The Talisman, a (yet another) book by Stephen King and (now) Peter Straub.

Premise: Child trying to save his mother by visiting an alternate world, growing stronger, and eventually facing strange, native forces of this new world--and the outcome of this confrontation impacts the "real" world. The two realities are directly related, with death as a main theme. In the novel, there are "Twinners," folks who correspond world-for-world with one another. Their actions directly impact one another in their respective "worlds." I'm reminded of Bad Twin. (Haven't read it...just the spec about its contents.)

Main character: Jack Sawyer. (WOW!!)

Bad guy: Morgan of ORRIS...new name introduced tonight.

Main Wierdness: Strange trees, strange creatures, the duality of people's intentions.

One of my favorite SK books. Could you explain more on how you are relating it to Lost? You mainly just give an outline of the book.
Do you think that Jacob is someone from the otherworld? Who would his twin be in this world?

Sure!

I'm just kind of enjoying the whole deal of finding dualities between the alternate worlds in Talisman and the corresponding dualities in LOST. Interesting that father issues dominate both! Also, a main thing in the book was the main destination's Protection. Creepy, other-worldly beings defending their territory.

This is my favorite book. Peter Straub and I also share the same birthday ( Dr. Seuss and Jon Bon Jovi too) I cryed when my oldest named my first born grandson Jackson Sawyer. Her best friend thinks he was named for the street they were raised on. His daddy thinks he was named for the hot guys on lost but his mother , his aunt and I know he was named for our friend Jack Sawyer. Jackie is the herd now.....All the King talk that there has been I wondered when this would come up.

The Talisman, a (yet another) book by Stephen King and (now) Peter Straub.

Premise: Child trying to save his mother by visiting an alternate world, growing stronger, and eventually facing strange, native forces of this new world--and the outcome of this confrontation impacts the "real" world. The two realities are directly related, with death as a main theme. In the novel, there are "Twinners," folks who correspond world-for-world with one another. Their actions directly impact one another in their respective "worlds." I'm reminded of Bad Twin. (Haven't read it...just the spec about its contents.)

Main character: Jack Sawyer. (WOW!!)

Bad guy: Morgan of ORRIS...new name introduced tonight.

Main Wierdness: Strange trees, strange creatures, the duality of people's intentions.

Well, the best I can say is that it's about as likely as other similar theories that Lost is mirroring the plot of Donnie Darko/The Dark Tower/. Lost will undeniably draw from familiar elements of scifi and fantasy storytelling but do you really think they're going to lift the actual plot of a specific book or movie? C'mon.

"realities between alternate worlds" - awesome.
I love SK and I love exploring connections between his books and Lost.

Thanks for pointing this one out. :)

The last episode of Lost (golden hits) had an almost identical storyline as in The dark tower V - wolves of the calla, they have to hide the children from the others (wolves in the dark tower) and there are lots of similarities between the story/characters.

I also saw that the makers of lost have bought the rights to make a movie or series of the dark tower.

Edit: Dharma Project part of North Central Positronics (Sombra corporation)?