Review - The Talisman
Oct. 27th, 2008 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanI've never read anything written solely by Peter Straub, so I didn't really know what to expect from a collaboration between him and Stephen King. Honestly, in the end, it just felt mostly like a Stephen King book, but maybe that's because I haven't read any Peter Straub. In terms of the writing on a basic level, The Talisman is a pretty easy read. The flow is pretty good and there aren't any stupidly show-offy words or anything like it. At times it does feel a bit like it could do with some editing, but overall, I liked it.
I liked the plot quite a lot. The core principle is something anyone can relate to, really: someone close to Jack Sawyer is dying, and he has to find a cure. The way this plays out isn't so realistic, perhaps -- if one object could cure all ills, life would be so much simpler, after all! But that's fantasy for you. The Territories is a pretty average idea of "the other world", which reminds me of Stephen Lawhead's version in The Paradise War, except less Celtic and more... well, American. The worlds King and Straub build up are rich with detail, all the same. The idea of Twinners and the importance of single-selved beings within the story is interesting, and I enjoyed the Jack/Jason thing that spanned throughout.
The characters are lovely. The bad guys are all pretty obvious and twisted, it's true, but the sympathetic characters -- particularly, for me, Wolf and Richard -- are amazing. My definition of amazing tends to be "not perfect, maybe even kind of irritating at times, but somehow I love them so much anyway". Which is the same for both Wolf and Richard. As for the main character, Jack -- well, he fits the bill, too. The only problem with him was that I could never quite picture a boy of his age acting in the way he does. I kept imagining him as older than he actually is -- fourteen, fifteen, instead of twelve. But that wasn't a huge problem for me.
I really, really enjoyed this book, overall. I can see flaws in it, and in places it turned out to be a little too predictable for me, but all the same, all that aside, I loved it.
I liked the plot quite a lot. The core principle is something anyone can relate to, really: someone close to Jack Sawyer is dying, and he has to find a cure. The way this plays out isn't so realistic, perhaps -- if one object could cure all ills, life would be so much simpler, after all! But that's fantasy for you. The Territories is a pretty average idea of "the other world", which reminds me of Stephen Lawhead's version in The Paradise War, except less Celtic and more... well, American. The worlds King and Straub build up are rich with detail, all the same. The idea of Twinners and the importance of single-selved beings within the story is interesting, and I enjoyed the Jack/Jason thing that spanned throughout.
The characters are lovely. The bad guys are all pretty obvious and twisted, it's true, but the sympathetic characters -- particularly, for me, Wolf and Richard -- are amazing. My definition of amazing tends to be "not perfect, maybe even kind of irritating at times, but somehow I love them so much anyway". Which is the same for both Wolf and Richard. As for the main character, Jack -- well, he fits the bill, too. The only problem with him was that I could never quite picture a boy of his age acting in the way he does. I kept imagining him as older than he actually is -- fourteen, fifteen, instead of twelve. But that wasn't a huge problem for me.
I really, really enjoyed this book, overall. I can see flaws in it, and in places it turned out to be a little too predictable for me, but all the same, all that aside, I loved it.
