The Dark Tower

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ToMacco
Has anyone read these book by Steven King?

I'm currently on the last (7th) one.

ToMacco
Okay

DarkRaven
Yeah it;s crazy at the end of the last booj you have to see what happens youre going to flip out!!!!!!! ha ha ha hurry hurry hurry

Ya Krunk'd Floo
I usually read much higher-brow books than King - *singular head-wobble* - but I am enjoying 'The Gunslinger'. It's interesting and pretty well written.

Dreampanther
King is the King. And the Dark Tower proves it - he will rule forever.

I will never, ever forget that opening line: "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed."

Pandemoniac
Great stuff! The first book was a little hard to chew in the beginning, but once the story gets it's pace it goes from good to amazing fast.
Just finished reading book 4 'Wizard and Glass' so 3 more to go and I can't wait to read how this tale will continue.
Kick ass material

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Yeah, I just got done with book III. I'm really enjoying it so far, and I loved the bit where Roland tells Blaine how it is.

It's certainly an epic book in scope.

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Oh shit, man...I just finished book VII, and all I can say is:

That ending was shit!

I did all that reading, and all I got was a cop-out ending. Pff, cheated.

ToMacco
bummer, huh?

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Big time. It was all going so well, but then he has finish it like that. Turd.

Victor Von Doom
Originally posted by Ya Krunk'd Floo
Oh shit, man...I just finished book VII, and all I can say is:

That ending was shit!

I did all that reading, and all I got was a cop-out ending. Pff, cheated.

Why don't you just read the last page of books in future?

manorastroman
doesn't he outright tell his readers NOT to read the ending, because it will probably piss them off?

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Originally posted by Victor Von Doom
Why don't you just read the last page of books in future?

Are you saying that I don't enjoy the minute before I ejaculate? I do, I really do.
Originally posted by manorastroman
doesn't he outright tell his readers NOT to read the ending, because it will probably piss them off?
If I stopped where he wanted me to I'd still be let-down. If you name a book 'The Dark Tower', then you would expect to enter it at the end. Maybe he should have just called the series 'A Number of Long Books With Some Good Bits But Which Ultimately Runs Out Of Imagination At The End'.

Although, I love Catcher In The Rye, but there are no fields in that one.

SnakeEyes
Thinking about starting this series.

Should I?

Ya Krunk'd Floo
It all depends on the importance you place on ejaculation.

SnakeEyes
I see, I see.

Well, the ejaculation doesn't have to be THAT good, as long as everything leading up to it is really good.

Kid Kurdy
I agree, the ending was a bit of a let down. It wasn't bad, but I expected more. I think everybody expected more.

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Originally posted by SnakeEyes
I see, I see.

Well, the ejaculation doesn't have to be THAT good, as long as everything leading up to it is really good.

It's difficult to explain why the ending is so bad without giving the goose away. It also makes you feel a little stupid for taking the time to read all those books.

This is about something else (ie. not the ending), but it's a spoiler nonetheless: I also thought the Stephen King within the story was a bunch of embarrassing crap. I started cringing every time he was part of the narrative. It was so unnecessary to do it.

ToMacco
Originally posted by SnakeEyes
Thinking about starting this series.

Should I?

hell yes.

I don't blame Steven King for the ending. He tells you right in the story to not read any futher because we all wouldn't like it.

PVS
i read up till wizard and glass. how does it end? spoil me, i dont plan on reading the rest ever

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Originally posted by ToMacco
hell yes.

I don't blame Steven King for the ending. He tells you right in the story to not read any futher because we all wouldn't like it.

Oh, that's fine then. You can either read an unfinished 'epic' spanning 7 books and taking-up many hours, or you can read on for a cop-out ending. Good stuff, King. If I had stopped reading when King 'tells' the reader to, then I would be just as let-down by a book named 'The Dark Tower' which fails so utterly in its exploration of it.

Originally posted by PVS
i read up till wizard and glass. how does it end? spoil me, i dont plan on reading the rest ever

King enters his own narrative, and appears to be writing a series on the adventures Roland and his ka-tet are having. Then, at the end Roland enters The Dark Tower. This is apparently where King wants us to leave the story, but he indulges us enough to spew out a shitty ending which is akin to the 'and then I woke-up and it was all a dream' garbage that most of us used in creative writing class when we were 12 years old. Basically, he climbs to the top of the tower - each level having a different part of his life - and then is taken back to the stage when he is near the way-station in the desert. It's really crap.

manorastroman
i didn't think the ending was that bad. it'd be pretty hard to accurately represent a concept that's been built up for thousands of pages and over twenty years. besides, it's already sort of explained what the dark tower is within "insomnia".

with this ending, we get explanations for why everything went so smoothly throughout the series (ie: how nearly every "one in a million" chance they took came through), and also turns the whole series into a massive morality tale.

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Originally posted by manorastroman
i didn't think the ending was that bad. it'd be pretty hard to accurately represent a concept that's been built up for thousands of pages and over twenty years. besides, it's already sort of explained what the dark tower is within "insomnia".

I understand the difficulty of portraying it, but surely if you build something up you should have the balls/talent to express it. I haven't read much King - only Hearts In Atlantis, The Talisman and The Black House - but is Insomnia any good? Will it make me feel any better about The Dark Tower considering all the time I invested in it?

Originally posted by manorastroman
with this ending, we get explanations for why everything went so smoothly throughout the series (ie: how nearly every "one in a million" chance they took came through), and also turns the whole series into a massive morality tale.

I guess, but I was expecting more...much more.

manorastroman
i haven't read any king for years, but once upon a time king was the man who got me into reading, and i tore through about thirty of his books.

insomnia is good, and interesting, but very weighty. probably...800 pages. maybe 900. the dark tower/crimson king are central to the story, as is patrick danville. one of his best, if i remember. probably as good or better than talisman.

Kid Kurdy
Talisman isn't that good. I've already forgotten most about it, and I have a pretty good memory.

Stephen Kings "greatest hits" are, imo :

- Dolores Claiborne
- The Stand
- Hearts in Atlantis
- The Eyes of the Dragon
- Misery
- The Dead Zone
- Needful Things

But his coolest character is of course good old Roland.

Molly Hayes
Originally posted by Kid Kurdy
Talisman isn't that good. I've already forgotten most about it, and I have a pretty good memory.

Stephen Kings "greatest hits" are, imo :

- Dolores Claiborne
- The Stand
- Hearts in Atlantis
- The Eyes of the Dragon
- Misery
- The Dead Zone
- Needful Things

But his coolest character is of course good old Roland.

The Stand and Salems Lot are his best

Black House the follow up to the talisman is better than the talisman.

Roland is very cool but so is the original version of Randall Flagg.

Ya Krunk'd Floo
Roland was cool until his whole life and being were raped at the end of The Dark Tower.

REXXXX
Bumping this, because I've been plowing into the Dark Tower series and am nearly at the end after two years of reading the books between classes and friends and so on.

King does a great job of making tiny little references for the reader to catch. Currently starting the seventh book.

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