Years ago King and Straub met to create a masterpiece by the name of "The Talisman". Both their strengths were reflected in this great pience of work. You went on a journey with 12 year-old Jack Sawyer to save his mother, as well as the well-being of "The Territories", a type of parallel world. This book brought you ith the main character as he traveled across the country/Territories, brought you and a journey of fantasy and discovery. "Black House" is the long-awaited sequel.

But is this 'sequel' truely able to be considered 'Talisman' worthy? Or is it more of a spin-off from the "Dark Tower" books? The answer is the later.

The only way this book is reall connected with "The Talisman" is the usage ot Jack Sawyer as a 'grown up'. He has lost his memory of his adventure as a young teen, which goes against the character we met in "The Talisman". That is the first piece of disappointment in this 'sequel'.

Another piece is the sytle in which this book is written.The first 100 pagesare used primarily to introduce us to the characters, and is writting in a 1st-person point of view as if one were a fly, bird or animal. This style changes to the point of view of some of the character, but the jumping of styles in what ultimitly made this a bad way to write it. You'd expect something similar to the style used in "The Talisman", where you got to know the characters along the way and stuck with them. You don't get that, though.

There is more reference to the "Dark Tower" books in this than to "The Talisman", which is a saddening thing. Straub ultimatley allowed King to use this book as another one of his spin-offs from his great series. That, I believe, was a major mistake.

This book wasn't Horror, just needless description of gore. You could guess what was going to happen next rather easily. The only
good point is that the characters were done in depth, even if they weren't the characters that we wanted to meet again.

In ending, this book would do better by itself than to be called sequel to "The Talisman". It would even do better to call it a spin-off of the "Dark Tower" books, because that it what it is. When I pick this book off the shelf I expected to go on another adventure with Jack Sawyer, maybe as a slightly older boy than he was in "The Talisman"; end the end the only thing that kept me reading it was hope that it would becomemore of a sequel... that hope was kicked down by King and Straub.

If you want a sequel to "The Talisman", this book isn't the best choice. If you want to read a decently written book that is another spin-off from the "Dark Tower" series, you'll more than likely be happy with this. Maybe I expected too much from these two great authors.