The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (7)Audiobook

Once again I seem to be in the minority, as I, as of this moment, consider The Dark Tower to be the best of the series, and probably the only one I'd give 5 stars.(all the rest would likely get 4) Hell, I tend to think the oft-maligned final three books in the series are superior to the first 4, so ya know that I'm not on the same page as most readers.(Though this is doubtless related to the fact that I first started reading this series just under 3 weeks ago rather than 20 years and haven't been forced to wait and wait) Furthermore, I even like the ending, more or less. I'm not gonna say that it's utterly satisfying, but it makes a good, if not terribly profound point. It's quite a sad ending really, but appropriate and with an obvious glimmer of hope. And, frankly, I find it hard to imagine that there could've been a completely satisfying ending, anyway. I find the people complaining about the ending amusing: most of them have obviously missed the point entirely. To suggest that the ending is 'not an ending' is ludicrous, and those who say that King's aside urging us to not to read the final few pages is him admitting that the ending is bad are, flatly, idiots.(POTENTIAL MAJOR SPOILER: I can't imagine anything someone could say that would be more of an admission that they don't get the point than that) Not that this makes much of a difference; those who hate the ending w/o understanding it would almost certainly hate it as much, if not more, if they did. Sadly, my conscience refuses to allow me to go into specifics, as it is impossible to do so w/o explicitly giving away what happens at the very end. If anyone out there really cares what I think(unlikely) or is angry or thinks I'm covering my lack of understanding by being vague(more likely) feel free to email me.

The ending aside, I just found this to be the most enjoyable novel of the series. Many people hate King's bringing himself into the series, and the referential nature of the latter novels, but I think's it's fun and, cleverly done too. It's hard for me to get too specific really, it's just fast-paced and highly readable, and the characters are as interesting and likable as ever. And though he doesn't do all that much, I find Mordred to be quite an interesting and disturbing character. (Certainly fairly pitiable as well) Many people have complained about the use seeming deus ex machina to help the ka-tet through there struggles, but I don't mind. The fact is, by this point it has been well established that ka(fate, more or less) controls the universe(s), and thus it would be almost inappropriate for fortune not to shine on them. Certainly, you are allowed not to like this notion, but it is a part of the series, so ought to expect it by now. And frankly, this just isn't as big as a part of this novel as people would have you believe. There's perhaps only one significant deus ex machina in the novel, but it's used to reinforce the theme of arts relationship to life and vice versa.( MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: Furthermore it's quite apparent that Patrick's arrival intended almost exclusively for thematic purposes: It's quite clear that the Crimson King, while powerful, is still essentially human, and King coulda just had Roland blow his head off. Of course, than people would complain that it was too easy-- ya can't please everyone. Nevertheless, this is a deus ex machine of theme, not plot) Beyond all this, I think this is the evocative and chilling of the series. I particularly like the arrival at the Crimson King's abandoned castle, Flagg/Walter's confrontation with Mordred and their nightmare flight from the enormous, tentacled and many-eyed beast. It's just a pleasure to read, as simple as that.

On a final, not very important note, the illustrations in this novel tend to be a bit of a mixed bag, as is true of the series in general. However, I think the picture of the Crimson King atop his throne of skulls is absolutely great. Even if you aren't interested in the book you should open it up and take a look at it.(it's on page 622, I believe.)

But really, reviewing this book is essentially pointless, from a practical standpoint. If you've read the first 6 you're almost certainly going to want to read this one, and if you don't you must be sufficiently disillusioned with the series that little anyway could say would change your mind. But I like it a lot.

I have just completed Stephen King's series The Dark Tower. This is not a review for volume seven, THE DARK TOWER, alone. It is for all seven volumes of The Dark Tower series, which should be read as one story.

The Dark Tower, SK's magnum opus, is based on two fictional concepts: 1) Robert Browning's long poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (provided in full in the Appendix of the seventh volume, THE DARK TOWER) and 2) Sergio Leone's series of movies starring Clint Eastwood as a gunslinging drifter.

Is The Dark Tower worth reading? If you appreciate epic fantasy, yes. If you can tolerate occasional gaffs in writing style and convention, yes. If you despise horror, the supernatural, adventure, and action, and if you think such literature must be trashy pulp, no.

THE GUNSLINGER introduces you to Browning and Leone's dual concept and to Jake. THE DRAWING OF THE THREE sets the mode: that of contemporary fantasy with portals to parallel worlds. And it introduces Roland's partners. THE WASTE LANDS is a good adventure in a parallel world. WIZARD AND GLASS for the most part digresses into Roland's past, but it is a superb story of romantic adventure. WOLVES OF CALLA stops along the way to the Dark Tower as Roland and his partners rescue villagers and display their gunslinging. SONG OF SUSANNAH is a story of unusual pregnancy, blending action and horror in a setting of modern America. THE DARK TOWER brings the long quest to a conclusion, with tragedy but also with ample good cheer. (Do read THE DARK TOWER'S Coda.)

Though SK is one of contemporary humanity's more prolific, famous, and wealthy writers, do not confuse ability to sell with ability to write. I quail from the idea of every aspiring author trying to emulate him. For example he has a certain habit with concrete imagery. Stylists encourage concrete imagery, but SK gets carried away, at times making his prose feel phony and cheap. Mostly apparent in his descriptions of sex and violence, this habit pops up in other regards, as when he describes disease and excretion. In Writing Tools, Roy Peter Clark says, "Know when to back off and when to show off." With universally familiar phenomena like sex and excretion, we do not need detailed concrete images. Those are times to back off.

Also, SK likes to show off his skill with offbeat jargon in dialog and character viewpoints. But this makes too many of his characters appear alike, and unconvincing.

And SK can be a bit verbose. Especially in the later volumes of this series, he seems to follow Strunk & White's admonition "Delete unnecessary words" less than he follows the apocrypha "The thicker the book, the more impressive it is."

Though I consider SK an occasional, worthy digression, I prefer standard prose, polished by authors (and editors) who pay close attention to Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. I award The Dark Tower five stars because I do not consider flawless prose a requirement and because The Dark Tower is a good story.

Be it ever so, and I thankya.

There is so much to say and yet, I am at a loss for words. Finishing this book, this series was amazing and saddening at the same time. I would say that this epic was life changing, but that is to strong of a statement, however, any other statement would not do this series justice. I couldn't stop thinking about these books, every time I set it down in the back of my mind was the constant thought of the tower. Will Roland finally make it to his life's goal and journey to the top of the tower? Will his Ka-tet continue to support his journey or will madness over take them all? This series was by far the best epic story line I have ever read, and that is saying something. I have read epics like Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, but this in my opinion is better on so many levels.

This book is the final chapter in the Tower series and one of the best books I have ever read. It is a very close second to my all time favorite book but almost ties for the #1 spot. Now it could partially be the fact that I have read six other books just to get to this point and it is my favorite because it is the end. In truth it is due to the fact that it is the longest book I have ever read at 1050 pages, and I flew through this as if it was a short novel. When I would read I wouldn't be able to put it down unless I fell asleep from exhaustion or work required me to. It was amazingly well written and suspenseful and engaging from the very beginning. There were parts that I wished were a bit longer but when I went back and realized it took several long chapters and a large page count I realized I fell into the story and got lost in the action.

There is so much I want to say about this but it will give away to much of what is in other books and I hate spoilers in reviews. All I can really do now is send out my heartfelt desire for everyone to read this whether they like it or not. It seems like it should be something everyone should read at some point in their lives much like most of the other epic stories out there. Love it or hate it, I loved it, and hope that if this review gets one more person to Journey with Roland and his Ka-tet to the Dark Tower I will have fulfilled a need to pass on the wonder of these books.

EDIT: I forgive everything. The ending was so spectacular, so real, so poignant to me I am reeling from it. I forgive all the irritations I've mentioned - this series is the best reading experience I've ever undertaken in my life.

I'm a die-hard Stephen King fan. I'm the Constant Reader, the kind that would read the King's laundry list. I read all of his books many times, usually within days of release, except the Dark Tower. I thought it would be a Western-gun-type story and wasn't interested, but I finally got into it a month ago and I marveled at how I could possibly miss it - it truly is his greatest work, with a kind on-the-edge thrilling pace and steaming plot you seldom see in his horror novels. I read all seven books continuously over the past few weeks, couldn't put it down, and getting more and more disappointed. You can see how young King and old King's writing differs so greatly in both plot and language. Young King is tightly disciplined, highly structured, no unnecessary and distracting insertions that's really about the writer's ego than of service to the story. By this final book, I caught myself rolling my eyes frequently at unnecessary author intrusions to the story and plot, which is getting weirder and weirder all the time, like a bad psychedelic trip. Even the way the characters speak to each other doesn't flow with the natural ease and seamless belief in his old books, with frequent author intrusions about what Eddie or Roland or whoever is like, e.g. "...we might as well look at him a bit more closely. We won't take long, for Pimli Prentiss isn't central to our tale of Roland..." - IS THIS NECESSARY? My good man, just tell the tale and leave the narrator out of it. Let your characters speak for themselves. By the end of Song of Susannah I could barely follow the narrative with real immersion (I skipped the entire series of journal logs by King at the end of the last book. What was that about? Totally unnecessary)

That said, it's still one awesome ride. I know how much work it is to write a good book. So despite all this, the merits outweighs the faults, and it's all worth it.

This was a great end with a return to the wandering gunslinger theme. There have been negative reviews in relation to the last 3 books of the series and this is annoying though understandable. Stephen King is unfortunately in the classification of pop writer. his title means he i very popular so there will always be a percentage ofpeople who do not like change and risk such as what he did with the last few books. Wolves of the calla was slow moving with a fast climax that left people confused. I loved this one and immediately understood that it was writtenwithin the context of respect to the classic western novel. Meaning heros ride into town, get to know the townspeople, agree to help them defend themselves against an outnumbered force. Th pace was deliberately structured like that. Songs of Susannah was hands down an experimental novel and why not, it was the 6th book. This was one of my favorite in theseries and understandablyone of the least popular. I loved it and was amazed at the risk King took in making something so imagiative it was hands down the most creative of the series. The last book The Dark Tower ties with Wizard and Glass as my second favorite with The Drawing Of THe Three being my favorite. I am unfortunately a big fan of Kings coked out period which produced his other masterpices such as Misery and It. While one can accurately say that an artist had peaks and dips which is true of King I have yet to find a book of his i did not like (well actually there is one dr sleep) but other than that ilove his ability to tell a story. This finall book, not to give away any details was a fitting although tragic ending. What do you expect? Rolands story was always consistently tragic so it makes sense for the totality of the story to be dramatic and tragic. Our beloved katet became true gunslingers and therefore intentially began a very risky lifestyle. Inconclusion come along and read the final chapters of this epic tale. A lot of things happen in this volume and its in the tradition of the first book.