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[Tim the Wiz]

Wow, Locus Magazine totally screwed up their recognition of this series. Song of Susannah gets a nomination ahead of The Waste Lands?

And put me down as a member of the Dark Tower Ending Defense Force.

 

[yodandy]

I started reading them last summer, I'm on Wolves of the Calla now, really enjoying these books.

 

[Jayzus]

Series was awesome, I was a bit put off by his self insertion.

Spoiler

Looking back on it, it was his accident what prompted the completion of the series so maybe that was his homage to it.

To this day one of the best series I have read. My favorite books where Drawing of the Three & Wizard and Glass.

The ending... Ka is a wheel

 

[CloverCarr]

The ending... Ka is a wheel

Fair point, and I can't think of another way it could have ended that would have been satisfying (without lesbians, SmokyDave)

 

[lljride]

Love this series, for the most part at least. I remember finishing The Wizard and Glass right about the time when it first came out, then SK had his accident and there was no telling if he'd ever write again much less finally finish the last few books in the DT series.

Like most already said the last 3 books were a little off for some reason, whether that was due to a change in perspective from the accident, him just getting older/more experienced as a writer, or whatever it was. Never got into them as much as the first 4 but I was so heavily invested in the story it didn't matter the quality, I was reading them regardless.

I didn't really hate the ending though (even the ending that he told us not to read). I really loved some of the spinoff books like Insomnia, and the way lots of other books at least had minor DT references was really cool.

Hard to rank the books, but if I had to it would probably be:

1. The Wizard and Glass
2. The Waste Lands
3. The Drawing of the Three
4. The Dark Tower
5. The Gunslinger
6. Wolves of the Calla
7. Song of Susannah

I never did read the revised Gunslinger edition, maybe I'll get around to that one day.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Absolutely agree and I think that can be said for his books in general. Like you I felt the series was 'roont' after Wizard & Glass and never returned to the form of the earlier books.

Oh and the ending sucks. Simple as.

Under The Dome is one of his best books. Cell is also fantastic. This idea that his writing has suffered post-accident I just can't really see. There are some that I haven't read, but there are tons of great books he's written in the past decade, V-VII included.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Love the books but Wizard & Glass is my favorite as well. Wizard & Glass is still the only book to make me cry. I mean literally just breakdown and cry like a baby. It broke my heart.

 

[Doink]

Obligatory:

Oh, and Wizard and Glass sucked ass.

 

[Chris R]

Picked up the first three books at my used book store. Almost done with book two. Having never had read any of King's work before this, getting used to his style is taking me a little bit of time. I'm really liking the books though. I'll have to stay away from this thread until I finish all 7 books though :lol

So with that being said, and not wanting to search online due to spoilers... Any chance any of these end up being made into a TV Miniseries / Movie, ect?

 

[Fusebox]

Amazing series. I was only slightly let down by the fact that one of the main catalyst characters at the end wasn't someone that we had spent the journey with, and it felt like he was created as a literary 'get out of jail' card. Not as bad as Roland waking up and finding out it was all a dream but still an unfortunate step in that direction imo.

 

[Costanza]

I disliked 4 the most out of all of them. When I was reading (before the final 3 were written), I almost didn't finish.

You fail. Wizard and Glass is the greatest achievement in literature ever.

 

[teiresias]

Book 3, The Wasteland, is my favorite of the series. It just gives a great look at the world Roland is from and get a sense of what shape it's in at that point. The whole thing with Lud is great, though I think it would have wrapped up better if the beginning of Wizard & Glass actually ended The Wasteland.

I can't say I really dislike the actual ending for what King morphed the series into, but I sort of agree that it feels like the story became what it became because of the accident. The actual build up was pretty weak too on the

Spoiler

final approach to the tower

, just really, really weak.

 

[brianjones]

I'm up to Wizard & Glass right now and the series is starting to lose me.. this flashback is boring as fuck

 

[sn00zer]

I'm up to Wizard & Glass right now and the series is starting to lose me.. this flashback is boring as fuck

Its the worst one imo...Wastelands was my favorite....the series does get better after the fourth but it also goes a little batshit insane as well

 

[Pudding Tame]

I'm up to Wizard & Glass right now and the series is starting to lose me.. this flashback is boring as fuck

Honestly, the first time I read the book, I felt the same way, but then I re-read it a few years back and now feel it's one of the strongest parts of the series.

I liked Wolves of Calla, but the last two could have been better if they had a bit more time to stew in King's head cooker. I blame the guy who hit King with his car for that, but on the other hand we'd probably be bitching right now waiting for the last two books if that didn't happen.

 

[Almighty_Chocobo]

As always must be said; when Stephen King tells you to stop reading the last book, STOP READING THE BOOK.

Seriously.

I disagree, I rather enjoyed the ending. To be honest I kind of expected a similar twist with

Spoiler

how nonchalantly they killed off Jake and Eddie in the last book.

With so much time spent building up to what exactly they would do once they reached the tower, I would have felt cheated to not know what happened.

 

[FreedomFrisbee]

Obligatory:

Oh, and Wizard and Glass sucked ass.

Huh. I never thought about it that way. Obviously the Crimson King was chaotic evil, but I had always seen Roland as gung ho on saving the world the whole time. Never really lead me to think otherwise. If anything the end seemed like a side quest (though it could have easily been seen as part of saving the world still).

I liked the ending. The after he tells you to stop reading part. The lead up to the ending was a load of bull shit. So much spoiled potential left and right. So many corners written into.

For me it was really downhill after Wolves of the Calla. SoS was really poorly written (probably rushed) and very short. And then 7! 7 started of so awesome! It was well written, with so many OH SHIT moments! But then it just wastes it all.

 

[Chris R]

Just finished book #3. It really picked up towards the end :lol I just hope the used bookstore has 4-7 in the same styling when I head out later today to check it out. I guess it is the 2003 Signet run that I'm looking for, but looking on Amazon it seems that I might be totally out of luck in trying to get the entire series in one style

edit: Well it seems I out of luck as Penguin/Signet don't publish SK any more or something. So I'll have 1-4 in one style and 5-7 in some other style :< :< :<

 

[John Locke]

The worst thing about DT was King literally tossing Insomnia aside and saying "Nah, that stuff doesn't matter."

And the Insomnia-related stuff he does decide to include is just utterly ridiculous.

 

[AkuMifune]

I think that the books went downhill when he resumed writing them after his accident. They were incredible up to and including Wizard & Glass, after that they got odd; all the references to the accident were never originally supposed to be part of the series, they ruined it in my opinion.

Came to post the same thing, though I flip flop on my feelings of the ending.

Certainly most of the final book felt rushed, forced and inconsistent, but the very end outlining Roland's fate was either complete shit or kinda interesting. Still can't decide.

 

[mosaic]

I have found that I greatly enjoy reading the Marvel Comics graphic novels too. Seeing Roland as a teen is pretty badass...

... and you don't f*ck with Sheemie!

 

[skads_187]

i've read 80% of king's stuff, have most of these, i think i need to buy 1 and 2 of this series.
gonna finish reading his other books that i have left first, then im gonna read these.
how does it compare to his other novels?

 

[Costanza]

I'm up to Wizard & Glass right now and the series is starting to lose me.. this flashback is boring as fuck

You are so fucking unbelievably wrong about literally everything. Wow.

 

[Treo360]

Loved it, SoS was the weakest . I loved the whole Assault

Spoiler

on the Crimson King's Checkpoint. I knew one of the KA-Tet would fall. I was hooked. Oy getting killed was sad for me.

I hated the ending at first, it left me asking myself "That's it?" It took the next day for me to get it, and then it clicked, I smiled and was left wanting more.

And a big F/U to those who don't like Wizard and Glass. What an Awesome book.

 

[WyndhamPrice]

Book 4 will always be my favorite, followed by 2.

And I like the ending even if it leaves you pretty much drained.

 

[zero margin]

Good timing finding this thread, I've read most everything of S.K.'s but never got around to these, short story shorter started The Gunslinger and I like it but I find it hard as hell to follow in parts, at the last chapter now.

 

[WyndhamPrice]

Good timing finding this thread, I've read most everything of S.K.'s but never got around to these, short story shorter started The Gunslinger and I like it but I find it hard as hell to follow in parts, at the last chapter now.

The Gunslinger is really odd to read at times (it was originally published in parts in a magazine) but the books that follow are more or less normal novels.

That's not to say that King never plays with structure ever (and believe me he does) but it they gel better in general.

 

[talisayNon]

True story: At one point in my life I was banging Stephen King's nephew's roomate.

 

[zero margin]

The Gunslinger is really odd to read at times (it was originally published in parts in a magazine) but the books that follow are more or less normal novels.

That's not to say that King never plays with structure ever (and believe me he does) but it they gel better in general.

Makes sense in that context. I like the book so far as a whole and got The Drawing of the Three ready to go, just at times he seems to go back to childhood's and different characters after just leaving the present time and it's a bit confusing.

 

[John Locke]

Came to post the same thing, though I flip flop on my feelings of the ending.

Certainly most of the final book felt rushed, forced and inconsistent, but the very end outlining Roland's fate was either complete shit or kinda interesting. Still can't decide.

First I hated the ending, then loved the ending, then hated it, then loved it again.

Spoiler

The whole thing is about addiction. Roland's addicted to the tower and just has to take that final step and scale the tower once he reaches it. It's not enough that he saved existence and reached it, he actually had to go inside and see what was on top. As readers, we're addicted to the story and can't be happy with the just world being saved. We need to find out what happens next, too, and we ultimately pay the price for getting just one more chapter.

It was really clever of him to end it like that. I agree about the final book feeling rushed, though. It felt like he tried to cram in a few book's worth of world-building into half a book when he realized he had hit 400 pages

Spoiler

and they were nowhere near the tower

.

I have found that I greatly enjoy reading the Marvel Comics graphic novels too. Seeing Roland as a teen is pretty badass...

... and you don't f*ck with Sheemie!

It looks like they're going to keep on making them, too.

 

[Bjern Fita]

I was lucky enough to get the 1st four books as a Christmas gift from my Mum and lapped them up.

Then came the years of waiting for more of the first series I ever really was hanging out for more of (this is before I read ASOIAF).

The world was incredible, and I loved the threads running between other King books. Great to read the 'extended universe' in other books. Then came King the character and I started to get a bit nervous. Like others have said the last books are perhaps a little weaker but I do like the ending (now, right after finishing it I wasn't too keen on it).

Would be a great series to read now front to back wothout anyone hyping it, hanging out for. And buying the last 3 hardbacks was a slight let down.

Spoiler

But fuck I hated the 'magic eraser'. What a shitty way for the CK to meet his end.

I'm sure King would blame me, the constant reader, for wanting too much from that confrontation.

 

[CloverCarr]

And a big F/U to those who don't like Wizard and Glass. What an Awesome book.

Seconded. That book stirred things in me that I didn't even know were there and set the bar so high on love that having found my Roland and lost him again, I'm now convinced I'm going to be an old lady who can only live with cats.

 

[Patryn]

I have to agree with those who feel it all goes downhill after Wizard and Glass.

I mean, I understand why King would be having issues after the car accident. Dude almost died. And I understand that writers tend to work their issues out in their writing.

But, seriously, the final three books felt like one long personal therapy session on the accident and what his surviving actually meant (actually, IMO, this became a major theme of most of his later works, but given the whole

Spoiler

self-insertion stuff

, it looms much larger in this series). In fact, the whole feeling of the ending can, I think, be attributed to his searching for meaning in the whole mess.

Now, it probably helped him out a lot. But, to me, it felt like he forced the series to take a sudden, sharp turn in order to go where he wanted it to go rather than where it naturally was leading.

 

[ScrabbleDude]

I'm likely on my own here, but my favourite book was Drawing of the Three, followed very closely by Song of Susannah. Song was awesome.

My least favourite was Wizard and Glass. Took me forever to get through the flashback. I just wanted to get on with the journey and felt like King couldn't figure out how to continue, so instead decided to write a little story about a past adventure that probably could have been a separate side story book.

I really would like to see what these books would have been if King had not been hit by that truck.

 

[WanderingWind]

I'm likely on my own here, but my favourite book was Drawing of the Three, followed very closely by Song of Susannah. Song was awesome.

My least favourite was Wizard and Glass. Took me forever to get through the flashback. I just wanted to get on with the journey and felt like King couldn't figure out how to continue, so instead decided to write a little story about a past adventure that probably could have been a separate side story book.

I really would like to see what these books would have been if King had not been hit by that truck.

I agree with the first two paragraphs.

 

[Neuromancer]

Just finished Wastelands, may take a break before I move on. There are some aspects of the series I don't care for (I found all the

Spoiler

pre-Susannah 'Detta

stuff really annoying and still don't really like her character as much as the others) but overall I'm hooked.

 

[Feep]

Just finished the series.

Spoiler

What an arrogant child King was, telling readers to stop, and then writing the final fifteen pages afterward. You WROTE them, you asshole. If you wanted us not to read them, don't include them.

That said, I enjoyed the ending. At first it hit me as hard as the ending of The Mist did, but the faint glimmer (glammer?) of hope, The Horn of Eld, made me smile. What a fucking trip, though.

I thought the first half of the seventh book was spectacular, and the second half (before the final ending) very disjointed. The Dandelo/Painter stuff felt rushed, all the buildup with Mordred was wasted with the boring encounter 1) Spider rushes up 2) Oy jumps in to save the day 3) Roland shoots him with his gun. The Crimson King was not developed as a character and had no weight, and the vague promise of a bigger bad beyond the CK (mentioned in Book 5 or 6, I forget) was never realized. Too many pages dealing with the horrible horrible cold, big fucking deal.

The series was still a hell of a ride. Roland and Eddie are amazing characters. Roland shouting out the names of the lost at the foot of the Tower is something I'll probably always remember.

Badass.

 

[Tim-E]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Gunslinger and I'm already pretty fascinated by the world this takes place in and the many possibilities it has.

 

[Cep]

I remember reading the The Gunslinger when I was younger(13-14) and not being very impressed.

Then again, young me was a little shit-head

Probably should give this another chance (though I personally do not think King is that great of a writer, this particular series seems highly recommended).

 

[Trouble]

Under The Dome is one of his best books. Cell is also fantastic. This idea that his writing has suffered post-accident I just can't really see. There are some that I haven't read, but there are tons of great books he's written in the past decade, V-VII included.

I hated the end of Under the Dome. Too much of a Deus Ex Machina for me. It was just so anticlimactic for such a huge novel.

Spoiler

Big Jim's death was disappointing too, I wanted Barbie to put one between his teeth.

For the record I thought the end of The Stand was a cop-out too. I really enjoyed both books until the endings.

The ending of The Dark Tower, on the other hand, was brilliant. I agree with King that there really was no other way to end it. Ka is a wheel.

Oh, and The Wastelands was by far my favorite in the series. The cliffhanger ending did irk me, because I knew it would be a few years before the next novel.

 

[Tokubetsu]

How can people hate on Wizard & Glass? Aside from The Gunslinger, it was easily the most engaging of the books for me. It also made me cry like a bitch :lol

 

[AlteredBeast]

I'm likely on my own here, but my favourite book was Drawing of the Three, followed very closely by Song of Susannah. Song was awesome.

My least favourite was Wizard and Glass. Took me forever to get through the flashback. I just wanted to get on with the journey and felt like King couldn't figure out how to continue, so instead decided to write a little story about a past adventure that probably could have been a separate side story book.

I really would like to see what these books would have been if King had not been hit by that truck.

I couldnt disagree more. Wizard and Glass was amazing western. Eldred Jonas, young Roland, backstory on his friends and Susan. Damn, how could you not absolutely love that novel?! Song was the worst in the series by far. A quick read, but not one I will probably ever go through again.

 

[C4Lukins]

I almost quit near the middle of the second book. Glad I finished it because all of the shit that annoyed me about it really came together at the end. I am about 100 pages into the third book and have hated almost every moment of it. Someone needs to convince me to keep up with it, because it all seems so silly right now, but maybe like the second book I will start to appreciate it.

I see why a screen adaptation would be difficult. King sucks at believable dialog. Also a ton of the stuff in the second book where you have someone entering another persons mind, the other person being aware that person in their mind, and then having the person in the mind coming forth and controlling the person and then easing back into the back of their subconscious just seems impossible to reproduce on the screen. The Gunslinger though could be a fantastic movie on its own, but with no real ending it would be hard to stop there.

 

[Trouble]

I almost quit near the middle of the second book. Glad I finished it because all of the shit that annoyed me about it really came together at the end. I am about 100 pages into the third book and have hated almost every moment of it. Someone needs to convince me to keep up with it, because it all seems so silly right now, but maybe like the second book I will start to appreciate it.

Stick with it. It gets totally awesome later in the book.

Also, anyone who watches Lost should pay attention to the first half of this book. It gives some insight into where the story arc is going this season. The writers admitted early on to being huge Dark Tower fans and using parts of it for inspiration.

 

[Wark]

I've always been interested in starting this series even though I've never been a huge Stephen King fan. I guess I'm going to have to check this out the next time I go to the library.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

What the hell is up with people not liking Wizard and Glass... That's like the best book in the series.

 

[randomwab]

I would like to read these, but isn't there a box with all seven books? They're cheap enough on Amazon, but I'd rather buy one set with them all in it.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

I would like to read these, but isn't there a box with all seven books? They're cheap enough on Amazon, but I'd rather buy one set with them all in it.

I don't think there is a box set for all seven, but there is one for the first four books:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0451211243/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[Almyn]

I have all seven on the shelf, But have only read through the first two so far. I'm in no hurry.

I adored the gunslinger, Couldnt put it down and read it pretty much in one sitting, But I cant say the same for Drawing of the three. Like all of Kings work, I found it very hard to put down, Despite not enjoying it very much.

Spoiler

I think it was mainly that a lot of the second book took place in our world. What interested me so much in the Gunslinger was the world it took place in, I wasn't really interested in reading about New York

Maybe the waste land will be better.

 

[Scrow]

awesome series. loved most of it, except for the "meta-fiction" stuff

Spoiler

where king wrote himself into the books as a character

.

my absolute favourite was the second book though. i was totally engrossed.