Black House [Paperback]

To start with, the third person narative style, whereby the author is seemingly taking you by the hand and leading you through the book like some lost child is EXTREMELY tedious. Every time I felt the book lean in that direction, I could almost feel myself cringe. "Now lets go see whats happening here boys and girls." I am sorry, but if the Mr. Rogers analogy doesn't indicate what age group that style of writing is geared for, I am not certain what will.

Secondly, there was no real apprehension in this book. I never felt the type of genuine concern that is supposed to be instilled onto the reader when characters in the novel are in peril. The book seemed to just slowly trudge from one page to the next as our protaganist moved forward in his quest.

Finally, this book was clearly nothing more than sheer marketting. A way for King to generate additional revenue by bringing in the tie in to his Dark Tower series. (Which I am also reading by the way)

The ironic thing is that The Talisman (which Black House is the sequel to) was my all time favorite King novel. It was a taut, suspenseful and thoroughly enjoyable novel. Fortunately, Black House's drivel did not tarnish my minds image of it since other than the resurgance of the main character (who was a young boy in the first novel) is the only real linking point. That, and the concept of the alternate universe, "The Territories" which is now the underlying premise in the Dark Tower series.

For die hard King fans, I think you may want to leave this one on the shelf. I am not sure who to cast the blame on, King or Straub, but it is more than evident that the writing style is clearly NOT King.

At first I really had my doubts about this book. The first 75 pages are just introducing the characters of Coule County in French Landing, Wisconsin. It moves very slowly. Also, the narrative that King and Straub use, can be slightly confusing. They actually put the reader in the story. However, after it gets past the speedbumb in the beginning, it is almost as good as The Talisman. I rarely come across a sequel that lives up to the first novel, but "Black House" is very worthy and a highly enjoyable read. Once again King and Straub use great character development to make all of their characters enjoyable. The general consensus on "Black House", is that a lot of people did not like the book. The main complaint that people have, is that it did not involve The Territories enough. I think that this makes perfect sense however. They bring the reader back into The Territories slowly because he is a grown man now. The Territories were focused on a lot in "The Talisman" because of Jack discovering them for the first time, and more importantly because he was a boy. Stephen King and Peter Straub don't focus on the Territories as much, because Jack is not 13 anymore. I also liked how the story has Jack's quest into the Territories, be important to everyone, and not just him personally. This puts the story on a much grander scale.

As much as I liked the book however, I had two complaints. The first, was that elements from The Dark Tower books were used in the story. I have never read any of the Dark Tower novels, and I found that aspect of the story to be a tad bit confusing. The second was that Straub and King actually warn the reader that the last 20 pages of the story, are dissapointing. I would have liked it better , if they would have just let it flow, instead of putting up a warning sign.

"Black House" does have it flaws. In my opinion however, it is a very worthy sequel, and I highly enjoyed it. If you are willing to accept that "Black House" is a seperate story and not a direct continuation, then you will appreciate the story very much. The good news is that Stephen King and Peter Straub left the story open for another sequel, and they are talking about making the Jack Sawyer saga into a trilogy!!