Dark Tower 7

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

This book gave me much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Anyone else read it? If so, feel free to discuss, complain, etc. I'd like to see what someone else has to say about it.. no one I know has read it yet and I need to vent. >_<

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

I gave it a thumbs up after being pretty down on the last two. From the people I've talked to about it, most of the peple who have disliked it, did so because it didn't end how they imagined before hand. I feel the ending is actually done alot better than most of his other books, and left a feeling of hope. The book made me legit sad in a few points and the villians went down too easy, but like people have said, "it's about the journey, not the destination."

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

Yeah, I'm not ashamed to admit to shedding a few tears while reading this book. I liked it up until the end, that just kind of left me with a feeling of "WTF just happened". But at the same time, I can see what you're saying, it does give a feeling of hope. I did like most of the book, but some parts just annoyed the hell out of me.

 

The illustrations in this book were awesome, particularly the one of the big bad King himself. I liked them so much because in a lot of them, the emotions the characters were feeling were palpable... I looked at them and could feel what they were feeling sorta deal.

 

(aww, only 2 of us read this book? boourns, I was hoping for a big discussion.)

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

If you read the Revised Gunslinger, it does give away the loop a bit, so I went in expecting the ending was a possibilty. Forgot the exact passage because my copy is loaned out, but it talks about him having a dizzy feeling in the desert where the loop evidently starts.

 

EDIT: Also, I believe Roland is the only character in the series to experience deja vu, quite a few times through a lot of the books, if I recall correctly.

[Guest Reservoir_Kitty]

Now that you mention it, I do recall Roland experiencing deja vu throughout the series. I didn't read the revised Gunslinger, so I was completely surprised by the ending. I actually read the chapter over again because I was so shocked by it. Then I was a little peeved by it.. it just wasn't what I expected. I suppose King's not much for happy endings with fluffy bunnies, but this series sort of made me want him to do that, just once. *sigh* I think I'll have to read them over again once all my copies are back.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

The section I referred to before:

The gunslinger had been struck by a momentary dizziness, a kind of yawning sensation that made the entire world seem ephermeral, almost a thing that could be looked through.  It passed and, like the world upon whose hide he walked, he moved on.

 

Not much in of itself, but it was the piece that kind of clinched the idea for me, along with the other stuff.

[EricMM 0]

um plz use spoiler tags?

[Jingus 0]

Well then, SPOILERS AHEAD:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ending was as boring and generic as it possibly could've been. So all of King's faithful readers have followed this series for years and years, and at the end are given... the oscillating universe theory? The journey beginning anew? A fucking MOEBIUS LOOP? Christ. King got to the end of his series, and then either didn't have the balls or the imagination to give it a real ending. The whole finale was the biggest copout imaginable.

[Nighthawk 0]

He's never written a good ending once (well, maybe once, but most people would disagree with me) except on short stories. The longer it is, the worse the ending is, therefore, something this long should have a terrible ending. Perfect.

[Jingus 0]

King has certainly written some shitty finales in his time, with The Stand being my least favorite example. But I'd say he's had a few decent endings to his novels: Carrie and The Shining had perfectly good climaxes, and plenty of others like Cujo, Eyes of the Dragon, hell even The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan weren't offensive in the end. But the prime example was the sixth Dark Tower book: the little deal with King's journal entries was cute, and the last entry itself was fairly mindfuckular. Why he came up with something so good for the last one and then followed it with something so worthless is what bothers me.

[In Credible 0]

Lol. Not to drag up an old thread, but I just finished the Dark Tower series, and I loved Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower, but I read them back to back. If there were a gap in between I might not have like Susannah as much.

 

The ending kind of threw me, because for me it didn't seem like a sign up hope, it seemed like Roland was just being tortured to repeat the same painful journey over and over.

 

Also I'm not sure, but if Roland had Cuthbert's horn when he reached the tower along with his guns and the cross from his aunt or whatever. Would he have been allowed to rest finally?

[Special K 0]

Right now, i'm avoiding thespoileredge. Is this The Stephen King big epic? I it is, i defeinitiely want to read it.

[In Credible 0]

Yeah the Dark Tower is King's Epic.

[Special K 0]

Fantastical, right? Regardind the tower.

 

Stephen King is responsible for one horrifying image, totally realistic. I think it was Delores Claiborne. The fact that you evacuate your excrement when you die. I had had some sort of feeling that there was some dignity in death. Nope. You piss and shit yourself.

[In Credible 0]

The Dark Tower is incredible, plain and simple the best series of books I've ever read. Due note that the journey is always better than the ending, though the ending is actually very fitting.

 

Make sure you take some time in between the 7 books or you will probably go nuts. I would read 1/2 back to back. Then 3, then 4/5 back to back. Then wait a while and do 6/7 back to back. I think doing the last two back to back is the most important thing.

[EricMM 0]

The ending to book seven is when he walks into the tower. That's it.

 

The rest is fluff demanded by King's editors/publishers/whatever.

[k thx 0]

I liked the ending...

[In Credible 0]

The ending to book seven is when he walks into the tower. That's it.

 

The rest is fluff demanded by King's editors/publishers/whatever.

 

I would have actually gotten much more closure from that rather than having any details about what was in the tower.

[vivalaultra 0]

Heeeey....an old topic on my favorite book series of all-time. Seriously, my favorite book series ever. It's just beautiful, flaws and all. About the ending, the true ending, I think, is meant to be the appendix of "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" after King's bitter rant on readers and everything. Also, has anybody, since this is the comic book forum, read any of the DT comic books? They're on the 2nd issue this month. They're basically the story of Roland's life before he went on the quest for the Tower. It's animated by Jae Lee. I don't read comics regularly, so I have no idea how to judge it, but, as a Dark Tower fan and a Stephen King fan, it's friggin' awesome.

 

Yeah, but the DT series is my favorite work of literature ever. It's actually responsible for getting me into serious adult reading. The first SK book I read was Pet Semetary when I was like..7. I started reading the DT series in like 89 or 90. I did a book report in 5th grade on Stephen King's The Waste Lands. The wait between the 4th book and the 5th book, that long 7 years wait, was almost enough to make me jump off a fuckin' bridge.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I only liked the first 3 books very much. I thought the 4th was okay, then I thought the rest were just kind of there.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

The Drawing of the Three being the best.

[k thx 0]

Also, has anybody, since this is the comic book forum, read any of the DT comic books?

I vetured into a comic store for the first time as an adult to seek this out.

 

I enjoy it. It brings some good visuals to the story. It'd be nice to see the whole story in this format.

[vivalaultra 0]

Yeah, I also went to the comic book store for the first time in like...12 years to get it. The nerds scattered like roaches when the sunlight hit them as I opened the door, interrupting their WoW tournament. I think right now, they're doing 7 issues, but I heard that, in all, there's gonna be 30, possibly more. It's supposed to go all the way up to Jericho Hill. I just hope that like...Spiderman doesn't make an unexpected appearance in Mejis or something.

[vivalaultra 0]

Since this seems to be the only Dark Tower thread on the board, and I doubt there's enough interest (although there should be) amongst people not already involved in this thread, I just wanna mention something that slipped my mind after I read about it a month or so ago-There's going to be a Dark Tower movie. Like...seriously. It's still in the planning stages, but Stephen King sold the rights to J.J. Abrams (he of 'Lost fame, of which SK is a big fan. Abrams is also a big fan of the DT series) for $19. I'm cautiously optimistic about the whole thing given who's involved, but I reserve the right to change my mind as the process moves forward. Personally, if they have to do a screen adaptation, I'd rather they do a miniseries on HBO or something, because there's no way at all they'll be able to do the whole series in one 3-hour movie, and I don't know if the fanbase is big enough to support a movie series like 'LOTR' or 'Harry Potter'. And I'm also worried that the people who aren't familiar with the series will either see the trailers and dismiss the whole thing as a 'Lord of the Rings' knock-off or see Stephen King's name attatched and dismiss it as schlocky horror crap. And I have no idea who could properly play Roland besides Clint Eastwood.

[BX 0]

Clive Owen?

[BX 0]

Plus, we'd get to chop his fucking fingers off at some point. I'm all about mutilating Clive Owen in the name of art.

[vivalaultra 0]

Clive Owen's too British to be Roland. Even though he's not Cockney British and more Suave British, I still don't think it would work, even if it would mean getting to see lobster-creatures eat his fingers off.

[brokentusk16 0]

Overall, I liked the seventh book. I didn't go in expecting it to be the greatest read ever, because to do so would be setting me up for a let-down.

 

SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only loose threads from the series I can think of are 1) King tells Roland that Eddie and Cuthbert saved his life as a child; it was brought up but never touched on again. 2) Roland never read the copy of Insomnia that the Tet Corporation gave him. He mentioned that Susannah would read it to him, but she never did.

 

I think the ending is suiting and hopeful. Suiting because Roland's quest did bring misery and death to nearly everyone he met, so of course he had to pay the price of reliving this awful journey for who knows how long! This may have been the hundredth time he reached the Tower. OTOH, it was hopeful because unlike all the previous journeys he had the horn this time. In the poem that spawned the series, the horn played a big part in the end of the journey, so I assume that this will finally be the last time Roland has to complete his journey.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

I guess I'm bumping this topic, since I just found this thread. I don't venture into the Lit. folder much and elt like putting my $.02 in as an afterthought.

 

I personally thought the ending was horrible. I can see where King can justify it ("The clues were there if you looked!") and I know King's not big on happy endings but it just felt...incomplete. We followed this story for decades and we end up back at the start? What's the point? And then, as a further insult, we get King's "well if you don't like the ending, tough luck don't blame me I just write this stuff" author's note (I don't know if it's in all the editions, but it is in the 1st". What a bunch of crap. King tried to give himself a get out of jail free card because he knew a LOT of people were going to be pissed about the lack of a real ending. It all just felt like a huge letdown to me personally.

 

And I swear, if Martin's "Fire and Ice" series ends not with a bang, but with a whimper (like this one does) I might go postal in the nearest Barnes and Noble.

[Jingus 0]

Stephen King sold the rights to J.J. Abrams (he of 'Lost fame, of which SK is a big fan. Abrams is also a big fan of the DT series) for $19.

Heh.

 

And yeah, how the hell could you possibly condense seven complete novels (some of them of Clancyan length) into one movie?

 

To play Roland, there's one name that immediately popped to mind: Viggo Mortenson. Yeah, you'd have all the LOTR haters bitching about it, but I was thinking more of A History of Violence when I got the idea.