vincentveyrat

When i first read the Talisman years ago, it was basically a lengthy tome about a boy coming of age. Given that it was a collaborative effort of two of horror's genre-masters at their prime, it did well outlining the tribulations that lil Jack Sawyer went through in the search of a "Talisman" to heal his mother, and to seek the truth about his father. Although it crossed 600+ pages, it felt warm & inviting, with characters that you could relate to. This sequel, penned 15 year later, catches Saywer as an adult, with the co-authors well past their "best-of" date. What could have been a remarkable modern horror tome ends up a rambling monologue that tries to ascend into the higher "literary" stratosphere that the authors have recently tried to emulate. As much as i love Straub & King, these 600+ pages dragged on and on to yawn-inducing lengths. For much of the first act, you wished you could just slap Sawyer awake and tell him to get on with it. Other than the memorable inclusion of a quasi-prophet blind disc-jockey, all the characters are a mess of could've-beens and fickleness. The second act that features the "big reveal" peters out too long that you could see it coming a mile away. And by the time the final third act kicks in (literally with some hell's angels type-bikers), you just wished that they stepped it up a notch. And of course it ties in with Dark Tower mythos, of course it lays open ended for a sequel, and of course the ending feels less than satisfactory ... but i just hope that the authors finally let Jack Sawyer ride off into the sunset and leave him be. ~ S

2022-12-07 00:41