Black House seems less a sequel to The Talisman that a rather forced attempt to bring the events of the Talisman in line with the world of the Dark Tower. It wasn’t a particularly deft handling. Those that have been long-time followers of King will notice that all of his recent works have ties to the DT and the DT itself is slowly but surely gathering the entire King ouevre into its arms. If King manages to pull all of his many works together into a single uberplot, which he seems to want to do with the DT, it will be quite remarkable. The attempt is audacious at least. I hope he can do it with more skill than he did with The Talisman/Black House or that future works help to make that connection stronger and clearer.
I read it, only because it’s Stephen King.
I loved the Talisman, but the second person present tense in The Black House was very annoying. I hate hate hate books told in the present tense (I don’t know why, I just do) and found this one hard going.
It’s in my collection, but I doubt I’ll be rereading it up again anytime soon.
It did a good job of creating mood, had several memorable characters (I loved the blind DJ and the bikers, the creepy old man wasn’t bad either), some vividly portrayed places (the deserted fast food stand, the hotel by the waterfront, the house itself, and the sheol-place).
Plot was weak. Sections of it were neither fun nor entertaining to read. I kept wanting to stick a lit M80 up Jack’s butt and get the show on the road. Kid wasn’t well-developed. Rushed in as an afterthought and much flatter and duller than most of the child-characters in King. The senior residence didn’t ring true. And, as is the case with lots and lots of King, I kept getting the feeling I was being teased with promises of things yet to come that were written at a time when the author himself hadn’t figured out what was yet to come, and felt like a cynical skeptic at the fair watching the huckster trying to convince the audience that something Really Great was gonna happen Any Moment Now.
Overall, beat hell out of Hearts in Atlantis and compared favorably to Insomnia and Dreamcatcher.