bad I didn\’t even want to donate the book.. I just wanted it in the garbage so nobody else would accidentally pick it up and read it.

I was told this was a fantastic book. However the person who told me that it was read it when they were still in school. As an adult I found it slow and \”corny\”. It was a real stretch of the imagination to even consider it a story that kept my attention and wanting to keep reading. I found the problem/solution to be very simplistic and unbelieveable. On to Black House and I hope that it\’s better.

I have always loved both Stephen King and Peter Straub books. This collaboration is excellent. There is just something about this book that keeps me reading it over and over. I know I read it at least once a year-when I first bought it, I read it and then immediately read it a second time. It is sad, it is happy, it is supernatural and it is scary. That such a young boy sets out on a journey to save his mother is remarkable. His trials and tribulations are noted with great detail. His fears, his highs, his lows are written as though I am going through them and there is always that essence that he doesn\’t lose hope-nothing will make him quit. All of the characters are very well fleshed out, the evil and the good and even some of the minor characters get more attention so the story flows better. I cannot recommend this book highly enough

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