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The Talisman  By  cover art

The Talisman

By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
Narrated by: Frank Muller
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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)

Featured Article: We're Your #1 Fans—A Stephen King Character Guide


With a mind-boggling portfolio of 62 novels and more than 200 short stories (and counting!), Stephen King undeniably reigns supreme over literary horror. From Danny Torrance to the dreaded Pennywise, check out some of his most iconic characters with this comprehensive look. (But beware: there are spoilers ahead! So, much like when you press play on a Stephen King audiobook, you should proceed with caution.)

What listeners say about The Talisman

Average customer ratings
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Stephen King read by Frank Muller is BEST

Classic King tale, read beautifully. If you enjoy Stephen King, you'll love this one. Great.

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Better then expected

This started a bit slow but then I couldn’t put the book down.
Definitely recommend!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

once upon time....

Any one who loves fairy tales will love this great story..... And like an fairy tale there is more than enough evil ,darkness and goodness here to make this a great story. There are also many similarities to Stephen Kings Dark Tower books.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not my favorite book

Struggled to finish. So much detail , it became confusing but, Love Stephen King books!

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Still one of my favorites

What a great story of perseverance and love. Loved it the first time I read it as a young teen and now as an adult.

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  • DP
  • 03-30-23

A high tier work for either author

This book isn't perfect - it's divided into a more episodic structure than most of the authors' works, and some of the parts work better than others. But that doesn't really matter much, most of the pieces work, and they're some of my favorites from either author. Just a really fascinating journey with interesting characters and one of the more enchanting ideas for a parallel world in these types of books. Just a lot of very solid material here.

The other fascinating component is reading this in light of how all of King's Dark Tower played out. It's old enough that it's not explicitly a part of that on its own terms, it predates the whole unified concept except for the very first book in the series. But it feels like a primary source for how that series would eventually represent parallel worlds, and many of the encounters in the second half feel very much like inspiration for how the series would handle things from those places impinging on the more mundane "real world". So, it's already a great story, but doubly interesting when going back to read it after with how the whole Dark Tower concept developed over the subsequent decades. Just a very strong recommend all around.

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Awesome tale

It was a great read, especially in 2023. This kid and me were about the same age when he went on this adventure so he’s my age now roughly. Kind of fun to go back and relive some of the simpler times this kid had and the great adventure.
Thanks Stephen king . I still think you’re one of America’s greatest story tellers
ever.

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Excellent

A story of a boy but with all the most fascinating parts of adult life in it. Very entertaining and a great narration.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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narrator's voice

had a hard time listening because of the narrator's voice and his long pauses, and how he speaks so fast but drags out the very last word of every sentence.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

This was terrible. Droning on and on.

Struggled to finish. Very hard to follow the story line at times. Introduced characters and themes that didn't seem needed. I like a lot of his work, but not this. I think people gave it great ratings just because it's King 👑

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