I confess that I didn't make it on my recent re-read attempt. :Originally Posted by R_of_G
I confess that I didn't make it on my recent re-read attempt. :
I actually found it a bit easier on re-read because I knew it was going to stop soon. It was still annoying though.
I'm hoping to make it when I try again this summer.
Well past the halfway point of The Talisman, so now I'm wondering. What do you guys think would be a good buffer novel for in between Talisman and Black House? For some reason I just don't want to read one after another.
The Dead Zone. It's as completely, absolutely different from both as can possibly be.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I read IT when I was 13 Slash. I think you might dig that. Relevant to youth in many ways, but I wouldn't want to spoil it.
I've read both the Dead Zone and IT, so none of those will do. Do you have any other suggestions?
Insomnia.
Have you read that one yet?
Damn good one.
Yes, but I suggest all other suggestions be made in the appropriate threads!
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uh..... GOOD IDEA!Yes, but I suggest all other suggestions be made in the appropriate threads!
God I love these books! They are my favorite, along with the DT series. Hard to pick which is best!
I actually thought he could well be Straub's. Mainly due to the musical nature of the character. Music (particularly Jazz) features quite strongly in Straub's books. A bit of a tenuous thing to base the character on, I know, but it's just my feeling. (On the other hand Henry was into Rock too, and that features qutie a bit in King books....)
Maybe he was as much a joint effort as the rest of the book.
Curously, on reading both books, I didn't really try to work out who wrote who. I hardly even noticed changes in style, etc.
Maybe because of being one of the coolest characters in King universe, I want him to be a King character... You can be right, though.I actually thought he could well be Straub's. Mainly due to the musical nature of the character. Music (particularly Jazz) features quite strongly in Straub's books. A bit of a tenuous thing to base the character on, I know, but it's just my feeling. (On the other hand Henry was into Rock too, and that features qutie a bit in King books....)
Maybe he was as much a joint effort as the rest of the book.
Curously, on reading both books, I didn't really try to work out who wrote who. I hardly even noticed changes in style, etc.
I've just started reading The Talisman again. It's intresting coming across little things I've forget each time. That little funnel in the sand for example, before the adventures in the Territories even began.
I just finished a Talisman re-read - and you're right! Amazing how much I'd forgotten in the years since the last read. Great story . . .
This collecting stuff is a sickness! ~Patrick
Damn straight.
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah
"soon" is a bit of an understatement. The worst opening ever, in my opinion. It goes on for three fucking chapters and Jack isn't even mentioned until page 69 in the paperback. Further, the first person plural language continues throughout until Jack finally shoots that goddamn bird during the last 50 pages. Gorg is one of the lamest gimmicks in the history of fiction. EAP on the mind, I get it, but there's better ways to appropriate The Raven. I'd rather have a buffalo take a dump in my ear than read one more line about that stupid fucking bird, particularly in Munshun's broken frenchman impersonating german impersonating a south chicago native's dialect. "Night's Plutonian Shore" as a chapter title is as far as it had to go.
That being said, Jack is still my favorite hero in the King universe. I'm about to finish the book again and several parts brought tears to my eyes again. I love that guy and I love Henry Leyden and Judy Marshall and "Beezer" and Dale.
I have some heavier thoughts, but I might save them for pms and I'm too drunk to hash them out right now.
Aaron was right about the development of Jack's character being well done. There was a lot I appreciated this time around that I might have accidentally overlooked a few years ago. In contrast, I didn't care for the "real" Parkus. Speedy was a damn finer character and I think this is what leaves me with the most negative impressions concerning the forced aspect of the DT tie ins. How am I supposed to supplant the beloved Speedy of the Talisman with the hardened gunslinger wannabe that we are forced to gaze upon in brief snippets? Utter bullshit. I hope he isn't a big part of the next novel. King and Straub took their sweet fucking time in introducing Jack which in the end made his adulthood and its accompanying changes more cohesive. Why couldn't they have given a little more space to developing Parkus? It came across as yet another "god machine" ploy to connect Jack to the DT universe. Fuck that. Earth, the Territories, and Jack Sawyer are more than enough for me just like The Gunslinger alone is in regards to the DT series.
I'm more excited about the prospect of a third novel than I ever was about the completion of the Dark Tower series truth be told, especially after Callahan's discovery in the cave at the end of Wolves. I just knew that meta crap was going to suck.
*happy sigh* That's so true, many of the finest characters of Sai King's dwell in those two novels. I can say no more but.. D'Yamba!"soon" is a bit of an understatement. The worst opening ever, in my opinion. It goes on for three fucking chapters and Jack isn't even mentioned until page 69 in the paperback. Further, the first person plural language continues throughout until Jack finally shoots that goddamn bird during the last 50 pages. Gorg is one of the lamest gimmicks in the history of fiction. EAP on the mind, I get it, but there's better ways to appropriate The Raven. I'd rather have a buffalo take a dump in my ear than read one more line about that stupid fucking bird, particularly in Munshun's broken frenchman impersonating german impersonating a south chicago native's dialect. "Night's Plutonian Shore" as a chapter title is as far as it had to go.
That being said, Jack is still my favorite hero in the King universe. I'm about to finish the book again and several parts brought tears to my eyes again. I love that guy and I love Henry Leyden and Judy Marshall and "Beezer" and Dale.
I have some heavier thoughts, but I might save them for pms and I'm too drunk to hash them out right now.
Aaron was right about the development of Jack's character being well done. There was a lot I appreciated this time around that I might have accidentally overlooked a few years ago. In contrast, I didn't care for the "real" Parkus. Speedy was a damn finer character and I think this is what leaves me with the most negative impressions concerning the forced aspect of the DT tie ins. How am I supposed to supplant the beloved Speedy of the Talisman with the hardened gunslinger wannabe that we are forced to gaze upon in brief snippets? Utter bullshit. I hope he isn't a big part of the next novel. King and Straub took their sweet fucking time in introducing Jack which in the end made his adulthood and its accompanying changes more cohesive. Why couldn't they have given a little more space to developing Parkus? It came across as yet another "god machine" ploy to connect Jack to the DT universe. Fuck that. Earth, the Territories, and Jack Sawyer are more than enough for me just like The Gunslinger alone is in regards to the DT series.
I'm more excited about the prospect of a third novel than I ever was about the completion of the Dark Tower series truth be told, especially after Callahan's discovery in the cave at the end of Wolves. I just knew that meta crap was going to suck.
P.S. Well written, sai Ryan!
"...neither the stupid jokes nor the easy surface emotions were the truth of Cuthbert Allgood."
I agree with you there Ryan. I prefer Talisman Speedy to Black House's version of Parkus. I think the subtle connections of "The Territories" to DT universe work just fine in the Talisman, but with Black House he tried to force some of them in there and it feels that way at times. He could have dropped a lot of it without losing the element he needed to further the DT plot, the destruction of the CK's forge and how that theoretically affects the CK's power. Munshun gets breakers for the King. Got it. No need to try to tie every element of the story into Roland's world. We get it.
It would have been fine to have the tie ins as you've stated them, but he went too far, particularly in regards to Parkus as I've stated. I'm a little surprised that we're in agreement on this particular subject.I agree with you there Ryan. I prefer Talisman Speedy to Black House's version of Parkus. I think the subtle connections of "The Territories" to DT universe work just fine in the Talisman, but with Black House he tried to force some of them in there and it feels that way at times. He could have dropped a lot of it without losing the element he needed to further the DT plot, the destruction of the CK's forge and how that theoretically affects the CK's power. Munshun gets breakers for the King. Got it. No need to try to tie every element of the story into Roland's world. We get it.Personally, I'd rather have had another adventure in the Territories rather than All World. I guess we'll see in the next book. I know that Aaron was psyched about the prospect of Jack rescuing Roland from the loop, but I don't think Roland needs rescuing and I'm sure you know why I think that. I just want something else in the vein of the Talisman.
D'Yama! dear.
*happy sigh* That's so true, many of the finest characters of Sai King's dwell in those two novels. I can say no more but.. D'Yamba!
P.S. Well written, sai Ryan!
I reading Black House right now, but I have never read the Talisman (somehow I didn't know it was the first of the two books, I thought they stood on their own). Is it a big deal for me to read them out of order? I know king probably makes most of his books appropriate to read alone...unlike the DT series. I don't know I am about a third into Black House and I am really enjoying it! It's actually an easier read to me than IT, I am finding myself thinking about the book when I can't read it and wanting more.
"The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them."
-Orson Scott Card
I think they can be read separately, but personally I'd stop and start with the Talisman first.
really? you'd stop? man I'm like 2/3s or more into it...
"The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them."
-Orson Scott Card
Both books are very good, but The Talisman for me is one of those, you know the books that stay with you. I enjoyed rereading both, as I do. My short term memory loss isn't what it used to be, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make..anyway..what was the question..Oh, I was saying when I reread them, I liked Black House more after I had read it, then filled my word need with unrelated books,then went back to it. I have a theory, and it is that going into Black House I had that same expectation, held it up to an unattainable level of awesomness. Yep.
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