Gwendy's Final Task (The Button Box, #3)

Title: Gwendy's Final Task (The Button Box, #3)

Author: Richard Chizmar

Published in: 2022

Date read: 12th August 2022

Score: 5/5

Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
"Gwendy's Final Task" by Richard Chizmar (with Stephen King) is the concluding novel in the Gwendy Peterson trilogy, bringing her long and mysterious connection with the enigmatic button box to a climactic, cosmic end.

The story opens with Gwendy Peterson, now a respected United States Senator from Maine and a successful novelist, facing a new and formidable challenge: she is battling early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Her memory is beginning to fade, and she is also grieving the recent, unexplained death of her husband, Ryan. Just as her mind starts to betray her, the mysterious Richard Farris reappears, once again entrusting her with the button box.

This time, the stakes are higher than ever. Farris reveals that the box's power has intensified, and it has attracted the attention of malevolent forces across universes – entities connected to the overarching mythology of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, including the Low Men in Yellow Coats and the Sombra Corporation, who seek to gain control of the box for destructive purposes. Farris explains that the box is now a threat to not just one world, but to "all worlds," and its continued existence in the wrong hands could unravel the very fabric of reality, including the Dark Tower itself.

Gwendy's final, desperate mission is to transport the button box to a place where no one, especially these dark forces, can ever retrieve it: deep space. Through her political connections, Gwendy secures a spot on a cutting-edge space mission to the MF-1 space station, a project backed by the mysterious Tet Corporation (another entity from the Dark Tower universe, associated with good).

The journey to the space station is fraught with peril, as Gwendy suspects that one of the other passengers on board, a powerful and ruthless billionaire named Gareth Winston, is an agent of the dark forces, intent on stealing the box. Gwendy must use all her cunning, resilience, and what remains of her sharp mind to outwit Winston and protect the box, even as her memory begins to fail her.

Flashbacks reveal more about Gwendy's life, her encounters with the box, and the circumstances surrounding her husband's death, hinting at the subtle influence of the "Low Men" even before this final task.

The climax of the novel takes place aboard the space station, where Gwendy confronts Winston in a desperate struggle for control of the box. Ultimately, Gwendy must make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the box is cast into the void of space, saving all worlds, even if it means losing herself in the process. "Gwendy's Final Task" is a poignant and suspenseful conclusion, exploring themes of memory, sacrifice, the burden of responsibility, and the cosmic struggle between good and evil that ties into the wider King multiverse.

Comments:
A brilliant way to wrap up an excellent story. The thing that made it for me though, was the links to other books by King. Read all of King's work in order!

Books that we've read by Richard Chizmar (5):
Gwendy's Button Box (The Button Box, #1) (2017), Gwendy's Magic Feather (The Button Box, #2) (2019), Chasing the Boogeyman (2021), Gwendy's Final Task (The Button Box, #3) (2022), Becoming the Boogeyman (2023)