Anyone pick this up yet?

well since it's not released until the 15th, only people with advacnce copies have it...

However, the new printing of The Talisman, have the first chapter of Black House at the end of the book.

Can't wait. The Talisman is one of my favorites.

The song by The Commodores was especially good, too.

That's "Black" House, not "Brick" House.

Get back to your forum!

-David

Tore through this in just a couple of days. Highly recommended if you like The Talisman or the Dark Tower series, it ties into all of them really well. It's a very different book than the Talisman, equally grim, less time in the Territories, more of a murder mystery than anything - but a great page turner, and you learn a lot about the entire Dark Tower mystery. I'd write more but I'm still reeling after finishing it, it's definitely one of those books that sticks with you. Great to see the return of Jack Sawyer!

Has anyone received this from the Stephen King book of the month club yet?

-Steve

It was on the shelves of my local QFC grocery store as of Wed.

seeing as Wed. was the 17.....

Should I re-read The Talisman and The Gunslinger series before I read this?

I last read The Talisman when it first came out in paperback and I last read Book 3 of The Gunslinger series about 2-3 years ago.

What do you think?

-Steve

If I were you, I'd at least skim through The Talisman again first. Although really there's only a couple of character's from it in Black House. I should tell you, also, that if you read the first story in Hearts in Atlantis it also ties into Black House.

Will do. Thanks.

-Steve

I don't really think you need to do this. The references back to these books do a good job of covering what you already know.

BTW this was a great story for those that havent read it! Darktower freaks will love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My only problem with the whole book is the "we now decend"..."we now do this"..."We now do that"...What's this we stuff Tanto?

I agree, Dean. The POV they used was really strange. It took me a good 50 pages to get into it because of that.

I think it detracts from the story (not that I am anywhere near being done - only 60 pages in) but I just find it annoying...I wonder if it was Straub or King that started it. My guess would be straub since I have never seen King use that "person" perspective in a book before.

For those of you that are currently reading the book a little FYI. I also found the first part of the story (60-100 pages?) extremely slow.

Trust me, it will pick up very soon and your patience will be rewarded.

It was good...It gave a lot of info on the Dark tower but more on the Crimson King and what he wants and what a breaker is...

I am just glad that they toned down the "we" crap toward the end.

I read they wrote it like that with teh we do this, and we do that to make it seem like more urgent, in the present tense instead of the past, so you felt like anything could happen I'm not sure as I don;t have this yet, because it's not Xmas time....

Those first two chapters nearly finished me, but it is finally starting to move. Books this long usually have slow spots in them. It's always been one of the things I've noticed about King. He sometimes stretches a book out too far and kills the pacing of the story.

I enjoyed the Talisman, but there were times when I just wanted them to get on with the plot line. They really went overboard torturing Jack in that book.

Anyway, Black House is really drawing me into it know and I hope to have it finished in the next couple of days.

Let us know what you think.

I finally finished it today. I stopped reading it for awhile to read a history book someone lent me, but I finally got back to it. Even though it starts slow it just picks up steam and by the end the I was blown away. The only problem I had was not having knowledge of the Dark Towers series. I picked up Gunslingers today, so I can begin filling in details I didn't understand.

Dark House was a very good book, but I still liked Talisman better. Granted though, I hadn't read the Dark Towers series so I'm a bit out of touch with the story. Overall I would recommend it to people that like the Dark Fantasy genre.