Black House

They try to be creative in their narrative but it doesn't work. It's like an actor doing asides, they're letting us in on a secret instead taking us through a story. Didn't work for me.

I've probably read all of Stephen King's books so I can't possibly give this one a bad review!! This one grabs you right off the bat!! By the time you're at page 50 you don't want to stop turning the pages!! Very descriptive and very creepy as usual!! You know what you're getting when you pick up a Stephen King book!!!

i can barely remember "the talisman" but this book stands on its own pretty well. it's kind of plodding in some places, as i find straub sometimes is. but it draws some very real characters as king alone and king/straub do. probably a good book for a couple of winter nights shut in.

Yes, I know this is a sequel to The Talisman, and yes, I know that Jack Sawyer has his own tale (that ended up being much more separate from the Dark Tower than I had hoped after the end of Black House, before DT5-7). But this book is not The Talisman, and it belongs firmly in the Dark Tower line.

I don't have much to say about this one, really. So many reviews of this, and really, your enjoyment depends on two things. Loving the Dark Tower Books and loving The Talisman (but not too much, for this is very different and could leave a sour taste in your mouth). It's a dark, gritty crime novel that happens to take place in our world and the other world (not so much the territories anymore, but a hellish Other where the Breakers are kept (if Breakers don't mean anything to you, again probably not the best book for you).

Yes, there's a Speedy Parker. But not like he was, and I felt it to be a false note. I found Jack to be a bit of a false note. I think this book would have worked just as well (maybe better) with a new character, but oh well. Certainly, the world is populated with many interesting second-string characters, so we never lack for good people.

I just think that as a separate tale, it could have been more. It seems to be little more than a butress of the monolithic Dark Tower, and while a good one, it doesn't stand well on its own.

But ... I would still recommend it, so go figure.

Years after the events of its precessor "The Talisman", "Black House" opens up in a small Wisconsin community called French Landing, and the cluster of other small towns and villages in its vicinity, to which Jack Sawyer, "The Talisman"'s primary protagonist, has retired after an uncharacteristically short but brilliant career with the Los Angeles County police force. On this hot summer a couple of years after which Jack has relocated to try and find inner peace, the situation in French Landing and the surrounding area is anthing but peaceful, as a child-abducting predator dubbed 'The Fisherman' by the media has commenced a reign of horror. This is a disturbing, gruesome book that is going to turn some readers off in the early going, but when you keep going you'll find that there's a surprising amount of brightness and even plentiful comedic relief in addition to some of the darkest material either King or Straub have put to paper, as well as - in the tradition of "The Talisman" - a cast of some of the most intensely likable and unforgettable characters you'll ever encounter.

I think that right after reading it I mentally counted approximately 14 characters who could have emerged as the central figure in a full-length novel, 14 characters who I wanted to read more about and who entered into the pantheon of all-time memorable characters. Although Jack is probably the main pivot point of the book, "Black House" is far from a one man show. Much more of an ensemble cast than the classic "Talisman" (where Jack and Wolf unquestionably dominated the book), no one figure here can claim sole ownership of the 'main character' slot; so rich and lasting an impression do the book's other players - both other leads and characters who, by their page time should come off as 'supporting characters' but emerge as something more -make.

The Talisman connections do not come into play for a considerable time; after so much time back in 'our' world Jack has become oddly amnesiac about his time in the Territories, convinced that what fragments he does remember are only his imagination, and only in the back of his subconcious is he truly aware of how much of a hole in his being his forgetfulness of what he previously experienced has left. The connections do enter in full force eventually, as do connections to other novels in the repertoire of one or both of the book's authors (I prefer not to say which and to leave it to the reader to discover on their own; besides which I haven't yet read the Full repertoire of either writer and there may be other links which I'm missing). There a Lot of protagonists, or heroes, in this novel, although the latter term doesn't seem to be in vogue for describing characters in novels these days, the Fantasy field excluded; there are some of the most despicable villains imagineable; and there are those in the middle ground, although what sets "Black House" apart in this aspect is that most (not all) of the 'middle ground' characters lean much more in the direction of likable and basically good despite their shortcomings.

It's a book of surprises which I prefer not to even hint it. It's a book of both nightmares and dreams. And it's a book written in an extremely unique narrative style - the vast majority of novels are of course, either first person (singular; 'I was doing this and then I saw...") or third person. Here it's written in what I guess would be called first person plural, although the narrator(s) do not actively take part in the proceedings, but talk directly to the reader, in essence making him or her almost a part of the first person plural perspective. Examples - as it's describing the lay of the land and the town here's a brief excerpt: "Moving toward the sun, we glide away from the river and over the shining tracks, the backyards and roofs of Nailhouse Row, then a line of Harley-Davidson motorcyles tilted on their kickstands." From the same page: "They get an ironic pleasure from being called the Thunder Five: the name strikes them as sweetly cartoonish. What they call themselves is "the Hegelian scum." These gentlemen form an interesting crew and we will make their acquantaince later on." Or just a couple of pages later...actually I don't think I'll quote any more passages directly; the above are just to give you an idea. For long stretches the book could well be a third person narrative but then that same peculiar style flows back in, sometimes brilliantly describing a reaction "we", as the book refers, are having to a scene, which I found dead-on with my own feelings as going through certain passages. A daring and supremely innovative way to present a tale, and it works absolutely flawlessly.

This is one of the very pinnacles of horror fiction and one of the greatest examples of the art of literature at its peak. Does not drag or limp for even a sentence of its 500+ pages, and gets the highest possible recommendation I can give it, although tempered with a warning for those who steer clear of graphic carnage. A-Plus.