The Talisman

By: Stephen King, Peter Straub

Narrated by: Frank Muller

On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm.

One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin....

©2001 Simon & Schuster; 2001 Stephen King and Peter Straub

Critic reviews

Audie Award Winner, Fiction (unabridged), 2002

"A classic...rare and dazzling...a journey to rival the greatest adventure stories ever told." ( New York Daily News)

"Extraordinary...makes your hair stand on end." ( The Washington Post)

Narrator sounded tired.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Narrators whispery voice.

What did you like best about this story?

Easy to follow. (for an SK book)

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Frank Muller?

Craig Wassor

Any additional comments?

Slow start and the guys voice didn't make it easy to get thru the first chapter. But of course for Stephan King I endured it.

NICELY DONE

Although you can hear the change of authors' voices in this work, the adventure itself runs in overdrive, and is worth the trip. There are some Stephen King cliches in here, but it is easy to relate to his "child in danger" hero. Wonderful descriptive text and magical insights on subjects ranging from illegal child labor to the mentality of good werewolves keeps the story's characterizations alive despite a somehwat expected ending. The bad guys are over the top bad, and the good ones almost saintly in common virtue, so there's no fuzzy morality or anti-heroic types here. Pure fun, well read, and worth the 24 discs I had to burn it on to make my commute entertaining!

The Narrator is GREAT!

I believe the narration of this book is wonderful. The narrator has narrated other King novels, and I understand why King picks him, he gives the flavor that King is looking for in his books, a flare for the dramatic, sense of humor and an underlying sense that the work doesn't take itself too seriously. Perfect!

Dark Tower practice

*****SPOILER PRESENT******

I just finished the Dark Tower series and where those books feature the "Dark Tower" this features the "Black Hotel". Also, flipping between worlds and a quest just sounded way too familiar. I really felt I had just finished this book even before I read it and this one just wasn't as good.

Skip it and read the Dark Tower series instead. You won't have missed anything..honest.

Good Story....Read by Todd Barry?

As a Stephen King lover, I have owned this paperback for years and have started and stopped quite a few times. I decided to use a credit on it...otherwise, with all due respect Frank, I wouldve stopped again in the first chapter. If you're a stand-up fan, you'll no doubt feel like you're getting roasted at a Todd Barry crowd-work set.

Every sentence seemed sarcastic and over the top like you would read someone a text from your mother-in-law. (My wife walked in while I was listening for a minute without earbuds and asked why I was listening to Little Nicky read)

While he calmed down toward the later chapters and there were some amusing charactor squeals, other than his ok Scatman Crothers impression, he has talked me out of using precious credits on the Dark Tower series...looks like he whines and whispers his way through the whole series. Dammit. Good story, longwinded ending, had to concentrate not to tune out the whole book.

A little over the top, but overall: good listening

First King/Straub book I've listened to (read some others). As some other reviewers here have pointed out, the authors can get a little long in description, which, in my opinion, slows the pace and momentum of the story. I was told once, by a writing teacher, to show, not tell...I don't think King or Straub had this professor or agrees with this view. I'm all for getting inside the head of the character, to discover their feelings and emotions at their moments of greatest import, but this story went a little over the top: in three or four sentences they described a location or character's mindset, but, for some odd reason, stretched the same description out for whole paragraphs, even though the point had been made--very strange (almost as if they were being paid by the word, as in the dime novel days...).
Miller's characterizations are quite good and his voice is easy to listen to, especially important given the length of this story.
Despite some purple prose and drawn out scenes, I would recommend this to a fellow listener.

Pretty good story!

This was a really fun story to listen to. I gave the performance 1 star because the guy’s voice was super distracting, every last word of each sentence had the same downward fluctuation. I love Stephen King’s books, but for some reason, this book had so much unnecessary vulgar talk of penises and other sexual innuendos that add nothing to the story. Kinda lame. I know there’s a sequel, but I probably won’t listen to it.

pretty good I suppose

the narrators voice is annoying, my friend told me this was her favorite King book so I gave it a shot, and uh...kinda dissapointed

Great listen

I have loved this book since I bought it in the early 90s in paperback. This is the first time I listened to the book. I loved it even more. This is my all time favorite Stephen King book. I have not read much by Peter Straub but love this piece of work. I would describe this story as fantasy. It really takes you in. I sometimes found myself planning on listening for 10 or 15 minutes at a time and ended up listening for over a hour. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story.

God Pounding Amazing!!!!

this is my favorite book of all time. it's like an epic journey every time I read it. I love this series!!