Guardian review calls new Jack Sawyer novel a strained close to the Talisman trilogy
Other Worlds Than These, the third book in the series Stephen King began writing with Peter Straub in 1984, has been reviewed by the Guardian, which finds flashes of the original's power but faults the new novel for repetitiveness.
Other Worlds Than These is the concluding volume of the trilogy King and Straub began with The Talisman in 1984, continued with Black House in 2001, and now close with this new book, according to the Guardian and the New York Times, both of which published reviews on Tuesday.
The Talisman followed 12-year-old Jack Sawyer as he crossed between our world and a parallel realm called the Territories to find a magical object that could save his dying mother. Black House brought Jack back as an adult investigating child murders tied to the same other world. The Guardian's reviewer, who reread both earlier novels in preparation, calls them 'brilliant and enduring classics' that remain on their bookshelves.
Of the new book, the same reviewer writes that Jack Sawyer's return brings 'moments of shivering joy' but that the journey this time feels 'endlessly repetitive,' concluding that the finale is self-indulgent. The New York Times also reviewed the novel but its summary gives no further detail beyond confirming it as the trilogy's last volume.
No French publication date or translated title has been reported for Other Worlds Than These. French-language readers of the series have so far known it through existing translations of Le Talisman and Maison Lugubre.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
