Stephen King worked hard on The Talisman 3the third book of the Talisman series, and here’s what we know about it so far. The Talisman 3 has the potential to be Stephen King’s most exciting book of the 2020s, thanks to a return to a world and character we’ve sorely missed.
Over the past decade, King has turned his attention to detective novels, with his interconnected universe of Holly Gibney taking up the lion’s share of his page count. It’s rare in the modern era for him to return to the sprawling, countryside-stretching epics of his early years, but The Talisman 3 is about to change that as King has confirmed he’s returning to the Territories – and Mid-World.
Here’s everything we know so far about Stephen King’s upcoming release.
Potential release window for Stephen King’s The Talisman 3
There is no official release date for the book yet, but Stephen King provided an update on the writing of the book. The Talisman 3 in July, stating simply: “TALISMAN 3 is almost finishedConsidering that it wasn’t until October 2024 that he first revealed he had the idea to write a third book, King has clearly found his momentum.
Currently I am finishing The Talisman 3 seems to be his priority. There are no other upcoming Stephen King books publicly announced, and he has stated that he is busy writing the third book, which is not surprising to anyone who has followed his career for a while – when a story sticks with King, he has to keep going until he writes it on his own.
Given the pace of his writing and his usual publishing schedule of publishing one to two new books per year, it is likely that The Talisman 3 will be released in 2026. Depending on how many revisions it undergoes, perhaps it could even be released in the first half of next year.
Talisman 3 Story: What We Know So Far About the Upcoming Book’s Plot and Setting
With the information that Stephen King has revealed since last year, we may know more about The Talisman 3the potential story of what we had imagined. When he first revealed that he had dusted off the idea for the third Talisman book, King shared that before Peter Straub, his co-author of the first two books, passed away, he gave King a great idea for the next book.
According to King, Straub’s idea revolved around the real serial (or spree) killer, Charles Starkweather, who murdered 11 people in Wyoming and Nebraska in the span of three months, from November 1957 to January 1958. Black house Starring protagonist Jack Sawyer was pursuing a serial killer known as The Fisherman, based on the serial killer, child rapist and cannibal Albert Fish, who, like Starkweather, was a real person.
Thematically, using Charles Starkweather as an antagonist would create a connection Black house And The Talisman 3 together, a natural evolution from a fictional serial killer based on a real one to a fictionalized version of a real one. Starkweather’s chilling words in one of his final letters from prison to his parents are ripe for being ripped out by King and transformed into a memorably twisted villain: “[B]But Dad, I’m not really sorry for what I did because for the first time, Caril and I are having more fun.“.
Jack Sawyer will be 57 years old in The Talisman 3
As expected, the protagonist of The Talisman 3 will be Jack Sawyer. Ole’ Travelin’ Jack is a little older and a lot wiser in this one: King revealed that Jack will be 57 in the third book. For context, he was 12 years old during the events of The talisman and 42 in the sequel, Black house.
Three decades had passed between the first and second books, and Jack had changed considerably from the little boy he was. In the sequel, he was a retired LAPD detective living in the small town of French Landing, Wisconsin. Although the 13 years between books 2 and 3 are not as long as the 30 years between the first two, we can expect that Jack has experienced a lot during that time, which will be reflected in his characterization.
As King said of Jack: “It’s been an interesting life. “We will find out how interesting Jack is and what Jack did, when The Talisman 3 is released.
Talisman 3 will finally reconcile continuity inconsistencies with the Dark Tower
When it was published in 1984, it was firmly established that the Fictional Territories of The talisman and the middle of the world The Dark Tower The series were two completely separate locations existing in separate universes. For 17 years, it was hot.
And then, in 2001, Black house came out and shook up canon continuity by including overt references and characters from The Dark Tower series. In the 24 years since, the fact that the now-connected universes have created continuity errors has been a source of continuing dismay for many readers.
With The Talisman 3King intends to clean up these inconsistencies. In a recent interview with The United States todayKing confirmed that this was said “quite clearly” in Black house that The Territories and Mid-World are one and the same, so his plan is to “button” the two series with the third Talisman book. With Stephen Kinga story is never truly finished, but from now on, it seems that the third volume will bring the worlds of The Dark Tower, The talismanand Jack Sawyer to a proper and final closure.
- Date of birth
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September 21, 1947
- Place of birth
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Portland, Maine, United States
- Professions
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Author, Screenwriter, Producer, Director, Actor
- Height
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6 feet 4 inches
