Patton Oswalt will lend his voice to the audiobook edition of Other Worlds Than These, the upcoming novel by Stephen King and the late Peter Straub, Simon & Schuster Audio announced in a news release.
King and Straub’s novel will be the final installment in the Talisman trilogy. The series kicked off in 1984 with The Talisman, about Jack Sawyer, a 12-year-old boy searching for a magical item that could save the life of his ailing mother and must travel into a mysterious parallel world to retrieve it. In 2001, Jack returned in a sequel, Black House, as a retired Los Angeles police detective living in Wisconsin who goes on the trail of a serial killer and finds himself returning to the same world.
Straub died in 2022, and King later found an email from him with a suggestion for what will become Other Worlds Than These. Straub’s family gave King its blessing to write the novel, which will follow Jack as he tries to stop a marauding gang of teenagers, infected with a mysterious disease, from terrorizing the country.
Oswalt, the comedian and actor known for his roles on television series including The King of Queens and A.P. Bio, will narrate the audiobook edition of Other Worlds Than These. “I’ve been a Stephen King fan since I was 10,” he said in a statement. “His books were a huge part of how I fell in love with storytelling in the first place, so having the opportunity to narrate Other Worlds Than These feels a little unreal. Being able to step into the Dark Tower universe and bring the final chapter of the Talisman trilogy to life is an absolute honor.”
Of the audiobook casting, King said, “I think it’s wonderful. I love Mr. Oswalt. Spoiler alert: In Other Worlds, there’s a character named Payton Orville, who’s…a stand-up comedian!!”
The print and audiobook editions of Other Worlds Than These are scheduled for release on Oct. 6.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
