The book (I actually listened to the audio book version) takes off slowly but once it get's going, it becomes a typical Stephen King book, totally sucking you in. I'm not really sure where Stephen King ends and Peter Straub starts. I haven't read much by Peter Straub but maybe I will now.
The Talisman was haunting. It carried me off to an unreal world and for some reason I was contantly thinking of an attitude that was presented to me by one of my literary theory teachers back in university. He said that literature was like the starry sky; you couldn't really create anything new, only give a new perspective. He told us to imagine that we were on Mars, looking up at the sky. We would see pretty much the same stars as we do on Earth but from a different angle. I've never quite forgotten that and listening to The Talisman I was reminded regularly. I don't exactly know why.
Anyway, must remember to pick something up from the library by Peter Straub. I hope he's as good solo as he is writing with Stephen King :-)