New Dark Tower book

[rising up out of the back seat-nuh]

So, far I'm pleasantly impressed. I've got up to part 1, chapterIV, section 4, and I'm engrossed.

[{''({o..o})''}]

Just finished the book, and i don't know if its the medication or my fever, but it seemed to kind of fall off after about 3/4 through. i will read the book here real soon though to be sure. Also, did anybody else get their hands stained by the book, they're totally blue now after reading the book.

[BlackFlagg]

I'll hopefully have my copy by tonight...though it may be a few days before I get to it as I'm about to start to re-read the first four since it's been a bit, heh

[BX]

I took the jacket off of my copy, and my hands are fucking stained now. Fuck you Stephen. Now I have to take a bath.

[Guest Urine Sane]

After reading the start of this thread, I went and bought the first four in a set for like $30. I finished the Gunslinger, great book, slow at times but a very good start to things. I'm in the middle of The Drawing of the Three (Thats it right? #2?). Anyway, I just got done reading about the shootout at the Leaning Tower bar, and I was totally blown away. Amazing stuff, just incredible imagery. If I become a director, I totally want to make these into films, I can invision that fight and it would be insane.

[Crimson Platypus]

Just finished the book, and am now drooling with anticipation for the next...

[k thx]

Bumped beacues Dark Tower VI is a major diappointment.

 

Discuss.

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

What disappointed you about DT 6? Anything in particular?

 

I didn't have very high expectations of this book because of the four main characters, Susannah is definitely my least favorite. Her part in "Drawing of the Three" was possibly some of the most horrible stuff I've ever read. It was boring and seemed to go on forever.

 

I was unhappy with the way the book ended.. I know it's supposed to be a cliffhanger, but Stephen King always seems to be in such poor health after getting smoked by a car, it worries me that he won't be alive to finish the last book. *crosses fingers*

 

I liked this book better than Wolves of the Calla, though. That book was 95% talking about what to do about the Wolves, and 5% actually doing the deed. That was a little boring, in my opinion.

 

But yeah, I'm very excited for the last book. I think it'll be the longest book of the series, there's still a lot of loose ends to tie up.

[Masked Man of Mystery]

I think the book is written, they're just delaying the publication. At least I think that's what he says in the revised version of the Gunslunger(whihc is my intro to this series)

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

I think the book is written, they're just delaying the publication. At least I think that's what he says in the revised version of the Gunslunger(whihc is my intro to this series)

Thank goodness for small favors. *sigh of relief* I'd be seriously disappointed if the end of the series didn't come out. It's such a great series with ties to a lot of other King books.. it'd be a shame for him not to finish it.

[Masked Man of Mystery]

Okay as a Stephan king newbie, beside the actual Dark Tower books, what else should I read for the story and in what order? I currently have Rose Madder and Desperation beside volumes 1., 3, and 4 of Dark tower(I need to get the second book)

[Masked Man of Mystery]

Oh, and is there a revised version of volume 4? My copies of 1 and 3 are revised, but I got 4, Desperation, and Rose Madder from my grandmother as gifts.

[chaosrage]

3 is revised too? I wouldn't worry about it if it's anything like 1. I read it a couple of weeks ago and he hardly changed anything. Except for a couple lines, most of it's the same, word for word.

[Masked Man of Mystery]

I don't think 3 is revised now that I actually looked at the cover for longer than 3 seconds, it just has a new introduction, sorry.

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

Okay as a Stephan king newbie, beside the actual Dark Tower books, what else should I read for the story and in what order? I currently have Rose Madder and Desperation beside volumes 1., 3, and 4 of Dark tower(I need to get the second book)

There's usually a list of books that tie in with the Dark Tower series in the beginning of the DT books.. I know that 6's list had the books bolded. You'll want to grab books like.. shit, just lemme check mine. Okay, here's the list:

 

The Stand

'Salem's Lot

The Talisman/Black House (written with Peter Straub)

It

Eyes of the Dragon

Insomnia

Rose Madder

Desperation

The Regulators

Bag of Bones

From a Buick 8

Skeleton Crew

Hearts in Atlantis

Everything's Eventual

 

Skeleton Crew and Everything's Eventual are short story collections, just so you know.

[Masked Man of Mystery]

Thanks a bunch. So the Green Mile stuff doesn't fit into this at all?

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

You're welcome. Always willing to help a fellow reader.

 

Anyway, strangely enough, the Green Mile doesn't have anything to do with the DT series. It's a good read, and I really recommend it if you haven't read it already. The movie version is good too, but I think that the book is just that much better.

 

Also, I don't think there's really any order to reading the Dark Tower related books.. I haven't read them in any order (plus I'm missing some) and I'm doing alright. I think I'm doing alright, anyway, heh.

[k thx]

What disappointed you about DT 6? Anything in particular?

1) The Susannah stuff bored me a lot. Her place is as a sidekick, not as the main character.

 

2) The book felt like it's whole purpose was to build up to the climax. Then the end comes, and it's all left till the next book. IMHO, this is the least eventful of all the Tower books. You could sum up the meaningful plot twists in a paragraph or too.

 

3) Stephen King did the stupidest thing he could possibly do in the story, make it too much about him. I won't spoil it, but if you've read it you'll probably know what I'm talking about. And whats with the ending to the diary at the back? Dumb dumb dumb.

 

4) Personal taste, but I felt it needed a quick recap at the front like in the other books, because I really can't be arsed to read them all through again to get ready for it.

 

Basically, this book was just pretty boring to me. At the moment I feel like I'm gonna get Volume VII to see how the story ends, not because I'm gonna enjoy reading it.

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

Susannah is my least favorite character.. the entire book being about her made me really really happy when I came across a chapter with Roland or even Jake and Oy. It was a little better than her stuff in Drawing of the Three, which if I think about it, isn't saying much. That was my least favorite book due to all the boring crap about Susannah's past.

 

I do agree that the Stephen King bits were a bit much. It seemed all too egomaniacal to place himself in the story like that. The end of the book - the diary - was very stupid. He could've done without that and added the recap at the beginning, because like you said, it's a lot of damn work to read through all the other books to refresh yourself on what's going on.

 

I will be mad if the final book is written like this one though, it was a book that I read really quickly (and probably didn't take long to write, IMO)

 

Mm, so refreshing to have a discussion about a book/series I like.

[BX]

This book was way too fucking short, and disappointing.

[{''({o..o})''}]

It's better than WOTC, but overall dissapointing. One thing I kind of noticed, the date at the end of the journal was June 19, 1999. The numbers "19" and "99" start appearing in all the books writtrn after this date. 19 is the day that King died and it starts affecting the reality of the worlds these books take place in. Or maybe I should not read or post when I'm fucked up.

[k thx]

I dunno, King evidently wrote the boke while wasted. Why else would he

decide he was one of the fucking beams which hold the universe up?

 

Also, the WTC shit was uncalled for. Implying 9/11 happened because of his book is a bit dumb.

[chaosrage]

I dunno, King evidently wrote the boke while wasted. Why else would he decide he was one of the fucking beams which hold the universe up?

Uh spoilers dude.

[{''({o..o})''}]

I forgot to mention my least favorite part. I can't believe they killed off Oy after reveling him to be Randall Flagg.

[k thx]

Uh spoilers dude.

To be fair, he didn't actually reveal that only imply it. Also there are more important spoilers elsewhere in the thread. Un-spoiled for anybody else though now, in case you wanna do the same for your post.

[chaosrage]

To be fair, he didn't actually reveal that only imply it. Also there are more important spoilers elsewhere in the thread. Un-spoiled for anybody else though now, in case you wanna do the same for your post.

Ok. I already heard about it, but other people in the thread might not have. Thanks.

 

At least that's better than how I figured it would end up. They finally get to the Tower and reach the top floor or whatever. They open the last door to find.... Stephen King. Who then reveals to them that they're all figments of his imagination. The End.

[k thx]

I would have loved that for the sheer WTFness. And I still wouldn't rule it out as the serious ending.

[{''({o..o})''}]

I still think a loop theory is possible, and that "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed" will be the first and last lines of the series.

[Guest The Ultimate Fantasy]

NOBODY owns Tolkien.  Nobody.  Especially not King.

 

I've defended King before, against assertions that he's overrated.  I think the Dark Tower series is something that will ultimately put him down in the annals of literary history as the milestone of his career, but even so, he doesn't touch Tolkien.  No one does.

LOTR is boring. I don't want to read pages and pages of Tolkien describing a forest or a mountain or 50 pages of them just walking in silence with nothing happening. I prefer character depth to how detailed and big the world is and all the history behind it. All of LOTR's characters are flat. I would be lying if I said I gave a shit if Frodo, Pip, or Legolas died, whereas with DT and I&F if something bad were to happen to say, Tyrion, Arya, or Roland, I could possibly turn into the girl on Misery. I love the way King and Martin let you see the point of view of each character. It lets you know how they feel about everything, lets you get in their head and figure out what makes them tick. Including the villains. Nobody is pure evil or good, everybody usually has reasons for doing stuff. Well Flagg might not, but who knows, there's still a long way to go.

 

Not to say that LOTR is bad. LOTR is a nice adventure story, but I don't think anyone is as good as King in building tension, not even Tolkien.

 

Critics worship age however. So King will probably have to die before he gets any real respect. I think in 100 years though, people will look at Dark Tower and Ice and Fire on the same level as LOTR.

I agree, the LOTR books were just way too tedious and the only true charecter devloment was with Frodo, who went from being a young adventous 90 year old to a tedious a dull whatever.

 

Although you have to admit in the Song of Fire and Ice (second only to the Dark Tower) blurs the line between good and evil way to much.

[chaosrage]

I don't know. Joffrey seems pretty evil. And the Hound's brother. I'm only on the second book though.