Stephen King's DarkTower series

Sorry for munging your username. I could have sworn I saw "SPANKING". Oh well.

The well-worn chestnut about King being "chewing gum for the brain" is oft-quoted amongst the haughty types that read Milton while taking a dump - or at least, won't admit to sullying their intellect with lesser authors. What these :kd: types of personalities really dislike is the popularity of King as well as the fact that his characters are generally regular Toms, Dicks, and Harrys who follow a comprehensible plot unfettered by existential drivel as one might find in, say, Vonnegut.

I found nothing wrong with the re-telling of Exodus in a modern context amidst the rubble of a crumbled civilisation. Really, novels are, when boiled down to their basic ingredients, all good-versus-evil stories. You may remember, if you posess a rigorous education, that a novel consists of (a) establishment of conflict (b) climax (c) resolution of conflict (d) denoument. Proper introduction of characters and their motives add, rather than detract, from The Stand... and I had no trouble keeping track of them either.

I would agree that a reading on whether King is a good author or not would depend largely upon "compared to whom?".
 
Astute point, well thought out and well written.

The problem you pointed out about D. I think King has a real problem with D. Bringing a conclusion to the story or any story that matters. I think that is the main reason there ARE so many many books related to the Dark Tower. I don't know if its arrogance of lack of talent that he keeps on with these series.

For example, in his recent book I read on my honeymoon, Everythings Eventual there was a long story related to the Dark Tower Series, you know what I did? Skipped it. Alot of his short stories are great, one especially was the story about a woman who keeps repeating the same day and having Deja Vu about it, she keep repeating and repeating the day, turns out she's dead from a plane crash and is in hell. King's epilogue was his idea of hell would be repeating the same thing over and over again. I got a chuckle because it sounded like what I thought his Dark Tower series were.
 
Spanking, I think the Dark Tower bit is King pandering to his audience. He can bang out these lackluster novels with little or no work - and it's a bazzillion dollar payday for him, so why not?

By contrast, some of his well done novels - and I would include The Stand amongst them - are intricate tapestries of everyday schlubs thrust into nightmarish situations. And the pleasure is observing how these characters react and extricate themselves from a situation in which they have no frame of reference from which to react. Much like the old Twilight Zone TV series or an old Hitchkock movie.

Not every novel needs a deep message nor does it need to pretend to be the backdrop for some RPG like the Black Tower series. I share the same distaste for Tolkien that I do the Dark Tower series. Sometimes it's just fun to go sightseeing in a novel packed with vivid descriptions and skip the D&D nonsense.
 
i cannot believe you couldnt get into dark tower. thats incredible. roland is one of the best characters written, and youve missed the best of the series if you've left out book four.-
 
I've only read the first one - The Gunslinger. I wasn't very impressed. It was a complete bore until about the last 1/4 of the book.
 
thats why youre missing out my friend the first part is basically just setting up the character and showing his determination to get what he's after. its not meant to be straight into action, you need to read the rest i guarantee it gets better. Roland goes from strength to strength and the rest of the charaters that come in are brilliant. you would really be missing out on an amazing read if you ignored this.
 
The Dark Tower series really seems to fit in with the rest of his work, I just finished it (say thankya) and am convinced that it really is the greatest thing he`s written.
It is a good mix of si-fi, horror and fantasy (none too obvious) and if you`re not put off by the first book you`re really in for a fun ride.
The best I`ve read so far, can`t wait for the comic of the Dark Tower (expected to come out 2007 )
 
Denie Alconn said:
The Dark Tower series really seems to fit in with the rest of his work, I just finished it (say thankya) and am convinced that it really is the greatest thing he`s written.
It is a good mix of si-fi, horror and fantasy (none too obvious) and if you`re not put off by the first book you`re really in for a fun ride.
The best I`ve read so far, can`t wait for the comic of the Dark Tower (expected to come out 2007 )
Click to expand...

I have to be honest here and say that when I read 'The Gunslinger', I didn't like it but I stuck with it, then I read the rest, what can I say? I read 'The Drawing of the three' in a day, then went out and promptly bought' The Waste Lands'. All the books are great in their own ways, I couldn't put down the 'Wolves of Calla'. I loved the fact that so many different characters from other Stephen King books were included.

*Spoiler Alert here - Warning*

How great was that Father Callaghan appeared as did the low men and various other characters.

I was disappointed by the end and as I stated before, I re-read it and I liked it,I just didn't want the Dark Tower Series to end.

As Roland says..

All things lead to the tower..

Weave:)
 
weaveworld said:
I have to be honest here and say that when I read 'The Gunslinger', I didn't like it but I stuck with it, then I read the rest, what can I say? I read 'The Drawing of the three' in a day, then went out and promptly bought' The Waste Lands'. All the books are great in their own ways, I couldn't put down the 'Wolves of Calla'. I loved the fact that so many different characters from other Stephen King books were included.

*Spoiler Alert here - Warning*

How great was that Father Callaghan appeared as did the low men and various other characters.

I was disappointed by the end and as I stated before, I re-read it and I liked it,I just didn't want the Dark Tower Series to end.

As Roland says..

All things lead to the tower..

Weave:)
Click to expand...
yeah, I know, the ending (at least where Roland is concerned) wasn`t really good, evan King himself states it wasn`t.....
but yeah, the connection to other novels of his is really and fun, not to mention the fact that he put himself into that series
 
When I finished the Dark Tower the ending left a sour taste in my mouth, but later when I thought about it the ending was brilliant.It was never about the tower but the quest itself.Roland had to learn the importance of the Ka-tet, .Roland's obbession with the tower blocked out everything and everyone.Roland had a lesson to learn that he naver fully grasped.
 
I believe so too but still don`t think it really is satisfying....... at that rate he`ll be trapped in a loop forever.
 
nixie said:
When I finished the Dark Tower the ending left a sour taste in my mouth, but later when I thought about it the ending was brilliant.It was never about the tower but the quest itself.Roland had to learn the importance of the Ka-tet, .Roland's obbession with the tower blocked out everything and everyone.Roland had a lesson to learn that he naver fully grasped.
Click to expand...

You are so right Nixie, at times Roland's obsession was scary, he left so many behind to get to the tower and he did learn a lesson, but what now?:)
 
weaveworld said:
I think that it will give Roland the opportunity to change things - being on a loop.:)
Click to expand...
The problem is though, he doesn`t change, and I doubt he ever will, seems like he has forgotten everything already :(
Poor hero
 
*Spoiler* *Spoiler* *Spoiler*


When Roland is thrown back to the desert he has the horn,that tells me that the mistakes he made last time round stem from where we first meet him, maybe his mistake was letting Jake fall,he made the decision that catching up with Walter was more important than the life of one small boy.Part of my fascinating with The Dark Tower is speculating what could Roland have done different,the possibilities are endless:)
 
Okay, okay, I fold *chuckle*
Change of topics, I have to admit that he is the hero with most sex appeal I ever read about!! :D
 
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