1.29k reviews for:

El talismán

Peter Straub, Stephen King

3.91 AVERAGE

nathansizemore's review against another edition

3.0

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68/100

I struggled hard to get through this. Took me forever. I enjoyed the world that Straub/King created but didn't find everything that happened in it particularly engaging. Really enjoyed the Wolf portion of the book, though.

rah's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

johngbooks's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

elzasbokhylla's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

gkailey's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

wouterk's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really enjoyed my read of this book. While I'll concede that it is a bit long, it is also a typical King read with a flowing story and many side stories and characters that really make the story vibrant and alive. It is not necessarily only linear which made it more immersive to me.

Jack goes on a wild adventure across dimensions and across the US to save his mother from incurable cancer and to battle forces of evil. I will say that my experience at the start was a bit influenced by the current state of books. The first part of the Talisman actually quite reads like a YA novel (with the exception of a very rude or graphic word here and there). Now as we get more into the story it becomes increasingly 'adult' in all kinds of ways.

I think there is a lot of great reviews on this book already so I'll just finish up by saying that I loved the world building, the character work and as opposed to some, the pacing as well. Do recommend.

slockmil's review against another edition

3.0

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This book felt like an encapsulations of the Dark Tower on a smaller scale, pulled down into one book. The world building was good, and the Territories was a really cute and interested alternate universe, but there was something about the book overall that didn't manage to really hold my interest. I'm going to read the sequel because I like the characters overall, but the whole thing felt like a watered-down collection of King mythical tropes or... something. It's kind of hard to put my finger on it but I just didn't click with it like I'd expected to.

lisa85's review against another edition

3.5

dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

raubahn's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tcbl3390's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated