Stephen King's DarkTower series

I have the Dark Tower series(well the first 4 i think) and although ive tried to read them i cant get into them. Are they really worth the effort? And did anyone else have problems?
 
Which I would respectfully disagree with.

The first three for me are the best of the series, with the possible exception of SoS. I can understand someone not getting into The Gunslinger, but if you've reached The Drawing of the Three and that isn't doing it for you, I doubt the series ever will.
 
Ok, expect spoilers in this!
Yeah, the second and the third are cracking. I think the...third will be my perpetual favourite, followed closely by the second. The wizard and the glass I've only read the once and don't really feel inclined to read it again...Song of Susannah is all right, but...meh. Wolves of the Calla is pretty good, although I was expecting the wolves to be something else...the book hinted that they were going to be something unexpected and I thus I was looking forward to something...really mad!
What I love about this series is how (just like the tower is the pin holding the worlds together) this is the series that holds all his books together. SK is notorious for adding hints of his books in other ones (Rosie in Rose Madder reading Misery (as in Paul Sheldon's series) for one, or the Overlook hotel mentioned in Misery.) But in the Dark Tower series, the amount of references to his books! The Crimson King...The Priest from Salem's Lot...The wanderer from The Stand...The kid from Insomnia (although of course that book is heavily linked to Dark Tower) and even things like the kid from "Everything's Eventual".
And I even like how SK gets into his own story! Like he says in the afterword, some people might think this is arrogance, but this is his Opus Magus, and I think he's intitled to be in it! And it works well with the story, even if it does create some strange paradoxes!
Anyway, I think you can tell I'm a big SK fan.


And needless to say I love this series, and I'd recommed them to anyone and everyone!
 
Major thread revival!

Obviously, I haven't read a word of this thread, but it's a good place to say The Drawing of the Three has been read and The Waste Lands is underway. :)
 
Wiggum said:
The Wastelands is seven kinds of awesome wrapped in a churro.
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I don't know about seven kinds of awesome...:D

In fact, I'd rank The Drawing of the Three as a stronger all-round book, although I loved the 100 pages in Waste Lands that covered Jake's chapter (the Final Essay, the Vacant Lot, Charlie the Choo-choo - all brilliant).

Now looking forward to the impressive chunk that is Wizard and Glass. I understand it covers Roland's backstory and that's something I've been waiting for.
 
I think The Drawing of the Three starts off feeling like the better book, but the more you read the series, the more awesome the third one just gets and just surpasses the others. But yeah, that Jake section is just brilliant.
 
The Imp said:
As many times as you read ASoIaF? :D
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Phew. Good. I've only read ASOIAF once through, after all :p

That said, I've re-read a majority of AGOT and will likely pick it up again at some point, although I've got a few other books lined up after DT, including of course a certain Dance on the horizon...
 
And with a mighty topple, so Wizard and Glass is finished. I think that is what, in the business, is called a biggie. Phew.

And a rather excellent biggie at that. Lots of good storytelling in there and a powerful ending, although it might’ve benefited from being a little more, hmm, succint in places (and maybe not so succint in others – I thought more could’ve been had out of Eldred Jonas and, for that matter, the Tick-Tock man, but they’re relatively minor grievances).

I know WaG seems to divide a lot of readers, but at the moment I'm seeing the positives of both sides. All told, I’d be really hard-pressed to choose a favourite from the first four books – they’re all very different with their own strengths. I’ll wait until I’ve read them all, although a bit of an intermission may be in order before Wolves of the Calla.
 
In re-reads of the series, I find WaG to be my favourite. It's the one I always look forward to getting to, and the one I hate to leave behind. I blame Cuthbert.
 
No One is henceforth banished from the King forum until he finishes the series. I'm getting edgy that he'll spoil something for himself. And I want him to see certain bits (Like the ending) with fresh eyes. You don't want anyone telling you what to expect with that.

It's all right, he mercilessly did the same with me with GRRM.
 
HoopyFrood said:
It's all right, he mercilessly did the same with me with GRRM.
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Pfft, as if you listened...

[SPOILERS AHEAD! SAY BIG-BIG AND SAY THANK YA!]


Alrighty then, it’s mega-post time.

I have today finished The Dark Tower books. Huzzah! Now, where to start. Hell, seems like a “quick” breakdown of the books is in order:

The Gunslinger: A perfect start, establishing Roland Deschain’s ancient and unyielding single-mindedness to reach his goal, hinting at his nemesis in the shape of the “man in black”. The opening setting of the desert couldn’t have been better chosen or the unique blend of genres that make up the overall story.

The two major highlights of this book for me were Roland and Jake under the mountains and Roland’s palaver with Walter (yes, I’m a sucker for transcendentalism when it’s done well, and that was done very well, hear me I beg ya).

The Drawing of the Three: Love the contrast of the desert of the first and the Western sea of the second, and the shocker of an opening that sees Roland lose two of his fingers to a lobstrocity. The lobstrocities for me are by far the most memorable of the series’ beasties, because they so nicely encapsulate the nature of the story and the parallel worlds that would feature strongly – “Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dad-a-cham? Ded-a-check?”

The whole of this book was excellent, but the highlight is Roland’s meeting with Eddie and seeing Eddie through customs. Brilliantly conceived and structured, clearly carried by bundles of energy and inspiration (more on that later).

The Waste Lands: This didn’t feel quite as, I dunno, “solid” as the first two, but with the expanding page-count I guess that was inevitable. In physical terms this one covers perhaps more than any of the other books (with exception maybe to the final book).

While the city of Lud left me underwhelmed, I absolutely loved Jake’s segment (as noted in an earlier post), which might well be my favourite in the entire series. Overall an excellent book.

Wizard and Glass: Seeing as I was reading the series back-to-back with no waiting inbetween, the change of pace, place, and writing style was much appreciated.

The only negatives I would pick at was that I thought the narrative started to drag it’s heels a touch toward the end (although that didn’t effect the impact of Susan’s demise), and that Eldred Jonas was somewhat wasted (along with the pointless ressurection of the Tick-tock Man, killed later on).

Even so, the highlights of the majority of the writing, Susan’s introductory scene with Rhea (what a fantastic scene), the one-potato, two-potato, three-potato (up to six!) ambush/confrontation between Roland and Jonas’s groups, and, of course, Susan’s burning at the stake, are all unforgettable scenes.

Now, how about an intermission? :) I’ve only read a few of King’s books outside of this series and didn’t know a great deal about the man himself. If we’re gonna talk about parallel worlds here, then how about this question: What would the last three books of the series have been like if King hadn’t had his near-fatal incident?

Some might say they’d have never been finished, but I think that’s unlikely. Suffice to say, the event had a huge impact on the future of this series, and I for one don’t think it was a positive one overall. Which leads us to…

Wolves of the Calla: After the prologue my first thought was, “I hope this whole book isn’t just King’s own version of Seven Samurai” (which of course, by his own admission in the next book, it was).

For me this book is by far the weakest of the series – even Eddie became an annoying caricature of himself at the beginning, seemingly present for nothing but wise-cracking (and when that thankfully stopped, his main task seemed to be to point out every instance of the number 19). I’m not a fan of the Oriza’s either. Plausibly deadly? Certainly. Plausibly accurate in the heat of battle? Not so much. The less said about the Wolves the better, because they were a disappointment too.

There were still undoubtedly good scenes and I enjoyed Callahan’s re-introduction and backstory (Salem’s Lot being one of the few others books I’ve read), even though it was practically a short novel in itself and ate up valuable time. Besides that, my two favourite moments both came in the same scene. Namely, Oy taking a bow and introducing himself to the Calla folk (superb :D) and Roland dancing the Commala.

Song of Suzannah: Tricky one this, because while it definitely helped set things back on track, it didn’t feel like a book unto itself inasmuch as a set-up to the last book.

I’m not exactly sure when the details of Suzannah’s pregnancy were elucidated (maybe that was in Wolves too) but I liked how the idea of conception was handled (very Urotsukidoji, i.e: twisted and nasty).

Of course, this one also heavily involved King’s own influence, which on the whole I think was a wrong turn in storytelling along with the whole 19 thing, but was well done (King’s initial reaction to seeing Roland and Eddie was spot-on and damn funny). Overall, still a good book.

The Dark Tower: Okay, the big one, and a mixed bag of results. Firstly, let’s talk deaths.

Callahan had the best of it. His last scene at the Dixie Pig was a cracker.

Of great disappointing was Walter’s death at the hands (legs) of Mordred. To be re-introduced in one chapter, have his ambitions and thoughts summarized and then killed off in one fell swoop felt like a massive waste of the character. In fact, it’s a pet-peeve of mine in storytelling. While King had written earlier about Deus Ex Machina used in stories, he neglected the opposite of that which is what Walt fell victim to – namely where a character who has constantly been shown to be cunning and highly intelligent, one step ahead (or behind, as it happens), suddenly makes an inexplicably crucial mistake. This is my second biggest gripe with the last book.

I was also disappointed with Eddie’s demise. I know every death needn’t be a work of intricacy and cunning, but being shot by the bad guy that everyone thinks is already dead just didn’t sit right with me.

Jake’s (technically third) demise was better handled and was guaranteed to pluck a heart-string or two, especially with the ramifications for poor little Oy.

Then you have Sheemie, happily re-introduced and killed “off-screen”. Seemed like an afterthought.

Now, Mordred. Another disappointment. It seems to me like the entire thread of Mordred’s story served no other purpose than to first kill Walter and ultimately Oy.

My biggest gripe, however, is the death of Crimson King. Erased? Really? Bah. That the final scene came down to the Crimson King lobbing sneetches at Roland and Patrick was a huge let-down in itself, but to kill him off like that… Far be it from me to suppose a better scenario, but oh how I’d have loved to see it all come down to a shoot-out! Roland and the Crimson King, standing in a field of roses before the Dark Tower. One shot. Winner take all.

Anyhoo, like I said, it’s a mixed bag and there are good scenes – the Dixie Pig at the start and the hospitality of Dandelo being two of them. As to the ending…

Heh. Saw it coming. Ever since King (I believe in Song of Suzannah) noted that the first line of The Gunslinger was his best opening line, I had the coda in mind and suspected it would also be the last line. And I have no problem with that. It fits and it works. Plus, the fact that Roland has the horn of Eld with him at the re-start suggests there might be salvation waiting for him, somewhere far, far down the line.

So, in short summary – loved the first four books, not so much the last three, which is a huge pity. From Wolves onward there just wasn’t the same energy and inspiration at work and I don’t think I’d be wrong in quoting Suzannah as to why that is, when she tells Roland (concerning Stephen King):

“...you tell him not to stop with his writin’. Not come hell, high water, cancer, or gangrene of the dick. Nevermind worrying about the pulitzer prize, neither. You tell him to go on and be done with his mother******* story."

Obviously there’s a shedload of details that I couldn’t possibly cover, and as soon as I stop writing I’ll probably think, “Crap! Forgot about…”, but there it is.

Say thank ya.

Oh wait! I did forget something. Roland never shot the sky in memory of David…:mad:
 
Woo hoo! And finally!

Now, get ye back through this thread to find out what I think about the books! Then we'll talk :p
 
Ive got all these books and Ive yet to get reviews written for them all on my blog. But I do feel some of them are better than others and as for the end....... well i was just so frustrated and disappointed
 
I have loved the DT for a very long time, won't say how long 'cause I can be that old! In the last few years I think ASoIaF has given it a real run for my all time favorite, but that is kinda besides the point!

I was fascinated with Roland from the first few pages of Gunslinger, but I must confess it was Eddie who won my heart! That being said Drawing and Wastelands are my favorites. Just all around excellent.

Loved the backstory parts of WaG. and Eddie's endless bs frying Blaine is top of the list, but the rest of it not so much.

Could have skipped wolves completely.

SoS was better, still only good though.

The long awaited DT, loved it for the most part. There were 2 spots that made me throw my brand new 40 dollar book across the room! Guess where?
Rune sorry you were disappointed, I thought it was excellent! Could not imagine a truly better ending!

No One, a word on Walter. Walter was also Randell Flagg in the Stand (don't know if you read that, very different but also an excellent book!) They suffered from the same flaw, arrogance! Makes one easier to kill.
 
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