History Literature / TheTalisman

* HellHotel

* MagicFeather: [[spoiler:The 'juice' that Parker gives to Jack doesn't do anything but make it easier for him to think he can flip into the other world.]]

* TextualCelebrityResemblance: A sinister Oatley Tap patron is described as looking like Western movie actor Randolph Scott.

[[quoteright:199:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Talisman1983Cover_4166.jpg]]Jack's mother is sick. Very sick. Worse, they're both on the run from [[EvilUncle 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 '[[AlternateDimension 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 Creator/PeterStraub and Creator/StephenKing, it touches on elements of King's ''[[Franchise/TheDarkTower Dark Tower]]'' series. It also has a sequel called ''Literature/BlackHouse''.

Cowritten by Peter Straub and Creator/StephenKing, it touches on elements of King's ''[[Franchise/TheDarkTower Dark Tower]]'' series. It also has a sequel called ''Literature/BlackHouse''.

* {{Badass}}: Parkus

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Overlapping with SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Speedy Parker calls Jack "Traveling Jack" when they first meet, which is a nickname Jack's father gave to him and clues Jack into the fact that Speedy was closely affiliated with his father. Later, his mother calls him the same thing out of pure happenstance, which strengthens his resolve to travel to the Territories to save her life.

* SchizoTech: The land of the Territories, which has knotted sticks for currency, swords as the favored weapon, horse-drawn carriages... and [[spoiler: a large steam train]]. Justified in that it's established during a flashback of a conversation between Jack's father and Morgan Sloat that schematics for technology in their world can be easily brought over to the Territories. Jack's father even warns Morgan about the possible repercussions of advancing Territories civilization too quickly through their influence.

* SchizoTech: The land of the Territories, which has knotted sticks for currency, swords as the favored weapon, horse-drawn carriages... and [[spoiler: a large steam train]]. Justified in that it's established during a flashback of a conversation between Jack's father and Morgan Sloat that schematics for technology in their world can be easily brought over to the Territories. Jack's father even warns Morgan against the possible repercussions of advancing Territories civilization too quickly through their influence.

* EvilIsPetty: Morgan Sloat. Some of the more dickish moves he does in the story is reducing a car wash attendant to a nervous wreck simply because he was having a bad day, and telling Jack [[IBangedYourMom he had sex with Jack's mother]] [[spoiler: during the final battle]] to enrage the boy and catch him off-guard.

Cowritten by Peter Straub and StephenKing, it touches on elements of King's ''[[Franchise/TheDarkTower Dark Tower]]'' series. It also has a sequel called ''Literature/BlackHouse''.

* Trauma-Induced Amnesia: [[spoiler: Richard Sloat followed his father to The Territories one night on vacation. It didn't end well...]]

* AgentScully: Richard Sloat goes through elaborate lengths to explain away the incresingly supernatural events that Jack brings into his life, ultimately concluding that the blatant magic he encounters is hallucinations caused by dementia. This is broken when he sees an absurdly simple Territories clock (a giant hourglass), and realized that he was incapable of imagining something that simple -if he were to imagine a primitive clock, it would be full of giant gears and extremely complex- that he accepts what happened. This extended, for his entire life up to that point, to an extreme disdain for all forms of fiction (he was a voracious reader, but exclusively in non-fiction), and an ambition to become a research chemist.

* AgentScully: Richard Stoat goes through elaborate lengths to explain away the incresingly supernatural events that Jack brings into his life, ultimately concluding that the blatant magic he encounters is hallucinations caused by dementia. This is broken when he sees an absurdly simple Territories clock (a giant hourglass), and realized that he was incapable of imagining something that simple -if he were to imagine a primitive clock, it would be full of giant gears and extremely complex- that he accepts what happened. This extended, for his entire life up to that point, to an extreme disdain for all forms of fiction (he was a voracious reader, but exclusively in non-fiction), and an ambition to become a research chemist.

** Gardener/Osmond have an even bigger one when their sons die. [[FreakOut They don't recover.]]

** Gardener/Osmond has another one when their sons die. [[FreakOut They don't recover.]]