The Dark Tower (for those who have finished the series).

GerB40

I've searched for a thread about Stephen Kings masterpiece The Dark Tower and couldn't find one. If one does exist may the mods strike me down.. As the title says this is for those who have finished the series so there will be spoilers. You have been warned.









So I've just finished the last book and I have to say, it's been an adventure.. The first book was perfect as an entrance into the increasingly unusual world(s) that the series takes us.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed". What a hook...

As the series progressed the writing style, the pace and, of course, the absurdity of it all made it seem at times, all over the place. But Sai King explained these fairly well.

I hate flashbacks and when I realised Wizard and Glass was one huge flashback I was ragin.. I ended up loving it. Yeah he went on a bit but the end went a good way to explain why the enigmatic Roland was the way he was. I was satisfied. Poor Susan Delgado, poor mama Deschaine. Ah well....

Rather than give my opinion on all the books I'd like to hear others opinions. Whether you loved it, hated it or if you were completely indifferent to it feel free to share.

nyarlothothep

It was fine up to the Wolves of Calla. The Wizard and the Glass is a good story in its own right, I think a lot of the negative criticism is due to people expecting an immediate continuation of book 3 which had a number of very exciting avenues to explore at the end irc. Once it descended into the whole 'meta-narrative' malarky, that's when it got sh1t. Here we have a fascinating world which has a perfect fusion of sci fi, fantasy and horror with this big mystery hanging over it, the 'old ones', what they were about etc and then it just becomes a world inside Stephen King's head which is a cop out. It's extremely easy to rely on this type of approach, related ones are was it all a dream, is it in our psychologically conflicted protagonist's mind or not, meta-fiction, etc. I still moderately enjoyed books 5-7, they weren't bad but I think he left too much time in between writing 3/4 and 5 to the extent that his inspiration had ran out. A case possibly of overbaked with too much time to reflect on the direction. And it needed a lot of editing, Wolves of Calla is mostly filler, in fact the first 100 pages essentially describe how the characters are wandering through plotless parts of the narrative with nothing to do.

AbusesToilets

I'd be interested in seeing him do the re-edit/ re-write that he has talked about in the past. I really liked the world he had constructed around the characters, some of the ideas in the marvel comics based on the books were pretty cool and I'd love to see more of it from King himself.

GerB40

AbusesToilets wrote: »

I'd be interested in seeing him do the re-edit/ re-write that he has talked about in the past. I really liked the world he had constructed around the characters, some of the ideas in the marvel comics based on the books were pretty cool and I'd love to see more of it from King himself.

What edit / re-write did he talk about? I do think the chapters leading up to the end were far too rushed. Meeting Patrick who had the ridiculous ability to rub things out of existence simply by erasing a drawing of them was a bit stupid in my opinion. The demise of the crimson king was depressingly easy due to this..

Actually the crimson king wasn't the only let down near the end (although he was the biggest). Mordred was made out to be this evil creature half of the line of Eld, half immortal god like demon but when it came down to it, he was just another notch on the gunslingers belt. Roland faced much worse than Mordred in the series and their fight was very underwhelming. Okay he did kill Oy, which was actually really sad, but he posed no more threat to Roland than any other creature he faced..

Come to think of it, everything from when they leave Dandelo's (sp?) house to the moment Roland enters the tower just seems thrown together at the last minute. An edited version of that would be very interesting..

OwaynOTT

My brother, after years of me trying to entice him to read, asked for Stephen king books for Christmas.
I scoured the second hand book shops to try and get him a couple of good ones.
Found Gunslinger and It in mint condition and I opend Gunslinger and read a few pages, as it had been years since I read it. A few hours later and the man in black was tantalisingly close, I had to drop my exam preparation (my the boy Jake) to palaver with Walter O Dim.
My quest to find the Tower continues, with me following the path of the beam by entering charity shops and bookstores.
Tomorrow I shall reach the Luas stop and ride and get the Blaine into town, to find the lot with the red rose, to buy a few books off an ageless stranger.

GerB40

OwaynOTT wrote: »

My brother, after years of me trying to entice him to read, asked for Stephen king books for Christmas.
I scoured the second hand book shops to try and get him a couple of good ones.
Found Gunslinger and It in mint condition and I opend Gunslinger and read a few pages, as it had been years since I read it. A few hours later and the man in black was tantalisingly close, I had to drop my exam preparation (my the boy Jake) to palaver with Walter O Dim.
My quest to find the Tower continues, with me following the path of the beam by entering charity shops and bookstores.
Tomorrow I shall reach the Luas stop and ride and get the Blaine into town, to find the lot with the red rose, to buy a few books off an ageless stranger.

It was no coincidence that you found The Gunslinger. It's ka

smcgiff

I read Wizard and Glass first and really enjoyed that and the earlier books.

I'm 100% convinced he rushed the last books and they were greatly influenced by his accident. I think he wanted to finish his legacy at all costs.

He has revised previous editions and if given time I think he will revise the later books. Mabe the ending was the only way he could end it, but this was the most anticipated climax to a book I had waited on and I was greatly disappointed.

Sorry Stephen, but I preferred the alternate ending you gave for us less hardy souls.

GerB40

smcgiff wrote: »

I read Wizard and Glass first and really enjoyed that and the earlier books.

I'm 100% convinced he rushed the last books and they were greatly influenced by his accident. I think he wanted to finish his legacy at all costs.

He has revised previous editions and if given time I think he will revise the later books. Mabe the ending was the only way he could end it, but this was the most anticipated climax to a book I had waited on and I was greatly disappointed.

Sorry Stephen, but I preferred the alternate ending you gave for us less hardy souls.

I was disappointed too until that twist at the very end. I found that perfectly satisfactory.. And what's this alternate ending? Does it change much from the original one?

smcgiff

GerB40 wrote: »

I was disappointed too until that twist at the very end. I found that perfectly satisfactory.. And what's this alternate ending? Does it change much from the original one?

When he picked up the horn?

I can't remember now, it seemed more rewarding for Roland, but I've forgotten the detail, but still remember the gist of the first ending. Maybe SK was right after all. :-)

smcgiff

And I'm a soppy auld romantic to boot. I really wanted Susan not to be dead and I seem to recall there was a way for SK to work that and I thought he would, but didn't. This is probably down to my reading W&G first.