Any one else read these or are reading? I’m on 4th book currently.
Dark Tower
Added on January 31st, 2008 by slakinator | Report Post
Tags:Comic Books, Fantasy - Science Fiction, Wallpaper
Tags:Comic Books, Fantasy - Science Fiction, Wallpaper
its a big fucking loop, the last book takes you back to the first one. dont waste your time.
I have read 3 of them so far, the library where I was living only had the 2nd and 3rd, and my girlfriend let me borrow the first one.
I’ll admit, I like the series so far, and I’m generally a non-fiction sort of fellow.
The first 4 books are great, 2nd two are not as good, last book is very good. Also, the ending is suitable for the story if you think about it.
This is a truly classic series of books and they are King’s masterwork. Contrary to an earlier comment, the books aren’t a loop. They’re a spiral. Read the first and last books carefully and you’ll see why.
I just finished book 7 recently. I really enjoyed the series, and I appreciate the whole “ka is a wheel” thing, so part of the ending makes sense, but the way it comes off is unsatisfying to me.
[SPOILER ALERT]
It seems like Roland is being punished for something, and it’s not clear to me what that would be. Nothing he does really makes it seem like he should be punished on the level of Sisyphus. If he had gone through that door and come out of his mother’s womb as a baby I would have been much happier with it.
I’m on the 7th, its an amazing series. Up there with Lord of the Rings, but cooler because peeps get ka’d out with bullets instead of swords.
Anyone who is disappointed with the ending should not be.
After all, SK tells you he is about to give you an ending and offers you a chance to put the book down and use your imagination.
If you failed to take his offer, too bad for you if you think you could have done better.
I read up until the 4th book and it was my favorite. I am too lazy to read the last three.
So, Roland reaches the Dark Tower and ends up back at the beginning?
“After all, SK tells you he is about to give you an ending and offers you a chance to put the book down and use your imagination.”
Really? That sounds like really hack writing. How about you not read the series at all and just imagine the entire plot yourself.
i put down the book before reading the last ending and i thought that roland probably went back and had a threesome with susan and the black chick, then he got a big horn and blew it to tell everyone he had just made it with two chicks
any respect i might have had for King for taking on such an ambitious project *spoiler*
was nixed when he wrote himself in. The Coda ending was fine- poetic even, but King fucked the series nonetheless.
Dunno, it pretty mutch bunked at me when Roland and Eddie called Stephen King God… yeah, and i Fucking hate Susannah. Not that she is black, or girl, or paralized… just her whole personality.
@... Hepathos: Don’t you mean personalities? 🙂
I loved all 7 books in this series, and the Gunslinger Born comics that came out afterwards. This pic is the cover art of the first comic, btw.
@reptilecobra13: No, I’m talking about the Susannah personality. Her main one. Bot the other are pretty irritating too.
I see the ending as hopeful. However many times he has undertaken/will undertake his journey, he learns a bit each time about how to do it RIGHT, and therefore comes a little closer each time to doing it for the last time. As for being disappointed with the ending, or seeing it as ‘hack’ writing . . . he gives the reader the chance to leave the story with their happy ending. If you kept reading expecting a Hollywood ending, that was your choice.
If it were just about repeating in order to get things right, he should start over again as a baby. To me it doesn’t make sense for him to start at the beginning of book 1 unless King is making some kind of commentary on him being the “god” of the story again. I don’t mind that he starts over, it would just feel more complete to me in a philosophical sense if he started over from birth.
I hear you, Kimmie. Perhaps SK started it over again where he did because . . . well, that’s where Book 1 started, rather than at Roland’s birth. I wasn’t real comfortable with SK’s portrayal of himself in the story, either. (Perhaps getting launched by that minivan tore some synapses loose . . .)
I loved the books and comics overall. Like a few of you have said, I hated that King wrote himself in. I can’t fully put my finger on it, but it really seemed like he was just grabbing for content at that point and said “fuck it, I’ll just write myself in.”