Monday, January 23, 2012

The Dark Tower

I don't recall when I started reading the series but I know it was not from the beginning (for I was too young then really).  I have faithfully bought ever book that came out after I started, 1st print and in hard back even though I have put them off for far longer than I should have.

Book 7 was released in 2006 if I am to believe the information on Amazon.com (or that could be that the paperback portion was released then) and here I sit in January of 2012 just finally finishing it, nearly 6 years later.

I had known that I wanted to read the last three books in succession after sai Kings accident and as such I kept picking them up but waiting on reading them.  When they were finally released I started the journey and enjoyed pretty much every page on the way to the final destination.
Wolves of the Calla went by very quickly for me and I had visions of running through the last 3 books within a month.  However, about 200 pages into Songs of Susanna I put the book down and walked away from it for a couple of years.
Once I started it over I made quick work of it and then started book 7, The Dark Tower, and once again I stopped just a couple of hundred pages into it. I did not realize it at the time, but the reason I kept stopping was not because I had lost interest but because I did not want it to end.  If I did not know what was written on the pages ahead then the journey was still continuing.  However, as all things must, I knew that I had to eventually finish the series so that I could see the end of the journey for the ka-tet.

Another reason why I decided to finally finish with the series (as it exists at this moment) was because The Wind Through The Key Hole is coming out this year and I did not want to go into that book without having finished the other books in order.  Now that my journey has ended (until Keyhole comes out) I wish that I would have ended it sooner.  I wish that I would, instead, be looking to begin anew much like Roland and start back over with The Gunslinger so that I can read the new book in it's proper timeline of the series.
Unless a random lightning strike of motivation hits me this will most likely not be happening.  I need to turn my attention to something of a lighter nature and a quicker read for that last book was definitely a heavy hitter on my mind.

I don't know if I'll ever sit down and give this book a good full review because I just don't think that's my style. I'm not one to delve into the inner workings and come up with good words and sentences to do anything justice - I don't believe that I have that kind of talent - at least not enough to make other people say that it was worth their time to read.  However (I rely on using that to start sentences too much) I do know that I have two fine folks waiting to palaver with me on the subject of The Dark Tower, Tricia and Josie.

Also, I did want to say that I had no long internal debate on whether or not I wanted to read the "ending" or stop when sai King warned me to stop.  I had come this far and I was not going to leave the last few pages sitting there, unfound, without me having knowledge of his artificial ending.

Truth be told I got to the point where I almost expected that ending.  It had played in my head over the last couple of weeks in a "wouldn't it be funny if..." kind of way.  So in that sense I was not disappointed by the way those last few pages played out.  I will state that I do feel that the other ending, before we get to see the inner workings of the Dark Tower, is the true ending and I would have been much happier if the book would have just quit right there.  I'm sure it would have pissed many a person off but I feel like that would have been satisfactory.

I loved this book, I loved the series and I will re-read them from start to finish (which is very very rare for me as I almost never re do anything - books, games, whatever).  I'm sure as I go through them a 2nd time that I will pick up on things that I didn't before, the language will be quicker to read and easier to comprehend and I will also take the time to go back over sai Kings vast catalog of books and read the other books that come into play in the Dark Tower story line.  I've got a lot of words ahead of me but I'm up to the challenge.

9 comments:

  1. He wrote Talisman with Straub but they meshed well. The 2nd was Blackhouse but I don't remember it. Still have to read My Pretty Pony but I'm afraid to ruin the book. Talisman kinda reminds me of the Tower series with a better ending. I hated how the series ended although I know alot of his readers like it. Really hated that he killed Oy too.

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  2. I might be thinking of a different book, but isn't talisman the one he wrote with Peter Straub - and then they put out a follow up book to it as well... Black somethingorother?
    If so, did you read the 2nd and was it any good?

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  3. Both books read fast. I would have to say Talisman was my favorite. I think I've read it 4 times. Some similarities to Dark Tower.

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  4. Well, thanks for following.
    Also, the new books is going to be called The Wind Through The Keyhole.
    http://www.stephenking.com/promo/wind_through_the_keyhole/promo_site/

    Going to take place between two of the other books, but it's really tales that Roland is telling from his youth to his tet.

    I've never read either The Stand or The Talisman - I know I have to get to them at some point, but I have a hard time thinking about tackling a book that's over 1k pages (The Stand).
    I know I should read it because the 3 part mini-series pissed me off the way they ended it haha.

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  5. Didn't know until now he was coming out with another in the series. Thx. My two favorites were The Talisman and The Stand. Read both many times. If funny because I'm not a big reader but started reading his books after my college english teacher forbid anyone from doing a report on his books. She said they were trash so I just had to read one and was hooked from there.
    BTW I'm lvpokerplyr. It is my google account name I guess.

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  6. I'm slowly going through the King books - and I think that with as much as I loved the Dark Tower series I'm going to concentrate on books that are tied into it.
    Insomnia is going to be my next Stephen King book.
    Then maybe Salem's Lot.

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  7. Awesome books. I was lucky enough to only start reading them a couple years ago. I always meant to read them as I love king. So I got all the releases at once and had a few month orgy of Dark Tower.

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  8. Eddie Dean is your crack of choice - I get it :-P

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  9. I love this book and series too. The book that sucked me into this world was The Drawing of the Three. I couldn't put it down and felt drawn right into that world along with Eddie Dean. I still haven't finished my second reading of Book 7, but I'm getting there. About 90% done and I think I'm gonna shut this laptop down and step into stride with Roland. Dying to get to the end again, even though I know how disappointed I'll be.

    Go then, there are other worlds than these. :)

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