- ISBN13: 9780345470638
- Condition: New
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Product Description
Two of the greatest storytellers of our time join forces to create an epic thriller of unsurpassed power; a twisting, compelling story of a small American town held in the grip of evil beyond all reason. French Landing, Wisconsin. A comfortable, solid middle-American town inhabited by comfortable, solid middle-Americans! and a serial killer. Three children have been lost — taken by a monster with a taste for child’s flesh nicknamed ‘The Fisherman’ after a legendary murderer. It’s all way beyond the experience of the local police, whose only hope lies with ex-detective Jack Sawyer, the man who cracked their last case for them. But, plagued by visions of another world, Jack has retired to this rural retreat precisely to avoid such horrors — and, having recognized the touch of madness on this case, he’s keeping well away. Soon, he’ll have no choice. Young Tyler Marshall, left behind one afternoon by his bullying friends, pedals past the local old folks’ home and is accosted by a crow. ‘Gorg,’ it caws, and ‘Ty.’ What ten-year-old could resist a bird that speaks his name? Not Ty, that’s for sure. And as he follows the mysterious crow, he’s grabbed by the neck and dragged into a hedge. The Fisherman has made another catch!
Amazon.com Review
In the seemingly paradisal Wisconsin town of French Landing, small distortions disturb the beauty: a talking crow, an old man obeying strange internal marching orders, a house that is both there and not quite there. And roaming the town is a terrible fiend nicknamed the Fisherman, who is abducting and murdering small children and eating their flesh. The sheriff desperately wants the help of a retired Los Angeles cop, who once collared another serial killer in a neighboring town.
Of course, this is no ordinary policeman, but Jack Sawyer, hero of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s 1984 fantasy The Talisman. At the end of that book, the 13-year-old Jack had completed a grueling journey through an alternate realm called the Territories, found a mysterious talisman, killed a terrible enemy, and saved the life of his mother and her counterpart in the Territories. Now in his 30s, Jack remembers nothing of the Talisman, but he also hasn’t entirely forgotten:
When these faces rise or those voices mutter, he has until now told himself the old lie, that once there was a frightened boy who caught his mother’s neurotic terror like a cold and made up a story, a grand fantasy with good old Mom-saving Jack Sawyer at its center. None of it was real, and it was forgotten by the time he was sixteen. By then he was calm. Just as he’s calm now, running across his north field like a lunatic, leaving that dark track and those clouds of startled moths behind him, but doing it calmly.
Jack is abruptly pulled into the case–and back into the Territories–by the Fisherman himself, who sends Jack a child’s shoe, foot still attached. As Jack flips back and forth between French Landing and the Territories, aided by his 20-years-forgotten friend Speedy Parker and a host of other oddballs (including a blind disk jockey, the beautiful mother of one of the missing children, and a motorcycle gang calling itself the “Hegelian Scum”), he tracks both the Fisherman and a much bigger fish: the abbalah, the Crimson King who seeks to destroy the axle of worlds.
While The Talisman was a straightforward myth in 1980s packaging, Black House is richer and more complex, a fantasy wrapped in a horror story inside a mystery, sporting a clever tangle of references to Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, jazz, baseball, and King’s own Dark Tower saga. Talisman fans will find the sure-footed Jack has worn well–as has the King/Straub writing style, which is much improved with the passage of two decades. –Barrie Trinkle
Frazzled Glispa @ 1:19 am
I was extremely excited when I first heard this book was being released, but as the release date grew closer I began to have feelings of trepidation. The Talisman has been one of my favorite books since it was released when I was fourteen. Jack Sawyer has always been one of my favorite of Stephen King’s characters (ok, I realise that this is a collaboration, but I tend to view it as more of a Stephen King creation. This is probably grossly unfair to Peter Straub, but there you have it.)
My great fear was that I wouldn’t like Jack as an adult. That there was no way that these two could top the marvelous quest that was The Talisman. Then I heard that Black House would be tied into the Dark Tower series. I wasn’t sure how to feel about this either. While I feel that the Dark Tower will prove to be the greatest of Stephen King’s works, I have always viewed The Talisman as something altogether seperate, and magical.
My trepidation increased.
Then I decided to just let it go, made a concious effort to view Black House as something unto itself, to not hold it up to the Talisman, or anything else for comparison. I am very glad I did this.
I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning reading this book, and let me tell you it was wonderful. Jack Sawyer, a little older, a little wiser, a little more lonely and scared, but still the boy with the good heart, grown into a man of integrity.
I will not give away plot points in this review, but let me just say a couple of things. The connection to the Dark Tower series is done very well, revealing some important information without taking you to far afield, and making this into an actual Dark Tower book. It is more akin to Insomnia – related, but not overwhelmingly so.
The characterisations in this book are wonderful. I was a little afraid there, because I was disappointed in that aspect of Dreamcatcher. These characters are like people you would meet on the street. They have their strengths and weaknesses, fears and hopes. At the top of the list is Jack, who after all of these years remains someone I would really like to hang out with.
This is not a rehash of the Talisman. The Talisman was a quest novel, while this is something different. There is a questing element in this novel, but it lies within Jack. His quest is to come to terms with himself and his past. Outwardly, this is more of a crime novel that veers into alternate realms with great effect.
I had great difficulty in putting this book down. Until I realised that I less than 100 pages left, at which point I became afraid to finish. I didn’t want it to end, you see, and to me this is the greatest compliment I can give a book.
This was a wonderful addition to the Talisman, and to the Dark Tower pantheon. It has whet my appetite for more of both. Hopefully the wait will not be too long.
L. A. Chambers @ 2:50 am
If you’re a casual Stephen King (or Peter Straub) reader, or just a fan, this book may disappoint you. Likewise if you’re expecting further adventures of Jack Sawyer in the Territories. Jack spends very little time in the Territories in Black House, and most of that comes near the end of the book. I prepped myself for Black House by rereading The Talisman. If you’re planning on doing this, too, I won’t tell you to reconsider, because it’s a very entertaining way to spend your time. And it can help you to understand the authors’ otherwise obscure references to events of twenty years ago and their use of seemingly odd phrases like “right here and now” that appeared in the first book. But most folks can get their money’s worth from Black House without spending a week (more or less) reading the 700+ page prequel to this novel. And if you’re a hardcore horror nut, neither Talisman nor House is up your alley anyway.
Another caveat: King experiments here with a different style of writing that may be off-putting to many readers. (It may not seem so different to Straub fans. I don’t know; having read only The Talisman and Koko, I don’t consider myself an authority on his works, but I can say I sensed more of his presence in House than I did in Talisman.) The authors use the simple present tense throughout Black House, and yet refer to past events in the past perfect tense, whereas simple past seems more correct to some of us English teachers. (King himself taught English before making a name for himself as a writer, so not all academicians will agree with me on this admittedly minor point.) And I found that their constant use of the first person plural, far from getting me personally involved, kept me from losing myself in the story. Reminded me of King’s derogatory remarks about Harold Lauder’s writing (second person present tense) in The Stand.
Technical matters and other sniveling complaints aside, Black House is a great read. If you read King for his humor, as I do, you won’t be disappointed here. His wry wit comes through on every page. And those of you who, like me, are bizarrely fascinated by his knack for the gross-out also will not feel left out. This story revolves around Jack’s attempts to track down the serial killer of children in a small Wisconsin community who eats parts of his victims’ bodies and then leaves notes to their parents describing the joy he had in consuming them. The Fisherman is one of Stephen King’s sickest creations to date.
For those of you die-hard King addicts (we know who we are) who are going through withdrawal while waiting so impatiently for your next fix of Dark Tower, wait no longer! See your local “dealer” (i.e., bookstore proprietor) today and shoot up with House. Not an official installment of his Dark Tower series, Black House is nonetheless a vehicle for King to give us some background info on gunslingers and the Crimson King. If you were secretly pleased (as I was) when King left horror behind in the late ’80s to write modern-day myths, you will love this book. Don’t imagine that his letting Mr. Straub into his private Dark Tower world is a sacrilege. The two together have some intriguing philosophical things to say about the metaphysics of that world-indeed, about all worlds. (And in a nod to the late great mythologist Joseph Campbell, their suggestion that a minor character is using alcoholism to “follow her bliss” is a hoot!)
The best reason I can give you for buying Black House is that no one in their right minds would loan it to you. We know we’d never get it back!
Miranda Prince @ 4:29 am
I’ve been waiting for this book ever since I finished “The Talisman” — way back when it was first published.
Now Jack and I are both in our early 30s. For me, reading “Black House” felt like seeing an old childhood friend again after far too long. But we barely had time to catch up before the story took off, like an inexorable dark train carrying us to parts unknown.
“Black House” was totally absorbing. I didn’t want it to end, and yet I couldn’t resist staying up until 5 a.m. finishing it. The characters are great — especially the motorcycle gang who help Jack solve the crime, and his friend Henry, a blind DJ. King and Straub are both masters when it comes to creating a wholly believable place, and they’ve done it again, both with the small Wisconsin town and its mirror image in the Territories.
The ending suggests that King and Straub have more stories to tell us about the Territories and its’ inhabitants. I hope they don’t wait another 20 years to give us the next story … but “Black House” was worth the wait.
Daniel P. Smith @ 4:31 am
I’m a Stephen King fan and I liked “The Talisman” a lot. I liked “Black House” and I think most Stephen King fans will too.
One caution up front. As Amazon’s description of the book makes clear, the villain in this book is a serial child killer who eats his victims. There may be more than a few people who find this idea so disturbing that even my mention of the theme bothers them. It probably will not help these people if I say “it’s just a STORY, it’s almost comic-book stuff, it’s not THAT graphic, they don’t MEAN it.”
I read fantasy and horror to escape from reality, so I am glad to report that “Black House” has no references in it to airliners, explosions, or tall office buildings. It served me well as a welcome distraction during the last few terrible weeks.
“Black House” is not really a sequel to “The Talisman.” It’s an independent book with some loose connections to “The Talisman.” (And almost as many to the Dark Tower series).
True, the central character of “Black House,” Jack Sawyer, is the central character of “The Talisman,”–but so much time has passed that he is almost a different person. A few other characters from “The Talisman” make what might be called cameo appearances.
To me, this book felt like a “typical Stephen King novel.” It did not really evoke the feelings and mood of “The Talisman.” (I don’t mean to slight Straub here; but I will say that the collaboration is seamless–and the result reads like King).
Unlike “The Talisman,” most of events in “Black House” take place in this world. It is “about” a cop chasing down a serial child killer in one of Stephen King’s black, ironic, inverted “Our Towns.” More like the world of “It” than the world of “The Talisman.”
(I’ve enjoyed trying to figure out where “French Landing” is. My guess: Prairie du Chien).
The authors imply that there may be a trilogy in the offing, with the third book taking place mostly in the Territories… but part of the charm of “The Talisman” was Jack Sawyer’s strange balancing act between the two worlds.
This book has what I’ll call the “usual beloved faults” of King’s writing. Unlike a J. R. R. Tolkien or a Robert Heinlein, the writers never convince me that the story is taking place in a real, consistent world with well-defined rules. They’re making it up as they go along, and they (and you) know it. Some of the “cross-references” to other characters and events feel like the sorts of things you get in a detective series. You know, “Lance Sterling called Edna Redstone, the librarian who had helped him solve in ‘The Mystery of the Haunted Windmill.” Then he drew out the pocketknife that had served him so well in ‘The Secret of the Red Lighthouse.’”
What this means to readers new to King is, no, you don’t need to read “The Talisman” or the Dark Tower novels first. You’ll probably get the feeling that some mysterious things would make more sense if you’d read them, but it’s not really true. There’s no grand unified story to figure out, and it’s OK to come in the middle.
For those to whom the title “Black House” instantly calls to mind Dickens’ “Bleak House,” the authors are aware of the similarity and work it into the story. (Whether there’s supposed to be an intentional connection, I can’t say–I’ve often suspected that if editors notice things in King’s writing that are uncomfortably derivative of other books, he disarms cricitism by deliberately acknowledging them ).
Lauren Scaravelli @ 7:03 am
For those of you out there who are huge Stephen King fans like myself, you will buy and read this book regardless if every review you can get your hands on tells you it sucks like a vacum. That’s just the way we are. But the truth be told, this is not one of the best, and perhaps not even one of the better. The Talisman, part 1 of this story, was great. It had fantasy and suspence and childish innocence to a tee. Blackhouse goes through the motions, in reality it seems like a murder mystery that added the Territories as an after thought so it could be a part 2.
Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad book. It has some great story telling in there and some awfully likeable characters like Henry the blind radio announcer with several on air peronalities, and in places it really shines.
For the fans I was talking about earlier there is some insight into the Dark Tower and what might be dealt with in the future Gunslinger books which makes it a worthwhile read.
I guess the singular most annoying thing about this novel, and it is something that I have never seen in a Stephen King Book ever before and hope to never ever have to read through again in one, is that in parts of the book the narritive is described as if the reader is a watching third party to the story. example, “and now we float up away from this scene and go to visit another important character blahdy blahdy blah” believe me this gets mighty annoying mighty quickly. Perhaps its not Stephen King who wrote this way, although I admit it is unfair to blame what I don’t like on the one who isn’t one of my favorite authors, but oh well.
To sum up, In the absence of other Stephen King writing, any Stephen King is better than no Stephen King.