The Dark Tower [Paperback]

I've just spent the past 6 months getting through the Dark Tower series. Some of the books I burned through in a matter of days; others just dragged. This, sadly, is one of the latter. I kept on putting it down, ignoring it for large periods of time; desperate to get to the end without doing the work to get there. If a book series really is that good then you want it to go on forever, not be desperate just to finish it. This book and series is full of frustrations, but the very VERY ending is ultimately rewarding (I saw it coming but it was delivered so well) Hopefully it will leave you pondering over it for a good few days at least, as it did with me, even though this series makes my blood boil at times.

I really wish Stephen King didn't make himself a character that is central to the storyline... I feel this was a form of bloated self-therapy for him after his car accident and was totally unnecessary and demeaning to the reader. It takes up a good part of the final three books and I really wish he didn't feel the need to link this work with as many of his former novels as he could squeeze in. We really didn't need another ridiculous human/spider because we all know that not only ruined the book IT but also ruined too many hours of my life here as well.

In balance, there are some great elements and moments to the Dark Tower series. Book IV: Wizard and Glass was absolutely fantastic (apart from the terrible ending where King seemed to get bored) At least here the very ending serves to provide you with a sense that this whole journey has, just about, by the skin of it's teeth, been worth it!

The first half of the book is a bit long winded, but the plot does gain momentum towards the end. I wasn't sure that I should finish the book as King practically begs you not to. The ending is brutal, I feel as if I have somehow desecrated the narrative by reading it. On the other hand, the reader can hardly be expected to be denied the conclusion after such a long and arduous journey.

King's series is a monumental achievement, like many readers I have minor gripes with some of the events of the narrative; but none of them detracts from the startling originality and boldness of The series as a whole.

****SPOILER ALERT****

When you strip away all the excess fat in the DT series (King's allusions to his other novels, the copious number of various minor coincidences scattered throughout the series explained away as "ka", characters which shouldn't even be in the series in the first place, basically everything that is "19") whats left after all is said and done is an extremely weak, unfinished and poorly written story.

I completely fell in love with The Gunslinger when I first read it and subsequently picked up the next 3 volumes. Wizard and Glass is by far my favourite installment to the series because of the absolute quality with which Roland's sojourn to Mejis with his friends was written. This was probably King at his pinnacle. You can actually see the duality of the quality of the story in this novel, the sheer scope and quality of Roland's no bull**** recounted tale in Mejis versus the bland and ludicrous weirdness of the story of the Ka-tet of the Nineteen and Ninety and Nine. The contrast between what the story had become at this point and what it should have been (Mejis and "The Gunslinger" will forever be captured in my imagination) is all too evident at this point in the series and with the following volume, Wolves of the Calla, it was all but blatant that King had lost the plot. And by that I mean, yes, he is telling a story...its just no longer the one we were reading.

Kings introduction of Callahan and his vampires ( why are they even there, The Grandfathers? Uh, ok?). His inclusion of his fictitious, utterly useless and dithering self who I might add has an extremely important task in the series that makes absolutely no sense (By "makes sense" I mean, yeah its logical but IT SHOULDN'T BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.) Mia, why re-cover this ground? We've been here before with Detta and drank our fill. Please move it along King...Oh, thats right! How silly of me! You need this character to bring Mordred into the world only so we can discover that he is an emo teen that is summarily dismissed in one or two paragraphs. And don't even get me started on The Crimson King. "Arnie: You've just been erased" - "Crimson King: EEE!" or the extremely belated and just plain terrible additions of Patrick Danville and Dandello.

Its just obvious. King didn't want to write The Dark Tower anymore but at the same time didn't know how to finish it. So he rushed out these last three novels just to be shod of the thing. We didn't even get to hear about the fall of Gilead. The death of Cort. A tale or two about Roland's ka-tet especially concerning Jamie De Curry after Mejis and Gilead. The extreme gap between Gilead and Tull. Roland and Rhea of the Cöos. All of these things could easily have been touched on by Roland and his new tet around the campfire at days end instead of hypothetical discussions on the meanings of utter gibberish references that King inserted into the story to either allude at his other works or something as laughable as Calla,Callahan. Something other than someone saying ( Uhhh yeaa *dawning expression of understanding* this is all nineteen I Say!...........Gawd Bomb!) Gimme a break.

Not only did King not bother giving his villains dimension he dispatches Walter/Flagg without a moments hesitation and why? Cause Mordreds a-hungry apparently. But don't feel singled out villains! The heroes suffer little better. He discards Eddie and Jake in extremely lame fashion. Oy's death was an obvious accommodation to what Roland saw in the Pink ball but by that stage I didn't even care because Susannah had already abandoned him for alternate versions of Eddie and Jake who are not HER Eddie and Jake. Despite the little ka-bomb (cough* lame-bomb) King inserted in there about alternate-Eddie dreaming about her. If it was reincarnation it would have been lame enough but that was even worse. So we had this highly distressing death scene for Eddie where he says to his Suze that he will wait for her in the clearing and whats Susannah's response to this heart breaking moment? Something sorta like (Sum bitch got he'self shawt in da head. B'tch getta new model! Ther'a otha worlds dan these,sho'!) The final nail through my heart was when Susannah casually dumped Roland's gun in the trash bin and of course it didn't survive the trip between worlds because this is Stephen King we are talking about. Organic material such as Sussanah's body, no problem. The weapon that opens the door to the Dark Tower, ka. I was numb to everything else that followed (including Kings scathing attack on the reader for actually WANTING an ending. HOW DARE YOU READER!) because I was already dead inside. Dramatic? Maybe...but these characters were real to me and how could I have possibly liked what was done with them.

So whats Kings excuse for all this. Its that it's the journey that matters. Roland gets sent back to the beginning to continue his quest over and over and over again and we are left to envision that day when he finally ends his quest as King suggests we do in his afterword. But we can't really do that can we? We can't live the moment as the words spring off the page and into our imaginations because there are no words left, you never gave them to us, and because of that any thought about how Roland's quest ends is nothing but fleeting speculative thought. There is no emotional context. Thats the writers job. Thats what a writer does. And for King to then blame the READER because he couldn't or wouldn't produce an ending is nothing but arrogant, self righteous, puerile behaviour. Not to mention that every time the Dark Tower or Gan sends Roland back it puts itself in mortal danger because if Roland dies its game over and all it takes is a stray bullet but you know, it's Stephen King, so ka. Speaking for myself I could not bring myself to reread such a convoluted mess of a story and I find that extremely disappointing because the first 4 books are very good.