Constant Reader: I expect a big showdown between Roland, Flagg, and the Crimson King. SK: No. I'm not going to give you that. CR: Why not? SK: Because it's what you expect.
I've just completed my dark tower journey which spanned from June through to October, and have celebrated the end of every volume by recapping them with this guy. Fun to see that I'm apparently not the only one.
17:00 Eddie Dean was my favorite character so when he died i actually havent picked up the book for like a week because i was too emotional. but luckily after a while i ignored these emotions and read the rest of the book. i would have enjoyd the ending more if Eddie was with it to the end. in the end Roland was the only surviver and the others were all dead and my favorite Eddie was the first so i didnt like this book as much as the rest but the ending was not as bad as i thought it would be. i read the dark tower series every year and its my favorite serie of all time.
I just turned 34 in March, and I started the dark tower 45 days ago and just finished it 3 days ago. It left me heart broken for Roland, Eddie ,Sus, and Jake get to live happily ever after, but not the true and bravest of them all. I found the DT books so good I just started on Salems Lot.
That's what I was thinking when she first had her Epiphany to have him draw something and he asked how tall. I thought he was asking how tall does he want him to make her. But turned out it was the door.
Good review an a nice walkthrough of the story - I was sort of flabbergasted in how anticlamactic The man in black ended up, since he´s been Rolands front shadow all the way through the story, more so actually than I were on the demise of The red king. The man in black always felt closer - as Im sure he did to most Tower-readers, so when I read his "exit scene", I was sure King were just messing around and would have him re-appear for a final confrontation in the end. The ending, however, felt very fitting - Rolands stuck in limbo. One of the levels of Dantes hell, as it were.
This was great, buddy! Just finished the book, and cried like hell when Susannah left. I did think it dragged. And I’m not gonna read any further. Well, now Long days and pleasant nights. Say thank ya
Jacob Butner yes at least one more book, but a number 8 not another in between one. All I want before sk leaves is the 3rd talisman and one more official dark tower. Amazing writer, he's on a level by himself as a writer that no one else has achieved in my personal opinion.
The dark tower is the lynch pin to all worlds including ours so if course king had to write himself into it the dark tower affects everyone everywhere this is such a epic story
Wow a lot of these comments are ppl saying how fast they read the series... Myself, I started this series my first year of uni and loved it so much I decided to pace myself through it. So I did. I let life proceed as it were, steadily reading the series in phases, sometimes not reading for months at a time. But I never stopped thinking about the Tower. Roland and his tet were always in the back of my mind... in hindsight it feels like we grew up together. Fast forward to present day. Recently I had been at a low point in life, so I decided to finish the series. I read through the last third of VII looking for some type of answer, half-heartedly expecting to find it at the top of the Tower, just as Roland might have believed. But what I found was even better, for myself, as well as a perfect ending. As cheesy as it sounds, it truly has always been about the journey, King reminded me about that for the story, as well as my own life. And for that reason, I love the series even more
Perhaps you haven't heard that the heavy metal band Demons And Wizards have an album called Touched By The Crimson King which has some songs about the Dark Tower series. It's one of my favorite to listen to.
I ALSO cried when Eddie dies. I was almost inconsolable when Oy goes out. He's angry that he has to. He knows he's going to. I am here and there on my opinion of this novel...But I don't begrudge King the deaths of the Ka- Tet. He has always "killed his darlings" The end, with the drawer guy, is weird. It's King all the way, but it's not very satisfying, and King usually gives the Satisfying Win. Roland is just shooting at Sneetches, splayed legs, while a guy he met 15 minute ago literally erases the guy from existence? I took King at his word. For two years, I never read the end of the book, after King warned me off. I read it, eventually, and am okay with it...but it's a non ending. Why does it start there? (The iconic line is the best first line in any book ever, but...) Why doesn't it start with Roland remembering to pick up the horn? I don't think this series can be made into a show, and this is ultimately why YT popped these things up to me. The book is unfilmmable as it stands. (There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THEY'LL DO 'DETTA), but if you change the book to fit it into the mores of today, it won't be King. I read The Gunslinger in 1985. I was working at a fancy hotel in the Gift Shop, and I had to display ONE COPY of this book on a shelf. I stole it immediately. (39 years ago. I might be safe.). This series, as whacked as it may be, is tremendous....6 out of 7 books. (Song of Susannah mostly sux) Wind Thru The Keyhole doesn't. That book is shit, and just people hounding King til he wrote something extra.
Began my Tower journey at age 9 in 1987, and ended it in a Waldenbooks in 2004 at age 26 (had to read it in bookstore as I couldn't afford to buy it, read it in three 6 hour sessions), and while I was absolutely floored by the ending, and more than a little upset, with time I realized it's the only possible ending, and a brilliant one at that. I've yet to read a series of books, either before or since, that comes close to the Dark Tower series. A true masterwork, and certainly Sai King's magnum opus. Tell God thank ya!
I feel like the ending with Patrick erasing is a great metaphor for artistic expression's triumph over deception/evil. I actually used this as a concept for a song I made, which you can find here: soundcloud.com/corruptcatalyst/pgacknr-vox/s-SEcNO
I like to think that when the oracle speaks to Roland and says “you needn’t be the last Gunslinger” He takes hold of the horn of Eld and agrees and he and Jake go off to train and have the longest days and the most pleasant nights
the one thing about that really disappointed me about this book was the fact that King gave the man in black the shaft to make room for Mordred. I little brat who doesn't have a conflict with Roland that King got us invested in up to that point. If it had been Walter following them around I'd have been more invested because of six books worth of build up for their beef. Still really enjoyed the ending though, and feel like I'm satisfied based off that. Both versions of the end really satisfied me in their own unique way (but if only Walter had played a bigger role)
I love this book kinda anticlimactic it seems with the crimson king but kinda funny but stopping where king wants you to stop no way I need to know what's in the tower what's the deal with the tower I need to keep reading wow such a awesome ending makes me want to start over and start reading the first book again
All three deaths tore me up but something about oy saying 'olan really hit hard. Maybe it was because I never recovered after Jake died. I was pretty messed up after that happened and I finished the book that same day so I was just heartbroken.
I thought the fight with the crimson king was cool because it shows how Roland is struggling while the king is throwing sneetches and I think Patrick Danville erasing him was like a last resort in a way the hero’s have there back against the wall and Roland can’t fire a gun that far so Patrick is the last resort in a way
Maybe King has been terrible at endings because he just doesn't want them to end. The journey is more important than the conclusion anyways, right? So yes, the ways the Walking Dude and the Red King have died are cheep and anti-climatic. I'm sure King shed a tear or two when he wrote the ending of this particular book.
Everyone faces their own Dark Tower what are you pursuing that has totally consumed you that you forgotten the face of your father, mother, brother, sister, friends or family? Career over family is a common Tower most face, it’s the journey not the destination which means the most. Once Roland saved the beams it was done. Roland should have followed Sussanah into the door with Oy and Patrick.
To be completely honest. Roland was sort of an asshole and he deserves what he get's. He prides himself and tries to defend his mistakes and his actions by masking it as an act of ka. So yep Ka fucks him over and over and his precious Dark Tower gives him the proper lesson he deserves. But now that he has the horn of eld it means that we will have a proper happy story wherein he acts like a true gunslinger who protects mid world a isn't obsessed to go to the tower.
See, this is one of my favorite endings I have ever read. It's the only way it COULD end. Roland was destined by Ka to save the beams and the tower, but Ka had nothing to do with him climbing the tower. He was so obsessed with climbing the tower that he out-ran Ka. In the same vein, King gave the reader the option to stop where Ka destined, but like Roland, the reader was obsessed with the tower. So, for outrunning and disobeying Ka, Roland (and the reader) are punished.
this is the book you can tell king just got old and tired, hopefully the movies will give life back to one heck of a series. took me over a year to read all of it.
