The Talisman

By: Stephen King, Peter Straub

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 28 hrs

Publisher's summary

On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm.

One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin....

©2001 Simon & Schuster; 2001 Stephen King and Peter Straub

Critic reviews

Audie Award Winner, Fiction (unabridged), 2002

"A classic...rare and dazzling...a journey to rival the greatest adventure stories ever told." ( New York Daily News)

"Extraordinary...makes your hair stand on end." ( The Washington Post)

Excellent book

This is a classic. Audio and text are amazing. Check out the sequel too.

Great story, action, humor, horror, coming of age..

poor wolf

wolf's death really broke my heart but I enjoyed the story and his brother loved CCR

Excellentay!!!!!

Delivers as always! Highly recommend! Read the book, it freaking rocks! and it is awesomeness inall it's glory.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

I just loved this book even though I've read it many times before. A must read for the whole family.

My Favorite Book

I have read this book multiple times since my teenage years. The Talisman has been my favorite book for ages. Listening to Frank Muller read was like revisiting an old friend with a bit of a twist on my point of view. I very much like Frank's narration and voices.

Great book

An exciting journey start to finish. I can't wait to listen to the next book.

Enjoyable

What made the experience of listening to The Talisman the most enjoyable?

After a slow start, the story was compelling. I enjoyed it so much that, when I reached the end and found that the book had not completely downloaded, I was frustrated because I wanted to know how the story ended.

Did Frank Muller do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Muller did as good a job as was possible given the wide range of characters. I found that I had to get used to his voice. I was irritated with his voice in the beginning of the book and stopped several times before I finally got into the story.

Who was the most memorable character of The Talisman and why?

Wolf was for me the most memorable. His loyalty to Jack was unquestioning. He taught Jack a lot about unconditional love.

Outstanding writing and narration

It really, really surprises me when I read reviews that felt that the narration was bad. I thought Mr. Muller did an oustanding job and I am now listening to Black House, which is equally well narrated. This is a great book and I would highly recommend it.

For Jason's sake!! That was epic!

That was a well done quest book! Memorable characters and plausible scenarios make it great.

Frank Muller as always, gave a hilarious and perfect performance.

My only real grip was that it was just a bit too long, other then that it was a more then satisfactory.

Jack and Wolf were a great team and I found myself really caring for both of them.
It could be a suspenseful story and it had a lot of sub-plots and felt like there were many stories within the main one. I also think a big strength of this book is actually the simple save-his- mom plot. As much as it got off track at times, I never lost sight of the main quest and plot point which was always a breath of fresh air.

I appreciate the references in The Dark Tower to this and I'll have to reread where they talked about Jack Sawyer.

Also, the character Speedy reminded me a bit of Scatman Crothers 😄👍🏼

Epic Journey across a different land

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you like The Stand, Lord of the Rings or The Dark Tower then you MUST listen to this one. The usual darkness of King, there are definitely a lot of moments of victory for the characters though.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Talisman?

I love Wolf!

What about Frank Muller’s performance did you like?

I have never heard a performance by Muller that was bad. I am always pleasantly surprised at how he seems to capture the essence of the stories that he reads...no matter the genre