OK, I just finished "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen King. Any other readers?

[mlh1981]

If anyone else on ISH had read the series, what did you think? Post spoilers in white. We can get a nice conversation going (hopefully). I am a huge fan of Stephen King's works. He does have his "duds" and his weaknesses, but of the 7 books, books 4 and 7 were my favorites. Books 2 and 3 were also very good. Books 5 and 6--kinda blah. After book 4, he didn't get back to writing the series again for quite some time. He wrote the final 3 books in a much, MUCH shorter span of time than it took him to write the first 4 (and you can tell).

[pete's montreux]

I got stuck at book three. I'm about 15 pages in and can't bring myself to pick it up. Maybe in a few months when I'm back in the reading mode.

[mlh1981]

I got stuck at book three. I'm about 15 pages in and can't bring myself to pick it up. Maybe in a few months when I'm back in the reading mode.

It happened to me, too. I started the series back in September and just now finished today. It took me over a month just to read the last book.

Book 2 was amazing though, did ya think?

[JayGuevara]

I think we've had this discussion before. I read all the books. Somehow, I randomly had the first one (The Gunslinger) that I read on a drive up north when I was probably like 8 years old. Shortly thereafter, I got the 2nd and 3rd books, and read em. And then the 4th one came out, and I was 10 years old (I remember getting it when it was first coming out, and according the the internet it came out in 97, making me 10)

I liked the first one a lot, the 2nd and 3rd were good also, I was not the biggest fan of the 4th, it seemed too long and removed from the story I was expecting, cuz wasn't most of it flashbacks and Roland's childhood an **** if I recall correctly?

Anyways, years pass, and I'm cleaning my room in the summer of 04, shortly before my 17th birthday, and I come across the first four books. I look them up on the internet, curious to know if any new books came out in the seven years that had passed since I last read em, and had completely forgotten about it. Come to find out, the 5th was published the year before, and the 6th had just came out like a week ago. So, off I go to the book store to buy both of the books, got pissed at how expensive hardcover books are for reasons I still don't understand, and found out that the 7th and final book would be coming out within a couple months. So I read the new ones, and awaited the release of the final book. Got it like the day it came out, and read it immediately.

To be honest, I wasn't exactly a fan of the ending of the series. That was not the closure I was expecting. And I didn't really like all the losses towards the end of the journey.

All in all though, it's a great series, long as ****, and reading the books spanned over 10 years of my life. I always thought it was kinda weird that I got the first book randomly, then got the 2nd and 3rd as the 4th was coming out. Then find the first four by chance as the 6th one comes out and the 7th is about to come out too. Obviously just a coincidence that I picked the books back up 7 years later as the series was wrapping up, but it was still weird to me. I'll probably re-read them all again when I have the time, cuz I remember them all, but it's all a lil hazy right now. These things happen when you read the first book like 15 years ago, and the last one goin on 5 years ago, and have done alotta drinking and drugs throughout that time span.

[JayGuevara]

It happened to me, too. I started the series back in September and just now finished today. It took me over a month just to read the last book.

Book 2 was amazing though, did ya think?

You started the series in September and finished in March, I started the series in 1994 and ended in 2004.

[mlh1981]

To be honest, I wasn't exactly a fan of the ending of the series. That was not the closure I was expecting. And I didn't really like all the losses towards the end of the journey.

*******SPOILERS IN WHITE**************

[COLOR="White"]With the way King described Mordred, Randall Flagg, and the Crimson King, you would've thought they wouldv'e gone down in a much more difficult fight. Over 4000 pages, many of which detailed how powerful these entities were--and they went down like little b!tches in a few mere paragraphs.

As for Rolands friends, yeah, they all went down kinda easily as well. Didn't like that, but I wasn't surprised that it was only Roland who made it to the tower.

As for the ending--poor Roland. What did he do to deserve going through all that again. I don't know what I expected, and really, in an epic series like this, you will be hard pressed to come up with an ending that will satisfy everyone. Maybe in the final room, I thought maybe some sort of bright light would shine, and all his friends would reappear and they would live happily ever after, but after all, it IS the DARK tower. Plus, King doesn't always give you happy endings.[/COLOR]

[pete's montreux]

It happened to me, too. I started the series back in September and just now finished today. It took me over a month just to read the last book.

Book 2 was amazing though, did ya think?

I liked book one more than two.

[rezznor]

i was thinking about starting it. what is it, like a sci/fi fantasy alternate reality?

[mlh1981]

I liked book one more than two.

Interesting. Most reader comments that I have seen suggest that the first book is a bit slow, and the action picks up a lot more in the 2nd book. That's my personal opinion as well, but the 1st book does include a lot of important details that one shouldn't really skim over. The opening line "and the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed" speaks volumes about the quest for the Tower, if you ask me. There are many themes from that book which really set the stage for the rest of the books that follow.

[mlh1981]

i was thinking about starting it. what is it, like a sci/fi fantasy alternate reality?

I think that's a good descriptor, as it takes readers into different words, including our own modern day one.

[pete's montreux]

I'm one of those guys that likes to read books more than once, at least twice. I don't think I could read this series more than once, and I don't know why. Maybe because It's been months since I've read the first two books, and they're still really fresh in my mind, but I'd like to think after I read the whole series, I could do it again a few years after.

And from what I've heard personally from people who've read this and Lord of the Rings, they prefer the Dark Tower over LoTR.

[JayGuevara]

*******SPOILERS IN WHITE**************

I dunno how much of this could be a spoiler, so it's all in white.

[COLOR="White"]The only justification I could come up with for the ending was that it was because no matter how much Roland had came from originally letting Jake down in the first book, he was always stubbornly focused on the Tower, everything else was second after it. In his mind, he thought he was following a righteous path, which it may have been at one time, but somewhere along the line, he shut himself out from the world, snuffed out any emotions, and simply followed his hatred like a fat kid chasing the ice cream truck. No matter what he lost along the way, he refused to relent in his quest for vengeance. And because of his lustful hatred for The Dark Tower, it consumed him, and he fell victim to it's horrors, destined to be Roland The Flying Dutchman for eternity because of his own actions. He thought he could save the world that had moved on, and avenge humanity, but he was only losing his own.

But the fact that his next walk back to and from Hell he started with Cuthbert's horn or some **** (I don't remember what it was now) does show some progress made, the journey we read must have been considerable progress in his redemption from the ones before it. So I guess it is possible for him to save himself, or damn himself again and then lose the horn or whatever again on his next journey.[/COLOR]

[rezznor]

I'm one of those guys that likes to read books more than once, at least twice. I don't think I could read this series more than once, and I don't know why. Maybe because It's been months since I've read the first two books, and they're still really fresh in my mind, but I'd like to think after I read the whole series, I could do it again a few years after.

And from what I've heard personally from people who've read this and Lord of the Rings, they prefer the Dark Tower over LoTR.

hmm, sounds like i def. have to pick this up then. lotr was one of my favorite series. the dark tower is finished right? i dont want to end up like george rr. martin and robert jordan's books which feel like i have been waiting decades to finish (yes i know jordan just died).

[pete's montreux]

Yeah, I think it took about 30 years, right? The last one was published fairly recently, not exactly sure when. So to answer your question, It's finished.

Great, now I feel like reading again.

[TEXAS BATMAN]

i read both and thought that tdt was the better series, while lotr had the better ending. spoiler+[COLOR="White"]now i'm not one for happy endings and all, but roland and gang and even the villains were built up a LOT for them to get snuffed out like they were. the only one that i thought escaped with any kind of dignity, was the dog ollie (who for a pet, suffered one of the most valiant deaths in reading i thought). [/COLOR]

but even in other novels...the black house by richard bach, insomnia, and others...everything was somehow tied into the dark tower or the gunslingers would be mentioned prominently. only to be killed off like ants with a magnifying glass. yea, i'm STILL very bitter about how it ended as you can tell, lol. i actually started with book 2, i was sitting in detention and thought that The Wastelands was one of the best books i had ever read. like it was sliced bread in print. then i had to go back and read one, then 3, and so forth and so forth. then king took his hiatus and i lost interest with the series, i happened to be reading the potter books, saw a foreword about the tdt series, browsed online to see what had become of it and i think that was when wolves of the calla had just been published.

if you haven't read it, read it. it's a definite page turner and if you don't like it i'll refund your money f#@k the publisher.