Black House.....Commentary, Opinions?

Cafe Society
1

Just picked this up Sunday. Two of my favorite writers, a sequel to one of my favorite stories! I had to buy it. The 30% discount helped too.

Some background information for those who have no idea what I am babbling about: Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub, sequel to The Talisman from back in 1984. The Talisman was a story of a 12 year old boy, Jack Sawyer and his journey to save his mother. This journey took him through America and a parallel America full of magic and monsters that he ended up hopping in and out of. He ends up saving his mother. Black House takes place twenty years after the events in The Talisman, with Jack a retired detective who has blacked out his memories from The Talisman.

So…to those of you who are eagerly devouring this book, what do you think? Does it meet your expectations or does it disappoint?

As for me, I’m about 150 pages into it. Keeping it spoiler free, I will say I like it. Gruesome at times, but very gripping. I keep feverishly turning pages. The writing style is interesting, with both voices coming through on and off. I’m hard pressed to tell if they are trying to ape one another’s style or if they are handling different things in the story. Either way, it took me a few pages to get into the story, but once I did, hoo boy…

2

just picked it up last night, only about 50 pages in. writing style is excellent so far. i wish they had included a map of coulee country, though. i hate books where the topography of the world in which the story takes place is important, and they say things like “turning east on main street, we go three blocks to porter, where we turn south…” just put a map in, already!!! but then, i’m a gamer at heart, so i always want a map.:smiley:

3

Well, I finished this the other day, so I thought I would add some final comments. Perhaps now that the book has been out a couple of weeks, there will be some other people reading it. By the way nwz, there is a map at http://www.blackhouse.com. It’s not exactly the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it might help you out. I agree the whole expansive direction led discription of the area and people could probably have been done better and in a more clear way, but then again I could be wrong.

Anyhoo. Black House.

Positives: [ul]
[li]Terrific, driving narrative. A real page-turner once you get past the whole introduction to the town and its denizens.[/li][li]Some pretty interesting supporting characters (Uncle Henry, Beezer St. Pierre)[/ul][/li]
Negatives: [ul]
[li]Ending is VERY anticlimatic. No spoilers, but lets just say there is a lot of buildup that doesn’t really go anywhere and the main baddies are way too easily dispatched, especially on their home turf.[/li][li]Not enough time in the Territories. Part of The Talisman’s appeal to me was the Territories and Jack’s exploration of them. Lots of cool characters came from there and the way the land was similar yet different was really interesting (to me anyway).[/li][li]Related to above, but bad guys were not threatening enough. More ridiculous and silly than scary.[/li][li]Too much connection with King’s Dark Tower stuff. This story directly tied into those stories and those worlds. Kind of outta left field, especially considering The Talisman did not mention any of it at all. It adds to the build up that goes nowhere.[/ul][/li]
Overall Opinion: As you can probably tell, I was disappointed in this book. A good premise, unique ideas, but it just seemed like they didn’t know how to end it. Once the characters entered the actual Black House (about 400 pages in),

SPOILER SPACE

they just sort of wander around and bump into the main bad guy, whom Jack literally kills with a baseball bat. Seriously. There is more to it, but it involves energy from the Talisman that Jack had touched in the first book, shooting from a baseball bat. Sorry, it just did not do it for me, especially after 550 or so pages of buildup for this critter.

END SPOILER
After The Talisman I was just expecting a lot more out of these guys. Of course, 17 years of anticipation probably did not help. (See:Phantom Menace, The) It still had some great writing and some great character discriptions. The narrative really keeps you going until the end and you will devour it, if you can sludge through the slow first 30 or so pages. Not their best work, but still worlds better than many other mass market hacks like John Grisham and Jackie Collins. So, people who have also read the book, what are your final opinions?

4

Well, I started reading it yesterday, so I didn’t really read this thread for fear of spoilers. I’ll come back when I’m finished with it.
I will say that so far, I’m liking it. I’ve only read about 100 pages, but I’m hooked. :slight_smile:

In fact, I think I’ll go read it now.
Rose

5

I dunno, being a Dark Tower fan, I liked the elaboration given to the DT universe, and that Jacky may be playing some role in Roland’s quest. And being a Wisconsinite, I loved pulling out my atlas, and locating all the sites mentioned in the book: La Riviere, a pseudonym for La Crosse, Centralia for Centerville, etc. For most of the book I thought that French Landing was Trempeleau, but then realized it was a fictitious town northwest of Trempeleau on the Mississippi downriver from Bluff Siding. I was surprised to find that Tamarack and Norway Valley road actually existed, as did all the coulees.

QtM

6

I opened this thread thinking it would be about Paul Theroux’s novel The Black House (I have no idea what’s this other Black House you’re talking about, but Theroux is one of my favorite authors).

The PT The Black House, set in rural England, is one of his more demented opuses. Actually, it doesn’t have much going for it except

  1. a neatly ironic twist on civilization vs. the jungle; and
  2. one very raunchy sex scene.
7

Is Stephen King catching Isaac Asimov’s Disease - the uncontrollable impulse to tie all of his novels together in one universe?

I don’t like the Dark Tower stuff, and could really do without the made-up language which sounds like fake Chinese.

8

I just finished the book, and I have to say that it’s yet another case of King (with Straub) doing an impressive job of laying the groundwork, then letting everything snowball away from him in a giant haze of “who cares?” by the end.

I’m not a big fan of the Dark Tower saga, but I don’t object to having it sneak in around the edges of King’s other books. But one of the primary disappointments in Black House is how much of the tale gets turned over to advancing Dark Tower issues.

I also found Jack to be a less than compelling hero, primarily because we hear far more about what a spectacular human being he is than we see. He’s got some good one-on-one scenes with people, but much of the book is him remembering stuff he suppressed, being prodded by Parkus and channeling Talisman energy. He’s a character more acted upon – both within the story and by the authors – than acting. He comes across as a puppet.

Interesting supporting characters are mostly underdeveloped. Charles Burnside is the exception – he’s a horrible villain, and gets just enough light cast on him to make him nasty, brutish, and unforgettable. But characters like Beezer, Ty and Rebecca get a lot of buildup without much emotional payoff. Especially Rebecca, who ends up seeming merely trashy, despite hints during her scenes with Henry and Yerxa that there’s more to her than a pretty golddigger.

And Henry gets to suffer from Nick Andros syndrome – the most interesting character in the book gets sacrificed for the benefit of a cardboard hero. He was a little overdone (which even King and Straub acknowledge), but I was disappointed that he disappeared for so much of the second half of the book, only to come back for a grand-guignol death scene.

The first half of the book, though, is well done, and it certainly has its moments. But ultimately, it was disappointing. The worst thing about the Dark Tower series is that it’s starting to act like a “Secret Wars” crossover comics series for the Kingiverse, and I’m tired of reading King novels that serve as Dark Tower marginalia.

(Which King books definitively fall into and out of the Dark Tower universe, by they way? Is anyone keeping track?)

9

I think Hearts in Atlantis and Black House are the only two non-DT books so far to tie in; haven’t read Bag of Bones so not sure about it.

(Does the Tak creature from Desperation and Regulators make an appearance in any DT novels?)

10

I don’t think Bag of Bones has a DT tie-in, but it has definite tie-ins with Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne as far as Dark Score Lake is concerned.

Haven’t gotten my hands on Black House yet, though, so I’m scrolling past the spoilers. :slight_smile:

11

Oh man, are we talking about this with spoilers yet? I just finished it last night.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for sequel, and I was really drooling to get my hands on this one.

I loved Uncle Henry, and I don’t care if he’s over the top as a character. I’m more than willing to suspend my disbelief.

I wasn’t crazy about the narrative style – I’ve never been too keen on second person. “First, you’re over here. Now we’re going over there. Then you see …”

It was good to see Jack Sawyer all grown up, but hmmmm, I felt like we never got to know him the way we did when he was 12. He was still a good guy, but I think I was expecting a different good guy. I also think that it’s a cop out when a child has to forget all the cool stuff that happened to him/her as a kid. As soon as I realized this was the case with Jack, I was disappointed. It makes it too easy for the writers to create the typical “oh, the memories are coming back” sequence.

I was a little freaked out by the Sophie/Judy twinner situation. When/if this thread moves more into spoilers, I have more to say about this.

A lot of Dark Tower stuff, and I love that, but I can see as how a reader would be extremly annoyed if they didn’t like or read DT. For years, a few friends and I have been bickering over whether or not there is a Territories/DT link, so I was pleased to be proven correct.

Other DT Tie-In Books not mentioned already:

Rose Madder
Insomia