One really needs to know that GWENDY'S FINAL TASK is the finale of a trilogy and that one really needs to have read the first two GWENDYs before this one, and also that the first and last are co-written by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, with the middle one written by Chizmar alone. All the novels are, at least for Stephen King, very short, almost novella length. But they are all tasty as the tiny magic chocolates than the magical Button Box dispenses.
In the first, GWENDY'S BUTTON BOX, 12 year old Gewndy Peterson meets an odd little man wearing a Bowler hat in the park. After a rather length palaver, the stranger, Richard Farris (in all of KIng's novels dating back to THE STAND, character's with the initials RF are never simply what they seem), gives Gwendy a little wooden box studded with different color push buttons and 2 levers on the side. One lever dispenses miraculous exquisitely shaped tiny chocolates in the form of some animal, aways different. The chocolates are the most delicious ever, and have some other interesting properties. The other lever dispenses an 1891 silver dollar. The buttons are a different matter, and Farris tells Gwendy how they work and how incredibly dangerous they are. And then Farris is gone.
Gewndy makes use of the Button Box a few times in the first two novels, relinquishing the box back to Farris at the end of each. Here, in GWENDY'S LAST TASK, Gewndy is a US Senator and a past member of of the House of Representatives, and for the first time in over 20 years, Farris reappears with the dreaded Button Box. He looks very different, older, sicker than the last time and gives the box to Gewndy with a specific set of instructions.
Anything else would be a real spoiler, but it should come as no surprise to any Stephen King fans that he frequently refers back to other works in his oeuvre and GWENDY'S FINAL TASK is no exception, being closely tied to THE DARK TOWER novels, the novella LOW MEN IN YELLOW COATS, and a couple of others. The plot is great, at 278 pages this is the longest of the Gwendy novels and, I think, the best.
I could tell that this isn't solely Stephen King's writing, but just barely. The ideas, pacing and writing are so similar to pure SK (as was the case with GWENDY's MAGIC FEATHER) that King and Chizmar could probably (and did probably on occasion) finish each other's sentences, while talking or writing.
Very Highly Recommended.
JM Tepper
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We’ve followed Gwendy from just 12 years into her 60s as she has protected the world from the Button Box and it’s horrible powers. Gwendy is embarking on a trip to Mars in a spaceship with a variety of researchers, and with a secret and personal mission to rid the world of the Button Box. She’s recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and she isn’t sure if someone on the ship is after the box, or if it’s just her mind descending on her. While trying to protect the box until she can be rid of it, she must also hide her diagnosis (as well as the button box) from her shipmates in order to be able to continue with the mission.Gwendy’s Final Task was by far my favorite of the series and while I was sad that it’s ended (and the way that it ended), I also couldn’t think of a better way. As always, Stephen King loves to sprinkle in little Easter eggs throughout his work and I was pleased of the mentioning of The Dark Tower. Richard Chizmar and Stephen King write seamlessly together and I hope that maybe we will someday have another collaboration of the two.
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Christopher Stokes
One last hurrah!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 17, 2022
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