The Dark Tower/The Gunslinger

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I've been reading his work since, well, probably since he's been publishing books. (Almost!) Carrie was the first I read.
The Stand took me a couple of tries, though. Towards the middle it got slow enough for me to move on to another book. But I picked it back up again. So don't give up on it. Get through the slow part, and read the darn book!
 
Sorry if this post wanders and rambles a bit, but there's a lot in this thread I wanted to respond to. First, while I've read some SK, I'm not what you'd call a die hard fan. He writes some decent stuff, but also some cr*p; he's just too hit or miss for me to want to immediately run out and grab whatever's hit the shelves. That being said I did read the entire Dark Tower saga, and probably will reread it at some point. I don't think it's his best work, but it's definitely not the worst of his I've read.

For those of you who didn't like the ending, tough shinola. It wasn't that he got tired of the series, or the characters, or the readers. The ending was as originally planned and outlined. Granted, the series was only supposed to run 4 or 5 volumes, originally, but this was always the ending he planned. He did often get sidetracked on other projects, and took longer to get back to DT than many fans were happy about, but when the Muse strikes you up side the head, you pay attention and write THAT story or suffer for it.

Of the volumes in Dark Tower, my favorites were the first and last. Those two were the only books of Kings since Carrie that I couldn't put down before finishing. Of his other works, I have yet to finish The Stand. I will never view that has his grand opus.

On the subject of his use of "World as Myth" and placing so many other works of fiction (including a LARGE number of his own), Heinlein wasn't the first to do this (including writing himself into the story as a character) and King won't be the last. I got the impression that King did this as a way to have a little game with his fans (how many books can YOU identify?) and to poke a little fun at himself (which is what Heinlein did in Number of the Beast). Since I'm not a huge fan, this game only bored me and detracted from the story, but I recognized it for what it was and soldiered on, to finally reach a somewhat predictable but pleasing ending to Roland's saga (if that's the right word here). And yes, I, too read DT long before I found Harry Potter, which I also read up to the final (also 7th) volume. Vol 6 pi$$ed me off so much that I have yet to open my copy of The Deathly Hallows, and I don't know when I ever will.

And finally, speaking about Heinlein's use of World as Myth: Poster who proclaimed never to have read Robert Heinlein before, get thee to a library or book store and get a copy of The Moon is a Hash Mistress forthwith. Also grab a copy of Podkayne of Mars (for one of the BEST endings of any novel. While you're at it, pick up a couple of his juveniles, especially Citizen of the Galaxy and Have Space Suit, Will Travel. When you've finished those, you can graduate to Time Enough for Love, Number of the Beast (see WaM reference) and Job: A Comedy of Justice. (Imagine if ALL the world's religions, past and present, were True. Then imagine two people of different faiths fall in love, then die. That's where the story starts.)

A couple of final thoughts and I'll close this rambling diatribe. If they made a movie series of The Dark Tower (even Peter Jackson couldn't do it in one), I wouldn't mind seeing Hugo Weaving as Roland. Who better than him to be humming Beatles tunes while twirling a six gun?

And another thought about King's "game" of King characters in DT. I suppose he might have thought that readers unfamiliar with the books referenced might, after encountering them here, might pick up the other books to compare the characters. If that was part of his strategy, it didn't work in my case.
 
Officer Mitchel, do you have source that shows SK always knew the ending? I had thought I had read he never knew and that he let the series write itself so to speak. That he found out the ending as he was writing it.

I enjoyed the series somewhat, though I definitely found plenty of flaws. I'm not a huge SK fan either. I would never re-read them as some of my friends have done, but I'm looking forward to seeing it adapted as a movie (and TV?) series. Has anyone read the recent addition to the series? Is it a worthwhile read for a non-diehard fan?
 
jkendrick said:
Officer Mitchel, do you have source that shows SK always knew the ending? I had thought I had read he never knew and that he let the series write itself so to speak. That he found out the ending as he was writing it.
Click to expand...

I thought in the forward to one of the books he said just that. For that matter I didn't think from the outset it was supposed to be a series at all.
 
smakudwn said:
I thought in the forward to one of the books he said just that. For that matter I didn't think from the outset it was supposed to be a series at all.
Click to expand...

And in the intro of a few of them he indeed stated that he became somewhat bored with series, and quit it several times, but was constantly being drawn back into the world by the characters.
 
I thought the first and fourth books were the best gunslinger books.

The Harry potter brand weapons and other stupid things in Calla pissed me off so bad I put them down for 5 years or so,. Then when Steve-O wrote himself into the book, I trudged on with my own puke drying on the pages, and the rest of the series from there SUCKED. From the *****ebaggery displayed when Susannah and roland visit the tower of the turtle building, to the non-commital ending SUCK-OLA!!!!!
 
Wolves of the Calla has really grown on me. I still really dislike Song of Susannah and parts of The Dark Tower. Reading The Wind through the Keyhole right now, and enjoying it for what it is.
 
"The Stand" is easily my favorite Stephen King book. I don't understand how you could hate this book - did you guys finish it? Also really like Salem's Lot, before the sparkling vampire fad began.

The Dome was entertaining and then it got weird...I enjoyed the Dark Tower Series but it definitely had it's up and downs. Some parts were ridiculous, some were great. It was a mixed bag. I hated the ending but then again, I don't see how else he could have ended it and made everyone happy.
 
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top