[Habeed]

I've been reading King's Dark Tower series (up to book 3) and I am VERY, VERY impressed. Its not really fantasy, well, not exactly. About the only connection to Tolkein style fantasy is that the hero is on a quest. That's about it. There's no magic rings (or really any "magic" that's anything close to what we normally see in fantasy...true there are the doorways but its not like you can summon them on demand), anything resembling "other" races (mutants don't really count), no swords or medieval warfare, no castles, nothing. So I'm not sure if it can even be compared to stuff like Martin/Jordan/Tolkein.

But the characters in this story are just amazing, in fact, they ARE the story (you'll see what I mean if you read it). In addition, there's no annoying Deus Ex Machima and it never gets dull (at least not so far). And the authors masterful weaving of poetry, riddles, phrases and such with the plot simply leaves me gaping in awe.

Read it, and you'll see the core of what a story should be, with little to get in the way of that.

[Cadfael]

Habeed..., welcome to the path of the beam, follow it with caution for the world has moved on... what about book 2 when he entered their heads?... totally freekin' awsome


"Childe Roland, to the Dark Tower came..."
Robert Browning

[Thoughtcriminal84]

I shoot with my HEART MOTHERFU****!!!!

God, I love those books.

[Shehzad]

Be careful for when the drawing of the three shall be over.... I can't remember the rest... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

I was not really willing to give these books a try, because I had some bad experiences with King previously. One hot summer day I had nothing to read and a friend loaned me "The Gunslinger"... before long I was scrabbling for the third and fourth books. Pretty good stuff, and very different from the usual.

[FitzChivalry]

Well, if people who had bad experiences with King in the past can enjoy that series i might as well try it...
Did King say how many books will be in this series?
I rather wait till all books in a series are published before starting...

[lior]

I think he said there would be seven, but I'm not sure.

Habeed, welcome to our Ka-tet...

[Cadfael]

FitzChivlary... you may be a very old man when all the books are published, each book has benn really slow to appear, an average of 3 years between books.

However, these books are totally different from his mainstream horror books.

[neologik]

ummmm...

OK. After weighing the issue, I've decided to offer my own dissenting view, hoping that everyone is mature enough to keep from leaping down my throat. But in my opinion:

"That's not writing, that's just typing"
--Truman Capote

Actually, I stole that quote from Matt Stover, as we were *just* talking about The Dark Tower.

So kudos to Matt for coming up with a quote that summed-up my particular feelings on the subject.

[Thoughtcriminal84]

Nah, no leaping down throats (which is a pretty sick thing to do, if you ask me). The only part of the series thus far that I think King was "just typing" was the last part of Wizard and Glass, what with all the wizard of oz crap. Otherwise I think its his best work since The Stand, which isn't suprising. The two works appear to be linked in several different ways, far beyond what has been previously said about the obvious Randall Flagg and Topeka KS references...

What are the thinnies, after all? Dimensional gateways, Rifts into other times, or portals into What If worlds, like the Ways in WOT? I hope king answers that one.

[FitzChivalry]

I suppose i'll wait, as i have books much higher on my to-read list anyway.