What do you think?
The Talisman #3
Other Worlds Than These
Not yet published
Expected 6 Oct 26'I wanted to go back to Mid-World, which was always the Territories by another name' - Stephen King
This is Stephen King and Peter Straub's epic and unforgettable finale to the Talisman Trilogy (including the novels The Talisman and Black House) and a wrapping up of the fate of the worlds in King's iconic, fiercely beloved Dark Tower epic. It is also a wonderful stand-alone novel, that will appeal to new readers, as well as to King's Constant Reader.
Other Worlds Than These is the story of Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met when he was twelve, crossing America and 'the territories' to save his mother's life, and met again in Black House, where Jack faces a child killer and the Crimson King (among other evils). In Other Worlds Than These Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds. Jack is older now; his Ka-tet is fraying; and his task, nearly impossible.
Magnificent, riveting, full of heart, and humour, Other Worlds Than These is a spectacular, propulsive adventure, and features 30 exclusive black and white illustrations by artist Gabriel Rodriguez.
This is Stephen King and Peter Straub's epic and unforgettable finale to the Talisman Trilogy (including the novels The Talisman and Black House) and a wrapping up of the fate of the worlds in King's iconic, fiercely beloved Dark Tower epic. It is also a wonderful stand-alone novel, that will appeal to new readers, as well as to King's Constant Reader.
Other Worlds Than These is the story of Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met when he was twelve, crossing America and 'the territories' to save his mother's life, and met again in Black House, where Jack faces a child killer and the Crimson King (among other evils). In Other Worlds Than These Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds. Jack is older now; his Ka-tet is fraying; and his task, nearly impossible.
Magnificent, riveting, full of heart, and humour, Other Worlds Than These is a spectacular, propulsive adventure, and features 30 exclusive black and white illustrations by artist Gabriel Rodriguez.
624 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 6, 2026
About the author
Stephen King
2,150 books900k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Want to Read
February 11, 2026OMG I Had NO idea we were getting a Third installment in The Talisman series!
October 2026!!! I'm SO excited!!
October 2026!!! I'm SO excited!!
Want to Read
February 10, 2026Desperately excited....
Want to Read
February 25, 2026Enough already, throw a contest for an early copy...have to get my hands on this!
Want to Read
May 18, 2026The Talisman: 1 ⭐
Black House: 1 ⭐
Book 3? I can hardly wait.
For the record, the title is from The Gunslinger and the Dark Tower series, not the Talisman series, for all that Black House hamhandedly shoehorned the one into the other. It's Jake's line, not Jack's.
Black House: 1 ⭐
Book 3? I can hardly wait.
For the record, the title is from The Gunslinger and the Dark Tower series, not the Talisman series, for all that Black House hamhandedly shoehorned the one into the other. It's Jake's line, not Jack's.
Want to Read
March 1, 2026YYYEESSS!!!
I CANNOT WAIT!!!
*cries in disbelief*
I CANNOT WAIT!!!
*cries in disbelief*
Want to Read
February 11, 2026Espero este libro del maestro con todas mis fuerzas, llegó la hora de por fin sentarme a leer El Talismán y Casa Negra.
Ya leí la sinopsis y un adelanto exclusivo y me quedé enganchado, ¡así que no puedo esperar! ¡Nos vemos en Octubre! 🤩
Ya leí la sinopsis y un adelanto exclusivo y me quedé enganchado, ¡así que no puedo esperar! ¡Nos vemos en Octubre! 🤩
Want to Read
March 5, 2026guys what the fuck genuinely wo ich de titel gläse han bin ich bleich worde
what do you mean it isn't over......,,.,.,..
what do you mean it isn't over......,,.,.,..
Read
July 14, 2026A worthy addition to the trilogy. Typical King--a great read.
Want to Read
September 20, 2026pre-order kindle and audible.
Review of advance copy
Hard to believe, but I read The Talisman at 15, a senior in high school, Black House in my 30s, and finally reading this at [redacted.] He is really starting to bring Dark Tower lore in with The Talisman and several of his other novels. Knocked it out of the park.
August 20, 2026
His best book in a decade and a half, since 11/22/63. Will write lots more in October. Get caught up, ka-tet. We got a new billy-bumbler.
wishlist-want-it
May 2, 2026AHHHHHH! *gasp for breath* AHHHHH!!!!
OMFG only been wishing, hoping, dreaming, longing, dyyyyying for the conclusion to the Talisman books since literally, quite flipping literally forever!!!!! Since Black House first came out and I smashed through it quick as Speedy Gonzales, and, like... Bruv... I was a wee fresh youngster in the early momes of high school... so... like... so long ago that whole ass humans have been born and grown to adulthood since then!!! Not to mention my first read of The Talisman itself was when I was quite flippin literally Jack's age in that book. AND!!! Talisman is probs one, right TF up in top ranks, and if, gun to my head, I was forced to only pick one SK book of my collection to save from a fire, I totes feel like I'd snag that one on my way out... So... yea! I've waited my whole life for this, and, like Veruca Salt, I want it, and I want it now! :D :D :D
OMFG only been wishing, hoping, dreaming, longing, dyyyyying for the conclusion to the Talisman books since literally, quite flipping literally forever!!!!! Since Black House first came out and I smashed through it quick as Speedy Gonzales, and, like... Bruv... I was a wee fresh youngster in the early momes of high school... so... like... so long ago that whole ass humans have been born and grown to adulthood since then!!! Not to mention my first read of The Talisman itself was when I was quite flippin literally Jack's age in that book. AND!!! Talisman is probs one, right TF up in top ranks, and if, gun to my head, I was forced to only pick one SK book of my collection to save from a fire, I totes feel like I'd snag that one on my way out... So... yea! I've waited my whole life for this, and, like Veruca Salt, I want it, and I want it now! :D :D :D
Want to Read
February 21, 2026holy catfish
August 24, 2026
I'll save a full review for pub date.
For now, I will say like most of King's works, there are peppered in reminder of past events, but, without being a "constant reader" this novel will read as absolute insanity. I'd say knowledge from The Dark Tower series is more important than knowledge from Talisman or Black House.
Thankee for the arc.
For now, I will say like most of King's works, there are peppered in reminder of past events, but, without being a "constant reader" this novel will read as absolute insanity. I'd say knowledge from The Dark Tower series is more important than knowledge from Talisman or Black House.
Thankee for the arc.
September 19, 2026
This book makes me think of the last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. There’s a very-old version of Jean-Luc Picard, although, oddly enough, not as old as the very, very old version of Picard in the series of that name 30 years later. Last-episode old-Picard gets the gang back together and he needs a ride. So he rings up his ex-wife Beverly who’s a captain of her own starship. When she’s talking to the gang, she says something like “He’s Jean-Luc Picard and if he wants to go on one last mission, that's what we're going to do.” That’s how I feel about Uncle Stevie using this book as his transporter back to MidWorld, or The Territories or Gilieadistan. My moniker is Dark Tower Land. "Very-very-old-Picard" version of Uncle Stevie ain’t no spring chicken anymore. This may very well be his last journey through that magic doorway into DT Land, so who am I to say he shouldn't? I certainly would not. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it all that much.
I should start with a confession; I’m not that big a fan of The Talisman. It was okay. Like all the Stephen King books before the abhorrent The Tommyknockers, I read The Talisman more than once. But parts of it felt like moving through molasses. I wasn’t used to that in a Stephen King book, but I was used to it in Peter Straub books. I barely remember Black House, other than the fact that it was kind of repellant. Wasn’t there a serial killer murdering children in that one? Yeah, I just read the Wikipedia entry and the killer’s based on Albert Fish, a sick fuck from 100 years ago who kidnapped, abused, even ate children. Doesn’t that sound like a fun read? Screw that book.
I would say that, of the three books involving Jack Sawyer from the time he was 12 to 57 as he is in this one, I prefer this one over the others. It moves quicker than the other two, probably since the involvement of the late Peter Straub was limited here. Its fault is that it just doesn’t really seem to want to go anywhere. It doesn’t have the urgency of the Dark Tower books that it so badly wants to be. Jack Sawyer’s gotta get these magic things to this MacGuffin or all the other worlds than these are gonna end, like what was going to happen if the Dark Tower fell. This is the book version of a “soft reboot.” Like how Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a pale remake of the first Star Wars movie, but with a new coat of paint. There’s a sort-of new gunslinger in town in Jack Sawyer and he has a ka-tet and one of them’s a smart-ass American guy from New York and isn't this deja vu all over again?
Some of that deja vu is part of this book’s charms. There's plenty of callbacks to The Talisman's Greatest Hits. There’s also a visit to the Barony of Meijis, where a young Roland Deschain fell into a doomed first love with Susan Delgado. And don’t think Roland’s shadow doesn’t fall over this story. One town even has a statue of him and his OG ka-tet. There’s also lots of new hidey-holes chockful of MacGuffinettes left behind thousands of years ago by The Old Ones and their pals at the Sombra Corporation and North-Central Positronics. There’s a talking car that’s pretty funny. But that’s about where this book’s charms left me. Stephen took seven books to bring about the end of the Dark Tower world as we know it and now he wants to do it again in one? With a whole bunch of people there isn’t time to really know or care about? There’s a few okay action scenes, but it’s not King at his Dark Tower best. I’d say that was Book III, The Waste Lands. The very beginning has Roland killing a rabid robot-bear as big as a building, then Jake is pulled into DT Land through a door drawn into the ground from a world where a haunted house is trying to eat him. That's followed by a desperate chase to find him after he’s kidnapped away to a post-apocalyptic version of New York City. Everything ends on a talking monorail moving at the speed of sound and it will kill everyone if they don’t pose him a good riddle. And I’m leaving out a lot of other stuff! The Waste Lands makes Other Worlds look like, as my father-in-law likes to say, two old people having sex: slow and sloppy. Long days and pleasant nights to you, Dark Tower Land. I can at least say that visiting you was never boring. Some trips were just better than others.
From the “...And the Fartlitzer Prize Goes To…” Dept.
If you’re not aware of my weird obsession with the fact that Uncle Stevie has a pathological need to talk about farting in every single one of his books these days, read one of my other King reviews. There is far too much (fart oo much) of the first 75 pages of this book talking about farting or about a fart noise maker. I can’t help but wonder just what the hell is going on with him! Every single fartin’ book these days!
I should start with a confession; I’m not that big a fan of The Talisman. It was okay. Like all the Stephen King books before the abhorrent The Tommyknockers, I read The Talisman more than once. But parts of it felt like moving through molasses. I wasn’t used to that in a Stephen King book, but I was used to it in Peter Straub books. I barely remember Black House, other than the fact that it was kind of repellant. Wasn’t there a serial killer murdering children in that one? Yeah, I just read the Wikipedia entry and the killer’s based on Albert Fish, a sick fuck from 100 years ago who kidnapped, abused, even ate children. Doesn’t that sound like a fun read? Screw that book.
I would say that, of the three books involving Jack Sawyer from the time he was 12 to 57 as he is in this one, I prefer this one over the others. It moves quicker than the other two, probably since the involvement of the late Peter Straub was limited here. Its fault is that it just doesn’t really seem to want to go anywhere. It doesn’t have the urgency of the Dark Tower books that it so badly wants to be. Jack Sawyer’s gotta get these magic things to this MacGuffin or all the other worlds than these are gonna end, like what was going to happen if the Dark Tower fell. This is the book version of a “soft reboot.” Like how Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a pale remake of the first Star Wars movie, but with a new coat of paint. There’s a sort-of new gunslinger in town in Jack Sawyer and he has a ka-tet and one of them’s a smart-ass American guy from New York and isn't this deja vu all over again?
Some of that deja vu is part of this book’s charms. There's plenty of callbacks to The Talisman's Greatest Hits. There’s also a visit to the Barony of Meijis, where a young Roland Deschain fell into a doomed first love with Susan Delgado. And don’t think Roland’s shadow doesn’t fall over this story. One town even has a statue of him and his OG ka-tet. There’s also lots of new hidey-holes chockful of MacGuffinettes left behind thousands of years ago by The Old Ones and their pals at the Sombra Corporation and North-Central Positronics. There’s a talking car that’s pretty funny. But that’s about where this book’s charms left me. Stephen took seven books to bring about the end of the Dark Tower world as we know it and now he wants to do it again in one? With a whole bunch of people there isn’t time to really know or care about? There’s a few okay action scenes, but it’s not King at his Dark Tower best. I’d say that was Book III, The Waste Lands. The very beginning has Roland killing a rabid robot-bear as big as a building, then Jake is pulled into DT Land through a door drawn into the ground from a world where a haunted house is trying to eat him. That's followed by a desperate chase to find him after he’s kidnapped away to a post-apocalyptic version of New York City. Everything ends on a talking monorail moving at the speed of sound and it will kill everyone if they don’t pose him a good riddle. And I’m leaving out a lot of other stuff! The Waste Lands makes Other Worlds look like, as my father-in-law likes to say, two old people having sex: slow and sloppy. Long days and pleasant nights to you, Dark Tower Land. I can at least say that visiting you was never boring. Some trips were just better than others.
From the “...And the Fartlitzer Prize Goes To…” Dept.
If you’re not aware of my weird obsession with the fact that Uncle Stevie has a pathological need to talk about farting in every single one of his books these days, read one of my other King reviews. There is far too much (fart oo much) of the first 75 pages of this book talking about farting or about a fart noise maker. I can’t help but wonder just what the hell is going on with him! Every single fartin’ book these days!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews