Decades Later, Stephen King Is Finishing What He and Peter Straub Started

There are few living writers as closely associated with a genre as Stephen King is with horror. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, 70 novels and hundreds of short stories, King has terrified generations of readers with books like “Carrie,” “The Shining” and “It” while also writing across multiple genres like fantasy, science fiction and crime — producing books that resist easy categorization.

One of those is “The Talisman,” the 1984 fantasy novel King co-wrote with the author Peter Straub (“Ghost Story”). It follows a 12-year-old named Jack Sawyer who discovers that he can move between our world and a parallel one called the Territories. Seventeen years later, King and Straub returned to Jack in the sequel “Black House.” They always intended to write one more book together.

Straub died in 2022, before they could. But King is now publishing that third novel in the series, “Other Worlds Than These,” with Straub still credited as his co-author. The book comes out Oct. 6. To write it King has returned not only to the world they created together but also to Straub’s writing itself, rereading his old friend’s work and trying to channel his voice on the page. In it, Jack Sawyer is much older. And the new book, like “Black House” before it, incorporates King’s epic, sprawling Dark Tower series. Part of the story is also inspired by the crimes of the 1950s mass murderer, Charles Starkweather.

This week, King joins the “Book Review” podcast to talk about finishing the series without Straub, their decades-long friendship and collaboration, his resistance to being defined solely as a horror writer and why, after more than half a century of published books, he still feels compelled to chase the next story.

Books Mentioned on This Episode:

• “The Talisman,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Black House,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Other Worlds Than These,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Ghost Story,” by Peter Straub
• “The Hero’s Journey,” by Joseph Campbell
• “Redheaded Peckerwood,” by Christian Patterson
• “The Gunslinger,” by Stephen King
• “The Eyes of the Dragon,” by Stephen King
• “The Stand,” by Stephen King
• “The Dead Zone,” by Stephen King
• “Firestarter,” by Stephen King
• “Mr. Mercedes,” by Stephen King
• “Survivor Type,” from “Skeleton Crew,” by Stephen King
• “Deliverance,” by James Dickey
• “To the White Sea,” by James Dickey
• “Robinson Crusoe,” by Daniel Defoe
• “Dune,” by Frank Herbert
• “Floating Dragon,” by Peter Straub

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