the Blasted Lands. Sunlight Gardener's School When Jack and Wolf are accused of mischievous "hitchhiking" and "trouble-making" by a highway police officer, they are sent by the court to a camp/school for troubled youths run by evangelist Robert "Sunlight" Gardner/Osmond. It is located in eastern Indiana and parallels a terrible open pit mine in the Territories where slaves are used to gather radioactive ore for Morgan. Jack and Wolf are held as wards of the state in the Sunlight Home for one month. In the fields behind the school sits a large rectangular metal box, appropriately named “the box” that Gardner uses as punishment for his students. Jack and Wolf escape after Wolf transforms and brutally kills a number of students in the school. Sunlight Gardener escapes during the attack and Wolf is shot four times by Sonny Singer (a prefect at the school) and dies of his injuries. Likewise, it is destroyed by a freak explosion at the end of the novel. Jack notes that some students are rebellious and despise Gardner, notably a boy named Ferd Janklow who attempted to run away but was caught and murdered. Thayer School A boarding school for wealthy boys in Springfield, Illinois. Jack meets up with his friend Richard here. The school is shifted into another plane by Morgan, where wolves and gargoyle-like creatures try to seize Jack. The school sits over a long-forgotten train depot that Jack and Richard use in the Territories. The twinner of Osmond’s son stayed at Thayer before leaving. Agincourt Hotel In the ruined town of Point Venuti on the northern California coast. It is a mysterious abandoned black structure similar to the Alhambra. It holds the Talisman and has many different incarnations depending on the alternate universe. In the Territories, it appears as a black castle. It is through this building's shifting forms as Jack nears the Talisman that the reader learns of a multitude of other worlds of which the Territories and America are only two. Reception Because Straub and King were both immensely successful and popular horror and suspense writers in their own rights, anticipation of this book was extremely strong. The publisher financed a USD$550,000 promotion budget and several articles ran which hailed the collaboration of the two writers and speculated what would be “the greatest horror novel ever written.” Actual popular and critical reception, however, were mixed and ran the spectrum from