Andere als diese Welten

The Talisman #3

by Stephen King, Peter Straub, Bernhard Kleinschmidt (Translator)

Wenn Welten kollidieren – das gigantische neue Epos von Stephen King in der Saga um den Dunklen Turm

Jack Sawyer lebt seit Jahren in der Anderwelt, die er die Territorien nennt, von der er nun jedoch weiß, dass sie Teil des größeren Reiches Mittwelt ist. Er hat sich an die seltsamen Gepflogenheiten dort und die mystische Geschichte gewöhnt, die von dem sagenumwobenen Revolvermann Roland handelt, der Mittwelt vor der Zerstörung des Dunklen Turms bewahrt hat. Jack kann zwischen den Welten wechseln, in unserer aber nicht lange verweilen, weil sie auf die Dauer für ihn tödlich ist. Als eine marodierende Mördersekte seine Freunde in Amerika in Gefahr bringt und anschließend in Mittwelt auftaucht, erkennt er, dass die Welten zu kollidieren beginnen. Eine dunkle Macht, die alles – alle Welten – zu verschlingen droht, gewinnt zusehends an Bewusstsein und Stärke.
Mit dem Segen von Peter Straub verwebt Stephen King die Talisman-Reihe mit der Dunkler-Turm-Saga.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Thriller, Dystopia

848 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2026

About the author

Stephen 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.

Reviews

[Trisha]

OMG I Had NO idea we were getting a Third installment in The Talisman series!
October 2026!!! I'm SO excited!!

[Panda · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Psst. 4 days!

⏳

Audiobook (23 hours) narrated by Patton Oswalt
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Patton Oswalt is an interesting choice of narrators. He is a well known comedian and actor. I have up until this time never have run into a narration by Patton, although he has many although I thought he had many, I had mistaken the books listed under his profile as both author and narrator, instead of author only. I believe he had one book narration which was his memoir, that I link below in my review after finishing the audiobook edition. His awards have come for writing, comedy, and performance rather than narration:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_...
I have confidence and curiousity at 8pm EST on October 5th, ⊹ ࣪ ˖⏱ ୭˚. ᵎ having to wait for 3am as my pre-order follows PST which is 3 hours behind us, ⊹ ࣪ ˖⏱ ୭˚. ᵎ before I can get my first looks. I'm not sure if I'm going to be sleeping tonight! 🤪✌︎︎

In my pre-reading review I'd like to make notes that The Talisman trilogy is, before even opening it's cover, on it's face one of the most interesting trilogies in this genre, if not across all genres. Why do I think this, you ask? Friendship:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYfe7ZcEcy-/
Stephen King and Peter Straub started on this collaborative effort wayyy back, publishing their first book of the series The Talisman in 1984.
17 years later, they published the second book in the series, Black House
25 years later, 3 years after Peter Straub's passing, they published the final book of the trilogy. This one. The one I await. Watching the clock. ⊹ ࣪ ˖🕰️୭˚. ᵎᵎ👀

While we wait, or while I wait and if you are so inclined to join me, there are a couple of articles of interest I'd like to share.
One from a daughter of an author, an author herself. Words of her father:
https://www.vulture.com/article/peter...
I saved it on waybackmachine, just in case the article is taken down as it's a few years old:
https://web.archive.org/web/202209121...

Another article, this one about Stephen King's and Peter Straub'f friendship. How they met in 1977 and how King finding an email from Staub after his passing motivated him to complete their series:
https://parade.com/news/stephen-king-...
Since I had it open, even though this is a new story, I also saved it to waybackmachine:
https://web.archive.org/web/202603031...

A video from a bit over a decade ago with Stephen King, Peter Straug, Emma Straub, and Owen King:
https://youtu.be/oCYwTuew-ig?si=izLmS...

A sample of the new book, as read by Sai King:
https://youtu.be/6DV_jGLlD5s?si=7Yjsf...

And now we wait....

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .⌛⏰👀Waiting🌀↻🔜↻🔜↻

🔑📖✩°｡⋆⸜ 🎧✮🏁▶️ Let's Do This!!!
========
I'm about 33% of the way in. I will admit that I am having a bit of trouble with the narration. It's difficult to go from Frank Muller for the first two books to Patton Oswalt. The voices are just so incredibly different that my mind is having trouble processing.

Sai King himself is thrilled with the narration of the book, as you can hear in this conversation between Sai King and Sai Oswalt:
https://youtu.be/7Nl-chBVaY4?si=x2xCJ...

There's also a new interview out about the book and narration on Esquire. Do note that I did not read the entirety of this interview as, despite me not seeing any warnings, there are spoilers!!! But if you have finished the book, don't care about spoilers or are not interested in this book, you may want to indulge in the interview. I will give both the original link and one I saved on Wayback machine, just in case:
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment...
https://web.archive.org/web/202610051...

OK, back to reading.
======

Upon finishing this one I have added myself to the queue for the kindle version of this book at my local library.

Patton Oswalt is an actor, who among his many talents and skills has done voice acting. Narration isn't something that he generally does, although I believe that he narrated his memoir Patton Oswalt: Black Coffee and Ice Water.
One of the characters in this book was written based on Patton Oswalt, which is one of the reasons that Stephen King asked him to narrate this book. Of course, Patton said yes.
With Frank Muller's voice in my ear, it was difficult to not be distracted by the narration enough to enjoy the book.
The narration itself isn't horrible. There's some inconsistency of voice where at times instead of using the chosen character voice, Patton speaks as himself. It's a subtle slip here and there, not such a huge issue. The biggest issue for me is overall tone, cadence, and the feeling behind the basic descriptive narrative. While Patton's voice is clear, at a consistent audio level, without any vocal ticks or erroneous sounds, it doesn't have that deep ominous tone. Patton is blessed with a voice that often sounds cheery, which is great, unless it's backing a dark mid-world horror story in it's final chapter.

I am well aware that many enjoy and have enjoyed the narration, including Sai King himself, as he says in the YouTube video collaboration with Sai Oswalt that I linked above. I am also convinced that this world also holds a special place for Sai Oswalt. I feel some guilt, believe it or not, with not being able to get past his voice. Try as I might, it was a distraction for me. I am hoping that once I receive a print book that I can do an immersive reading and perhaps following along will allow me a fuller experience. That and having gone through it once already, I have a realistic expectation of the audiobook, so hopefully...

The book itself is full of nostalgia right off the jump. At the 30% mark more things start to enter the mix, with the last 30% being packed full of mid-world, both things that those of us who have traveled here over the years wished to see again as well as some that we hadn't yet had the pleasure of until this reading.

There is a lot going on. So many details of people, places, and things. A couple of them had me shocked and exclaiming a certain name in joy as I had not anticipated their presence. What a sweet and very special meeting that has been.

The nostalgia gives this novel a strong 4 stars. In a couple of months or so, when my book comes up in the queue, I will do this all again and add to this review with hopefully a fuller lens.

As a side note, I am disabled. I have been reading Stephen King since the age of 11 or 12. My Nana was a huge Stephen King fan, would purchase the newest book out and it would make it through to all of her daughters, of which she had 5. My mother, being the oldest, was generally first in line and I started sneaking the books when she wasn't reading them. I think I made it through a good 3 or 4 before they realized I was reading adult horror and my Nana made the case for me that they all read them and clearly I could handle reading his books as I had been. A few years ago, due to my disability reading became a chore and then something that I just wasn't able to do anymore. I continued to pick up the newly released books, but I couldn't read them, and then I became aware of Libby and Audible. I started re-reading all of Stephen Kings books approximately in publication order in 2023. I mention this as some may think, if I had an issue with the narration why not just return it and get the hardcover? If only it was that easy! For me, while I generally very much enjoy the world of audiobooks, it is not a choice.

All that being said, if you have a choice, I recommend doing a sample of the audio to see what you think and choose which form best suits your tastes. Whichever you choose, mid-world awaits your presence!

Happy reading!

PS. Thank you for finishing this trilogy, Mr. King. It was an honor to read your words as guided through the ghost of Peter Straub. I like to think of you writing this as Samantha in Ghosts https://youtu.be/03--3HM4YKc?si=_A4_t... just darker. Thank you Mr. Straub for your contributions. It wouldn't have been the same without you.

[Zach Dionne · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[M.C]

Desperately excited....

[Dave Musson · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

Where to even start with reviewing a new Stephen King book?

The man is such a literary force that he will always attract positive write-ups by the bucketload - particularly when he’s tapping into much-loved older material such as The Talisman saga and the Dark Tower, which he does with Other Worlds Than These. Whether it’s fear of upsetting an artist or, more likely, their PR folk who might be able to offer review copies and interview opportunities, a lot of modern reviews of books, music and cinema simply seem to be as positive as possible.

Now, that’s *not* a preamble for me being about to lampoon this sprawling novel and spend the rest of this review panning it. I am a huge Stephen King fan and I have been pinching myself every day for the last month about the fact that I’ve been able to get an advanced copy of this book and have built a relationship with his UK PR team where that has become a reality. I genuinely couldn’t be more grateful. Having made it to the end of Jack Sawyer’s journey, I’m not entirely sure how to sum up my feelings. I certainly didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t a massive fan either.

And, in many ways, that’s to be expected - right? I actively disliked The Talisman and have never warmed to it on rereads, while Black House is a novel that I think is fine but that sits in the lower half of my King rankings. So, going back to that setup was always unlikely to strike a chord with me the same way, for example, You Like It Darker did a couple of years ago.

I do have issues with this book, and I’ll get those out of the way first so I can finish on the positives.

I found the pacing to be very slow. Considering that Jack is initially trying to track down his missing friend, then has to battle the tribe of evil, violent, red-headed teenagers - as well as bad Wolfs and slow mutants along the way - before then embarking on a final mission to effectively save Mid-World and *all* worlds…well, I never had much sense of urgency here. The book seemed to plod along and at no point did I reach the end of a chapter and feel like I *had* to keep reading. That energy, that propulsion that drives the final three books of the Dark Tower wasn’t here for this one, so I was never fully able to lose myself in the story.

I also found it difficult to immerse myself in Mid-World, but I accept that this is mainly down to me not being a fantasy reader. I struggled to see what King was trying to paint for us with any great clarity. The illustrations from Gabriel Rodriguez, while brilliant, didn’t actually help as they were far more steam-punk/Mad Max leaning than I’d ever imagined for Mid-World, and only added to my feeling of being in a fantasy world way out of my comfort zone.

Part of the issues I had with never fully being gripped by this book was how some big setpieces took place off-page, only to be relayed later through dialogue. In particular, a battle that throws back to a similar stand off in Calla Bryn Sturgis was something I would love to have read from the front line, not as a report back afterwards. Likewise the fate of an old French Landing pal of Jack’s that we don’t get to see for ourselves, which felt like a shame.

Jack Sawyer aside, the characters did little for me in this story either. The idea of the murderous teenage villains getting into Mid-world and starting a cult was wonderful, a truly brilliant hook, but we barely spend any time with them so it’s difficult to understand their drive or their appeal to the legions of followers they amass during the story. King is usually so good at creating compelling baddies - indeed, some of my favourite parts of The Talisman and Black House are folk like Morgan, Sunlight Gardner, and the Fisherman - it was a surprise that I wasn’t as grabbed by the nasty guys here. Even in last year's Never Flinch, I couldn’t help but be captivated by the villain. Here, I got none of that, and their arc petered out far sooner than I was expecting too.

Jack’s ragamuffin ka-tet also left me cold. They didn’t feel clearly defined to me - I frequently mixed up the male characters - and they didn’t seem like a genuine ka-tet, particularly not with the amount of references to Roland and his legendary posse. As such, when there were losses along the way - and it’s a ka-tet trekking through Mid-World so you knew they wouldn’t all make it, say true - I was left pretty ambivalent. That emotional connection to the core gang that helped drag me to the Tower just wasn’t there…and not even a Billy Bumbler could claw me back in, although I did enjoy seeing Richard take down plunja, and offer observations and silent contributions that Gromit would have been proud of.

The exception was, somewhat to my surprise, Jack Sawyer. I *hated* Jack as a kid in The Talisman. Hated him. My feelings softened a little in Black House, but he was still never going to be in my list of top King protagonists. The older, world(s)-weary version of Jack in Other Worlds Than These I found to be much more engaging and likeable. He is tired, reflective, intelligent, and quietly commanding. He’s a reluctant yet obvious leader, an undeniable gunslinger despite his lack of desire to take on the role, and exuded a subtle strength that I found to be incredibly well-executed.

Some of my favourite moments - just like the other two Sawyer stories - were with Jack in our world. I find him to be at his most compelling while on America-side and especially in this novel. We get that extra danger that he cannot be in our world for very long - that cliffhanger from the end of Black House, where if Jack stays here for too long the wound in his heart opens up and he will quickly fade away, gives such a brilliant sense of threat and immediacy to Jack’s visit that any slight hiccup brings with it the threat of real horror.

While I did get a little tired of just how many times we get reminded that the Territories and Mid-World are the same thing, I enjoyed being back in the world of the Dark Tower - particularly one set enough years after the adventures of Roland that Sai Deschain’s story is one of legend. It’s a post-gunslinger, post-Crimson King Mid-World and, until those pesky redheads rock up, seems to be largely a place of peace and gentle contentment. I really liked knowing that Roland and his gang had done something positive and were rightly lauded for their efforts.

Fans of the Tower will find their eyes spinning from all the references dropped into Other Worlds Than These. Whether it’s the dialect, the return to key locations from previous visits, such as Mejis and the Blasted Lands, and especially a nod to a certain Army experiment from one of King’s best novellas, there is a lot to enjoy here. If anything, I would argue this is more of a Tower novel than a Talisman one. While it would work as a stand-alone novel - indeed, it is being marketed with this very claim - if you’re familiar with Mid-World, if you’ve been to the Tower before, your journey here will be vastly enriched. You’ll soon slip back into ‘yars’ and ‘do-yas’ and wishing people ‘long days and pleasant nights.’

King has said in the build up to publishing Other Worlds Than These that it puts a cap on the Dark Tower stuff as well as Jack's story. Once you make it to the end of this one, you can absolutely see what he means, yet I can't help but feel like he would be able to unearth more from Mid-World without too much effort.

It’s worth mentioning the ending here, without spoilers of course. Personally, I liked it a lot - it was probably my favourite bit of the entire book. It felt like a fitting conclusion to Jack’s story and was beautifully pulled off by King. At the same time, it does echo something he’s done before, so I’ll be fascinated to see what the Constant Reader community thinks once they all make it there themselves. There was also an idea that - unless I completely missed it earlier - gets thrown in right at the very end that I absolutely loved and really wish we had been given more of.

For me, though, the most impressive part of this story is the heart to be found in it, the love for a friend lost.

King has talked in the build-up of how he tried to channel the late Peter Straub ‘like crazy’ in this story. He still sees it as a collaboration, which is why his friend’s name is on the cover too. It was Straub’s idea that sparked this story into life, and you can certainly feel the influence of Straub’s writing on the prose here - admittedly, this is probably where some of the pacing I didn’t care for came from!

But what really stands out is a sense of loss, a sense of regret that King ended up writing this one by himself and not with his pal, like he had the other two entries in this series. Jack is driven by a sense of loss in this story, and clearly wants to complete his journey in a way that would make those dear to him feel proud - and it very much feels like a representation on page of King doing his bit in honour of his friend. Sure, we get deep in the Dark Tower weeds and that is all King, but this is also a satisfying and worthy conclusion to the story that first germinated from a few drinks at Brown’s Hotel in London in 1977. That love and loss is poured directly into the pages of this novel and it is difficult not to be moved, whether you end up liking the book or not.

Even for someone like me who is not a fan of this particular trilogy, it’s difficult not to be impressed at the scope of Other Worlds Than These. More than 40 years on from when he first did it, King gives us another sprawling, epic bit of fantasy than crosses worlds and weaves its own kind of magic across almost 900 pages - no mean feat for a writer pushing 80 who still manages to push out at least one book a year.

Talisman fans will obviously lap this up, I’d wager most Tower junkies will dig it too, and there is still enough here for other Constant Readers to enjoy - even if, like for me, it doesn’t fire on all cylinders. Other Worlds Than These will never come close my list of favourite King books, and I dearly wish more of it had had connected and stuck with me while I ploughed through its pages, but there’s no denying this is still a hefty piece of work that I can see plenty of readers lapping up.

My only true worry with this book is the impression King gives of getting his affairs in order - he even says that ‘it’s time to think about tidying up’ in an afterword that could definitely be described as having a resigned tone to it. For him to proactively say this is not only a wrap on Jack Sawyer but on the Tower too gives me a slight jitter, likewise that afterword, where he reflects on his long career, the joy it has brought him, and the fact that many of his Constant Readers are now getting grey and old themselves (not *all* of them, Stephen!). The pessimist in me, on a dour, miserable day, could be tempted to read that as a farewell note. While I know he can’t go on forever, I really hope he isn’t done just yet. Even with this novel which, ultimately, is not for me, he’s still clearly got a plethora of ideas running through his head, as well as the talent, desire and energy to shape them into another book.

Of course, all things serve the Beam, ka is a wheel…I know that. But here’s hoping we get plenty more. Long days and pleasant nights, Sai King!

[Rok Schlager]

Enough already, throw a contest for an early copy...have to get my hands on this!

[Dan · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Apart from some minor grievances, I loved this. I'm a Tower junkie for something like 27 years at this point and this scratched a lot of my persistent itches. Not perfect by any means but a lot of fun.

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Ka is a wheel, and you don’t get to retire from going on mythic quests. At first glance this novel feels much more like a Dark Tower novel than a Talisman novel. But once you set Jack on a quest, he may not be chasing the man in black or following the path of the beam to a mythical tower, but he is exploring the idea of what it means to be a hero, and echoes and reflections of young jack’s cross-country journey fall alongside his current expedition. Instead of journeying to save his own private world, in the form of his dying mother, he is instead saving all worlds against the creeping entropy of Discordia, and ka continues to roll.

King has created a wonderful crew of characters that move in and out of Jack’s journey, and he manages to always have intimate, personal moments shine through the expansive and grandiose undertaking. The story is somewhat episodic in nature, again similar to the first Talisman novel, and that allows for a steady pacing that keeps the reader engaged throughout, eagerly waiting to see how to overcome the immediate problem while still keeping the bigger picture in mind. King explores what it means for cruelty to be infectious, and how is most at risk, who is unprotected, and while an ungenerous reading will want to see a bunch of good-for-nothing teens being saved by the heroic Boomer what feels like the more appropriate reading is observing the youth being failed to be protected by the older generations, and therefore being susceptible to corrosive influences. There is no singular antagonist in this story, and instead it shows that humanity is something that needs to be not just fought for but maintained, practiced and cultivated regularly.

Look, is King fast and loose with some of the magical/mythical elements of Midworld, just giving a little exposition to explain why the rules, as we have come to understand them, are maybe different now than they were in previous books? Sure. But also, there are only two beams standing, time and reality are in constant slippage, what do you expect? Everything done feels in service to a larger narrative and not just literary convenience or laziness, and so I didn’t mind a bit when King tweaked things here and there. He manages to bring Jack’s story full circle and complete the Talisman saga while also making the dark Tower feel even more mythic and complete at the same time. He cares about responsibility, devotion, love, family, and what it means to embody all these things. It is a story about love and loss, about reconciling yourself with the choices you have made and the circumstances forced upon you, never giving up but accepting that we are sometimes given enormous tasks that seem impossible, and yet there is no one to undertake them but us, so we can undertake them with grace or abscond to self-cherishing and self-pity, which serve no one and nothing but Discordia.

It is hard to take this novel just on its own, because it is part of something so much larger than itself. Of the three Talisman novels I may still find a favorite in _Black House,_ but this is far more ambitious, and it largely succeeds. The reading experience felt all-encompassing and was an absolute delight, and a worthy conclusion to the saga.

[Justin Gerber]

🤐

[Debbie Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Ioannis Karagiannakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★

This is a spoiler-free review of the ARC of Other Worlds Than These, provided by Scribner.

Before anything else, I should mention that, in my opinion, in order to truly enjoy this book, it is necessary to have read the previous two books of the trilogy, as well as The Dark Tower series.

Jack is back. He is now 57 years old and lives almost exclusively in the Mid-World. After his injury, he can no longer stay for long on America-side, and he does some rather unusual jobs for the governor of a city called Dezi.

The story begins when the governor sends him to the America-side to bring back a mystery book and a few bottles of Coca-Cola. Accompanying him on this initial trip are the governor's jester and an oracle with a drinking problem.

During this trip, he learns that his friend Dave has been kidnapped by a pair of killers.

What can Jack do to help his friend? How can the killers move between worlds? And why do the inhabitants of the Mid-World believe that Jack is the new Roland?

This is the starting point of the story. As I said, spoiler free.

This is probably the most Dark Tower-ish King story I've read in recent years.

The connections to The Dark Tower are not simply references thrown in for readers to recognize and enjoy. They are part of the story itself. And somewhere along the way, I found myself thinking again about the ending of The Dark Tower. Ka. The cycle. The feeling that stories may end, but at the same time begin again.

I don't know whether this book truly completes the cycle, or whether it simply shows us that the cycle is much bigger than we thought.

One final observation: in the first two books, I could strongly feel the presence of both King and Straub. Not here. Here, I felt Stephen King. And perhaps that is why, as I moved through the book, I felt that I was returning to a world I had missed.

[Greg Van Vorhis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. Predictable. Falls into all of the traps of your typical sequels: new characters who intentionally remind you of old characters, callbacks to the readers’ favorite past parts, family of dead characters appear.

Add to that an extended desert trip that could have been condensed to half its length and you get this unforgivable mess.

King has been letting me down a lot it the last 10 years. I went from buying all of his books to not buying any of them, choosing instead to borrow them from the library or (as in this case, read an Advanced Reader Copy.

With today’s announcement of the release of still another Holly book, I may just be done reading everything he has released as well. So far, I have read them all. After this one, I will probably start being more selective.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*]

The 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.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thankee sai King for taking us on this final journey through Midworld! This book was a total blast, it made me feel like a teenager again, reminding me of times when I'd sink a whole weekend into demolishing various King doorstoppers. I'm not saying his recent output has declined in quality or anything, but... okay, that's exactly what I'm saying. But this one felt like a genuine King experience, it grabbed hold and never let go. I'm glad I re-read the first two books beforehand, it got me seriously invested in the characters and world, and I definitely teared up at a couple points (protect Richard!). I also loved all the tidbits about what happened after the events of the Dark Tower series. Long live ka-tet Roland! I look forward to annoying my family by saying things like 'thankee-sai' and 'palaver' for the rest of the week.

[Pat Morrison]

A worthy addition to the trilogy. Typical King--a great read.

[Hugo · Rating 1.5 out of 5]

A book of two halves, both of them woeful, lazy, and uninspired.

For a mission to halt a killing spree in two worlds (one which endangers an old friend), there's fuck-all sense of pace here, with all major events happening off-page—this breaks the rules of Show, Don't Tell and also removes Jack as an active protagonist, more a passive, after-the-fact observer trudging along behind the plot of his own novel, led by happenstance and what really must be called authorial string-pulling. The story's antagonists aren't even seen until the middle of the book, at which point they're written out of the narrative.

(A note here about Gabriel Rodríguez's chapter illustrations, which are striking. But the designs of vehicles, weapons, etc., look like something out of a comic book toy line, which doesn't suit the story at all, cheapening each chapter before it's begun.)

(Also: later attempts to make Jack's ragtag group of cartoon nobodies somehow a 'Ka-Tet' of heroes are unwelcome and intrusive, but nowhere near as bad as the vacillating 'Is he... or isn't he?" suggestion that Jack is a reincarnation of Roland of Gilead, who in this book is a character of legend whose stories are told as myth. Which begs the question, who—since no one who witnessed Roland's adventures lived to tell the tale—is telling these fucking myths?!)

For a quest to save not only two worlds, but possibly also all worlds, there's fuck-all sense of pace in the second half of the book, which decides to try—and fails—to replicate the tension and drama of the classic Clouzot film The Wages of Fear, but over hundreds of pages, accruing King's now-trademark writing tics of characters doing things out of intuition, dreams, voices in their heads, or simply because the author would like them to, along with WTF MacGuffins to wrap up the narrative neatly in time for the saccharine One Size Pleases All ending.

[Sjgomzi · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Was it perfect? No. Did I have a blast returning to Mid-World? HELL YES!!! The most fun I’ve had reading a King book in at least a decade.

[ellie rose]

i just read the word 'ka-tet' while flipping through and i swear to all that is good and holy i had a heart attack

[Squire · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

I can't imagine anyone starting their Stephen King journey with this book. It is full of Dark Tower references and jargon that I hadn't thought about since my last DT read through in 2012. I had moved on from that series long ago and had to stop serveral times to get my bearings. I didn't reread the first two Talisman books before tackling this final volume; so like Jack, I was suffering from a lack of full memory recall while taking this final journey with him.

I very much liked the opening chapter with Jack overlooking the city of Dezi and reviewing his experiences living in Mid-World for the last 25 years--culminating in the stunning revelation of the final sentence. And I liked the final chapter as the great wheel of ka turned (though it raises more questions than gives answers). The 600+ pages in between were heartfelt with episodes of grand storytelling and unbelievable horror with terrific characterizations of Jack and Mary, but suffered from spotty pacing (the book's best scenes told in narration by a character) and repetitiveness (another rotting bridge, another boulder/tree in the road). Also, King's best and most exciting finales come when he has multiple storylines converging in the last 100 pages and here he's dealing with one so the finale is good, but comparatively blah.

I never completely bought into Jack's ka-tet of America-side losers in Other Worlds. Most were either not around long enough to make any significant impression or just side show attractions to fill space. Aside from Mary Klee and the billy-bumbler Richard, most seemed present just to be killed off. And Jack's insistence that he was not the second coming of Roland Deschain got boring after the tenth or twelfth time. My favorite character was the underdeveloped Ayden Hestin--only a plot device, sure, but still...

The second act of the book concerns the ka-tet's journey across the badlands to destroy the remnants of the Crimson King residing in the Gullet that sai King patterns after the journeys made in the French classic movie "The Wages of Fear" (great) and its American remake "Sorcerer" (really good). And, probably because the majority of his reading audience hasn't seen or even heard of these movies, he reminds the reader again and again of this fact. (His son did this in The Fireman with references to "Mary Poppins" and it got to the point of revulsion with me.) If you have to continually explain the same references, why make them? Is he apologizing for not coming up with more original material?

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy reading Other Worlds because I did.

King's "Afterword" strikes the perfect note to finish the trilogy with as he talks about how hard Straub's passing hit him; his own health and advanced age; and his desire to start wrapping things up. He also reminded me that I started my journey with him when I was a kid and am now graying around the edges myself.

Sigh...

A solid outing by sai King (far from his recent Holly snoozefest tripe.)


3 stars + 1/2 star for using "elephantine."

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Best Talisman Book! But not perfect...

Check out my review on my YouTube channel THE BOOKISH DRUMMER
https://youtu.be/CCj9ENRGL98?si=VRkZy...

Stephen King is back with his newest novel, OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE! But for anyone who doesn't know, The Talisman and Black House are easily my two least favorite King books. So I was not very excited for this book to say the least...

BUT! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only was this book not bad, I actually liked it! It actually felt like a Stephen King book, whereas the previous Talisman books did not, at least in my opinion. And not only did this feel like a true King book, it very much read like a Dark Tower book. And as a Dark Tower fan, it was very refreshing to be immersed again in Mid-World.

Now with all of that being said, this was FAR from being a perfect book. I had a fair amount of complaints with this book. But overall, I had a positive experience, which I was not expecting AT ALL!

The biggest surprise for me was how much I enjoyed Jack Sawyer this time around. I heavily disliked his character in The Talisman, and I was extremely indifferent towards him in Black House. But in Other Worlds Than These, Jack Sawyer is much older, disgruntled and reflective on his past events in previous books, which made his character much better and overall my favorite part of the book.

I of course loved all of the Dark Tower elements, and overall once the story gets going and we figure out what Jack Sawyer is going up against and what the stakes are, it was very enjoyable.

Now for my two main complaints with the book...First, it took a long time for the story to truly hook me in. It took a long time to comprehend why this story was important and to actually get to the heart of the conflict. Second, the characters outside of Jack Sawyer were not great. They fell completely flat for me, they were often quite annoying, and when bad things would inevitably happen to them, I didn't really care.

So with those complaints, it's hard for me to give this book any higher than 3 stars. But with my extremely low expectations, I'm just so glad I didn't hate this book, and was pleasantly surprised that I actually had a good time with a Talisman novel.

I would pretty much only recommend this book for Constant Readers who have read The Talisman, Black House and the entire Dark Tower series. This should NOT be someone's first King experience lol

But overall, just know that I settled on a 3 star rating for OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE. Definitely not a perfect book, but I found plenty of things to enjoy, and I'm so glad Stephen King is still writing and will hopefully continue to write for years to come.

Long days and pleasant nights!

[AndyBooks3]

Espero 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! 🤩

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 another is a billy-bumbler 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!

[Mark's endless quest]

DNF for now ( maybe pick it up later )

This is the third King book in a row I didn't finish, After 35 years anticipating , and always finishing his novels ( even the mediocre ones ) , King seems to slowly but steadily lost his 'magical hold' over me. I accept the Holly series just isn't my cuppa tea. But not being able to finishing a Dark Tower story is the final straw . I really don't know if it's me that changed or King's writing (probably a bit of both)
Even with all his flaws, I still used to be able to lose myself completely in King's tombs. But I really have a hard time getting trough this one,

King's strength used to be the way he makes the reader care about the protagonist. I don't like the latest two or three Holly stories, but I still felt sympathy for her as a character . However I can't relate to any of the characters in this novel. Also, what's with the 'tell not show'. Evetime Jack shows up, something has happened 'off screen' .When he arrives from the other side, he's always too late. He's been told what happened and off he goes again.

Oh well, I better put it aside for now , and maybe try it another time.

[B.E. Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, I really did.
The first adult novel I ever read was The Talisman when my sister gave it to me. The first adult novel I bought with my own money was The Black House.
What this book told me is that he needed Peter Straub to reign in his lore dumps because he leans on telling you too much about the first two books throughout, hoping you don't realize you're reading "Gunslinger 2.0 but Roland is now Jack."

Patton Oswalt is fine as the narrator, but the fact that one of the main characters is basically him... it kind of was annoying.

King hopes you're blinded by lore and nostalgia realize there isn't anything new, and yes while The Black House did say that the territories were in midworld... you only have Midworld now... the vibe of the first two is gone with Jack playing the role of Gunslinger instead of coppeiceman (Note: that's not a spoiler, that's a vibe)

[Cindi]

pre-order kindle and audible.

[Vanessa Kiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Talisman has been one of my very favorite books for years. I was very much looking forward to this unexpected third book but ended up being disappointed. It was very slow and plodding with not a whole lot happening. The ending was anticlimactic and such a let down. I did not enjoy this story. The characters, including Jack, for me were flat and overall annoying except for Richard.

[Jonathon Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect. Worth every year we waited

[Ray Palen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in 1984, two giants of the horror genre --- Stephen King and Peter Straub --- teamed for the first time to writer a novel that would eventually turn into a trilogy. THE TALISMAN introduced this to a young man named Jack Sawyer who discovered the ability to jump between worlds --- our world and the other place, which later was referred to as Mid-World. The two writers teamed up again for the follow-up, BLACK HOUSE in 2001, which pitted Jack against a brutal supernatural serial killer. Now, twenty-five years later, we finally get the eagerly awaited finale to the series, OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE.

Regrettably, we lost the great Peter Straub in 2022, but his contributions and spirit behind the characters and worlds he and Stephen King created together are fully on display in this lengthy and fast-paced finale that sees a middle-aged Jack Sawyer battling evil in both realms and a battle for the very soul of Mid-World. To further understand and fully appreciate this novel you need to get versed in the history of American spree killer and all-around psychopath Charles Starkweather. He and his young teen-aged girlfriend terrorized Nebraska in late 1957/early 1958 and left eleven bodies in their wake. This murder spree would later inspire the Oscar-nominated films Badlands and Natural Born Killers. Because Nebraska is the territory in the real world that Jack Sawyer jumps to, he gets to experience a murder spree by a demented young man and his young teen female accomplice that is directly influenced by the Starkweather case. The novel even opens with a quote attributed to Charles Starkweather: “Dead people are all on the same level.”

It is strange to see Jack Sawyer as a man in his fifties after first falling in love with the character forty-two years ago when he was portraying a boy with special abilities. Time has not been kind to Jack and his is somewhat disheveled and frumpy, not the sort of person you would expect to lead a battle for the control of an entire dimension. On earth he does not have much going on, but in Mid-World, the land also referred to as the Territories, he is revered and is bound together by fate and circumstance of ka-tet, a term that readers of both this series as well as King’s classic The Dark Tower novels, will clearly recognize. In fact, the inhabitants of that series --- like Roland the Gunslinger --- may very well exist in the same dimension as Jack Sawyer, which will make King’s loyal readers squeal with delight.

In America, the murder spree led by Roy Kinneston and his 13-year-old girlfriend are responsible for a number of deaths, most significant to Jack is the brutal murder of his friend, Sherriff Dale Gilbertson. In a nutshell, these two murderers may also be crossing over to the Mid-Lands and wreaking havoc. In addition to them, a band of zombified vampire-like infected teenagers are also blazing a path of destruction that threatens every resident of this realm. Similar to King’s classic THE STAND, two bands of opposing forces are on a collision course for a violent finale in the area known as Gullet at the edge of Mid-World. It is there where these dangerous, marauding teens will face off against Jack and small group of colleagues put together from the various Territories in Mid-World in a fight to the death.

The characters are what drive this story even more than the non-stop, often violent, action. In addition to Jack Sawyer, we have memorable figures like Big Kahuna Youngblood, Pay, Mary, a dog-like creature named Richard, and even the descendants of one of young Jack’s first comrades in Mid-World --- Wolf. Jack flips between the two realms so often your head will spin, but the significance of what he changes and impacts on each level are fully evident. In America, he is avenging his friend Dale, while in Mid-World he is the spiritual and physical leader in a war that possibly cannot be won.

The fact that there might be even more realms, or America-sides, than what we have been told is what brings significance to the term used for this novels’ title, OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE. It is a great, epic work by two of the most gifted authors of all time and a dark-fantasy saga that will appeal to both new and seasoned fans of this series and all of King and Straub’s legacy of transformative fiction.

Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter

[Adrian Santiago · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Una historia que combina muchas cosas, acción, criaturas, situaciones, lugares, personajes y menciones pero que a la vez te deja con ganas de más porque King ha pulido su forma de escribir donde la historia bien hubiera durado lo doble por todo lo que sucede y cómo solía escribir.

No es necesariamente algo malo, pero se pasa de una cosa a otra en cambios muy directos. Y no se diga la parte final, donde hay tantas cuestiones, "explosiones" y "finales" que de verdad no me lo creía. Dentro de la historia es muy buena, y definitivamente es más un homenaje o un eco a La Torre Oscura, más que una conclusión a El Talismán.

La historia se iba a formas que me recordaban a Under the Dome, los Langoliers o La Balsa, pero al final tuvo una propuesta nueva/diferente que fue igual de buena. Y fue genial que The Myst tenga peso así en la historia, no me lo esperaba. Y si no fuera por spoilers, se podría decir mucho más y me hubiera gustado desglosar esa parte.

La novela recuerda a Mad Max junto a los Killjoys (de MCR), y marcando la realidad como siempre: celulares, gente estúpida grabando en vez de hacer algo, gente "funando" a otros en vez de poner atención a sus hijos, polícias corruptos e ineptos, y la glorificación de asesinos seriales. Todo llevado a una historia que de verdad salió de la nada, pero es tan "realista" en el mundo de King que funciona meramente bien.

El final hace llorar, más si lees La Torre Oscura (que yo tengo toda la historia fresca porque apenas los acabé este año) y te imaginas el gran cierre y respuestas a incógnitas que hay sobre Jack y Roland, el Mundo Medio, los entes como el Rey Carmesí, qué pasó con la Torre y los Haces después de su historia, y cómo quedó el mundo o los mundos. Hay algunas cosas que me hacen preguntar cómo es que el mundo sabe que ocurrieron, y otras cuestiones lamentablemente se tocan pero ya no tienen un cierre como se hubiera esperado.

Para mí es el mejor libro de la trilogía de El Talismán, pero prácticamente es más una historia de La Torre Oscura que de Jack Sawyer. y como no fui fan de El Talismán creo que por éso me ha gustado el cambio en la propuesta. Necesitas leer y saber más de TDT que de The Talisman.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not entirely sure if this one is on me or the book, but Other Worlds Than These left me genuinely split. There are stretches I fell hard for—passages that felt electric, strange, and deeply tied to the larger King multiverse—and then there are long stretches that simply… didn’t hold me. I found myself drifting, waiting for the next spark.

Part of me wonders if my world has simply moved on. The Dark Tower references still hit like old friends showing up unannounced, and every one of them made me want to dive straight back into the series. I can already feel a full analytical reread brewing; there’s clearly more connective tissue here than I caught on a single pass.

For now, though, I’m settling at a solid 3. Loved parts of it, bored by others, and left with the distinct feeling that the Tower is still calling—just not quite as loudly as it used to.