The Talisman - Stephen King

It is common-place in the music-industry to see collaborations – artists and producers will often come together, work to each others strengths and develop a song that they perhaps couldn’t have achieved alone. Now imagine that the song is a book, and that the artists in question are two world-renowned horror authors; Stephen King and Peter Straub. It goes without saying that co-written books are not all that common and never have been; a special understanding between those involved is paramount, as otherwise the authors writing styles and ideas for the narrative may clash, resulting in their book becoming something of a mess. The Talisman is ...  Read the complete review

To give a little history as I seem to feel the need to do with every book review, I read The Talisman years ago and loved it. My copy was dog-eared from reading it over and over until I made the mistake of lending my copy to a neighbour - never to be seen again. This was around 7 years ago and I have felt resentful ever since, but whilst wandering around WHSmith, determined to take advantage of the 3for2 offer, I snapped it off the shelf and well, here I am, a happy, well read/fed with fiction bunny! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*SOME FAQ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Stephen King and Peter Straub - a collaboration previously unexplored, wrote THE TALISMAN in 1984. Both ...  Read the complete review

A colloboration between renowned horror writers Stephen King and Peter Straub (who is a glaring omission from the category - something will have to be done about this later) brought about a rather staggering book. This is not your usual horror fare, as it's a little more "trippy" in it's concept and that's saying something for both men's creative minds are somewhat warped in the first place. But this is good warped, not bad warped. It's much more of a mindgame than out and out gore and terror. The central character is a young boy called Jack. He's 12 and his mother is desperately ill with cancer. Jack is given ...  Read the complete review

Firstly let me start by saying this is not what you'd expect from Stephen King! This is more of a fantasy/adventure book which he has written with Peter Straub and they have created a master piece in my opinion! This has to be one of my all time favorate books,which I have read about 8 times now...This is quite an accomplishment as I usually read a book once and twice at the most. This book is about Jack. He has to Get the Talisman if there is any hope of saving his mothers life. She is dying from lung cancer and is wasting away in a hotel in the middle of now where. She is hiding from Jacks uncle who is a nasty piece of work to ...  Read the complete review

I bought this book from a car boot sale for something to read holidaying with relatives, and I have to say that I did hesitate a bit as i'm not a Stephen King fan and had not heard of Peter Straub. I find Stephen King films are better than the books. Anyhow I digress... From the first chapter I was most definately hooked, although this can in no way be described as you A typical horror novel more fantasy. Think the lion, the witch and the wardrobe type of thing. The books main character is a boy called Jack who's mother is really ill with cancer and has taken him to a hotel where she plans to spend the end of her days and hopefully in peace ...  Read the complete review