The Talisman, by Stephen King & Peter Straub

Yes, the book has two authors, and yes, it's pretty evident during the course of the book where the switches take place. Here's the story, in a nutshell: A twelve year old boy (Jack Sawyer) has recently lost his dad (he died), and moved to the east coast with his mom. His mom is a former B-movie star - a minor celebrity in Hollywood - called the "Queen of the B Movies." She is also dying rather rapidly of cancer. Downer, eh? I'm just getting started. So Jack meets an old black guy (Speedy Parker) at a boardwalk amusement park that is closed for the off season, and discovers that there is a parallel world to our world, and that he (Jack) has the ability to flip back and forth between the two, like his dad could. It also turns out that certain people have "twinners" in this other world, and that his dying mom's "twinner" is the queen in this other world, and is also dying.

With me so far? Didn't think so... good thing I'm almost done...

So the long and short of it is this: Jack must embark on a quest that will take him across the country (to California), where he must retrieve an artifact called "the talisman" that will save both his mom and the Queen. So Jack begins to hitchhike across the country, going from one contrived, dangerous situation to another, flipping back and forth between the worlds when he gets in trouble, with baddies from both realms trying to kill him. Because - you guessed it - Jack is apparently a long-prophesied hero-type that is destined to complete this quest, and save both worlds from doom, despair and destruction, by getting this glowing orb from the castle in which it has been held for eons.

There is very little balance in the story. Every time he escapes one hairy situation, the next is worse. Every time he finds someone that could be considered a helper, the helper gets killed or violently sick or goes nuts. Almost everyone he runs into, in either realm, is either ridiculously cruel and evil, or a slavering half-wit. And here's this 12 year old kid, bouncing back and forth between acting like the kid that he is, and doing/saying things most adults wouldn't even do/say. In other words, even though there's supposed to be some sense of reality in the piece, since half of it is supposed to be rooted in this world, nothing strikes you as even remotely plausible, as far as the way everyone interacts in the story. Sure, over in the "other world" things are pretty wacky, that's to be expected... but "over here"? It just isn't consistent.

I can't even say it was well-written... I found it quite tedious, actually. It was in parts over-wrought, melodramatic, eye-rollingly implausible, grueling... not exactly a glowing review, I'm sorry! I powered through it because, as I mentioned in previous posts, I kept waiting for the good book to show up... the one that I recalled (ever so vaguely) enjoying as a teen. It never showed up. It's not like my expectations were too high... I remember liking it (as opposed to loving it), and was prepared to simply like it again. Bummer.

Conclusion: 2/5 Wouldn't recommend it. It has all these accolades on the back covers ("One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written!") and plenty of 5-star reviews at Amazon, but don't you believe it. It's easily the least favorite book I've read this year. It's "influential" all right... it has influenced me to avoid re-reading other Stephen King books that I have similar vaguely-fond memories of reading back in high school as well.