Steven King's magnum opus. I've given a short review of all the books below. Based largely on the strengths of books 1, 2 and 4, I rate the whole series of seven books a three.

On "THE GUNSLINGER" His first book in a very long series starts out well enough.

On "THE DRAWING OF THE THREE" Gotta chuk!? Gotta up-chuk!? Okay, not so bad but not as good as the first.

On "THE WASTELANDS" The series improves with fast-paced, difficult to follow forays into alternate realities.

On "WIZARD AND GLASS" The best of this series.

ON "WOLVES OF THE CALLA" Beginning of the slow degradation of this concept series into mish-mosh.

On "SONG OF SUZANNA" And now we begin to wonder . . . What's going on here?

On "THE DARK TOWER" Wonder no more . . . The grand finale of King's magnum opus fizzles with out a whimper or bang.

Book six in The Dark Tower series and I think Stephen King is the only author that can get away with writing himself into the story! I couldn't believe my eyes! I had heard that he was a character in the DT series but its one of those things that I didn't believe, until now.

I'm not loving this series and I'm not hating on it either, its just OK for me. I love how certain things tie back to other books, Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Stand are the obvious ones so far. I really like some of the characters but this whole multi personality thing leaves me confused and I just can't grasp what's going on with that.

Just one book to go! I am glad I'm pushing through because this is the centre of the SK multiverse but I don't think this will be a mega hit for me.

Three stars.

What has Stephen King not added into his Dark Towers series? Why, himself of course. How many authors can pull of having themselves by name as a character in their book, about the book they are writing? He also adds his wife and sons! Not only does he write himself in, but he kills himself off. Brilliance. Pure brilliance.

This book encompasses what makes Stephen King the “King” of his craft. This book ties together so many characters and locations into the King universe.

This book is necessary not only to the Dark Tower series, but to King literature in general.

I stand and applaud you. This one was a thrill to experience.

5 Stars

n  DTProject2017 | Book 6n

This used to be my least favourite book of the series. Now it's just one of the least favourites of the series, probably in the same level with the #2 book The Drawing of the Three

Reading it for the second time after 5 years I feel that things are clearer and I know what's going on.
What confused me the first time and it's still unclear are the places that Susannah visits. Are there in her mind, she travels with her mind, I don't know and that's what makes this book the least favourite for many readers.

Out of its 436 pages
28 (6.4%) are King's journal as an epilogue
44 (10%) are Callahan and Jake's search for Susannah.
48 (11%) are the first two chapters with all the protagonists in Roland's world preparing to enter our world(s)
138 (31.6%) are Roland and Eddie's search for the author of 'Salem's Lot and
178 (40.8%) are Susannah's adventures in New York, her mind, her hallucinations and the inner conversation she has with a succubus-spirit which is trapped inside her.
This is what most of the readers

The other thing that made readers dislike this book (but it was one of my favourite parts in this book) was Stephen King himself as a protagonist meeting the characters he created in person, allusions to Six Characters in Search of an Author and The Museum of Innocence. Metafiction on the rise.

Overall it was an enjoyable read which I read faster (8 days) than the first time (almost a month)
so I will raise its rating from mere 3 to 3.6 =4 stars

Readathon 17: Βιβλίο που διαδραματίζεται σε 2 χρονικές περιόδους 1999/1977

Having met my GR goal and not having any ARC's due for a bit, I decided to pick up the next book in this series.

This time around, the ka-tet is split up, within Susannah/Mia headed to New York to deliver Mia's chap, Jake and Callahan headed to New York behind her to try to save her, and Roland and Eddie headed to a different place in time to get ownership of the vacant lot that is home to the rose.

I know some don't like this book, but I thought it was pretty good. This one has much more of a character driven approach than others in the series and I thought that was both a nice break to get to know our characters a little more and to build up to the finale. I also didn't minding writing himself in the story as egregious as other reviewers. There isn't really a lot more I can say as I don't want to spoil anything. I think it's worth reading, even if it isn't quite as good as some of the others.

Wow! What a fun read and exciting way to set up the next and final book of this epic journey. I give this 5 stars not only because it's a terrific book, but also for how it fits in perfectly within the series. It's hard to not feel connected to the ka-tet. The characters have been developed throughout the series into giving the reader a sense of actually knowing them! I'm anxious and nervous for the final installment, and I really don't want to say goodbye to these characters :(

Song of Susannah could have been 100 pages and held the same amount of information. Almost nothing happened and maybe four questions were answered. Come on, King.

I’m ready for book VII and the end.

Wow.

This is a huge surprise. I can't believe I'm really giving Song Of Susannah five stars.

I went into it expecting to hate it, knowing all the bad reviews, constatly hearing people saying this is the weakest of the series and, plus, not being the biggest fan of Susannah (in fact, she's the reason I didn't like 'Drawing Of The Three').
But man, this is the wildest hot take, the farthest my opinion has been to the general opinion.

This is the story I had been waiting from the Dark Tower series. A trippy adventure between worlds and timelines, with tons of mythology going on. Like, in my opinion, the first one ('The Gunslinger') is, book that remains as my favorite and that's another hot take for another day. But this is surely my second favorite of the series, I seriously ate this book, I couldn't put it down.

Now, one of the major criticisms of this book (and I will keep this non-spoiler), is that it doesn't stands on its own, that is just a bridge to get to the final book. I strongly disagree with that. This novel, firstly, is completely different from the previous one, it takes a 90 degree turn changing the main characters and even the world. If that doesn't make it stand on its own then I don't know what does. Secondly, the set up for the final book was just excellent, it really did a great job in getting me anxious to get to that final novel. Now yes, it didn't really have an actual ending, sort of, but WASTE LANDS was a much bigger no-ending than this one (which kinda has some kind of 'resolution') and that's the favorite book of the series by the vast majority.

Ok, so this book has two main story-lines and both were equally gripping for me. But I'll talk about the one where a certain character shows up. And this character showing up is the other big complaint with this book. Remember that this is non-spoiler, but if you've read the book I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I can actually understand the problem that people have with this character showing up, but man I really loved it. It was unlike anything I've ever read and it blew me away. It kept me thinking constantly on theories and I was trying to figure up stuff while I was reading and I absolutely love when a book makes me do that. To some, it pulled them out of the story, but it was quite the contrary to me. Sucked me into it.

I will now procede to read the short story 'Everything's Eventual' and then get into the next and final book of The Dark Tower series. I'm so close to that damned field of roses I can almost hear it...

Samo je King dovoljno veliki kralj (i apsolutni književni genije) da napiše knjigu u kojoj je i on sam jedan od likova, a u kojoj likovi iz njegovih knjiga dolaze da mu kažu (ili bolje - narede) da nastavi sa pisanjem serijala u kome su oni sami glavni likovi.

Okay! Almost to the Dark Tower! Finally!!!

I liked this. I sort of liked that it was shorter than most of the others and I don’t mind it was sort of a set up to the final book. I saw a review that said it feels like the chess board is finally set and I like that reference and it’s fitting for this book.

I felt like the beginning third of this was action packed and I think it had a slightly stronger rating than I’m ending up giving it but it’s because it lost momentum a bit with the Stephen king twist (IYKYK)… but I’m not even mad at the twist… I did enjoy it but I did feel like it halted the pacing a bit.

Ended with a cliff hanger but I think it’s okay (easy for me to say as I have the last book readily available to me… may have been pretty mad if I read this during publication!)

Okay… BRING ON THE TOWER!

La verdad es que no tengo tanta fascinación como me gustaría a este autor. Lo considero un gran escritor pero cada vez que leo un libro suyo me amarga la existencia y me deja con muy mal cuerpo.

Me pasó con “It” y poco he decir que “cementerio de animales” lo dejé a mitad por lo mismo. Por ese motivo, cuando leo la saga de "La Torre oscura" voy con pies de plomo al cubo. A pesar de todo... ¿Me gusta la saga en sí ? Sí, bastante. Pero creo que no la estoy cogiendo con las ganas que le tenía hace un par de años.

Al mismo tiempo, pienso que debería leer los otros libros que se encuentran encuadrados en el multiverso de King porque pienso que lo entendería todo mejor. Solo me queda esta última parte, pero no sé cuando la leeré, si dentro de un par de meses, un año...o simplemente me releeré toda la saga junto con el resto de libros para poder comprender todo decentemente.

3.5 stars?

I'm never going to be a big Stephen King fan; I like his stuff, but I don't love it. Constant Readers, I cry your pardon! However, this sixth volume of the Dark Tower series had some amusing moments. Although focusing largely on Susannah Dean, my favourite part happens late in the book when Roland and Eddie decide to go visit an author, namely Stephen King.

We learned of King's presence in this fictional world in book five, when a character from Salem's Lot showed up and told enough of his story to fill in the folks like me who hadn't read that novel. And then a rare book dealer insisted that Eddie take a case of his books to safety in his timeline and Pere Callahan gets to hold a copy of the novel which features him.

So I guess it's no surprise that Randall Flagg from The Stand stomps into the story, too. I'm sure that if I'd read more of King's many books, I would have recognized many more Easter eggs like these. (Incidentally, why do so many authors want to somehow tie together all of their fiction, like it needs to be a unified thing?)

It's very meta for King to write himself into the action. He gives a very self deprecating performance, acknowledging many of the facts of his life that many people know: booze and drug problems, his reputation as the author of uncanny fiction, and in the very last chapter, he works in his brush with death when he was struck by a vehicle while walking on the side of the road near his house. He has given his past self a sense of feeling threatened, perhaps by the forces faced by Roland & Co. whenever he is writing these novels. Presumably the accident was part of the threat by the Crimson King. Way to use a difficult experience to good effect.

Well done, Mr. King! I award an extra half star for this amusing conceit!

Book Number 450 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project