ZarkSeven

Hot on the heels of finishing The Talisman on audio, I started up the sequel, Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub, as my next audiobook selection.  Black House picks up the story of Jack Sawyer when he’s all grown up.  He’s now a retired copisman… err, cop who once solved  a murder in French Landing, Wisconsin, and decided to retire early and move there just prior to the start of child kidnappings and murders in the scenic, sleepy town.

So did this sequel, written by King and Straub 17 years after the first book was published, live up to the original?

LIKED

Dark Tower Universe.  Being a huge fan of the Dark Tower novels, I picked The Tailisman and Black House to read for two reasons.  First, the same people that make the excellent comics of The Stand and The Dark Tower are prepping for a new series on The Talisman, and I figured I better finish the novel(s) first.  Second, I read that there was a connection to the Dark Tower series in the books.  The Talisman had very connection if any, but Black House… wow!  Huge, huge Dark Tower connections.

Henry Leyden.  Probably the most fully formed character in the novel is more like four characters in one, with his radio personalities “Henry Shake,” “Symphonic Stan,” “The Wisconsin Rat” and “George Rathbun.”  I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a character that wasn’t the main protagonast in a book in quite awhile.  While other characters like Beezer St. Pierre were unique and stand out, none were as well defined as Henry.  His actions play heavily into the plot, and King and Straub tried hard to really make the reader care about Henry.  Even a blind man could see that.

NOT SO MUCH

The first 100 pages.  Ok, I listened to the unabridged audio, so I don’t know how many pages it was, but the first part of the book was really slow.  There was a lot of character introduction and not a whole lot of story.  When the story did pick up, it took off fairly rapidly, but it took awhile to get there.

Didn’t feel like a sequel.  For reasons that are fully explained in the novel, there is very little acknowledgement in the first half of the book that there was a previous story about Jack Sawyer.  He could have been a brand new character.  Then when the past story did enter the plot, it was very selective.  You really got a limited view of the Territories in The Talisman.  And you got even less from the sequel.  It’s not that I didn’t like what we did get.  It’s that my expectation was far different from reality.

RECOMMEND?

This is a tough one.  If you are a Dark Tower fan… yes.  You should enjoy the connections to Roland’s world.  If you read and enjoyed The Talisman… yes.  It’s definitely not the same type of book, but you should enjoy the further adventures of Jack Sawyer.  If you are a Stephen King and/or Peter Straub fan… yes, although I might recommend other books by those authors first.  If you are just looking to pick up a book and don’t qualify for any of the above… maybe.  You might enjoy it, but you’d get much more out of it being one of the above as well.

If you’re an audiobook fan… I can’t say enough about the audiobook version read by Frank Muller.  He did the unabridged reading of The Talisman as well, so it’s nice to have the continuity there.  And he describe a pile of dog poo and make it sound appealing.  Probably even give it a voice that would make you think that’s what dog poo would really sound like.  Often when I listen to other narrators, it will remind me of how good Frank was.