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Complete Talisman series by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Chris Well

Stephen King photo by Shane Leonard. Peter Straub photo by Kyle Cassidy.

“I like the idea of horror,” Peter Straub says, “the purpose of which is to speak truths otherwise ignored or suppressed.”

A look behind the scenes of the blockbuster series co-written by horror fiction masters Stephen King and Peter Straub.

The Talisman dark fantasy series revolves around a man who discovers a parallel universe while looking for the talisman that can cure all. The books were co-written by Stephen King and Peter Straub, both authors considered masters of the horror genre. The books have become noteworthy for being popular among those interested in medieval stories, fantasy fiction, and stories about the dead.

Straub talked to The Book Smugglers about how collaborating with King compared to writing a book on his own. “With Steve King, the difference is liked being carried along in a big, perfectly-tuned Italian sports car capable of hitting 150 without getting the shakes and humping along on a touchy old motorcycle that slams into every bump and hole and conks out every ten miles or so. That’s the difference, pretty much. I’m the old motorcycle.”

Straub talks to Locus Mag about what he thinks of horror fiction. “I don’t read much horror, though I like the idea of horror, the idea of a nasty, subversive genre, the purpose of which is to upend conventional ideas of good taste, and to speak truths otherwise ignored or suppressed. I think that’s really worthy. I’d like to see a little more of it. Good works of horror are immensely impressive. There’s some of Joyce Carol Oates’s stories. There’s the best of Stephen King’s work, which is breathtaking. One sees fine work being done. One also sees a great deal of second-rate or unfelt or inferior work.”

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How the Talisman series got started

When King moved with his family to London in early 1977, he met Straub and his family. The two writers—both fans of each other’s fiction—became friends and began talking about the idea of co-writing something. After King returned to the United States, and the Straubs also moved to the U.S., they began collaborating. They wrote the first two books, and began planning a third book. Unfortunately, the third book never happened.

About Stephen King

The author of such popular horror novels as The Stand and The Shining and ’Salem’s Lot (not to mention the epic Dark Towers series) and SO MANY MORE, Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories.

In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers.

King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.

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About Peter Straub

Born in Milwaukee, Peter Straub (1943-2022) was a novelist and poet who wrote numerous popular horror and supernatural fiction novels. His books include Ghost Story, Mr. X, Floating Dragon, Shadowland, the Blue Rose trilogy, and Julia. He teamed up with Stephen King to co-write the novels The Talisman and Black House. Straub also wrote a collection of short stories, Magic Terror.

Straub received such literary honors as the International Horror Guild Award. He won the British Fantasy Award, two Bram Stoker Awards and two World Fantasy awards. Straub passed away on September 4, 2022 at the age of 79.

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Adapting to other media

Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers are developing a series based on King’s and Straub’s novel The Talisman for Netflix. The series will be a joint production between Upside Down Pictures, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television. Curtis Gwinn, who is a writer and co-executive producer on Stranger Things, will act as head writer and showrunner on the series.

Comparing The Talisman and Stranger Things, Matt Duffer said that The Talisman has “much more fantasy. It has sci-fi. It has horror elements. It has a lot of heart. It has everything that we love. And it’s got the best werewolf character I think, ever.”

Complete Talisman series by Stephen King and Peter Straub

The Talisman (Book 1)

The iconic, “extraordinary” (The Washington Post) collaboration between bestselling authors Stephen King and Peter Straub—an epic thriller about a young boy’s quest to save his mother’s life.

Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman—the only thing that can save Jack’s dying mother. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States but also through the wondrous and menacing parallel world of the Territories.

In the Territories, Jack finds another realm, where the air is so sweet and clear a man can smell a radish being pulled from the ground a mile away—and a life can be snuffed out instantly in the continuing struggle between good and evil. Here Jack discovers “Twinners,” reflections of the people he knows on earth—most notably Queen Laura, the Twinner of Jack’s own imperiled mother. As Jack “flips” between worlds, making his way westward toward the redemptive Talisman, a sequence of heart-stopping encounters challenges him at every step.

An unforgettable epic of adventure and resounding triumph, The Talisman is one of the most influential and highly praised works of fantasy ever written.

Find The Talisman at Amazon

Black House (Book 2)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of The Talisman, “an intelligent…suspenseful page-turner” (The Wall Street Journal) from “two master craftsmen, each at the top of his game” (The Washington Post).

Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her Territories “Twinner” from an agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world. Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the nearly nonexistent hamlet of Tamarack, Wisconsin.

He has no recollection of his adventures in the Territories, and was compelled to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to awaken those memories.

When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades ago by a madman named Albert Fish, the killer is dubbed “the Fishman,” and Jack’s buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help the inexperienced force find him.

But are these new killings merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleashed in this quiet town? What causes Jack’s inexplicable waking dreams—if that is what they are—of robins’ eggs and red feathers? It’s almost as if someone is trying to tell him something.

As this cryptic message becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, Jack is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he may find the soul-strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted tract of forest, there to encounter the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it.

Find Black House at Amazon

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