borneagainbooks's reviews
60 reviews

The Talisman by Peter Straub, Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The talisman

🧿THE TALISMAN by Stephen King🧿

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

“For a second, for two seconds, three… For however long that moment lasted, Buddy Parkins saw that this unwashed boy sitting beside him was beautiful. This Lewis Farrell, twelve years old by his own account, had somehow gone farther and seen more than Buddy Parkins, and what he had seen and done had made him beautiful.”

I’m going to preface this with, “this was a very long, and very good book, and so it deserves a very long review”

The Talisman is a fucked up Alice in Wonderland. It follows our hero, Jack Sawyer, in his quest to hunt down the mysterious Talisman to save his mother. A journey which takes him across America and across dimensions into the territories.

Which is where I will begin my praise, the worldbuilding. King and Straub achieve here in 981 pages what most authors fail to achieve in an entire series. Two (or more) fully fleshed out worlds, complete with a variety of races, magic systems, castes and rules, that are mostly shown to the reader and very rarely told. From page oke I was immersed in the secrets and similarities to the real world the Territories held. Not for a second did I believe the Territories didn’t exist.

The creatures can be both harrowing and fantastical in design and behaviour, accurately reflecting their alignment to good or evil but unique in a way that makes them feel like a distortion of the bleak reality that awaits Jack in his home dimension.

“He felt death here too, at Arcadia Beach, where it spoke through telephones in Uncle Morgan’s voice. “

The plot here seems like your run of the mill “quest and pursuit fantasy” except it isn’t, well it is. But it is anything but “run of the mill”. The pursuit whilst abstract at times, held a certain foreboding, the pursuer always close to home. The stakes, although only high to a single boy, have wildly cascading consequences in both America and the Territories.

The characterisation in this stand alone is exceptional, but this is par for the course. Even in King’s less than stellar work I’ve read, the characters have always been the highlight here. The people Jack meets along his journey are full of life (whether it is good life or bad life) and even the most fleeting interactions shape his view going forward.

“…and you each owe the balance-scales a death. God pounds His nails. And if God doesn’t, you may be sure I will.”

The perfect blend of hope and despair absolutely drive this novel, with scenes reminiscent of true old school fantasy and putting some modern grimdark to shame. It’s gory, it’s gross, it’s glorious and it’s gargantuan in scale and depth. There are monsters in the territories just as there are monsters in reality. The road to the Talisman is littered with horrifying creatures in the shape of werewolves, goat beasts, and unassuming looking men from Ohio.

The Talisman cannot come highly rated enough from me, coming second only to The Stand, this has one of the best endings and final showdowns to a standalone fantasy book I’ve ever read. Cathartic and conclusive.

“He never forgot the way the joy had come, all deliciously unbidden - he never forgot that sweet violent feeling of having touched some great adventure, of having looked for a moment at some beautiful white light that was, in fact, every colour of the rainbow.”

Respite by Calum Lott

Go to review page