Just Finished The Dark Tower *spoilers*
Thursday, April 13th, 2006 - 1:51pm
Long ago, after reading the first book, I decided to just wait until the entire series was complete before reading this epic. And, so I have spent the better part of the past month devouring King's 7-volume monstrosity, becoming increasingly disillusioned as I did.
I was enthralled through Wizard and Glass, which probably marks the pinnacle of the series to me. I felt like Wolves of the Calla employed some cheap writers tricks to which King usually doesn't stoop, but the last 2 books just wandered and wallowed in their own obtuse natures, and King seemed to say to himself "now that I have put myself in the book, I have all the excuses I need to pull every dirty trick on the reader I can think of without breaking the rules I've created." By making yourself God or Ka or Gan or whatever he imagines himself to be, I suppose it's fine to just randomly start dropping just the right items at just the right times into the books, and wander aimlessly through a story that has grown too big to manage properly.
If I seem angry or defiant it's because I've come only a few minutes from reading the last line (second verse, same as the first!) and ... well, I know he warned me not to read on, but you might as well have warned poor Roland not to go to the top of his tower.
Man, King must really hate that guy to do that to him.
It was such a dirty trick to pull.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Yeah, and a bit of a cop out on the readers. He wrote himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out of it. We knew Roland would have to make it there eventually, if the series ever got finished. But King couldn't think of anything to put in it that wouldn't disappoint.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
The end of the series was a total cop out.
The Wizard and Glass was the best book. Wolves of the Calla was pretty interesting. The last two were TERRIBLE. And the ending sucked. But like King admitted, I couldn't think of a better ending either. He definitely painted himself into a corner.
I cried when Oy died.
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You must admit, however, that the last two books are probably the most grandly crafted Deus Ex Machina ever committed to paper.
In all seriousness, I definitely understand (and to a small extent, share) your dissapointment. At the same time, though, a significant part of me was very satisfied by the way King drew the series to a close. If I was better with words I might be able to craft the reason why into a convincing argument for the book, but since I'm not, I suppose I'll have to just sum it up as follows: how else could the story have ended?
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Has anyone read both the original book 1 and the revised book 1? I haven't, and I can't help but feel some distaste for the idea of a revised. In my view, book 1 (The Gunslinger) was the best of the series due to its tone and voice. The rest of the series diverged more and more each book, which I found a little disappointing.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
I guess if I could tell you that, I'd be a wealthy writer. What bothers me is that it didn't end, we instead get a "Haha, maybe next time!" and the suggestion that Roland will go through the exact same adventure, except next time he'll maybe get there with the horn and that will be the real end. Except we won't see it.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
I had the same reaction at first, actually. However, after glancing at what I thought were some of the more important parts of the story and after listening to a good portion of the revised version as a book on tape, I'm pretty much satisfied that he didn't manage to ruin the magic of the first book through his edits. Many of them simply are there to clear up a few confusing contradictions caused by plot decisions he made in the later books, and the rest seemed to be focused on adding a little flesh to Roland's world without changing the tone of the narrative.
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I can't convince myself to buy "The Cell" after reading the last Dark Tower book. I think I'm done with King.
The horn? What horn? Dammit, I don't remember any horns!
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Kyrator: lvl 63 night elf rogue - Blackhand
Thadryn: lvl 70 draenei mage - Blackhand
A couple of ideas sprang to mind throughout as to what was at the top of the tower. Perhaps Roland would find himself - his twin, because in a universe of twins where is his? - waiting, not to be rescued but to become whole. It's like King realized about halfway through the epic that he had no idea why Roland was going to the tower or what he hoped to find. Giving him that purpose would have been satisfying.
Or what if the top door opened to another world, maybe the clearing at the end of the path, a heaven or better Valhalla of a kind. Or what if he had reached the top only to be consumed by the tower itself, what if instead of fixing the beams in the middle of the last book, it became clear that they were not returning to health, or repairing themselves. What if Roland had truly and physically sacrificed himself into and become the beams reborn?
I'm not saying these are great ideas, but they would have satisfied me a little more. I dunno, I'm second guessing here, but I felt like the material just kept slipping gears up through the end.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Once he's back at the desert after going through the top door Roland reaches down and touches the Horn of Eld, the horn which in the rest of the book he recalls dropping at Jerhico Hill and not taking the time to pick up. He even makes a point of thinking about having picked up the Horn on the last page, and the tower whispers something about redemption. It's a subtle thing.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Don't buy Cell. It starts out pretty well, but then turns into a pretty boring book about 100 pages in.
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Oh, THAT horn.
Of course, I didn't realize you were talking about tha... hey, what's that!? [points]
[runs in the opposite direction]
Skriss: lvl 70 undead mage - Bloodhoof
Kyrator: lvl 63 night elf rogue - Blackhand
Thadryn: lvl 70 draenei mage - Blackhand
The low point of the series for me was definitely the introduction of the artist in the final book... I just remember thinking where the f*** did this guy come from?!
I would much rather have enjoyed Roland being entirely alone after Eddie and Susannah leave.
That said, I think King did a pretty good job making some difficult connections between the fantasy worlds / modern reality. And I think the edits to book one make the work as a whole more cohesive.
I'm also okay with the ending / epilogue. Granted it definitely feels like a letdown, but I think any ending would have made his readers unhappy because it closes their connection with some of the most fleshed out characters in modern literature. You can't read 7 decently written books without really feeling an affinity for the main characters.
The thing that I do like about the series is that finishing it for the first time encourages you to read it again, and there are a lot of hidden trinkets of forshadowing that only have meaning to the reader the second time around.
I was unimpressed with the artist. I thought that was the biggest Deus Ex Machina in the whole series, and largely unneeded and unimpressive. It's like King remembered that he'd foreshadowed an artist in another book and couldn't figure out what to do with the character.
When I think about it, the end really didn't talk about some of things you might expect - like what finding the Tower was supposed to do. I still really like the series; it's one of my favourites. The Drawing of the Three is probably still the best book, though Wizard and Glass has, for me, the most emotional impact.
Oh, and in terms of straying away from the original book, it's sorta a shame that a lot of mysticism that is referenced (if obliquely) never gets revisited, though I much preferred the style of the later ones (but I'm also a big fan of King's writing).
MechaSlinky wrote:
-on L4DI remember reading The Gunsloinger a long time ago, and liking it. I also remember hearing that it was but one book of a planned series. Since then though, nothing I've seen or heard has made me want to read further. The Gunslinger was kind of abstract and not knowing what the hell was going on kind of added to the experience.
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I really wish he had spent more time on Roland's earlier adventures with Alain and Cuthbert. Wizard and Glass is damn good and left me wanting more, but it never came. The dialect crap in Wolves of the Calla was annoying as hell, and the dialogue seemed to degenerate progressively after that.
The thing that bothered me the most about the ending was the "battle" with the Crimson King. Anti-climax at its finest.
Overall, it's a good series, but it could have been so much more...
Credulous at best, your desire to believe in angels in the hearts of men.
I was just dissapointed in the end because it seemed King turned the series into a horror story, where as it was supposed to be so much more. But then again after 7 books I don't think there was any ending that could have been satisfactory. Part of the appeal of the series was that it always left you wanting more and that the world had an air of mystery to it. The Dark Tower was one of those things that made the world mysterious and in my mind just the fact that he actually made it to the Dark Tower sort of ruins the mystique.
I mean at least he didn't follow the fantasy cliche and write and ending consisting of twenty pages of everyone patting themselves on the back.
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I think that when he re-wrote the first book, he should have gone alot farther in revision, and let it be an entirely different book. I sorta like the original Gunslinger, but it's just so creakingly full of self-aware posing. He was so much younger when he wrote it, and by the time he moved on to Drawing, he'd changed quite a bit as a writer. The re-written version of Gunslinger is very odd and strained in places, as King the older forces stuff in between the really spare, rigid writing of King the younger.
I also hated the artist. Way to rob the protagonist. Also the way that Walter died. Stupid, stupid, anticlimatic waste of good build-up. However, contrary to the rest of you, I thought that the way King ended things was the only way it could have ended. I liked it. It had resonance. Guys, it was hopeful.
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Ugh, I'd forgotten about that.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Yeah, I hated that the big showdowns between the Crimson King and Walter were so... stupid. I was really hoping for something more from the Crimson King after having read about him in dozens of King's books. Instead we got a deranged goof who was quickly dealt with by a character I didn't care about.
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Wow, I'm having a hard time remembering any details of the last book except for the very ending. Is that telling? I can't really remember how Walter died. Or the Crimson King for that matter. Time to go find the book...
As for the horn, it makes sense that it be important, considering the inspiration of the series (Browning's poem which ends And yet / Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, / And blew "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."). Still, having Roland have to go through it all again to bring it with him...
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
I'll save you the trouble: Walter was unceremoniously eaten by Mordred, and the Crimson King was "erased" by Patrick (the Artist).
I have to totally agree with Brennil, though, that Walter's end was one of the story's biggest disappointments. After having been the main antagonist for most of the series, he deserved something more, I think.
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Having waited for like 5 years for the story to come to a close, I doubt any ending would have really been satisfactory. However I think one that actually made sense would have been closer. I'm ok with the fact that Roland didn't get what he was expecting when he got to the tower, but at the same time I'm not sure what he did expect.
The series is still one of my favorites of kings, but really only for the early books and for Oy(that put me in a sad mood for the rest of the night).
Honestly I probably should have stopped as soon as King wrote himself into the book. I know he likes to get into the movie adaptations a la Hitchcock, but writing himself into the book was a plot device that he would have had to have been much cleverer to pull off in an entertaining fashion.
I also get the feeling that he would have probably been happy to just stop at wizards and glass but that his fanbase wouldn't let him, so he decided that he'd try to tie all his famous books together in some sort of giant fanservice piece.