In 1984, two giants of the horror genre --- Stephen King and Peter Straub --- teamed up for the first time to write a novel that eventually would become a trilogy. THE TALISMAN introduced us to a young man named Jack Sawyer, who discovered the ability to jump between worlds --- our world and the other place, which later was referred to as Mid-World. King and Straub collaborated again for the follow-up, BLACK HOUSE, in 2001, which pitted Jack against a brutal supernatural serial killer. Now, 25 years later, we get the eagerly awaited conclusion, OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE.

Sadly, we lost Straub in 2022, but his contributions to and spirit behind the characters and worlds that he and King created are on full display in this lengthy and fast-paced finale that sees a middle-aged Jack Sawyer in a battle for the very soul of Mid-World.

"[OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE] is a great, epic work by two of the most gifted writers of all time and a dark fantasy saga that will appeal to both new and seasoned fans of this series and all of King's and Straub’s transformative fiction."

To further understand and fully appreciate this novel, you need to get versed in the history of killer and all-around psychopath Charles Starkweather. He and his teenage girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, terrorized Nebraska in late 1957 and early 1958, leaving 11 bodies in their wake. This later would inspire the Oscar-nominated films Badlands and Natural Born Killers. Because Nebraska is the territory in the real world that Jack jumps to, he experiences a murder spree by a demented young man and his female accomplice that is directly influenced by the Starkweather case. The novel even opens with a quote attributed to Starkweather: “Dead people are all on the same level.”

It is strange to see Jack as a man in his 50s after first falling in love with him 42 years ago when he was a boy with special abilities. Time has not been kind to Jack. He is somewhat disheveled and frumpy, not the sort of person you would expect to lead a battle for the control of an entire dimension. On earth, he does not have much going on. But in Mid-World (which is also called the Territories), he is revered and bound together by fate and circumstance through ka-tet, a term that readers of both this series and King’s classic Dark Tower novels will recognize. In fact, the inhabitants of that series --- like Roland the Gunslinger --- may very well exist in the same dimension as Jack, which will make King’s loyal readers squeal with delight.

In America, Roy Kinneston and his 13-year-old girlfriend, Tara Lynne Speckhoffer, are responsible for a number of deaths, the most significant to Jack being the brutal murder of his friend, Sheriff Dale Gilbertson. In a nutshell, these two killers also may be crossing over to Mid-World and wreaking havoc. In addition, a band of zombified vampire-like infected teenagers are blazing a path of destruction that threatens every resident of this realm. Similar to King’s THE STAND, two bands of opposing forces are on a collision course for a violent finale in the area known as the Gullet at the edge of Mid-World. These dangerous, marauding teens will face off against Jack and a small group of colleagues put together from the various Territories in Mid-World in a fight to the death.

The characters are what drive this story even more than the nonstop, often violent, action. In addition to Jack Sawyer, we have memorable figures like Youngblood, Pay, Mary, a dog-like creature named Richard, and even the descendants of one of Jack’s first comrades in Mid-World, Wolf. Jack flips between the two realms so often your head will spin, but what he changes and impacts on each level is fully evident. In America, he is avenging Dale, while in Mid-World, he is the spiritual and physical leader in a war that possibly cannot be won.

The fact that there might be even more realms, or America-sides, than what we have been told is what brings significance to the book’s title, OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE. It is a great, epic work by two of the most gifted writers of all time and a dark fantasy saga that will appeal to both new and seasoned fans of this series and all of King's and Straub’s transformative fiction.