The Talisman (King and Straub novel)

Did You Know?

• The Talisman was adapted into a 2008 short film and a graphic novel; only six of a planned 24 issues were published.
• A feature film was in development by Amblin Partners and The Kennedy/Marshall Company before being cancelled.
• In 2021, Amblin planned a Netflix television series with the Duffer Brothers, but in December 2025 the Duffer Brothers confirmed the series would not happen at Netflix.

Plot

Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer and his mother, actress Lily Cavanaugh, relocate from California to Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire, to escape the machinations of his deceased father's former business partner, Morgan Sloat. Lily, dying of lung cancer, refuses treatment and contact with Morgan. Jack meets a maintenance man named Speedy Parker, who tells him about a parallel world called the Territories and a magical item, the Talisman, that can heal his mother.

The Talisman is hidden in the Agincourt, the Territories counterpart of the Alhambra Hotel where Jack and his mother are staying. Individuals in the Territories have twinners, or counterparts, in the real world; major life events usually occur in parallel. Twinners can flip between worlds by occupying their counterpart's body. Jack, who becomes single-natured after a death in one world but not the other, can flip freely.

Speedy is the twinner of Parkus, a lawmaker in the Territories. Queen Laura of the Territories, twinner of Lily, is also dying. Jack journeys to find the Talisman, aided by Captain Farren, and encounters Osmond, a sadistic henchman of Morgan of Orris, the Territories counterpart of Morgan Sloat.

Publication history

The idea for The Talisman originated when Stephen King moved to London in early 1977 and met Peter and Susan Straub. The two writers became friends and discussed collaborating, but nothing materialized until after King returned to the United States and the Straubs also moved there. They began working together, and their literary friendship continued after publication. In 1999 they started work on the sequel Black House, published in 2001. That book retcons the Territories as a parallel to All-World, a connection reinforced in King's introduction to The Little Sisters of Eluria.

Locations

When Jack flips, he enters a physically smaller parallel world. He uses the size difference to travel quickly across the country. The eastern region, corresponding to the Eastern Seaboard, is densely populated and governed feudally by a queen. The central plains, called the Outposts, grow grain.

The western Blasted Lands, analogous to the American Southwest, were wrecked by radioactivity and contain mutants and fireballs. Jack begins his quest at the decaying Alhambra Hotel on the New Hampshire coast, whose Territories counterpart is the queen's summer palace. Nearby is Arcadia Funworld, a decrepit theme park where Speedy works. A bar in the fictional town of Oatley, New York, appears.

Jack meets his friend Richard at a boarding school in Springfield, Illinois. The Talisman is held in a mysterious black hotel in Point Venuti, California, which appears as a black castle in the Territories and shifts forms to reveal other worlds.

Reception

The publisher spent $550,000 promoting the book. The hardcover was number one on the New York Times bestseller list for twelve weeks and stayed on the list for twenty-three. Critics gave mixed reviews. Kirkus described it as pretentious and verbose but noted gripping parts. The New York Times faulted it for combining King’s brand-name obsession and pop-culture junk with Straub’s literary self-consciousness and overly complex magic.