The Talisman



Jack's mother is sick. Very sick. Worse, they're both on the run from friendly old uncle Morgan in New York, former business partner of Jack's father. But an old black wino lets him in on a little secret: That there is something he can do about it. Jack's going to have to go on a little trip, though. All the way back to California, though not quite 'his' California. And he's going to have to go on foot looking for something called The Talisman. Only a lot more seems to be at stake than just his mother and some parties are very interested in Jack as well as the Talisman itself.

Cowritten by Peter Straub and Stephen King, it touches on elements of the Dark Tower series. It also has a sequel called Black House.


 * Alternate Dimension: We only see our world and the world Jack flips to, but there are a lot more than that.
 * Alternate Self: Our world has a lot more people than the Territories do, so you can't quite say 'everyone' has one (except maybe for a third world) but quite a lot do. Alternate selves do not necessarily look the same and can in fact be very different. Personalities may not be the same either, such as Morgan of Orris being much more ruthless than Morgan Sloat. However, fundamentally they are you.
 * Ambition Is Evil: Morgan Sloat. Though he wasn't as bad as Morgan of Orris.
 * Aristocrats Are Evil: Most of them are either evil or cowed into submission.
 * Badass: Parkus
 * Berserk Button: Don't ever, EVER hurt Wolf's herd (Jack).
 * Big Bad: Morgan Sloat/Morgan of Orris.
 * The Brute: Heck Bast.
 * Canon Welding: Later made part of the Dark Tower continuity.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture / Cool and Unusual Punishment: Sunlight Gardener is very fond of this, especially when it comes to Jack and Wolf.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Morgan
 * Dark World: The Territories. They are not quite bad and in fact often very beautiful, but it tends to be a lot more savage and things that happened in our world tend to be much nastier on that side.
 * Departure Means Death:
 * The Dragon: Osmond/Sunlight Gardener.
 * Dumb Is Good: Wolfs
 * Dying Moment of Awesome / Heroic Sacrifice / Papa Wolf:
 * Dying Town: Oatley, New York.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Debatable. After he visited the Territories, practically every male Jack has met was stricken by his beauty. However, this is attributed to the inhabitants of Earth just being drawn by the power of the Territories they felt in him. The use of this trope also crosses over into Stupid Sexy Flanders several times.
 * The Fundamentalist: Sunlight Gardener.
 * Gang of Bullies: Several of the Sunlight Home residents are this to Jack and Wolf. Which leads to them becoming Asshole Victims later on.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: Morgan
 * Hell Hotel
 * Here There Were Dragons: Our world. Wolf notes that the magic isn't entirely gone, but it's very, very weak.
 * Involuntary Shapeshifting: If Wolfs become too upset, they will turn into their werewolf forms even if it is not the full moon. It's painful to do it like this.
 * Jerkass: A very, very charitable description of Smokey.
 * Sonny Singer and Heck Bast.
 * Kid Hero
 * The Lancer: Wolf and Richard.
 * Magical Land: The Territories.
 * Magical Negro: Speedy Parker.
 * Magic Feather:
 * Maximum Fun Chamber: The Box.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Wolfs are basically the royal shepherds and are actually very nice except at the full moon itself. They don't seem to be terribly bright.
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Osmond/Gardener frequently refers to Speedy as "the nigger".
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: The queen would if she wasn't, you know, dying. The former king was apparently an awesome guy and very popular. He traveled a lot around his kingdom doing kingly stuff.
 * Sacrificial Lion: Ferd Janklow.
 * Silver Bullet:
 * Tempting Fate: A boy proudly proclaims, "When you're strong in the Lord like me, there's no reason to ever be afraid!"
 * Villainous Breakdown: Gardener and Sonny have this during Wolf's rampage.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Gardener and Sonny have this during Wolf's rampage.