Episode · The Book Review · 2026-10-02
Books mentioned on Decades Later, Stephen King Is Finishing What He and Peter Straub Started
There are few living writers as closely associated with a genre as Stephen King is with horror. Over a career spanning more than 50 years (https://www.
Gilbert Cruz discussed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, It by Stephen King, The Talisman by Stephen King and others, Black House by Stephen King and others, Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and others, and Dune by Frank Herbert. Stephen King recommended Floating Dragon by Peter Straub, and discussed The Hero's Journey by Patricia Ferguson and others, Redheaded Peckerwood by Christian Patterson, Ghost Story by Peter Straub, Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King and others, and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a slim, acclaimed novel by Muriel Spark about a charismatic schoolteacher in Edinburgh and her influence on a select group of students.
Discussed“To quote the main character of Muriel Sparks novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”
Where to get it
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It
It by Stephen King is a sprawling horror novel that chronicles a group of childhood friends facing an evil entity in their hometown, sparking generations of terror and nostalgia.
Discussed“I was around 10 or 11 when I read his sprawling novel, It, and it kicked off a lifelong love of horror as a genre and of King as a writer.”
Where to get it
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The Talisman
The Talisman is a collaborative dark fantasy novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub that follows a young boy named Jack Sawyer on a mystical quest to save his dying mother.
Discussed“One of those books is The Talisman. Back in the early 1980s, in the midst of an astoundingly productive period, King co-wrote with his friend and fellow author Peter Straoud, The Talisman, a story about a 12-year-old boy named Jack Sawyer, whose mother, a be movie actress, is dying.”
Where to get it
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Black House
Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub is a collaborative novel that follows up on their previous work by catching up with the protagonist Jack Sawyer as an adult.
Discussed“The book was a massive success and 17 years later in 2001, the writing duo published a sequel called Blackhouse that picked up with Jack as an adult.”
Where to get it
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Other Worlds Than These
Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub is a collaborative novel that connects the imaginative universes of previous works like The Talisman and the Dark Tower series.
Discussed“That didn't stop Stephen King, however, because he is finally publishing with Straoud down as co-author that book. It's titled Other Worlds Than these.”
Where to get it
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The Hero's Journey
Discussed“Well, Peter and I started with the talisman because he had read a book called The Hero's Journey, and there was certain ideas in there that he really liked.”
Where to get it
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Redheaded Peckerwood
Discussed“And finally Peter wrote me a letter and he said, "We really ought to do this." and he sent me a book called Redheaded Peckerwood and it was about Charles Starkweather, but it was a book of photographs.”
Where to get it
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Ghost Story
Ghost Story by Peter Straub is a classic horror novel that follows a group of elderly men haunted by a terrifying secret from their past.
Discussed“Well, I read Ghost Story and some of his short fiction before I started to try and get his voice.”
Where to get it
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Mr. Mercedes
Mr.
Discussed“And so I wrote the book and in the course of it I really stumbled across this woman named Holly Gibney and she has become one of my favorite characters and if I hadn't written that first book Mr. Mercedes I never would have found her”
Where to get it
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Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is a classic adventure novel about a castaway who spends decades on a remote tropical island facing isolation and survival challenges.
Discussed“It feels a little bit like uh you know in Robinson Crusoe where you know he's just got this ship that's floundering on the reef that he can go out and resupply at any time.”
Where to get it
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Dune
Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction masterpiece Dune is widely celebrated as an epic space opera exploring ecology, religion, and political power on a desert planet.
Discussed“If you've only ever seen sort of the new Dune movies and you've never read the book, you actually don't have this context that happens in the book, which is these events take place thousands of years after humans have risen up against artificial intelligence”
Where to get it
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Floating Dragon
Floating Dragon by Peter Straub is an epic supernatural horror novel that depicts a quiet Connecticut suburb plagued by a creeping, toxic chemical leak and an ancient, malevolent evil that unleashes total chaos.
Recommended“My favorite book of his is a long novel called Floating Dragon.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Maybe James Dicki a little bit in Deliverance and To the White Sea.”
“Maybe James Dicki a little bit in Deliverance and To the White Sea.”
“It's inspired a bunch of art. The Terrence Malik filad lands, the Bruce Springsteen album, Nebraska, now Other Worlds Than these.”
“It's inspired a bunch of art. The Terrence Malik filad lands, the Bruce Springsteen album, Nebraska, now Other Worlds Than these.”