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 DeLoessian, 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.
"Gripping...immensely satisfying." --Los Angeles Times
"A classic...rare and dazzling...a journey to rival the greatest adventure stories ever told." --New York Daily News
"Surpassing the expectations created by their separate past work, The Talisman astounds, mesmerizes, terrifies, and fulfills the reader . . . Seamlessly written...a grand novel." --Publishers Weekly
Praise for STEPHEN KING:
"An undisputed master of suspense and terror." --The Washington Post
"Stephen King knows exactly what scares you most. . . ." --Esquire
"King probably knows more about scary goings-on in confined, isolated places than anybody since Edgar Allan Poe." --Entertainment Weekly
"America's greatest living novelist." --Lee Child
Praise for PETER STRAUB:
"You expect the horrifying in the fiction of Peter Straub . . . and you get it." --The New York Times
"Straub deploys a host of voices that cajole and whisper and talk to you from the darkness." --Neil Gaiman
"Straub is a master of genre-bending horror and suspense." --Publishers Weekly
"One of the most successful practitioners ever of the art of scary stories." --John Crowley