Wednesday 18 March 2015

In Which We Discuss The Talisman

Published in 1984, The Talisman was a collaborative work between Stephen King and Peter Straub.

I was quite excited to read this.  King praised Straub highly in Danse Macabre, and I'd previously read the first comic in the series of the graphic novelization, though I couldn't recall the plot.

It feels more fantasy than horror or sci-fi.  In short, it's about a boy who can flip between two worlds; our world, and The Territories, a condensed version of our world where people's twinner's live.  Twinners are the other halves of people who live in both worlds.  Jack is on a quest to save his mother and the mother of his twinner (his, twinner, Jason) having died at a young age.  The book is later tied into The Dark Tower Series, although this was not planned and, reportedly, the references to The Dark Tower Series in The Talisman were written in by Straub not King.

In 1984, King's career had taken off.  He was writing as Richard Bachman as well, and I'll be reading Thinner next.   He was teaching creative writing in Maine, where he still resides.

James Smythe had a similar experience to me, with totally forgetting the plot before he reread it.

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