Summary
In the vast universe thathorror author Stephen Kinghas crafted, there are many books he has written that connect to the grand tapestry of his magnum opus,The Dark Tower. The series fuses elements of horror, western, action, science fiction, fantasy and even a hint of romance. All follow Roland Deschain, a survivor and the last of the gunslingers, as he seeks to protect the Dark Tower from the forces of evil. While some of Stephen King’s books have more connections than others to theDark Tower, there is one series that has teased a deeper connection for years that may finally be coming to light:The Talisman 3.
Recently confirmed byStephen King as the next big projectthat he is undertaking,Talisman 3is a continuation of the series he and late author Peter Straub developed together. The first two books,The TalismanandBlack House, follow Jack Sawyer, first as a young boy tasked with finding a cure for his mother’s cancer while traveling through a mysterious world, followed by his life as an adult years later as a serial killer in his new hometown unlocks the key to his past and forces him to take up the fight he began so many years ago. With elements of theDark Towerfound in both books, it is more than likely that Stephen King’sTalisman 3could have a serious impact on Mike Flanagan’sDark Towerseries.
The Talisman and Black House, Explained
Written by Stephen Kingand Peter Straub in 1984,The Talismanfollowed a twelve-year-old boy named Jack Sawyer, who discovered that his mother was dying of cancer. Having been on the run together with his late father’s business partner, Morgan Sloat, Jack meets a maintenance man named Speedy Parker. Speedy tells Jack about a magical world known as the Territories and a mysterious object called The Talisman that can cure his mother’s cancer. With his mother unable to stop him, Jack takes off on a cross-country journey, having learned how to cross over between his world and the Territories.
Along the way, Jack meets unique allies like Wolf and Morgan Sloat’s son and his best friend Ricard. He also faces truly haunting villains like Sunlight Gardner. He also discovers tht his unique ability to travel between his world and the territories is a result of his “twinner,” or his alternate self from the territories, who has passed away. He meets the twinner of his mother, an ailing Queen of the territories, as well as the twinners of both Morgan Sloat and Sunlight Gardner. After many battles and losses, Jack makes it to the Agincourt Hotel, where he fights his way to the Talisman and takes it for his own. Using it to both defeat Morgan Sloat and save Speedy’s life (known as the gunslingerParkus in the Territories), Jack returns to his mother and saves both her and the Queen of the Territories.
InBlack House, first published in 2001, the authors pick up Jack’s story decades later. He has forgotten most of his adventures, but came out of the journey with a need to help others, becoming a lieutenant for the LAPD as a homicide detective. He becomes enamored with a small town in Wisconsin named French Landing, and after a trauma causes him to choose an early retirement, he moves there. However, he is forced to come out of retirement when a ruthless and brutal serial killer dubbed The Fisherman begins abducting and killing the town’s local children. Soon, however, Jack discovers there is even more to these murders than meets the eye, and he is forced to reawaken the memories of his childhood and encounter with The Talisman.
It is revealed that the killer serves an inhuman entity that works directly for The Crimson King, who uses the serial killer to find “special” children with unique abilities. The entity uses these children to fuel a machine that the Crimson King hopeswill help destroy the Dark Tower. Jack and his allies rush to save the latest child taken and stop the Crimson King, but at a great cost.
The Talisman 3 Is A Game Changer
The direct connections to the Dark Towerthat both books hold make Stephen King’s impending bookTalisman 3critical. The first book mentions that the Talisman itself seems to connect all worlds together, and opens Jack’s eyes to the fact there are more worlds than Earth and the Territories. This is similar to how Jake inThe Dark Tower III: The Wastelandsfinds a single rose in an empty lot, but sees the rose as holding an infinite number of worlds. The Talisman may be an artifact directly connected to The Dark Tower.
Then there is the fact that Jack’s mentor and ally, Speedy, has a twinner in the territories named Parkus, who was once a gunslinger. InBlack House, Parkus makes comments alluding to Roland and his allies making their way to the Dark Tower, and Jack having a role in that journey.Yet theDark Towerserieshas not brought Jack into the story…yet.The Talisman 3may be the book that brings his vital role in the mythos of theDark Towerto light.
AnyDark Towerfan knows that the ending of the main book series is open-ended, leaving room for more possible stories to be told. If that is the case, then the story of Jack Sawyer that Stephen King and Peter Straub began decades ago may play a major role in the story of Roland and his ka-tet. With Straub having left several ideas for the book with King before his passing, and King alluding to many connections between theTalisman 3andtheDark Towermythology, time will tell if the new book changes the directionThe Dark Towerseries by Mike Flanagan changes.
