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.

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

Product Description
Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer travelled to a parallel universe called The Territories to save his mother and her Territories "twinner" from a premature and agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world. Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the nearly nonexistent hamlet of Tamarack, WI. He has no recollection of his adventures in the Territories and was compelled to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to awaken those memories.

When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades earlier by a real-life madman named Albert Fish, the killer is dubbed "The Fisherman" and Jack's buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help his inexperienced force find him. But is this merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleashed in this quiet town? What causes Jack's inexplicable waking dreams, if that is what they are, of robins' eggs and red feathers? It's almost as if someone is trying to tell him something. As that message becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, Jack is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he may find the soul-strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted track of forest, there to encounter the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it.


From the Hardcover edition.

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.


Hello, my name is TreeRider and I'm a Stephen King-aholic.   November 24, 2001
 28 out of 30 found this review helpful

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!


Disappointing   September 17, 2001
 26 out of 39 found this review helpful

Stephen King used to be one of my favorite authors. What I liked best about his writing was his striking, true-to-life dialogue and his ability to make even the most peripheral characters fully fleshed and interesting. No matter how far fetched, terrifying or creepy the plot, it was always presented in an extremely "realistic" matter. I believed vampires could take over a small town after Salem's Lot, old cars made me anxious after I read Christine.

When I look at a chronology of his best sellers, it's easy to see where the "realistic tone" of Stephen King's writing I adored began to be subverted by, well, I don't even know how to explain it. "It" was the last Stephen King book that I truely loved, he perfectly nailed the friendships of the young Losers and the writing appears effortless.

The disappointment began with Tommyknockers, instead of the believability of the earlier books, I never felt like the tommyknockers themselves were explained well enough. While Needful things was just okay, Insomnia was the first Stephen King book I actively disliked. I hated the dream-like, trippy ending which was such a departure from the crisper, more realistic tones of his earlier novels. This trend was continued in Rose Madder, Desperation and the Regulators.

I have pretty much liked each new book less and less. I disliked Dreamcatcher so much I returned it to the bookstore for a refund. While I think Black House is a better book than Dreamcatcher, I find it extremely precious and affected. The royal "we" of the narration, for example, becomes extremely tiresome. I also began to despise the "Kingisms" I used to appreciate, you know, the little terms like "bXitchrod." His wonderful ability to inhabit a character and speak in a natural voice for that person has disintegrated, everything feels forced to me.

I'm also disappointed in Stephen King's treatment of the disabled. In Dreamcatcher, the mentally disabled boy was depicted in a nearly beautific light, in Black House, blind Henry is so cool and so hip as to be rendered cartoon-like. He plays to nearly every stereotype of the blind, since Henry can't see, his other senses are hightened to nearly superhuman levels! He doesn't NEED to see, heck, according to Henry, the blind can even drive.

Perhaps I am too harsh, who am I to deny my former favorite author the chance to mature as a writer, to attain a new depth of vision and to strive for a greater lyricism? All I know is, I used to look forward to every new book and now I don't.

-- Former #1 fan


Black House   October 11, 2001
 20 out of 34 found this review helpful

I just finished reading the book Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Now I have to say that I am a long time fan of both writers. I have almost all of Stephen King's books. (IN HARDBACK) But I have to say that the best book I think he ever wrote (although it was co-written) was The Talisman, with The Stand coming in a very close second, and with Carrie being one of the most uniquely written books I've ever read.
I can not stress enough that both of these men have written enough to be proclaimed giants in the world of writers and publishers alike, and in that arena gain my utmost respect.
Having completed Black House I really have to say though, that their swollen noggins have crowded their expertise in the writing field. I was greatly agitated by the writers addressing the reader throughout this book. It was awful the way they would just break in the middle of a transition and address the reader directly...this bloated and self-indulgent aspect of talking to us and taking us on this Peter Pan flight across the "scene" was almost unbearable to endure and nearly caused me to put the book down more than once and not pick it up again. But partly because of my love for The Talisman (which I've read three times) and in another part due to the fact I was reading the book out loud for both myself and my husband's entertainment...I continued.
I thought it was a disgrace that we were over four-hundred pages into the book before Jack actually flips over to the territories for any length of time and actually comes in contact with any other individual. Only twice did he flip prior to this point in the book and both of those times only being for a few seconds. I felt like that aspect alone proves that the writers did not only not give their best to this sequel, but also cheated their loyal readers out of what should have been a more in depth look at what the territories were all about. Instead I'm of the impression this was a hype to sell books that only in name could directly be linked to the first book, The Talisman.
In stead of filling the pages with much welcomed information regarding the territories and the subsequent new adventure of Jack Sawyer, we got fluff and filler at Ed's Eats taking three different views of the same situation and Jack Sawyer's in depth perspective of love at first sight, not to mention, inept cops begging for a famed protector. It was sad people! .... I'd say lets take this project back to the drawing board folks.

Jack is back . . . and he ain't no fun anymore   September 28, 2001
 17 out of 20 found this review helpful

I read the Talisman as a child, and I was knocked out by both the story and the prose. It immediately went to the number one spot on my 'Top Ten Best Fantasy Books of all Time' list. And it has never been knocked from that spot. I consider it to be the best book that Stephen King ever (co)wrote and I re-read it about once a year.

So when I heard that a sequel to the Talisman was coming out, I couldn't wait. I don't usually buy hardback, preferring to wait for the more economical paperback, but I had to have this one right now. I read it cover to cover, in one sitting. And it was a major disappointment.

The book was written in an odd third person plural {like a voice-over by 'we', if that makes it any clearer for you}, and it was very distracting. The prose didn't seem to help the story, it seemed to hinder it. And where is that much-loved King wittiness, that sly humor? I couldn't find any. I almost put the book down in the first three chapters and that is rare for me. I read so quickly that I can usually slog through just about anything, waiting for it to get better. I struggled on, and it did get a bit better.

A few of the characters were great. I think Jack stayed a little two-dimensional for me, but the blind Henry was wonderful, as were the bikers with IQ's off the scale.

If I hadn't read the Talisman, I really wouldn't have known what was going on. The Territories were barely even a part of this book, which was a major disappointment, and there were too many cryptic references to other books.

And here is the worst thing of all for me: The damned Dark Tower has crept into this book, too. I suppose I'm in the minority, but I hate the Dark Tower series and I don't care if he ever writes another one. I hate the characters from it and I hate the premise. And I really, really hate the fact that this book is more Dark Tower than Black House.

The climax of the book was resolved too quickly, and it leaves one with a sense of unreality (a funny thing to say, I guess, after reading a Stephen King novel) and there might as well have been a huge sign at the end touting the next in the Dark Tower series.

I would have liked more Territory involvement, I would have liked more character development, and I don't know what else. Whatever the missing element is, it ruined this book for me.