The Talisman: Revisited

    When it was announced that after 25 years, Stephen King would be returning to the world of the Territories in a third installment of The Talisman series, I thought I would give the first book of the same name another read (also probably the second in preparation for the third). The novel is a typical 80’s-era King dictionary-sized tome, the original paperback running year to 700 pages. Written in collaboration with fellow horror author and friend Peter Straub, The Talisman is at times overly long, a bloated Hero’s Journey story with far too many obstacles and characters on our hero’s Road of Trials, and yet at the same time, it is an action-packed, cleverly written, ahead-of-its-time horror/fantasy that remains a fun read.

            In the novel, twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer moves to New Hampshire with his ailing former actress mother to start over and get away from Morgan Sloat, the business partner of Jack’s now deceased father. While there, Jack meets Speedy Parker, a mysterious local who introduces Jack to the idea of the Territories, a fantastical world parallel to our own, complete with “twinners,” identical yet different versions of some people, and that there is an object there, the Talisman, that can heal his mother, who is dying from cancer. Jack, whose twinner in the Territories is none other than a prince, son to Queen Laura DeLoessian, who is also severely ill. Jack learns that, because his twinner is dead in the Territories, he has the ability to travel back and forth between worlds, which he does in search of the magical Talisman so as to save his mother and the Queen.

            Going through the book a second time, I found myself irritated, as I was on my first go round, that King and Straub spend far more time in our world and the constant setbacks Jack suffers along the way and not as much in the Territories. The Territories resemble your typical medieval magical realm but are also quite different from many other stories, likely due to the fact that neither author wrote much in that genre, and there’s much about their history, their politics, and their monsters I would have liked to learn more about.

            Jack’s back-and-forth journey between our world and the Territories is replete with tremendous setbacks, some of which take up far too many pages for my taste, including Jack taking a job at a bar and grill to earn money, working under the thumb of an abusive boss, and a very long sidetrack in an institution for boys run by a sadistic televangelist type. These passages, while part of Jack’s journey, seem more like distractions from the overall story. They are likely meant to serve as formative experiences for Jack, and yet, Jack himself is somewhat of a different problem. At only twelve years old, he reads more like a seventeen or eighteen-year-old, and while he is supposed to be beyond his years, it is a little improbable at times.

            There are some colorful supporting characters and villains in the book, in typical King-Straub fashion, including Speedy (though his “jive” talk feels a little cringey and dated), the villainous Osmond, and my favorite (and probably everybody else’s), Wolf, part of a clan of literal werewolves that protect the Queen’s sheep and helps Jack along his journey.

            The criticism of the lack of the Territories in the book is valid, I think, but also is a good decision. If Jack stayed there the entire book, it would be the story of a modern boy as a Fish out of Water in a magical land story. The back and forth travel leaves you wanting more and turning the pages to see if you get it. The story, unbeknownst to readers and even the authors at the time, is not only connected to King’s Dark Tower series but also ahead of its time. Parallel universes are all the rage as a story device these days, some of that groundwork being laid here, in the Territories, in The Talisman. I’m looking forward to the third.