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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This wasn't my first time reading The Talisman. But it's been a long time since I've read it. I had forgotten just how long of a novel it is. It definitely feels like it has ties to The Dark Tower, which is why I decided to re-read it again. We have Jack, whose mother is dying of cancer, who is tasked by Speedy Parker to go West to help her. As he travels he flips between our world and The Territories. It's pretty epic, the story, the feel and the locations and populations. We meet a werewolf. We meet shapeshifters. Like I said, it is long and sometimes a little daunting and isn't quite as good as The Stand or the Dark Tower books or even Insomnia, but it is a good book with really good imagery.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-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:
No
Oooof, I hate giving this only 2 stars, considering I’ve heard some people singing the praises of this book, and so many people seem to love it. I was really intrigued to get into this because of the concept of twinners, and all the different levels of the tower/multiverse, and flipping back and forth in a way that might harken back to the doors in [b:The Dark Tower|5094|The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1370918050l/5094._SY75_.jpg|2113248], or the painting in [b:Rose Madder|10619|Rose Madder|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254289l/10619._SY75_.jpg|833191]. Plus: the structure of the young child protagonist growing up in the sequel, a la Danny in [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585] vs [b:Doctor Sleep|16130549|Doctor Sleep|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1510335480l/16130549._SY75_.jpg|17851499]. And the initial setup seems so promising, with the alternate-universe differences between our world and the Territories, and a boy having to journey west to rescue his dying mother.
But it just did not ever pay off! I really liked the beginning, which also probably corresponds to the beginning of the book that King/Straub wrote together in-person, alternating the typewriter back and forth. I liked the slow atmospheric buildup, setting up the worldbuilding, Jack’s first thrilling visit into the Territories and meeting Captain Farren, the stakes being established. His initial time with Wolf is good, and Wolf is probably the most endearing character here.
But the rest of it is… a slog. I did some research and found out King/Straub’s format was mailing ~100-150 complete pages back and forth at a time, which I think probably robbed the text of its immediacy and their being able to bounce things off each other and improve each others’ ideas in realtime. Most of the book is peopled with such horrifically unpleasant characters and, most importantly, no real relationships to imprint on. Jack really could’ve done with a ka-tet, imo: a group of friends, peers, equals, to tackle the quest together. But because he’s alone for most of the time, there’s so few relationships to get invested in, and we don’t get much insight into Jack as a person, either, because he doesn’t have peers to talk to. It only happens once he meets Wolf, but even then, Jack mistreats Wolf and doesn’t appreciate him until it’s too late — and they’re not peers, either, considering Wolf’s infantilisation.
And then Richard arrives, and lol he’s the absolute worst, to the extent that I wound up rooting for this kid to die. Which is a bummer, because “son of the villain” is ground for such rich thematic ground (case in point, Davy Prentiss in the [b:Chaos Walking|20758104|The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)|Patrick Ness|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534503008l/20758104._SY75_.jpg|2124180] series, whomst I love!!), but instead he’s an absolute simpering unlikeable burden who never actually plays a crucial role in the narrative, despite the story claiming that he had a role to play — so why was he even here? He’s just deeply unpleasant to spend time with (and not even in a compelling way, just a pathetic one), and bogs down the pacing with his presence.
The entire book takes the structure of a road narrative, incident happening after incident after incident, as Jack makes his lonely way west — but it’s all too surface-level, just a series of unfortunate events (ha) with no real depth to any of them. It’s a structure more suited to action-fantasy YA (which would’ve fit well with the young age of the protagonist, too), but the sheer chonky length means that it’s too slow and ponderous to be streamlined YA, either.
And since it’s all so surface-level, it doesn’t have any King’s usual tangents and characterisation deep dives and meandering style, either, which is actually so important to get attached to characters. I’ve never read any Peter Straub, but this whole thing feels so very different from King’s other books. I’ve seen Straub fans say that this book doesn’t even read like Straub’s regular work either, so I feel like this might’ve suffered from being watered-down and both of them trying to mimic each others’ style, only to result in neither of their strengths at play.
Characterisation-wise, Jack seems too old to be twelve years old, too. King writes great child characters — [b:IT|830502|It|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502._SY75_.jpg|150259], [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585] — but Jack’s growing-up-too-fast never really felt organic. There’s also things like Speedy being way, way, way too reminiscent of Dick Halloran in [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585], to the extent that they’re pretty much identical, and King leans on the Magical Negro trope a bit too often for my comfort.
It’s headed to Netflix as a TV show, produced by the Duffer Bros (who were behind Stranger Things), which is a fitting combination, and I’m hoping that the episodic ‘random series of events’ format will actually work way better in television and some acting performances will make me actually like these characters.
This book really could have benefited from being ruthlessly edited down, imo, because the flimsy narrative doesn’t justify its long length. I have so many questions about the writing of it; it feels like its slow pace and lack of urgency might have been a product of the technological limitations and the slow pace of mailing instalments back and forth, and I wonder if they were reluctant to edit it down because it would mean cutting their co-writer’s work. Anyway, I hear that the sequel, [b:Black House|10607|Black House (The Talisman, #2)|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388263466l/10607._SX50_.jpg|1738813], is better; I’ll get around to it someday, but it might take me a couple years, considering how meh I was on this one.
But it just did not ever pay off! I really liked the beginning, which also probably corresponds to the beginning of the book that King/Straub wrote together in-person, alternating the typewriter back and forth. I liked the slow atmospheric buildup, setting up the worldbuilding, Jack’s first thrilling visit into the Territories and meeting Captain Farren, the stakes being established. His initial time with Wolf is good, and Wolf is probably the most endearing character here.
But the rest of it is… a slog. I did some research and found out King/Straub’s format was mailing ~100-150 complete pages back and forth at a time, which I think probably robbed the text of its immediacy and their being able to bounce things off each other and improve each others’ ideas in realtime. Most of the book is peopled with such horrifically unpleasant characters and, most importantly, no real relationships to imprint on. Jack really could’ve done with a ka-tet, imo: a group of friends, peers, equals, to tackle the quest together. But because he’s alone for most of the time, there’s so few relationships to get invested in, and we don’t get much insight into Jack as a person, either, because he doesn’t have peers to talk to. It only happens once he meets Wolf, but even then, Jack mistreats Wolf and doesn’t appreciate him until it’s too late — and they’re not peers, either, considering Wolf’s infantilisation.
And then Richard arrives, and lol he’s the absolute worst, to the extent that I wound up rooting for this kid to die. Which is a bummer, because “son of the villain” is ground for such rich thematic ground (case in point, Davy Prentiss in the [b:Chaos Walking|20758104|The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)|Patrick Ness|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534503008l/20758104._SY75_.jpg|2124180] series, whomst I love!!), but instead he’s an absolute simpering unlikeable burden who never actually plays a crucial role in the narrative, despite the story claiming that he had a role to play — so why was he even here? He’s just deeply unpleasant to spend time with (and not even in a compelling way, just a pathetic one), and bogs down the pacing with his presence.
The entire book takes the structure of a road narrative, incident happening after incident after incident, as Jack makes his lonely way west — but it’s all too surface-level, just a series of unfortunate events (ha) with no real depth to any of them. It’s a structure more suited to action-fantasy YA (which would’ve fit well with the young age of the protagonist, too), but the sheer chonky length means that it’s too slow and ponderous to be streamlined YA, either.
And since it’s all so surface-level, it doesn’t have any King’s usual tangents and characterisation deep dives and meandering style, either, which is actually so important to get attached to characters. I’ve never read any Peter Straub, but this whole thing feels so very different from King’s other books. I’ve seen Straub fans say that this book doesn’t even read like Straub’s regular work either, so I feel like this might’ve suffered from being watered-down and both of them trying to mimic each others’ style, only to result in neither of their strengths at play.
Characterisation-wise, Jack seems too old to be twelve years old, too. King writes great child characters — [b:IT|830502|It|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502._SY75_.jpg|150259], [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585] — but Jack’s growing-up-too-fast never really felt organic. There’s also things like Speedy being way, way, way too reminiscent of Dick Halloran in [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588._SY75_.jpg|849585], to the extent that they’re pretty much identical, and King leans on the Magical Negro trope a bit too often for my comfort.
It’s headed to Netflix as a TV show, produced by the Duffer Bros (who were behind Stranger Things), which is a fitting combination, and I’m hoping that the episodic ‘random series of events’ format will actually work way better in television and some acting performances will make me actually like these characters.
This book really could have benefited from being ruthlessly edited down, imo, because the flimsy narrative doesn’t justify its long length. I have so many questions about the writing of it; it feels like its slow pace and lack of urgency might have been a product of the technological limitations and the slow pace of mailing instalments back and forth, and I wonder if they were reluctant to edit it down because it would mean cutting their co-writer’s work. Anyway, I hear that the sequel, [b:Black House|10607|Black House (The Talisman, #2)|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388263466l/10607._SX50_.jpg|1738813], is better; I’ll get around to it someday, but it might take me a couple years, considering how meh I was on this one.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
dark
slow-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
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-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
1/5 Plottet af bogen var faktisk god nok, problemet er med forfatterens mærkelig obsession med 12 årige Jack Sawyers kønsdele. Derudover blev jeg især ukomfortable, da Jack blev truet med voldtægt hvis han ikke arbejdede hårdt nok.
oven på det er der en masse ting der bare ikke giver mening!
I hvilket univers kan en 12 årig løbe hjemmefra og køre på tommelfingeren helt til Californien?
hvorfor leder ingen efter ham?
det var utroligt Jack ik fik PTSD efter han havde: næsten blevet voldtaget på sin abusive arbejdsplads, næsten blevet overfaldt af en mærkelig mand PÅ hans arbejdsplads, blev låst inde i et skur da Ulv skulle transformere og næsten døde af tørst, så hele hans børnehjem blive ædt, så Ulv dø lidt efter... og meget andet
Side note: Hvordan kan Richard skyde en israelsk maskinpistol??? han er så'n 12 altså make it make sense.
oven på det er der en masse ting der bare ikke giver mening!
I hvilket univers kan en 12 årig løbe hjemmefra og køre på tommelfingeren helt til Californien?
hvorfor leder ingen efter ham?
det var utroligt Jack ik fik PTSD efter han havde: næsten blevet voldtaget på sin abusive arbejdsplads, næsten blevet overfaldt af en mærkelig mand PÅ hans arbejdsplads, blev låst inde i et skur da Ulv skulle transformere og næsten døde af tørst, så hele hans børnehjem blive ædt, så Ulv dø lidt efter... og meget andet
Side note: Hvordan kan Richard skyde en israelsk maskinpistol??? han er så'n 12 altså make it make sense.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes