Stephen King

intensityxx said:
I stopped reading SK many years ago, but I've just found out that the entire Dark Tower series is available for my new Sony Reader. So, can someone convince me why to read the Dark Tower series?
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Well, it is one of the absolute best, top-notch, fantasy series on the market. It's complete. It's got some great characters, interesting settings, heart-wrenching moments, amazing character development, knights with revolvers, a billy-bumbler named Oy, the author himself is a character, and who DOESN'T want to know what's at the top of the tower.....

That enough.

Did I mention it's really, really good?
 
If I read Gunslinger, would it give me a good sense of what the rest might be like?
 
Not in my opinion - Gunslinger was written a lot earlier than the other books ( if I recall correctly). I'd at least read The Drawing of the Three as well, which introduces more of the characters that make the series so good. They're not particularly long books so you shouldn't waste much time.

My favourite of the books was Wizard and Glass, book four.
 
Yes, the Gunslinger is like a little dip in the pool. Drawing of the Three brings out more of the main characters, but I think the main event really starts picking up in book 3, The Waste Lands. I think my favorite is probably Wizard and Glass, as well, Eventine. Though, they're all tasty in their own way. Really like Callahan in Book 5....

Okay...I like them all. Wizard and Glass is the favorite, though.
 
It's complete.
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Yes, finally! After something like 20 years.
It's got a billy-bumbler named Oy,
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LOL. True.

Like the rest, I thought Wizard and Glass (book 4) was the best. I loved that western-style story. But I have yet to read books 5, 6, and 7. Can someone tell me (without spoilers) if the last 3 are any good? The first 4 books were written over a very long span of time, and the last 3 all came out very quickly (within the space of a year?). Are they rushed? Do they disappoint? Or do they tie the series up nicely?
 
I enjoyed them. They came out over the course of a couple of years here. although that may have been a trick by the publishers. Basically King rushed to complete them before he died because he was worried about leaving it unfinished (being nearly killed when he was hit by a car prompted this), I don't feel the quality suffers for this, and you could even argue it added to the books.
They're at times powerful, climactic, heart wrenching, heart warming and frustrating - the same as the books preceding them, but with the weight of the series multiplying those feelings as you progress.

I'd say The Dark Tower ties the series up well rather than nicely.

The Dark Tower books, are in my opinion, one of the must-reads of modern fantasy. I just think they don't often get considered as much due to Kings horror background.
 
Maybe it's time to read one in the Fantasy Book Club? Because, I always figured they were more of the same horror, only western.
 
Just an FYI to those who are just starting the series, don't let the first book, "THe Gunslinger" scare you off, while it's essential because it is the first, it in no way captures the whole "power" of this series. Consider it more of a prelude than a first book. The story really jump starts with the second book, "Drawing of the Three".

So 2-4 some really primo reading, 5-6 just ok but us towerjunkies were drooling for them...(give a starving man a cracker and they will consider it the best food they ever eaten, because well, they are starving), and book 7, imo was good. Lots of people didn't like it because they didn't like the way it ended, but drag readers on for 20 years and naturally you are going to have some complaints.

And if you do start reading the books check out thedarktower.net, a messageboard with over 1 million posts, it's a tight community, or was. :rolleyes:
 
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I have only read the first four in the series so far, and I thought that book 3, The Waste Lands, was the best. There are just some places that really crystalized in my mind, like the empty lot in Manhattan and the abandoned house. Good stuff :D

Wizard and Glass was good, but it's basically a 700-page book with a 500-page flashback, the significance of which isn't readily apparent in connection with the first 3 books other than that it's about Roland's first ka-tet (and if I recall correctly, doesn't even explain what happens to two of its members). I also think it didn't help me that I read those first 4 books all in a row. I was dealing with Stephen King fatigue by the time I got to book 4.

I had been waiting for the last 3 books to come out in paperback, so I guess there's nothing stopping me from finishing the series now :)
 
Well I finished "The Gunslinger" last night and I will say that I liked it. A little strange and maybe not everything explained, but it is the first book in a series and I want to read the rest now. I found a place online where I bought all seven books for ten dollars used. Now I felt I can't beat that deal so I will just have to wait till I get them to finish the series. I have read so many reviews that this is a series that you either like or don't, no middle ground. So in a few weeks we will see how much I liked it. So far after number one, so good.
 
I had been waiting for the last 3 books to come out in paperback, so I guess there's nothing stopping me from finishing the series now
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That's how I felt as well, but there are now two minor things stopping me from purchasing and finishing the series:

1) The new paperbacks for Books 5, 6, 7, are a different size, slightly taller, with annoying covers!

2) I am somewhat less than excited about the last 3, considering that they're apparently not quite as good as the first 4.
 
Not as good as the first 4? I'm not sure anyone has said that here. I think Wizard and Glass is very well liked because of the Roland back-story in it. Having said that, after that Song of Susanah would have to be my second favourite (if I recall the end of that/start of the Dark Tower correctly). Dark Tower would have to come in third, and I'd be hard pressed to differentiate after that. As I mentioned earlier, these books gain weight, gain momentum as the series progresses, making it hard to not like the latter books more than the previous, simply because of our shared experience with the ka-tet - King is one of the only authors I've read who has taken me on the journey with his characters (he also got me to cry, which only Hobb and Elliott have managed out of everything else I've read as an adult).

As far as editions are concerned, I realise you're not adverse to importing UK editions so you may want to look at these. Each novel simply features a picture of the Dark Tower. However, each novel shows the tower from a nearer vantage point. Nice concept, and of course they look good on the shelf together.
 
Addendum to last post:
I was wrong about what events were in which book. The Dark Tower (book 7) is better than Song of Susannah - I was confused about when things happened. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if I don't like it more than Wizard and Glass after all.
 
I like this kind of thread.:D :D

Evil Agent has an excuse to re-purchase the entire series, and Eventine has an excuse to re-read the entire series!
 
I am with Eventine again. I would in no way say that the series declines in quality. Now, some people might be pissed that it didn't go the way they wanted it to go, but I can't argue with King for the directon he took it in. I really think it's the RIGHT ending for the series, even if it may not be the one each and every person wanted.

One of my favorite things about this series is that each and every book is a different kind of story, formally and in a different storytelling tradition, from the dreamy quality of Gunslinger, to the Fairy Tale structure of Drawing of the Three, to the flashback of Wizard and Glass, to the Seven Samurai-styled Wolves of the Calla, and so on.
 
...to the meta-fiction of Song of Susannah...

Seriously. How often do you get to use the meta prefix when talking about a fantasy book? :D
 
I love books 2 to 5. I didn't care much for "The Gunslinger" (maybe because I didn't read the first 4 in chronological order, IIRC I started with Book 4). Book 6 was a big disappointment, same for Book 7. The ending of the series wasn't really the problem(although I didn't like it, that's for sure). I just felt the last two books were forced and rushed in a way, as if King decided to finish the series at all costs. There were too many deus ex machinas, disappointing plot resolutions and such, and the quality of the writing was nowhere near King's best IMO. I sometimes wish I have stopped after Book 5.
 
I've read the first four books of the Dark Tower, have yet to read the last three. I'm currently doing a re-read of Salem's Lot.
 
i just finished reading the 7th book last night and i hated the ending, the series as a whole i loved, but the ending i felt lacked something, its like king didnt even try to finish it well, like he just gave up at the end. but thats just my opinion.
 
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