The Talisman

July 22, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Uncategorized by admin | No comments

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Author: Stephen King

Genre: Action/Adventure

Rating: ***** (5 Stars)

Summary:

The Talisman is a collaborative effort between Stephen King and Peter Straub. It and its sequel, Black House, tell the story of Jack Sawyer, a very special boy who has many magical adventures while saving his mother’s life.

Jack is in his early teens. His father has been killed in a hunting “accident” which later turns out to be murder, and his mother, Lily, a retired actress, is terminally ill with cancer. Morgan Sloat, a business partner of Jack’s father is harassing Lily as part of a scheme to take over the Sawyer family’s share of the business.

As a result, Jack and his mother are running and hiding from Sloat. The story begins with them living in an almost deserted beach town in New England. There Jack meets Speedy, an elderly caretaker and handyman. Speedy introduces Jack to a magical parallel world, the Territories, where magic is used the way people in our world use electricity and technology. Each person in our world has a “twinner” in the territories. The relation with one’s twinner is so close that if one is killed, the other is likely to die in a similar way. Lily’s twinner is a queen, and she is dying of a terrible wasting disease.

Jack learns he has the ability to “flip” into the Territories. He is given the task of obtaining a magical item called the Talisman, which can be used to heal his mother. The quest takes him across the United States, sometimes in our world, sometimes in the Territories. He walks and hitchhikes, working a variety of odd jobs to feed himself, all the while dodging the people and creatures Morgan Sloat sends after him. Among other things, Jack befriends a werewolf, spends time in a reformatory run by an insane preacher, and travels through a nuclear wasteland in the other world.

My Thoughts:

I originally didn’t expect much from this book, as I have in the past been disappointed by collaborative novels. Stephen King’s collaboration with Peter Straub, however, was a pleasant surprise. I was unable to detect any difference between King’s own writing style and that of his coauthor, and the book retained all of King’s characteristic richness of description and characterization.

The Talisman is one of the best books I have read this year. I highly recommend it.