Last year,Stephen Kingconfirmed that he was working on the long-awaitedThe Talisman 3, and I’m incredibly excited about it for a reason I haven’t seen anyone talking about yet.The Talisman 3is Stephen King’s most anticipated book in yearsfor a number of reasons. For starters, we finally get to see the late Peter Straub’s long-teased idea fora thirdTalismanbook that King has been hinting atfor a few years now. Now that he’s brushed off his old collaborator’s notes and started putting them together, it will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
It will also be great to see what Jack Sawyer is up to these days, since we haven’t seen Travelin' Jack since 2001’sTalismansequel,Black House. He’s underrated in the pantheon of Stephen King’s protagonists, and he deserves some more time in the spotlight. It would also be great to see King pen another proper adventure epic, especially asThe Talisman 3can answer several lingering questions. But beyond that, I’m also eager to see Stephen King return to his roots in one other big way, and it’s one I think fellow Constant Readers might agree with.
Stephen King’s Books Have Lost A Bit Of Magic Since The Dark Tower Series Ended
Randall Flagg Took A Lot Of Dark Magic With Him When He Went
Reading Stephen King is always a good time, and the quality of his books remains largely consistent, which is an enormous feat for any author, let alone one who has been writing for as long as King has. But if I’m being honest, King’s books have lost a little bit of magic since theDark Towerseries concluded. While certain one-off books, likeRevival, have shown he still has a heck of a pitching arm, there’s not quite as much zip on his fastball anymore.
While certain one-off books, likeRevival, have shown he still has a heck of a pitching arm, there’s not quite as much zip on his fastball anymore.
Part of that might be me and the natural side effect of aging: the shine wears off of everything, even the things you love, including new books. But that’s not entirely it. There’s no denying that King’s writing has changed, especially in the past decade. That may be because, as he gets into the back nine of his career, he feels freer to experiment than ever before, and it’s led to a more diverse, but less cohesive, offering. And it could be that he’s mellowed a bit with age, understandably not quite as keen to flash the nasty and sometimes controversial edge he did as a younger man now that he’s nearing his eighth decade on this earth.
And to be honest, for me, it’s also thatRandall Flagg was killed off inThe Dark Tower, and no villain or antagonist has come close to matching him since. Rose the Hat fromDoctor Sleepmight have eventually rivaled him, but her potential was cut short when she was killed in that book and remained a one-off antagonist. While King’s classic villains are all iconic for a reason, no modern villains have jumped off the page in the way Randall Flagg did, a bad guy who truly delighted in being a bad guy, and an adversary who was a match for any of King’s protagonists and heroes. His magic might have been dark, but it was magic nonetheless, and King’s universe is a little bit dimmer now that he’s no longer in it.
Stephen King’s Crime Novels Have Been Great, But It’s Just Not The Same
Universes Have To Be Maintained Or They Fall Apart
Truth be told, that interconnected Stephen King universe held together byThe Dark Towerhas atrophied in the past decade. King’s attention turned in 2014 to trying his hand at the crime drama, and since then, he’s penned five books in that genre and a novella, with another book on the way. All of them are interconnected through Holly Gibney, Stephen King’s relatively new character, makingthe Holly Gibney universe the second-biggest one afterThe Dark Tower. In fact,Holly Gibney now rivals Randall Flaggin terms of number of appearances, having now appeared in more Stephen King books than any other character save Flagg and Roland Deschain and hiska-tet.
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June 19, 2025
While the Bill Hodges trilogy,The Outsider,Holly, andIf It Bleedshave all been great, it’s just not the same. King writes a fine crime thriller, and with a few of them, likeThe OutsiderandIf It Bleeds, he’s even incorporated a bit of the supernatural. Still, he’s known as the King of Horror for a reason, and his strength remains in the horror genre, with dark fantasy and sci-fi in a tie for a strong second place. With that shift to the crime genre for King, he’s added an entirely new universe to his bibliography, but something has also been lost.
His literary universe feels more fragmented. Sure, some of his iconic and well-loved locations have appeared in books in the past decade, but they’ve often been contained to short stories or novellas. Castle Rock, for example, has featured in hisGwendytrilogy written with Richard Chizmar, but otherwise, it’s only been a setting for novellas. It’s been even longer since anything has been set in Derry. Just about all of his fictional towns have been referenced in other works, but only in passing.
A universe is only as strong as the threads that bind it, and those threads need to be maintained.
A universe is only as strong as the threads that bind it, and those threads need to be maintained. With King’s attention elsewhere, the threads holding his universe together have started to fray and snap; as Yeats once wrote, things fall apart, the center cannot hold.
The Talisman 3 Can Reignite That Magic In King’s Interconnected Universe
It Can Strengthen The Universal Threads That Have Frayed & Snapped In Recent Years
That’s why I’m so excited about whatThe Talisman 3might hold. In King’s initial tweet about it (since deleted), he mentioned he was returning to Mid-world and The Territories, prompting some speculation that he might be penning anotherDark Towerbook. We know now that it will be a third book in theTalismanseries, finishing the trilogy he started with the late Peter Straub. But considering howThe Talisman’s sequel,Black House, directly linkedThe Talisman’s Territories withThe Dark Tower’s Mid-world, the third book will almost certainly tie together some of those universal threads that have started to fray.
Even ifThe Talisman 3is only set in our world and The Territories, it’s inevitable that it will pull in more of King’s original, interconnected universe in some way, reestablishing the idea that all Stephen King stories take place in the same universe, the one controlled by the Dark Tower. It’s even possible that it could see the return of Randall Flagg, if only as a cameo. After all, he’s hinted that he traveled to the titular crumbling edifice ofBlack House, and if any of King’s characters could find a way to cheat death, it would be Flagg.
If any of King’s characters could find a way to cheat death, it would be Flagg.
The beauty of readingStephen King, and half the excitement, is knowing that with every page turn, you could stumble upon a revelation or a connection that makes his world feel more real, more lived-in, both vast and small at the same time. The newTalismanbook can reinvigorate readers and inject some of that wonder back into his universe that has been leeching out of his world for a few years now. I, for one, will welcome that old magic.
