El final de la saga, luego de una largo recorrido, acompañamos a Roland al final de su aventura, sabremos que fue de nuestros queridos personajes, y al fin daremos con la Torre Oscura, para desvelar los enigmas y al fin tener respuestas. Me encantó cierto personaje, salió poco pero me cautivó, sobre todo su frase: malito, malito, malito. Aww un encanto.

tOriginally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews

tThe quest for the Dark Tower is ending!

tAll the weary miles, endless deaths, heroic stands, and lost loved ones is finally coming to an end for Roland Deschain of Gilead and his ka-tet.

tAnd the weary but dedicated fan can finally savor that ending. An ending that will somehow, someway tie up all the loose plots and cause all their frustration about the years between novels, the endless lore changes, the confusing multiverse, and even Stephen King writing himself into the story to disappear from their minds

tFor the end of the Dark Tower Saga will be a wonderful, dramatic, earth-shattering ending. The same kind of ending Tolkien provided fantasy fans with in The Return of the King, where a reader watched breathlessly as Frodo and Sam slunk across the desolate plains of Mordor, striving to reach Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring; only to discover to their sheer wonder and delight that the tale was still not done, but that Tolkien would allow them to follow along behind the hobbits for just a little longer - until the true ending at the Grey Havens.

tThat is the type of finale The Dark Tower must have, because every reader of King’s saga knows that a tale as massive and epic as this deserves that Lord of the Rings type of closure. The kind of ending where a reader closes the novel and sits there, stunned into silent contemplation at the stupendous journey that they have finally COMPLETED!

tAnd as a reader begins The Dark Tower Book VII, he/she will begin to see his/her deeply held hope coming to fruition as dangling plots begin to be completed. Immediately, Roland and his friends set forth to stop the Breakers of Algul Siento and save the Beam, protect the Rose (whatever it really is) in New York, and stop Stephen King from being run down by a real life automobile and killed. Everything begins to take shape for the final push to the Dark Tower.

tSo it seems obvious that finally Stephen King is going to reveal the “5 Ws and H” of the grand saga. Who the hell is this Crimson King, who has orchestrated the destruction of world after world in the multiverse, and who the hell is Marten Broadcloak/Randall Flagg really? What caused the Crimson King to go insane and begin to attack the Tower? Why was it so damn important for Roland to get to the tower in the first place? How did Roland’s quest kept the Dark Tower multiverse from continuing to move on? When did the old ones die out and leave their machines, or when did the worlds first start moving on? And finally - after all else has been completed - where is the Dark Tower, and what will happen when Roland finally enters it?

tBut then something unprecedented happens in this grand finale of a sweeping epic.

tNothing.

tThat is right. You won’t find any of those questions answered. In fact, you won’t even find a dramatic ending like Lord of the Rings.

tNope. It is not going to happen.

tAs Stephen King himself writes at the end of the Quest for the Dark Tower:

tI’ve told my tale all the way to the end, and am satisfied. It was (I set my watch and warrant on it) the kind only a good God would save for last, full of monsters and marvels and voyaging here and there. I can stop now, put my pen down, and rest my weary hand . . . Yet some of you who have provided the ears without which no tale can survive a single day are likely not so willing. You are the grim, goal-oriented ones who will not believe that the joy is in the journey rather than the destination no matter how many times it has been proven o you. You are the unfortunate ones who still get the lovemaking all confused with the paltry squirt that comes to end the lovemaking . . . You are the cruel ones who deny the Grey Havens, where tired characters go to rest. You say you want to know how it all comes out. You say you want to follow Roland into the Tower; you say that is what you paid your money for, the show you came to see.
t
I hope most of you know better. Want better. I hope you came to hear the tale, and not just munch your way through the pages to the ending. For an ending, you only have to turn to the last page and see what is there writ upon. But endings are heartless. An ending is a closed door no man (or Manni) can open. I’ve written many, but most only for the same reason that I pull on my pants in the morning before leaving the bedroom - because it is the custom of the country.
t
And so, my dear Constant Reader, I tell you this: You can stop here. . .
t
Should you go on, you will surely be disappointed, perhaps even heartbroken . . . There is no such thing as a happy ending. I never met a single one to equal “Once upon a time.”
t
Endings are heartless.
t
Ending is just another word for goodbye.

tAnd so after reading 4500 pages about Roland the Gunslinger, a reader is given a choice: stop the book without knowing what happens to Roland once he actually gets to the Dark Tower or read the ending and be disappointed.

tWho knew Stephen King was writing a Choose Your Own Adventure Book?

tOr that he was an attorney, because he just put a disclaimer in his book; a disclaimer that basically admits the ending sucks.

tBut in any event, it doesn’t matter which “ending” a reader picks, because they both are horrid in different ways. One is the hollywood “And they all live happily ever after ending,” and the other is the “You wanted an ending, I’ll show you how clever I can be while I’m not giving you what you asked for” ending. And they both leave a reader wondering “Why did I read this series again?”

tThe awful truth about The Dark Tower Book VII is that it is a dud.

tA clever buildup to a nothing happens.

tA Dallas “Get out of the shower it’s all been a dream.”

tAnother Matrix sequel were our number today boys and girls is 101, and you are the sixth Chosen One, which means your dramatic victories are not anything new.

tNot a “flawed masterpiece” at all but a cleverly disguised fake.t

tA huge belly flop into the abyss of bad endings.
tt
tA book that just stinks.

tIn fact, this “supposed” finale of the Dark Tower series makes such a mess of the story that Roland’s whole quest is rendered meaningless. A useless exercise in futility that is very similar to a hamster running as fast as he can on his exercise wheel.

tWhat King does to Roland in this novel is like Tolkien writing that Frodo reached Mount Doom only to discover that Sauron is really Father Christmas on psychotropic medications; the One Ring Frodo has been carrying is really a fake that Sauron allowed Gandalf and the Elves to believe was the real thing; and now - just to be a vindictive bastard (because there doesn’t seem to be any other logical reason) - Frodo and the Fellowship gets to relive the whole bloody quest in an endless loop.

tMaybe King never knew where Roland’s story was going. Maybe it was just a great idea, which he never really plotted out to guarantee that it ended correctly. I get all that, but if that is true, he should have used this last book to fix all those problems, not tell the reader “I hope you came to hear the tale, and not just munch your way through the pages to the ending.”

tWho the hell has ever went to a movie and been pleased when it stopped playing before the ending?

tOr worked all week just to be told “No pay check for you. Try to think back to all the fun you had here.”

tNo one. And no one is going to like this ending. You might love the series or the characters and not want to admit how horrid this last book was, but deep down you realize it. And you cope by telling yourself how great the overall story was or that King focused on Roland’s spiritual journey in this book or whatever, but the fact of the matter is this novel continued the downward spiral of Roland’s story and left all of us scratching our heads thinking “Really, this is the end.”

tMr. King, I’ve read epic, fantasy series.

tI’ve read grand finales with breathtaking endings.

tJ.R.R. Tolkien took me to the Grey Havens once upon a time.

tMr. King, you’re no J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Dark Tower was not The Return of the King.

ttttttttt

(B+) 79% | Good
Notes: A memorable final hundred pages to a book and series that were highly imaginative but also drawn out and uneven.

This will be a rant born out of disappointment, and probably a long one at that. I love Stephen King, but here I’m afraid he put his foot in his mouth just one time too many. Also this, which we will call ‘review’, but which is only really a pretense for a rant, will contain serious spoilers, so if you haven’t yet read the seventh and final installment of the Dark Tower, consider yourself duly warned.

Where to start? The metafiction, the plot devices, the author's apologies or the destroyed characters? So much to rant about, so little time.

Were you as disappointed in the last chapter of the Harry Potter books as I was? Having a feeling of disconnectedness when the author brings up something, an entire chapter, that is not only destroying the story, but also is there for the author only, not the reader? Sit tight then, for there’s not only one such chapter in this book, but two.

So let’s start there then (where I, when I realized what was happening, actually swore out loud): Susannah in New York. There are so many things wrong here it’s ridiculous, but let’s begin with the authors blatant robbing of experience; character and reader.

I call it the ‘time travel paradox cheat’ named from a couple (OK, actually more than a couple) of episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Voyager would get into a trap, be almost destroyed, people would get seriously hurt, maimed and die, but you’d grow closer to those who didn’t, suffer with them, and watch them grow in experience and, in some cases, and if the story was good, in wisdom. And then the writers would cheat you of it by invoking a time travel paradox, and at the end of the episode nothing had actually happened, and the crew would make a joke about deja vu on the bridge as they’d continued on. But in so doing, the writer rob the characters of their experience, and more: he robs the viewer from his deepened involvement, his emotions as he suffered with the characters, and leaves only a shallow ‘entertainment value’.

When Eddie is brought back, King doing exactly that: what about Eddie’s suffering, his losses and his loves? Gone. What about his learning, his growth in wisdom and his sense of fate? Gone. And him casting away the shadow of his older brother? Gone. Besting his drug use? Gone. And so on, and so on. But worse than that: how about the reader's involvement in the character and everything he went through? Gone with the wind, bye bye, say sorry.

If that’s not bad enough, how about this: The Eddie resurrected cannot possibly be the Eddie we know. Not only is he robbed of all he learned in Mid-World and onwards, but he also isn’t the haunted younger brother of Henry the eminent junkie. So who the hell is this character? He certainly isn’t anyone I have an emotional connection with, and I doubt Susannah would have either.

Oh, and Jake as his older brother?! You’ve gotta be kidding me. We know Jake as the quasi-son of Susannah and Eddie, and now he’s transformed into an older brother and potentially brother in law? Oh my head...

That’s two characters utterly destroyed, so how about Susannah you ask, shouldn’t we kill off her as well? Oh yes, we should: how about making her casually throw away Roland’s gun, the gun of his father and the line of Eld, while contemplating if she must choose between the gun and her man? Really?! You’ve brought on stage a puppet Eddie and a puppet Jake for a cheap feeling of ‘oooh, isn’t that nice’ and now you want me to believe that the gunslinger Susannah throws away the heavy gun with the sandalwood grip for a bloody cliché?! No, I refuse to believe that.

So that’s three out of five beloved characters thrown aside as so much cheap waste. In one single chapter. Nice move.

Then we have the imbecile, mute plot device. I won’t call him by name because he’s not a character, his only function is to give Susannah a way out, and Roland a way in. And he’s a fairly transparent plot device at that. Cheaply made, cheaply thrown aside. And the plot points he’s summoned up to solve? Only to remove a main character from the stage, with no apparent reason more than ‘ka wills it’, and to solve the entire last confrontation. Which could have been the climax of the entire series, where Roland finally faces the tower, and must conquer the greatest villain of them all. But no, we’ll leave that solution, and any potential heart wrenching sacrifices or hard won emotional triumphs that could have followed, to a bloody plot device, and have Roland do some easy target shooting on a handful of silly Harry Potter sports devices instead.

This rant is getting long, so I’ll do a fast forward: for an author that professes to hate metafiction, he sure indulges in it a lot. In fact, the words that kept crawling into my head at the end of The Song of Susannah was ‘self indulgence’. And when the writer is a character, who exactly is it talking, when the author steps out and starts addressing the reader personally? And starts giving the reader hints about the story? Hm?

It simply doesn’t work.

Oh, and you should be wary of an author that apologises (or indeed any performer at all). Which King does repeatedly in this volume, both as the story voice (‘say sorry’) and as the author (‘you might not like the ending, but that’s how the story goes’).

Yes, Stephen King warns you to not read the ending as you might not like it. And he’s right, I’m sorry I did. I think the sentiment was good, but the execution horrible, and as such it brings more questions than it does answers.

Let’s end this with a biggie: does the final book destroy the entire series? Does it feel like I’ve been cheated of the real ending and wasted my time? Almost, yes. I loved the first book, and apart from the metafiction the other books were fine, and in some places brilliant. Although I’m not usually fond of cross-world fantasy I thought Stephen King mastered it and made it work; dance to his pen as it were. Even in the last book there are places of brilliancy that are worth reading.

So it’ll be a two out of five rating, mostly because I can’t bring myself to score the final book of the Dark Tower lower than that, but also because I’m fairly certain it doesn’t deserve all the bile I threw up on it above.

Say sorry.

Ka is a wheel, my friend.

So, I loved the Dark Tower series. It's one of the best works of fantasy I've read. If you haven't started it:

a) do so
b) don't read the spoilers here

The Dark Tower series is an incredibly varied set of books, written over the course of more than 30 years - written by a young man starting out on a wholly uncertain writing future - written by an old man looking back on a glittering career - and punctuated by all his experiences, discoveries, epiphanies. King brings all his talents to these pages ... and some of his weaknesses. You should read it, it is (forgive the pun) a towering work of imagination and characterization.

***

This last volume is a curious mix for me, containing some great writing, an amazingly good idea for ending what must have been a very difficult tale to end well, and in some places some bewilderingly disappointing execution. This mix of brilliance and weakness has resulted in the 3* up top.

Below I venture into the deepest realms of spoiler-land, pontificating on the ending. Don't go there if you've not read the book, really.


Really! Don't spoil it for yourself


So. Randalf Flag, Susannah's baby, and most of all the Crimson King were all huge anticlimaxes for me. Given the nature of the ending and King's skill I wonder if these weren't perhaps intended to be anticlimaxes with everything turning out to be less impressive, less important, more shabby and spoiled than it had been built up to be in Roland's mind. In book 4/5 we see that anything can be magic, with Dodge gearsticks performing as magic wands. Perhaps here we see that anything can be your arch-nemesis and the undoing of the world - it's us (or Roland) who invests them with that power and at the end of it all he sees them for what they are? Who knows. Either way as a reader finding the Crimson King who has sat at the heart of this epic for decades, and finding him to be an unimpressive grenade-lobbing old man with no special powers, no wisdom or insights ... offering no closure ... well it didn't sit well. Perhaps this was intentional - to give me the same empty feeling Roland gets in the end, but it didn't quite work for this reader. I felt short-changed.

The idea for the close of the story, the coup de grace, is brilliant. But it could have been spelled out more clearly perhaps. A tough call since you don't want to over do it.

The end message (that I took at least) is that the journey was (and is for all of us) the important thing. Not the ending. And that if we set our sights on the end goal and sacrifice everything to get it, we will lose out on every level. Roland, who we admired for his unflinching commitment to the cause, for the doggedness with which he pursued the tower, is doomed to start at the beginning and repeat the hunt yet again for Ka is a wheel and he is bound to it. The strengths we saw in him, the willingness to sacrifice everything, even friends at the very end, are now shown as his weaknesses. His only chance to leave the wheel and find peace is to see this truth - that the important things are those he sacrifices time and again. His singularity of purpose is his curse, not his strength - the friendships and loves he encounters in the NOW are what matters, not the paper-thin Crimson King trapped in an empty tower. The path he plots toward the tower is the crucial thing - not if he gets there.

This is a beautiful, powerful way to conclude such an epic and I applaud King for his vision. I just wish he'd written it in a way that connected better with me when I read it.














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...

”The roses of Can'-Ka No Rey opened before him in a path to the Dark Tower, the yellow suns deep in their cups seeming to regard him like eyes.”

Journey’s end approaches, and the last gunslinger at last sets his gaze upon the great shadowy column at the end of the road. Yet dangers still lie in the way, and secrets, and the greatest mystery of all: what lies beyond the gate? What can be found at the top of the Tower?

Reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series has now been a journey spanning years. It had its upsides and downsides. Sometimes it seemed like a pendulum spinning endlessly back and forth between tedious boredom and spectacular amazement.

This seventh volume was difficult to get through. Although the beginning kicked off with a continuation of the climactic part of Song of Susannah, this book as a whole was the most boring part of the Dark Tower series since the second book. I was wondering sometimes if it deserved to be simply abandoned. But I convinced myself that I had gotten this far. I had to see the ending. And it turned out to become one of my favourite series of all time.

Because the ending is fucking perfect.

Contrary to a lot of people, I found the final set of chapters to be an excellently fitting way of ending a Stephen King book, the perfect ending to the Dark Tower series, and one of the best endings I have ever read in speculative fiction.

"All right. I go. Long days and pleasant nights. May we meet in the clearing at the end of the path when all worlds end."

Yet even then he knew this would not happen, for the worlds would never end, not now, and for him there would be no clearing. For Roland Deschain of Gilead, last of Eld's line, the path ended at the Dark Tower. And that did him fine.



Dark Tower reviews:
#1 n  The Gunslingern
#2 n  The Drawing of the Threen
#3 n  The Waste Landsn
#4 n  Wizard and Glassn
#5 n  Wolves of the Callan
#6 n  Song of Susannahn
#7 n  The Dark Towern

La Torre oscura

«—¿Seguro que solo es una historia?
—Desde la primavera de 1970, cuando tecleó la frase: «El hombre de negro huía a través del desierto, y el pistolero iba en pos de él» —dijo Marian Carver— muy pocas cosas de las que ha escrito King han sido «solo historias». Puede que él no lo crea, nosotros sí.»

Llegamos al final del camino del Haz, alcanzamos la torre oscura, ha sido un viaje largo lleno de aventuras y peligros intercambiando el mundo real, (más bien el mundo de Stephen King) con el mundo medio, y con el dónde y el cuándo.

Una serie, que, si tiene una cosa, esa es lo imprevisible que resulta. Cada capítulo, cada página puede sorprender y sorprende.



Una serie que mezcla la fantasía, la ciencia ficción y el western de manera armónica. Esa atracción que emerge de la torre oscura como de Mordor en el señor de los anillos. Ese objeto de deseo, de destrucción, esa bola de cristal, ¡mi tesoro! ¡Vaya guiño al anillo!

La ciencia ficción, presente en el dónde y el cuándo, en las puertas de paso, en los robots "domésticos" o en máquinas con vida propia.



Pero es el western el origen de todo. Aquí tenemos nada más y nada menos que a El pistolero,
Roland, un personaje sacado del spaghetti western encarnado por Clint Eastwood. Llegado el momento el mismo King se identifica con él.



Sergio Leone, figura del spaghetti western, es nombrado continuamente por King. "El bueno, el feo y el malo" es la película, junto a "EDLA”, que más le influyó en esta serie.

En la tercera novela, "Las tierras baldías" Roland explica a su equipo lo que es la Torre oscura y dibuja con un círculo donde está y los caminos del Haz para llegar hasta ella.
En la película de Leone, el duelo final se desarrolla en el cementerio de Sad Hill. La forma de este cementerio es circular con innumerables cruces alrededor que, trazando líneas entre ellas cruzan por el centro del círculo. Justo como en el dibujo de Roland. Esto no lo he visto en ninguna parte, es una idea mía. Esto es un libro de fantasía y en la fantasía juegan el escritor y el lector.
Sad Hill se encuentra en la provincia de Burgos mantenido por fans de la película de Leone.


Cementerio de Sad Hill en la provincia de Burgos, donde se rodó El bueno, EL feo y El malo

No solo de esta película encontramos influencia. El tiroteo de Tull se parece a un "Solo ante el peligro" con Roland de protagonista. El deambular del equipo ka-tet parece el recorrido de "Grupo salvaje" la película de Sam Peckinpah. En "Lobos del Calla " la influencia de "Los siete magníficos" (Los siete samuráis) es abrumadora.
Siempre el western, para resolver conflictos y entuertos.



«No apunto con la mano; aquella que apunta con la mano ha olvidado el rostro de su padre.
»Apunto con el ojo.
No disparo con la mano; aquella que dispara con la mano ha olvidado el rostro de su padre.
»Disparo con la mente.
»No mato con la pistola; aquella que mata con la pistola ha olvidado el rostro de su padre.
»Mato con el corazón.»

Los personajes de King, ya lo sabemos, construidos y descritos desde los cimientos, con su pasado, su presente, sus dudas y sus anécdotas, sean protagonistas o secundarios. Los detalles, las descripciones… Es la mochila que lleva siempre, a mucha gente le desespera.

«—Me pregunto si Stephen King utiliza los sueños en sus textos. Ya sabes, como la levadura, para engordar la trama.
Era una pregunta que ninguno de ellos podía responder.»

Los personajes clave de la torre oscura. Roland, el pistolero, uno de los mejores héroes de la literatura fantástica y creo, el mejor de los de King. El ka-tet de Roland, Susannah y Eddie Dean, Jake y el fiel bilibrambo Acho, el padre Callaghan, y tantos otros secundarios pero imprescindibles para esta historia.



A medida que avanza la novela, - no hay que olvidar que, aunque está dividida en siete partes, es una sola de 4000 páginas - King se inmiscuye en la trama de la torre oscura, tardó muchos años en escribirla. Empezó con la idea cuando tenía 19 años. Es difícil escribir en la cincuentena como a los veinte años, la frescura se cambia por la experiencia. Este hombre fue dado por muerto en 1999 cuando tuvo un accidente muy grave. En ese momento estaba escribiendo las tres últimas. La influencia de este hecho se nota en las dos partes finales.

En "Canción de Susannah" hay un capítulo genial en el que se encuentran Roland y King. Pero es que en esta parte final hay un par de capítulos memorables sin desperdicio dedicados a él mismo como un actor más de la Torre y que, sinceramente, cualquier fan del autor no se lo puede perder.



King tardó demasiado en acabar la Torre, él mismo se lamenta y se martiriza en algunos comentarios que se hace. En el prólogo de las primeras cinco novelas lo explica. También habla sobre cartas que le enviaban sus fans, sobre todo una. No me puedo resistir a añadirla en esta reseña, es demasiado bonita, transmite tanta ternura e inocencia que es obligado conocerla:

«Apreciado Stephen King:
No sé si esta carta le llegará, pero la esperanza es lo último que se pierde. He leído la mayoría de sus libros y los adoro. Soy una joven «yaya» de 76 años de su «estado hermano» de Vermont, y me gustan en especial sus historias de la Torre oscura. Bueno, a lo que iba. El mes pasado fui a visitar a un equipo de oncólogos del Mass General y me dijeron que parece ser que el tumor cerebral que tengo al final es maligno (al principio dijeron: «No te preocupes, Coretta, es benigno»). A ver, sé que uno tiene que hacer lo que tiene que hacer, señor King, y «seguir a su musa», pero me han dicho que tendré suerte si veo el próximo 4 de julio de este año. Supongo que he leído mi última historia de la Torre oscura, de modo que me preguntaba si me podría decir cómo acaba la Torre oscura, al menos si Roland y su «Ka-Tet» al final llegan a la torre, y si es así, ¿qué encuentran allí? Le prometo que no se lo diré a nadie y, a cambio, hará usted feliz a una pobre anciana moribunda.
Atentamente,»

Bueno pues, si has llegado hasta aquí, muchas gracias. He intentado hacer la reseña lo más amena posible.

Que tengas largos días y placenteras noches. Y….
………….. «El hombre de negro huía a través del desierto, y el pistolero iba en pos de él»

INITIAL IMPRESION
Damn it, I knew this would happen.

I can't believe this ended. I was 16 when I started this series. Two years later, I managed to own all the seven books plus "The Wind Through The Keyhole", even though four of them are in Romanian and four in English.

Now, with this installment finished... a part of my heart will relocate itself on the shelf on which they are placed. And every time I will pick up the series for another read I will find myself, aged 16 and in love, between its pages.

A part of me will still walk along Roland on his road.. many miles and many wheels, as ka wills it.

Serious review to come, commala come-come.

REVIEW

Attention - listen to this while reading.

From time to time, because of how much literature you consume on a daily basis, you forget the miracle of it. You forget how much magic stories contain, you lose the sense of mystery that they bring and it's sad, how you can pass over so many works without ever thinking: this is amazing. I blame this on how literature evolved. Like many (if not all) other art domains, it lost its soul over money. It became an industry, and as always, serializing something and making it a consumer good diminishes its value. This is why older literature is still going strong, it's still being read and people come back to it and compare everything else to it. Because back when Dostoievski was writing his works in order to pay his dues, he had stories to tell. And he had the mind to tell it. Nowadays, anyone can be a writer. And I really mean anyone. It's not hard - you jam up a few words in a Word document, place a title, a subtitle and an awesome quote by a long-dead figure and you give it to an editor. That editor (as many editors do, there's few that are different) will not evaluate the book based on its substance or its meaning, but by how much profit it will bring. (Look at Fifty Shades of Grey and you'll get it. It's literary trash and made millions. Because some un-fucked 40 year old moms decided it would be good for their unused vagina to buy the book and read it in the bedroom/bathtub. And do you-know-what to their you-know-what. )

This introduction seems to have no connection to Stephen King's work whatsoever. But it does. King is part of the old generation. He started reading and then proceeded to write his own pieces when books weren't yet a market. And this is why his style was formed by heart, not by dollar signs.

The Dark Tower series is worth it on an incredible amount of levels. Let me put it this way - it's so complex that you can't make a resume out of it, but you're still so in love with it that you'd give it a try. How's that for captivating the reader?

I am Stephen King's Constant Reader, as he calls us. He is, and has been since I was twelve years old (I know, centuries ago, right?)my favorite author. I know some readers are afraid to say that they have a favorite author/book/story, but I have them, alright? I am that type of reader. I related to King's stories more than anything throughout my life in literature because his monsters are just as real as mine are.

Now, I won't try to resume this at a big scale. Put shortly, these 7 (+2, if you countThe Little Sisters of Eluria and The Wind Through the Keyhole) books are the story of Roland of Gilead's road through many worlds and times (where's and when's), his quest to find and kill the Crimson King and his friendship and love for his companions. The other important characters are Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean and Susannah Dean (yes they become husband and wife, take that for a spoiler)(but this is the last book in the series so I guess you knew that for some time), and they come to his rescue many times, just to help him achieve his goal.

He is a sick man. His obsession killed many people over the thousands of years that he had to travel the Universe. And he keeps going, nothing is able to stop, nothing can delay him and if anything or anyone tries to mess his road up, he is simply going to eliminate them. There are no "but's" in this. It's his road.

Let's stop with the story itself because you are reading the review for the last book, so you're probably here in order to try and feel more of Roland's life in your mind, even though maybe five minutes ago you closed the book and shoved it at the wall, screaming at the top of your lungs: STEPHEN KING, YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH, HOW DO YOU DARE STOMP INTO MY LIFE AND SHIT ALL OVER IT?! I'm just sayin', you know.. not that that was my reaction.. or.. anything.. you know..

Focus.

The most amazing thing about this series is, however (for me), the work and heart put in it. Yes, it's not the best written thing you'll ever see, but neither are other King books. Yes, it leaves things untied at the end and loses track of some important features, but it messes you up, and, let's face it, you masochist, you wanted it. Yes, I'm talking to you. You liked it. You expected it to happen because no 9 book series can end with a happy ending, right? ...

Focus. Focus.

The work. The work that was put in it. Stephen King started writing this when he was 19. As i so beautifully said in my review HERE for Wolves of the Calla (and I quote myself, haha): Stephen King started writing this when he was 19. I'm almost 19 and still haven't learned how to wipe my ass properly, so to say. (metaphor here, guys. don't take it literally).. HE finished publishing the main body of the series in 2004. BUT! There is a but. At the end of this installment right here, there is a little line saying:

June 19, 1970 - April 7, 2004: I tell God thankya.

34 years. Thirty-four years. Do you understand? The magnitude? The scale of this? Do you? Do you really?

King calls this the magnum opus of his life.

I couldn't agree more. This is what King was meant to write. Anything else, his novels, his short stories, his collections, his poems, his essay, his comics, his theatre work, anything else fades away, when compared to this.

Because he didn't just write a single-standing story, on itself. No. He combined a massive amount of his own work in this. Let's just start with the Crimson King. Raise your hands if anyone here has ever readThe Stand. Yeah? Sounds fammiliar now? Do you remember Pere Callahan, a character from the book, which we meet in the 5th installment? Have you ever hear of 'Salem's Lot? Mmmyeah, me too, sounds like I know it. Might these all be King's own books?

They fucking are. They are his own writings, which he has combined into this massive, multiple-thousands page work. And the best thing about it is it all makes sense. It does. It's logical.

I've come to wonder if King has wrote everything else because he needed them for the Dark Tower series or wrote the Dark Tower series because he could comprise all of them in this one.

Mindfuck...

But, wait, there's more! Not only did he place his works in this, he even put himself there. Yes. It's not the first time he's done this, or anyone, for that matter, but his version is downright creepy. He inserted himself, as a character, by his own name, with his own traits, he gave himself the role of author of Roland's world (which he is) and he then made Roland confront him in the made-up world of the series.

Makes you wonder if the man is completely sane.

I have to thank an entity I don't believe in that he is not. Bless his madness, because his madness changed the face of literature for good.

This review it (not surprinsingly) extremely fragmented. I can't seem to pull myself together in order to write something serious, because seriousness would just take out of how GOOD this work is. GOOD, as in with caps lock, because I need you to hear it booming in your head, like the voice of the Crimson King in Roland's head...

Now, see? Everything is a refference to this book after finishing it...

If you already read the series(and you liked it) and you're reading this review, please know I love it as much as you do. Maybe more.

If you already read the series(and you didn't like it) and you're reading this review, please know that the exit is towards the left of the stage.

If you haven't read this series and you want to, I tried to make this spoiler-free, but hear me out: your life will become a smoldering ruin of emotions after you read the last line of the last book of The Dark Tower series. If you're up for that, go on. If you can't stand emotional damage.. don't you even get close.

All that being said, I'll find a dark corner and slowly collapse with my back to both walls, hugging my knees and wailing for what Stephen King can do to me. I was just an innocent little girl before I met him... .

Comma, commala come
This review is done.
I say thankya ...
Long days and pleasant nights
But may you have twice the number.


My heart...

I finished this last week, but needed time to sort out my feelings. Truth be told, after reading the ending my mind was reeling. It was hard to start another book, because I was so hung up on this one. I know a lot of people took issue with the way it ended... But for me, personally? I loved it.

BIG ENDING SPOILERS! DO NOT READ UNLESS FINISHED! What I loved most about it is how it was sort of left open for interpretation. I can see why many people would be pissed.. He gets to the top of the tower and it loops him back to the beginning of the story? WTF! But for me it fit, it worked perfectly. I've discussed the ending with several people, and it seems we all have different theories on why he loops back to the beginning, and we are all equally convinced that ours is the most fitting reason. I love that! It leaves so much room for friendly debate!

For the record, I'll post here my take on the ending... Keep in mind, I'm a King noobie. So many of his novels are connected to the Dark Tower somehow, and I've read virtually none of them, so this view is strictly from a noobie perspective. I'm sure as I read more connecting novels my interpretation will change, and I will welcome that! But for now I'm happy basing it only on what I know, and letting it grow and change from there. So here goes, please bear with me...

It seems like a lot of people think that Roland is doomed to repeat the loop, over and over, until he gets everything right. Like he made mistakes he has to rectify, one by one. That's not the impression I got... It's hard to articulate my thoughts on it, but I'm going to do my best. This is purely my speculation and interpretations, but I'm going to state it as fact to make it easier to follow.

Roland's problem is the tower. His obsession is the tower. His willingness to sacrifice anything and everything to get to the tower is the problem. He could have turned back any time after stopping the breakers, certainly after erasing the Crimson King. At that point I feel like his job was done, there was nothing more Roland himself could do for the tower. But he didn't turn back.. He had to see what was at the top of the tower. He was obsessed, couldn't turn away. He chose the tower over everything else, and climbed the steps. As he climbed, he tried to block out the rooms that painted a picture of his life up to that point - he didn't care about anything, didn't want to pause to appreciate those he loved and his life, he just needed to see the top. It's always the tower for him, above anything and everything else.

And it will always be the tower for him, unless something changes. Unless, through the progression of his loops, he realizes that nothing that matters is in there, and puts his companions first. Puts those he loves before the tower, rather than the tower before his loved ones. Taking time to pick up the horn is a sign that he's getting closer... Maybe even almost there. The horn is a purely sentimental object, and he picked it up only because of his love for Cuthburt. He had never bothered before, even though it would only take a moment to do so. Picking up the horn shows he's getting closer to who he needs to be to turn away once his task is complete, and not climb those steps.

Who knows what Roland was like on previous loops. Maybe he never loved Eddie and Susannah and Jake and Oy, maybe he heartlessly sacrificed them, maybe he selfishly made Patrick grab the rose for him. And this time around, this time that we saw him, he loved. He cried. He was one step closer..

Maybe this next time around he'll save the universe and say that's enough, it's time to rest, I don't need to see what's at the top of the tower, I have everything I need right here around me. People I love, who love me.. What else is there?

Maybe... One can hope.

So that's my take on the ending, and for now I'm happy with it. It feels right for me, and that's what I love about this conclusion to a truly epic series - we can all find what feels right for us, and build from that should we continue to explore the SK universe.

I'll end this review now, as it's already just about the longest one I've ever written. Before I do, a quick shout out to Chris and Becky; they held me down and tickled me until I agreed to start reading some King, and in particular to start the journey to the Dark Tower, and I couldn't be more grateful! Ok, maybe they didn't really tickle me... But they're plenty scary when they want something bad enough, you're better off just obeying ;)

Сагата за Роланд и Тъмната кула приключи и за мен!

Но не мога да кажа, че съм удов��етворен. Не знам, защо ли му е било нужно на Кинг да ни влачи през тези почти 900 страници, след като ще ни даде един неприятно елементарен по всеки един книжен критерий край...

"Тъмната кула" е прилично четиво, затваря окончателно поредицата, но се съмнявам да се е харесала много на читателите си. Нивото по принцип спадна доста след "Вълците от Кала" и лично аз доста се чудех, дали въобще да дочета поредицата.

Правят ми впечатление бедния речник и многото повторения в книгата, неизпипано и непрофесионално изглежда. :(

Обща оценка за цялата серия - 3*, последните две книги занижават доста мнението ми за нея. Тази е с оценка от 2,5* едва.

Цитат:

"Дълбоко в себе си те искаха да воюват, а човек като него щеше да им развали цялото удоволствие."

BAM!

What can I say? Ka comes full circle and I say thankya.

This series was one heck of a ride, and an amazing ending.

HIGHLY recommend!

Parts are excitedly well written, as when King inducts himself into the story. Some parts drag like traipsing through a long perilous journey to the tower. Overall, 6 of 10 stars