The Talisman

Stephen King shouldn't be allowed to write over 400 pages. Unbelievable how much useless information he throws into books

Meh

This was an odd book, and I don’t quite know what to think of it. There were parts that were great in either energy or storytelling and other parts that were dragging and distortedly written. I don’t have too much experience with Straub’s works, only Ghost Story, which gave me a high expectation for this collaboration.

And collaborated they did as you can’t tell who wrote what part and with only some classic King style in there that’s all his own. This book blended great in some parts that made this feel like an effort of great companionship by both authors. On the other hand, the parts where it doesn’t blend so well are what make this book feel off.

The whole story built up a magical other world that we don’t get to see enough of. We spend so much time on the Real/regular world with the main character getting stopped at numerous pits of despair. I just want the story to go on. The book was part childhood loss and random torture. Some trials the main character/hero is put through were unnecessarily long. Other characters like Wolf and Richard could be a little annoying and only added to the trials of the MC.

All this is not to say this is a completely bad book. Although I maybe a sucker for King’s works since I have loved so much of his other novels. The feel of the book is part fairy tale but mostly dark fantasy and dark it does well. The evil and just mean for fun characters were done well and parts of the trials were good to read. It just should have been shorter and worked more with the magic of the Territories.

I am hoping that the next book fixes some of these issues as that would turn this into a great collaboration.

Glad that's over with. Not as bad as people suggest but I will never think about it again unless The Duffer Brothers or Sarah Reads (the only three fans of this book, I heard) somehow do something to make me remember it exists. And then I'll say, “oh yeah, that book”, and then forget it right after.

As is the case with every King book that I read I went into this one knowing nothing and with low expectations. This one ended up just being an ok read for me and everyone in the #KeeperofKing group.

This one had a lot of potential but it was way too long and it made it drag so much. I actually considered DNFing it because I was bored but I pushed through. I say I was bored because of how much the story was dragging but at the same time I was invested in the story. I wanted to know what was going to happen. 

The problematic things that we usually notice in Kings books seemed to be worse in this book especially in the first half of the book. This one definitely could have benefited by being a lot shorter. I will be reading the second book so hopefully that one will be better. 

Era nella lista dei “leggerò” da moltissimo tempo, infatti molti dei libri del “Re” li tengo per futura lettura, un po' come quando si lascia il vino a riposare nelle botti, solo che a volte appena li stappi senti già che il tempo invece di produrre quel miracolo di trasformare della semplice uva in qualcosa di inebriante, capisce che il tutto è andato a male, sapori di tappo e aceto un po' dappertutto.

Ho stappato questa bottiglia alla notizia della decisione di trarne una serie televisiva per Netflix e all'idea di trovarmi per le mani un nuovo “Stranger Thing” ho deciso di cominciare dal libro per farmi la bocca come si suol dire. Purtroppo ho capito da quasi subito che la bevuta sarebbe stata indigesta, lunga, lenta e indigesta.

Si sa che King è lento, lui lo è da sempre a parte i libri di racconti, ma molto spesso è una lungaggine piacevole, cattura il lettore con le sue storie e a quel punto non t'interessa molto se hai per la mani una storia di centinaia e centinaia di pagine, ma questo... praticamente sai già come andrà a finire la storia dopo una cinquantina di pagine, guarda sai già tutto e immagini per filo e per segno cosa succederà all'inizio di ogni intermezzo e le cose più che succedere, sembrano capitare per caso e tutto quello scrivere per spaventare il lettore si trasforma in una noia totale, a volte al limite del ridicolo, al punto che speri che tutto accada alla svelta, che finisca e non se ne legga più.

E poi ritrovarmi nei Territori, quel luogo che ho così tanto amato nella serie capolavoro della “Torre Nera” e ritrovarmici sta gente di questo libro, quello si che mi ha fatto venire i brividi del terrore. Tutta la magia che mi portavo dentro da anni, tutti i fantastici personaggi di quella serie, mi sembravano quasi strappati via da questa insulsaggine di libro scritto a quattro mani (caspita, pensa un po' te, in due ci si sono messi).

In conclusione, non mi è piaciuta la storia che ti sembra di avere letto o visto migliaia di volte, non mi sono piaciuti i personaggi, alcuni davvero pessimi come l'amico del protagonista, che sembra messo lì non si sa bene per quale motivo visto che in pratica non fa assolutamente nulla per tutto il libro; una delle mie ambientazione fantasy preferite rovinate, lungo, lento, noioso, a volte addirittura sconclusionato.

Pessimo davvero, non lo consiglierei nemmeno ai più accaniti fan del “Re”, spero tanto che Netflix faccia un grande lavoro con l'adattamento e la sceneggiatura o prevedo che sarà l'ennesima trasposizione su schermo senza significato delle opere di King (e ce ne sono già parecchie).

Rating: 2.75 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3/5 -Cover: 2/5-Story: 3/5-Writing: 3/5Genre: Fiction/Contemporary/LGBTType: BookWorth?: YesHated Disliked It Was Okay Liked Loved FavoritedThis book took me forever to finish but I did. It was a typical Stephen King book. Dragged in places and was great in the other. At some points I was ICKed out. It is clear Stephen King has an obsession with children being put in sexual situations. It has become a theme of his and how people look over this is... something. Other than that the story was pretty darn good. A good ole good vs evil. I did feel like Jack was acting older than his age but I mean... given the situation he was in I kind of glad he was. I am so glad to have read this because I will be starting Gunslinger soon and well... there are a bit of ties to it. Kind of exciting for me!

I struggled through this. I thought the idea was great and it had a few moments that kept me engaged where I didn't want to put it down, but for the most part I found the story dragging and my mind wondering.

Filled with interesting ideas, but the execution was not to my liking.

Similarly to The Stand, the middle section of the book is a depressing slog and the ending does not make up for it. The main character goes through ordeal after ordeal and the reader is never adequately rewarded for sticking with the book.

The book is filled with cheeky pop-culture references that are neither funny nor clever and only serve to take the reader out of the book. Particularly the phrase “Can you give me hallelujah”. This phrase is drilled into the readers mind over and over, seemingly as a joke? I don't understand what the motivation for repeating this cheesy line over and over was, but it made the book that much more annoying to read for me.

Again, there are tons of interesting ideas, however none of them are really expanded on which makes the middle section of the book depressing and uninteresting.

High paced, “young adult” style writing, 600+ page non-stop adventure. The ease of the writing style, the high tempo pace, and of course the traditional absurd, fantasy, violence, suffering you're used to in King, written in amusing quippy often sexual-innuendo-esque, often slightly disturbed, quite weird, and not always in-character one-liners makes this a hilariously fast enjoyable and dark read. Stupidly quotable, and highly addicting.

First read: May 3, 2010
Second read: June 30, 2017 - July 5, 2017 (Stephen King Book Club)

FALSE

Such a page turner. Building up constantly, without interruption, until the (even more) exhilarating climax, which (fortunately) I was able to read in one sitting, letting me enjoy it along with the conclusion in one single reading session.

Executive Summary: I first read this back in high school, and I remember liking it, but not as much as the sequel. The ending of this is really good, but I found parts of it really slow.Audiobook: One of the main reasons I decided to reread this was that I got a good deal on the audiobook. I really like Frank Mueller from the early Dark Tower books, so I was eager to see hear him read this book. He did a good job with this one, and it helped a lot during the slow parts.Full ReviewDark Tower is still one of my favorite series. In high school once I ran out of Dark Tower books I started reading a bunch of the other stuff King wrote that had ties to that series, including this one.When I first read this, my mother didn't have cancer yet, let alone died from it. I had totally forgotten that detail, and it made the start of this book hit a little close to home for me. I love the idea of being able to find a magic cure. It seems like exactly the kind of thing a kid would think of when dealing with a dying parent. But really the premise is mostly just a Macguffin.The real point of this book to me is the journey itself. Of course being a King book, the journey is full of dark and horrible things.It's hard to say how much is Steven King and how much is Peter Straub, but it feels very much like a King novel to me. Then again I've never read Straub outside of this series, so I'm probably not the right person to speak to that.Overall, I found the ending of this book really good, but there were parts of the story that dragged or were very hard to listen to. Some of that is just my own personal history, while others is just the pacing of the book itself. I recall liking [b:Black House 10607 Black House (The Talisman, #2) Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388263466s/10607.jpg 1738813] much better, but it seems like most people I've talked to like this one better.

Wow, what a slog. This did not hold up well for me. Only reason I stuck with it and finished it again was that I'm planning to read the sequel, Black House....but now I'm rethinking that, too!

I liked the book. But I do prefer when Stephen King doesn't do too much fantasy (I'm talking about the genre).

It reminds me of the “Dark Tower” series.