The Talisman

Ich hatte das Buch mit 15 schon mal auf Deutsch aus der Stadtbücherei ausgeliehen und alles vergessen bis auf zwei Einzelheiten, von denen eine im Buch nicht mal vorkommt. Die Zweitlektüre fand auf Vorschlag von Aleks Scholz in einem gather.town-Raum namens "Das Hundeohr" statt, wobei Aleks per Screensharing seine Kindle-Ansicht teilte. Das ist insgesamt zweimal zu oft, denn in diesem Buch funktioniert fast gar nichts, selbst wenn man großzügig in Rechnung stellt, dass beim Genre "Queste mit Elixier und Gral" vieles nicht so plausibel zu sein braucht. Mittelgroße Teile der Handlung werden sinnlos nacherzählt, die Schreiblust oder Tagesform der beiden Autoren ist höflich gesagt sehr schwankend, die Schurken kommen bei Bedarf aus einer Schachtel und halten danach wieder wochenlang still, Frauen gibt es überhaupt nicht außer in Gestalt der zu rettenden Mutter, und durch alles schwappt ein dubioses Interesse an den Penissen zwölfjähriger Jungs. Aber wir haben starrsinnig durchgehalten bis zum Ende, 700 Seiten lang. Manche von den Seiten waren okay.

This book was interesting to read from a historical perspective, because of the trajectory of both King and Straub's careers. In some ways, it feels like a trial run for both Straub's Shadowland and King's It (both of which would come out only a few years later); in other ways, it shares elements from The Stand and Ghost Story that otherwise don't show up much in these authors' respective ouvres. So, it's kind of a missing-link book.

It's also a historically important book, because (as Matthew Kirschenbaum notes in Track Changes, his cultural history of word processing) it is the first published book to be collaborated upon electronically. King and Straub were both early adopters of consumer word processing technology, and though they used different types of machines, they had a highly technical friend set up modems and a format converter and they swapped revisions once a day over the phone lines. As with Bruce Sterling and William Gibson's later collaboration on The Difference Engine, they successively went over each others' prose until it blended, and so parts of this book feel very King and parts feel very Straub and occasionally they feel like both, but they never are entirely recognizable.

That said, for all its length, The Talisman doesn't contain a lot of genuinely new-feeling content. It manages to feel extremely modern, which King and Straub's other books from this period don't, but it also feels like a rehash of ideas done better in their other books. It is also a portal fantasy, with a twist that is not as original as the authors seem to think and whose relatively limited potential is nevertheless squandered by a focus on other things. Also, if you are uneasy with some of King and Straub's more problematic fixations, they are here in full force: one major plot point involves not just a magical negro martyring himself for a white boy but the fact that said white boy cannot tell old black men apart; another involves this boy balancing his need to hitchhike with being completely irresistible to gay men. Ultimately, this book also has what might be the most anticlimactic ending of either King or Straub's career.

I recommend this book to completionists or folks who are interested in the career history of these giants of horror fiction, but not to folks who want a scary yarn -- because it ain't that interesting and it ain't that scary.

I first read this book when I was much younger, and at that time I loved it. On this re-read, however, I found it a little less enthralling. I think the book is longer than it needs to be - it could have used some heavier editing to improve the pacing. Even so, I did still enjoy re-reading it... Just not as much as I'd expected to.

The characters are still great, and I love the concept of the two intertwined worlds, and 'Twinners', although it seemed to me that the mechanics of 'flipping' between worlds for the Twinners was written inconsistently.

I think perhaps this is a novel best suited to be read by younger readers, who still have their sense of childish wonder intact. That said, Jack's adventures take him into some VERY dark situations which maybe aren't all that suitable for young readers.

I'm not sure how much of the story and writing was King's and how much was Straub's, especially since I'm not familiar with Straub's writing. It did feel very like a Stephen King novel - but not, in my opinion, one of his best.

I have mixed feelings about this book now. I almost wish I hadn't re-read it. Since my main reason for doing so was in preparation for reading the sequel, I can only hope that it proves to be worth the effort.

I was torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars - I really want to give it 3.5. In the end I left it as 4 stars, for the enjoyment it gave me the first time around.