General Discussion > Books 'n Readin'

The Dark Tower Series

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chinton:
All 7 books are brilliant and the series is really King's magnum Opus. I even loved the last three. He did some really audacious and ballsy things which naturally didn't sit well with everybody. The last book as Roland loses his katet is heartbreaking but was necessary.

And I realize I'm in the minority, but I will contiune to defend the great ending. Why did anybody find it surprising it made perfect sense. What people constantly forgot is the Roland's mission was never the Dark Tower it was to save the Tower by saving the Beams. But he just had to go to the Top and he was punished for his obsession. Then again he has the Horn so maybe in the next cycle he'll finally learn.

starfighter:
   The comic book series from Marvel is supposed to serve as a prequel to the books, but I'm not clear as to King's actual level of involvment.  The series is being written by Peter David.

    I read the first book when it was a series of short stories published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and it never held the same interest for me as his early novels.  I devoured his early work, lost interest early in "Gerald's Game"  and never really got back into his stuff, although I started 4 or 5 of his later books.  Maybe some day.

Grillslinger:
I am (as you can probably tell) a huge Dark Tower fan. I loved the story from beginning to end, and it ended in the only real and fair way for such a story.

The detail behind the mythos surrounding the story made it seem almost possible, and it tied his other works together in a very solid way.

Some people hated it. I understand that. I can easily see why ... but a lot of us loved it.

As far as the comic book series, King provided all of the stories. David is writing details, dialogue, etc.

shortstack:

--- Quote from: Fuzzy Necromancer on February 02, 2007, 10:38:09 PM ---I actually couldn't get through the first one. It was just too gritty and bleak. Also, either stephen king's work is too incoherent, or I'm too stupid to work it out, but a lot of it didn't make sense. Why did the gunslinger aim his gun at the fat preacher woman and then say "there is no child"? Why did everybody in the entire town come out and try to kill him? What was more or less up with everything?

--- End quote ---

The preacher woman (as far as I can remember) claimed to be impregnated by...God? Satan? I can't remember.  Something messed up like that.  She convinced the town to turn against him.  They weren't exactly the sharpest pencils in the box to begin with, so...

I actually didn't mind the last three too much.  I found his writing in those books a bit more rushed, and a little bit insufferable at times (I won't explain here- too long), but I really did like the ending.  I think, in the end, he somehow managed to recapture a bit of the headspace he had in college, when he started the series in the first place.

I've always loved the first book the best.  I think his writing really went somewhere interesting and I've often felt he should have written more like that.  That being said, if you like the Dark Tower books, or can't be bothered reading them, check out The Talisman (the one he co-wrote with Peter Straub), it is by far my second favourite from the Gunslinger.

I actually went to the trouble to read a lot of the 'connected' books to the series- Black House, Hearts in Atlantis, Insomnia etc.  It doesn't really add THAT much, but if you read them in order, then you get an interesting train of thought from King on how certain 'characters' (like the Crimson King) develop over the course of his novels.

Peter David? Seriously?? That's pretty good, I think Peter David is pretty talented.  :)

Kete:
It was just announced that Ron Howard will be directing a movie and TV show based on the Dark Tower and a script from Akiva Goldman (writer of such great films as The Da Vinci Code, Lost In Space, and Batman and Robin).

ugh....

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