The Dark Tower/The Gunslinger

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cheezydemon3

cheezydemon3

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These were my favorite books.

I love the simplicity of the wild west gunslinger overlain a futuristic wasteland.

Did I say that right?

The 4th book must be the BEST and most original 4th book in any series....(not that there are too many 4ths floating around) A complete story unto itself, yet tied so well into the overall tale.

The way SK's books tie into one another in subtle yet ingenious ways are why I ended up hating LOST.

Their *****ebaggy way of barely tying things together, instead of some underlying master plan, left me frustrated.

I got to the.........6th book?5th? Oh well.

Not sure, but (SPOILER) Harry potter brand weapons made their appearance.

I couldn't help laying it down and vowing to never return, I mean WTF????

The whole wizard of Oz tie in was a little unoriginal, but HP????????

Buggar that.

Was there anything beyond that? is it worth re-visiting?
 
I was just telling my buddy at work the other day how much I would like to see Jake of New York beat the holy hell out of Harry Potter.

Oh hell yes you better pick it back up. Song of Susanna (6th book, short one) is friggin' ACTION PACKED!

Woo hoo! Load up! We're going to the Dixie Pig to kick some ass!


edit: I think the 4th book may be the best too.
 
Funny, I made it through the fourth book a few years back and then laid the series aside waiting for the ending. My wife finished it off a while back and we have the rest of the books sitting here waiting for me to get to them. Looks like I need to do that!
 
The series definitely took a nosedive midway thru. King admitted that he fell out of love with the series, and I think it shows. Especially the ending, it's one of the most unsatisfying series ending in literature. I felt so po-ed and cheated for investing all the time, and emotion on the series. It was a great premise and especially like you said, the fourth book, which really showed us the world of the gunslinger.

But after that, where that book REALLY made me fall in love with the series even more, it just went downhill. And seemed more pasted together than anything else.
 
Revvy said:
The series definitely took a nosedive midway thru. King admitted that he fell out of love with the series, and I think it shows. Especially the ending, it's one of the most unsatisfying series ending in literature. I felt so po-ed and cheated for investing all the time, and emotion on the series. It was a great premise and especially like you said, the fourth book, which really showed us the world of the gunslinger.

But after that, where that book REALLY made me fall in love with the series even more, it just went downhill. And seemed more pasted together than anything else.
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Revvy, you're not filling me with hope here!! :D
 
From what i read i Don't think he ever intended to end the series. He wrote the last book because fans wanted it. I personally didn't mind the end and i enjoyed all of the books.
 
Great series.. I read them all, back-to-back, on my Kindle last year after the flood while living in my travel trailer. I had no preconceived notions on the series and didn't mind the way it tied in with other movies- or (I hope this isn't a spoiler), how King wrote himself into the series. In the end, I was very satisfied..
 
I read the whole series and loved it. I think the problem that King got into was he made the tale so big, so encompassing (so much so that it bled over into alot of his other books), that it would be impossible for him to tie it all up neatly at the end. King had to leave some things hanging.

I really appreciated him following through and putting an ending on it, but I don't think he could have put an ending on it as big as the one I had built up in my head. I think that was why he "fell out of love with the series" as Revvy suggested. He knew he simply wasn't going to be able to to do justice to it. Nobody could of. Once I realized this also, I was happy to follow the story to the end, and let King end it the best he could. As he mentioned in one of the author notes: it was the journey that was important, not the ending.

The worst thing he could have done was continue on, making book after book off of little details/side-stories and diluting out the real story-line like many other sci-fi authors have done. He'd probably have sold more books, but just ending it as he did was the right thing to do.
 
He......wrote......himself.....in.......that's almost as bad as one of the "EXTREMELY VALUABLE" and rare books being Salem's Lot, ahahahahand one of the characters from Salem's Lot reading about his FREAKING SELF!!!!!

Thanks to you all.

No way I will ever read any more, although I will probably re-read the first 4 books a couple dozen more times.

Jesus Steve.

Harry Potter brand weapons indeed.
 
cheezydemon3 said:
He......wrote......himself.....in.......that's almost as bad as one of the "EXTREMELY VALUABLE" and rare books being Salem's Lot, ahahahahand one of the characters from Salem's Lot reading about his FREAKING SELF!!!!!

Thanks to you all.

No way I will ever read any more, although I will probably re-read the first 4 books a couple dozen more times.

Jesus Steve.

Harry Potter brand weapons indeed.
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****....I thought you read the WHOLE series before posting....geez I'm sorry we gave it away....But yeah, he wrote himself in, amongst other things.
 
I loved the whole series and actually thought the last few were the strongest. I liked what he did in the end with himself and the books, though the whole concept was borrowed from Robert Heinlein. To be honest, I liked book 4 the least. It seemed like a sidetrack and while it added some background to the character, it didn't do much at all for the story. It was more like a seperate spin-off rather than part of the series.

If you're 4 or 5 books deep into the series, definitely finish it out.
 
Revvy said:
****....I thought you read the WHOLE series before posting....geez I'm sorry we gave it away....But yeah, he wrote himself in, amongst other things.
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No problem Brother! That's the honesty I wanted.

John Beere said:
I personally think you owe it to Roland to finish the series..
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AAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrggggggggghhh

ChshreCat said:
I loved the whole series and actually thought the last few were the strongest. I liked what he did in the end with himself and the books, though the whole concept was borrowed from Robert Heinlein. To be honest, I liked book 4 the least. It seemed like a sidetrack and while it added some background to the character, it didn't do much at all for the story. It was more like a seperate spin-off rather than part of the series.

If you're 4 or 5 books deep into the series, definitely finish it out.
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH~!~~~~~~~


OH ok.

Roland is a bad ass no matter how you twist his tale.

Yes the 4th could have had different names and been a different story, but it was SO bad assed and fit just fine.

I am currently reading book 2(again) and I will continue on to the end. How many are there?
 
It just gets progressively worse, right up to the horrible twist ending/ret-con.

What's worse is how <spoiler> LOST completely co-opted the ending for its finale. </spoiler>
 
And yes, the exploding golden snitches in Book 5 were ridiculous.

In book 6, Jake and Father Callahan <spoiler>Place an evil magical sphere in a storage locker at the bottom of the World Trade Center, and it is heavily, heavily hinted that, in the Dark Tower universe, this is the root cause of the 9/11 attacks.</spoiler>. I'm not even joking.
 
Am I missing something with the <spoiler>?

Whatever jake and the old man did couldn't be as bad as what I am imagining is contained in that <spoiler>....

(please god, no buggery)
 
Between the spoiler tags, he's made the text white. If you want to read it, you can highlight the space and the text will show. He's doing it that way so you don't have to get spoiled. Not sure what benerbrau has trouble with in the books though. It's Stephen freakin' King. Is it supposed to be realistic or something?!? ;)

Maybe the reason I was able to buy into the ideas in the last books were because Robert Heinlein already did it with his World-as-Myth concept in his later books. I was already prepped with the concept and so it was easy, once I got past the idea of King ripping off Heinlein.
 
:mug:

Thanks chshre, I agree, but for what it's worth, I may end up feeling like bernerbrau.

Funny that I mentioned lost's *****ey ending as compared to SK's plan, if after all lost took it right from the dark tower.
 
From StephenKing.com.. Hmm

New Dark Tower Book
Posted on: 11.12.09*

Stephen has announced that he has an idea for a new Dark Tower book, the working title of which will be THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE.* He has not yet started this book and anticipates that it will be a minimum of eight months before he is able to begin writing it.
 
SWEET!

I'm really looking forward to the movie(s) but a bit wary that Ron Howard is the one doing them now.
 
cheezydemon3 said:
Funny that I mentioned lost's *****ey ending as compared to SK's plan, if after all lost took it right from the dark tower.
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There's a lot of disagreement here but I thought LOST's ending was heavily influenced by Stephen King's ending to the Dark Tower. Right down to the <spoiler> deus ex machina way they got rid of the big bad and the whole "everybody dies happily ever after" alternate universe and the idea of the whole story being Roland's purgatory. </spoiler>

ChshreCat said:
SWEET!

I'm really looking forward to the movie(s) but a bit wary that Ron Howard is the one doing them now.
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Wait, so JJ's not doing it anymore? That actually makes me happy now.
 
Yeah, he gave the rights back and Ron Howard jumped at the chance. Ron Howard can probably do a decent job, but it seems to increase the chances that Tom Hanks will get cast as Roland. :p
 
I thought that "the mist" was the first really good SK horror movie since "the shining" which ignored the book, so it doesn't really count.

The acting could have been better, but the gritty no fear (especially the ending) attitude towards the directing was awesome.
 
I thought IT was really good for a TV miniseries. Word is they're doing a remake and this time it's going to be a full theatrical production.
 
cheezydemon3 said:
THE MIST frank darabont?

It was in theatres.
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No, I mean...
It_1990_Promotional_Poster.JPG


It was only awesome because of Tim Curry's job as Pennywise the Clown.
 
Ahhhhh, IT not it.


Agreed, the other acting is SOOOOO bad though.

The book is phucked.

Towards the end SPOILER

All of these kids run a freaking train on the 1 chick.

No joke. They are all like 8 years old.

Another SK unbelieveable moment.
 
Another of my favorite books. You and I just have different expectations from King's books, I think. What did you think of The Talisman and Dark House?

And I'm pretty sure the kids were older than that. Closer to their teens.

edit: in the screenplay, all the kids are aged 12. That's how I read them as portrayed in the book as well.
 
ChshreCat said:
Another of my favorite books. You and I just have different expectations from King's books, I think. What did you think of The Talisman and Dark House?

And I'm pretty sure the kids were older than that. Closer to their teens.

edit: in the screenplay, all the kids are aged 12. That's how I read them as portrayed in the book as well.
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I liked IT.(the book) but I am pretty sure they were 8.;)

I haven't read either of those.

I have liked all of his other books until the harry potter brand crap.

I especially love the short story of the MIST.

Would you recommend both of those?
 
In an unrelated story, I named my recent ESB Discordia. It seemed like that came up a few times in the later Dark Tower books. I thought it was a fairly cool name for a bitter.
 
cheezydemon3 said:
I liked IT.(the book) but I am pretty sure they were 8.;)

I haven't read either of those.

I have liked all of his other books until the harry potter brand crap.

I especially love the short story of the MIST.

Would you recommend both of those?
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Definitely. They're, in a way, connected with the Dark Tower series, but not really part of it. If that makes sense...

Another one that's a must read if you haven't yet is The Stand. King's best book IMHO.
 
I like the first 4 as well, but then lost interest. My absolute favorite SK books are the Stand and the Eyes of the Dragon (both of which tie in the Dark Tower series, actually).
 
cheezydemon3 said:
I liked IT.(the book) but I am pretty sure they were 8.;)
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Had to go look it up. Page one says that Stuttering Bill was 10 when Georgie died, then the book jumps forward almost a year. That makes him 11 at the start of the main story. By the time they reach the (ahem) climax of the story, he would likely be 12. The Losers were all about the same age.

So there! ;)
 
I've read none of this thread to avoid potential spoilers. I started The gunslinger today, got about 1/3 of the way through. The whole Tull bit was awesome. I'm really excited to see this series through.

My band even had two songs about the series, but I never read them or had any connection to them. I'm intrigued so far.
 
The first book was actually the weakest of the bunch, I think. It was really early in his career and he didn't really know where he was going. It picks up from there.
 
dgooden said:
I like the first 4 as well, but then lost interest. My absolute favorite SK books are the Stand and the Eyes of the Dragon (both of which tie in the Dark Tower series, actually).
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I just re-read Eyes of the Dragon, and it still is my favorite of King's books. I think that I'll have to re-read The Stand soon. I originally read the abridged version (I don't think that the unabridged version was released at that point).
 
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