Stephen Kings The Dark Tower

[Twinner]

Wizard and Glass is among my very favorite reads. I liked the entire series to varying degrees, but none captured my imagination like the 4th book.

[owlcroft]

I made it though the first three books. I couldn't manage the fourth save by skipping the supposedly crucial long flashback, and I have now given up. King obviously has writerly abilities, but he has been too lazy for a long time to bother applying them much. I don't need to spend money on writing that was, in essence, phoned in.

[bewitt]

I made it though the first three books. I couldn't manage the fourth save by skipping the supposedly crucial long flashback, and I have now given up. King obviously has writerly abilities, but he has been too lazy for a long time to bother applying them much. I don't need to spend money on writing that was, in essence, phoned in.

Thats too bad that you skipped the flashback. I, and apparently others, thought that was the best part of the series. You finally get to see what a gunslinger was supposed to be. When Roland yells out "Hile Gunslingers, to me, ride them down, kill them all!" - best part of the series, IMO. That and the ensuing bloodbath. In a way King kind of screwed the pooch by making the Gunslingers nigh on unbeatable, through out the series I never felt any danger for the MCs when the bullets started flyin'

BTW sorry for hijacking Meep's thread for my pissy-pants tirade on the first page.

[Corporal Blues]

Another vote for loved the ending. It was not a tied with a bow kind of ending. It actually kind of blew my mind.

Same here! I thought the ending was amazing. Nearly brought me to tears though...nearly! Even though the last few books were a bit of a slog, the journey was definitely worth it.

Debating whether or not to embark on the Dark Tower comics...

Any opinions?

[bewitt]

Ha. I was holding three of the comic hard backs in borders the others day, didn't pull the trigger. I bet they're worth it. Read the first and I thought the art style worked great with the vibe the books gave me.

[pennywise86]

I was recently talking with a friend of mine about the DT and other King books, and we both just agreed that the ending to the series felt like a total cop-out. I love everything about book 7, it's my favourite just because there's SO MUCH happening, and the ending scenes with

Roland walking up to the tower and reciting the names of his fallen comrades is great.

But the actual ending?? Come on. You spend 30 years writing a series and you can't think of a better ending than

sending your MC back to the start cuz he forgot a freakin' horn???

I feel that anything would have been better than that. I remember the first time I read it and just thinking "So all that was for nothing? Wow." Put a talking goat at the top of the tower and it would have been more interesting. And people complain about LOST's ending; please, at least that had a resolution, so what if not every little mystery wasn't explained?

Oh well, just my opinion.

[saintjon]

The comics started off with a lot of promise but I find the storytelling way too rushed. I read to Jericho Hill and I shall not read any more.

[Loerwyn]

As for the ending, all that needs to be said is this:

Ka is a wheel

And the comics are great. Consistently great.

[Bob Gray]

Wowzers! Just finished book 7- the dark tower, and I couldn't be more disappointed. Frankly I wished I had stopped at book 4 because that's the apex, the rest -embarrassingly poor, mostly dumb really with a few - very few - good parts. Frankly I'm pissed about the ending, pissed about the metafiction BS, pissed I wasted so much time on a series King obviously quit on. My advice is quit while you're ahead and read something good. Abercrombie, Scott lynch or Peter Brett.

Wow, I couldn't disagree more, the last three were my favorite parts and I thought the ending was spot on. How could there be another ending.

[Bob Gray]

Alright the way it actually ends is kind of a cool, but it resolves nothing, its more the rush at the end that erked me. Like he realized he only had 10 sheets of paper left so hurry and wrap it up. What disappointed me is that the concepts presented in mid-world and the beam were so awesome and that setting had so much untapped potential, but it felt squandered. King kept going back to the New York vibe to validate his need for pop culture reference and song lyrics.

I feel kinda the same way about The Name of the Wind, it started feeling like author masturbation (I shouldn't have read Rothfuss's bio before his novel). I guess king paid his dues and can do what he wants, I just wish he would have had a plan for the dark tower
series. To me it feels made up as he went along.

Ka is a wheel, remember King stating that throughout the entire series, the way he ended it was the only way to end it, IMO.

I thought the way the ka-tet kept moving through different multiverses was really cool and I didn't feel he was trying squeeze in pop culture just for the sake of it or to validate anything.

Maybe some writers plan their series but I highly doubt that it is many, King had a idea in his head where it was leading and I believe he already knew how he wanted to end it but everything you read in-between took many years for him to fully realize. I think that is pretty common. Every story is made up as the writer goes along.

The Name of the Wind, really? Another one I have to disagree on, I loved it.

[Bob Gray]

I made it though the first three books. I couldn't manage the fourth save by skipping the supposedly crucial long flashback, and I have now given up. King obviously has writerly abilities, but he has been too lazy for a long time to bother applying them much. I don't need to spend money on writing that was, in essence, phoned in.

Ignore this guy, has no clue what s\he's talking about.

[Bob Gray]

I was recently talking with a friend of mine about the DT and other King books, and we both just agreed that the ending to the series felt like a total cop-out. I love everything about book 7, it's my favourite just because there's SO MUCH happening, and the ending scenes with

Roland walking up to the tower and reciting the names of his fallen comrades is great.

But the actual ending?? Come on. You spend 30 years writing a series and you can't think of a better ending than

sending your MC back to the start cuz he forgot a freakin' horn???

I feel that anything would have been better than that. I remember the first time I read it and just thinking "So all that was for nothing? Wow." Put a talking goat at the top of the tower and it would have been more interesting. And people complain about LOST's ending; please, at least that had a resolution, so what if not every little mystery wasn't explained?

Oh well, just my opinion.

and you are welcomed to it but I also think you are dead wrong, it is the ONLY ending.

[chris777]

I'm going to side with Bob here. The ending was great. One of the best endings I've seen. It made total sense. There was no other way to end it. It fit with the whole premise of the book. And lastly, no matter what he did, there would be a group of ppl very upset with how he did it. So to say he didn't try, is not true.

[Bob Gray]

We all can't agree, nor would I want us to. Everyone sees things in a different light. Even though Chris and I agree on a few things, I'm sure there are other issues we wouldn't and that's okay. I don't get those of you who don't like The Dark Tower series but you obviously have the right to your opinion, even though it's wrong, lol.

[bewitt]

Spoilers!!


Alright, the way the ending looped, was awesome, but the showdown with the all-powerful beacon of evil: the red king, some of the dumbest stuff I've ever read. Let's see the demon lord is such a competent villain he managed to get locked out on the balcony of the dark tower, the lynch pin of all existence. Lucky for him, there happened to be a crate of Harry potter licensed explosive snitches to hurl down at Roland like donkey kong. Never fear, somebody pull out the old trite gimmick of magic paper, and simply erase the insane, string puller from the book. What an epic showdown.

(some details might be fuzzy, been over a year since I read it)